It is not often that an album title can be taken so literally as in the case of Ren's album Sick Boi. The Welsh-born rapper and guitarist was active in the British indie and hip-hop formation Trick The Fox early in his career, but an initially unexplained illness left him unable to collaborate on new material. Ren Gill was subsequently wrongly diagnosed with depression, bipolar disorder and chronic
… fatigue syndrome before it was discovered that he suffered from Lyme disease. This almost constant state of serious illness left Gill completely housebound for nearly a decade, but, for better or worse, he was still able to write and produce music, with which he has already scored some hits on YouTube. Ren takes you through his music in such a frank and confrontational way into his existence as an ill person - with hospitalizations, doctor visits, general malaise and lots of pills - that you have to sympathize with him. In addition, we hear how he looked at the outside world during this period - which is also by no means cheerful. Sick Boi is a very ambitious and beautiful record, precisely because it came about totally against the grain. (JV)more
