This is one of the most challenging reviews I’ve ever had to write. I could blame the struggle on a dozen things – too much caffeine, too little sleep, the late hour creeping up on me. But that wouldn’t be honest. The truth is simpler and a little painful: I’m just not that good at video games anymore.
Sudanese rapper Soulja chose to release his new single “Location” in a deliciously frustrating way. To hear the full track, you first have to beat a video game. The song begins a few seconds into play, and to make it to the end, you’ve got to keep your health bar alive – dodging cars, timing jumps, and boosting energy before it drains away with time or a single bad move.
If your gaming reflexes have dulled like mine, prepare to loop the first minute of “Location” about fifty times. But here’s the genius in that frustration: it invites you to live inside the song. The repetition isn’t punishment here, it’s immersion therapy. The track gets to work its magic on you with every restart and partial advance.
The game, developed by Empire WANA’s Ahmed Kamal, is deceptively simple, combining clean graphics with intuitive mechanics, yet requiring a strategy to beat it. However, its stickiness comes from how seamlessly it ties to the music. The more you play, the more you want to play, just to reach that final, elusive stretch of the song. And with every small advance, Soulja rewards you with some of his sharpest bars to date: “PTSD Men El Nas De (I have PTSD from these people).”
Soulja’s delivery is another quiet triumph – an under-breath tone balanced with crisp precision, shifting pace and rhythm with an easy, natural control best summed up in his own bar: “I do the elusive easy thing.”
Hussam, the Sudanese producer credited on two tracks from Soulja’s debut full-length Deja Vu (2024), gives “Location” a vivid, percussion-driven production that leans on acoustic-sounding textures, as plucked strings and tactile rhythms lend the song its grounded, earthy pulse.
You can listen to / play “Location” here. The track will be available on streaming platforms starting October 17.
