Out of everyone in the industry, big or small, there is really no one I root harder for than EGOVERT. Not only is he an incredible musician on all fronts, but he is one of the most captivating and polarizing individuals on this earth, period. While he is known for creating some of the most dexterous, out of the box music that can be the soundtrack to a party just as easily as other songs can be the playlist for a good introspection, he is simply one of the most versatile artists in the entire world and it amazes me time and time again that people can go about their lives without knowing about him.
Although he has been hyping up his project EGODEATH for quite some time, I know he wants it to be perfect. So, instead of making fans and listeners alike wait, he decided to appease our hunger with the release of the aforementioned project’s prelude entitled Ideas Are Bulletproof! Executively produced by Dustin Cavazos and Siddhartha with production from oakerdidit, crmsyn, cherryannbaby, and oddestoneyoung, these 5 songs run just about 17 minutes long and were written, recorded, and produced in 47 hours and 37 minutes.
Although this doesn’t seem to be a very lengthy excursion, knowing EGO, he probably didn’t sleep for those two days just to make sure everything was as perfect as it could be. As he states in various tweets and on the SoundCloud link, you need to go into this project with an open mind and truly ingest the raw emotions that he’s going through in real-time. Some of it can be aggressive while other records might be gentle, yet it is all a piece of who he is and even if some of his other releases don’t give you a clue about his mindset, this project does an unbelievable job of placing you in his mind as you witness his highs and lows at the same time he is going through them.
Opening up with “I NEED JESUS!”, he seems to almost be going through an exorcism of sorts as he allows all of the pain he has ever endured to come to a head and explode out into the microphone. While it might be aggressive, it is just what is needed right off the bat to grab your attention before he goes into the next song called “RED PILL! VS. BLUE PILL!” which is somewhat similar, yet a bit more playful in a way. He still boasts the screaming, over-the-top delivery from the first track, but he differentiates between portions of the song by getting a bit calmer and straight-up speaking as his ad-libs continue the screams in the distance for a wild yet insanely interesting delivery.
At the halfway point, we arrive at “KIWI!”, one of the most pain-filled records despite the fact that he changes things up completely and resorts to a much calmer, straightforward delivery. As he spits, he gets into heavy details about his drug use and abuse as well as all of the things that come with the rocky relationship he has with his girl, knowing that even though things never seem to be perfect, he wants her to know that he tries to keep his intentions pure. After this sort of interlude, we are greeted once again by a lively synth that slides over some pungent percussion where EGO continues to rotate between yelling and speaking, mentioning things like his multiple hospital stays because of the various overdoses he has had to endure.
It almost feels like there are two sides to him in this record, and while one is straight-up menacing, the other seems to joke about some serious problems in his life that give us insight into who he is as a person and the mindset he has to deal with throughout different moments of his life. Finally, we arrive at the project’s culminating song “NIGHT BEFORE EGODEATH”. Here, he rounds things out with a lengthy track that acts as a proverbial diary where he lays it all out on the table for listeners to take in, understand, digest, and leave with any questions they might’ve had answered as we wait for EGODEATH.
As I’ve continued to cover EGOVERT’s music over the past year or so, I’ve gotten lucky enough to form a friendship with him as well. As we’ve texted, he reminded me to go into this with an open mind and to really dig into the lyrics. While you don’t necessarily have to do this to enjoy the pure passion that goes into the music, it helps you connect and understand the project on a much deeper, personal level that helps you walk away from it learning something new about yourself, even if you didn’t necessarily go through the same pain or struggles that EGO himself did. Obviously, some of these records are loud, aggressive, and straight-up menacing, but listening to the torment and agony that he had to endure in order to reach those levels of fervor is beyond powerful, and I respect him more than words can express for revealing himself in such an experimental and undeniably insane manner.
While IDEAS ARE BULLETPROOF! is even wilder and crazier than I could’ve ever expected, it does a remarkable job of introducing EGOVERT’s story to the world, giving us insight that I never really understood until I listened to this project. With that being said, as long as you go into this tape with an open mind, you’re sure to walk away with a deeper understanding of not only EGOVERT, but yourself as well, so I highly suggest you take a moment as soon as you can and carefully dissect this project for yourself to see what you personally can take away from it.