Rapper Lexa Terrestrial’s October album, Empty Life Syndrome, was inspired by her battle with a rare disorder.
ENS (short for “Empty Nose Syndrome”) is a neurological condition that can result from improperly performed surgery and causes difficulty breathing, sensations of drowning, dizziness, and anxiety. Many doctors don’t recognize the condition and thus downplay its severity to people who experience it, invalidating their very real suffering. Lexa Terrestrial has been fighting ENS for several years, and she channels the pain of the experience into hard-hitting, emo-tinged rap music. While Empty Life Syndrome features plenty of space-age trap bangers, my personal favorite is the throwback heartbreak jam “Can’t Get Your Love Back,” on which Lexa alternates between bouncy flows and smoothly sung passages while backed by a misty G-funk beat that would fit right in on 90’s hip-hop radio. Her bleak lyrics, though, (“I wanna sleep forever/Beauty in a coffin/Die young before I keep fucking up”) situate the song squarely among the work of the soul-baring wordsmiths of today, creating a sound both ageless and current.
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