I've already written about Ren Gill here and promised that he would become a big star. Formally, it's already happening: his solo album Sick Boi took first place on the UK chart in 2023, and the video for Hi Ren has garnered tens of millions of views and that special breed of comments where people write "this saved my life" and, it seems, without exaggeration. So now Ren has a new project - the duo Inpatient with American rapper Chris Webby, and already from the title (translated as "inpatient") it's clear that the conversation will again not be about the weather.

Here a brief introduction is needed, because without it half of the album won't be understood. Ren lived for many years with Lyme disease, which doctors persistently failed to diagnose, instead treating him for depression, bipolar disorder, chronic fatigue - and over-treated him to the point of actual psychosis and autoimmune complications. That, in fact, was what Hi Ren was about - a nine-minute dialogue with his own inner demon, shot in one take. Chris Webby has a different set: ADHD since childhood (he named his label EightyHD - if you didn't get the joke, say it out loud) and autism diagnosed already in adulthood. Two neurodivergent men got together and recorded a record about what it's like to live with a brain that doesn't work according to instructions. And they released it on July 22, on "World Brain Health Day."

As for the music itself: fifteen tracks, a little over an hour, complete stylistic eclecticism. There's old-school hip-hop, ska-punk, storytelling on the edge of pop ballad, pure British clowning, and completely dark tracks like Me and My Monster - a direct descendant of that very Hi Ren. The programmatic piece here, of course, is Neurodivergent: Ren and Chris said in plain text that they wanted to make an anthem "for their own kind," and turn what is called a disorder into something that can be called a superpower. It turned out aggressive, feisty, and absolutely not pitying - which is perhaps the most important thing. I do, however, also understand accusations of excessive theatricality and over-the-top delivery: Ren is an artist without brakes by definition, and where one gets goosebumps, another gets cringe. There will be no middle ground here.

But the main thing to thank Ren for: for several years he has been consistently talking about what it seems is not customary to talk about - telling a huge audience about mental troubles from the inside, without condescension and without romanticization. Asylum is another foray into the same territory, only this time not alone, and because of that it sounds less confessional, but much more dashing. After all, it's more fun in a room for two.

#listened