A reunion of current Brokencyde and former Brokencyde! I wonder what the “I can’t believe Brokencyde is still making music?!” people will say when they see Phat J is back, and he’s back dancing in a crocodile outfit?! Probably: “Wow.”
“Mirage” is a nostalgia EP which isn’t aiming to sound like 2009, but rather trying to bring 2009 back (“let’s get drunk like it’s 2009”). It sounds like 2009 though (with a little bit of 2021 in it). It’s a glimpse into a parallel universe where Brokencyde continued evolving their crunkcore instead of losing members and trying out new ideas. Neither of the two guys have sounded like this for a long time – Mikl has been making trap in Brokencyde and Phat J has transformed into a laidback, more normal hiphop dude – and now they’re back rapping lines like “i’m a dancing machine” and “I’m on my grind all the time, now we’re gotta let loose”.
Phat J’s throat hurts when he growls, so that ain’t happening no more. Some of the crazy aspects you may know from Brokencyde is because of that not present on this EP. It’s more easy listening and pop, and they don’t have time to be edgy anymore, they just wanna party. They are two empty shells that can only be filled with party. Oh boy, they like to Par-Tey. On the song “2009”, Melissa Marie also just wanna party, but she has an attitude while wanting it. Mikl Shea and Phat J on the other hand are shallow and empty in a carefree and funny way. They want to party, but if you’d ask them why, they wouldn’t answer and instead just stare blank into the wall and continue dancing. They want to party, but they don’t want to drink, they just want to hear music, talk about dancing to music and mouth their own lyrics. Mikl Shea and Phat J are the song “The party don’t stop”. Maybe this is how life should be lived: aiming for good times, but never reaching them, because you just aim in infinity (“Bounce, bounce, screaming like you want more”).