Sick Boi

Sick Boi is a self-written and self-produced record that sees Gill "drawing from a lot of things that [he has] worked on over the years". He personally described it as a "victory" over his health and viewed it as empowering to "pull something off like this", as he spent the previous year living in Canada to undergo medical treatment for his chronic diseases.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx7wypdpng6o|title=Rick Astley faces chart challenge from new boy Ren|last=Herd|first=George|website=BBC News|date=18 October 2023|access-date=20 October 2023}} The album delves into the "agony of his struggles" and offers listeners a "perspective that most people don't have".{{cite web|url=https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/ren-aims-for-number-1-with-sick-boi-this-album-is-a-victory-over-my-health/|title=Ren aims for Number 1 with Sick Boi: "This album is a victory over my health"|last=Griffiths|first=George|website=Official Charts Company|date=17 October 2023|access-date=20 October 2023}} Gill challenged himself to create a "hiphop only" record which came out as a "kaleidoscopic, genre-spanning effort" that focuses on his personal struggles, according to the rapper.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.co.uk/music/news/ren-gives-us-a-track-by-track-rundown-of-his-new-album-sick-boi-33484/|title=Ren gives us a track-by-track rundown of his new album 'Sick Boi'|magazine=Rolling Stone UK|date=13 October 2023|access-date=20 October 2023}} In an interview with NPR, Gill revealed that the project was partially inspired by a "hyper-polarization" that is going on in the world according to him, leading to a "division" that hinders humans "to progress as a species".{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2023/10/15/1205951024/welsh-musician-rens-new-album-sick-boi-is-rooted-in-medical-pain|title=Welsh musician Ren's new album 'Sick Boi' is rooted in medical pain|last=Rascoe|first=Ayesha|website=NPR|date=15 October 2023|access-date=20 October 2023}} Talking to the Official Charts Company, Gill named "The Hunger" and "What You Want" as the oldest tracks on the record that he had sitting around "for a while". However, when he tied the record together, the songs "made sense".

{{Music ratings|

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/sick-boi-mw0004096734|title=Sick Boi|work=AllMusic|accessdate=May 16, 2024}}

| rev2 = And It Don't Stop

| rev2Score = A{{cite web|last=Christgau|first=Robert|authorlink=Robert Christgau|date=May 15, 2024|url=https://robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-guide-may-2024|title=Consumer Guide: May, 2024|work=And It Don't Stop|publisher=Substack|accessdate=May 16, 2024|url-access=subscription}}

| rev3 = Clash

| rev3Score = 7/10

| rev4 = Laut.de

| rev4score = {{Rating|2|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.laut.de/Ren/Alben/Sick-Boi-121960|title=Kritische Töne, clevere Slam-Poetry und Rap-Angeberei.|last=Cerezo|first=Anthony|website=Laut.de|language=de|date=13 October 2023|access-date=20 October 2023}}

| rev5 = Louder Than War

| rev5score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite web|url=https://louderthanwar.com/ren-sick-boi-review-album-of-the-week/|title=Ren: Sick Boi – review – ALBUM OF THE WEEK!|last=Carey|first=Wayne|website=Louder Than War|date=15 October 2023|access-date=20 October 2023}}

}}

Sick Boi was critically well received, with Robert Christgau hailing Ren as "a rapper whose articulated singsong combines startling clarity with polysyllabic vernacularity" and unlike much of anything he had heard before. Writing for Clash magazine, Robin Murray called the album a difficult but "often inspired" and thoughtfully composed work.{{cite magazine|last=Murray|first=Robin|date=18 October 2023|url=https://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/ren-sick-boi/|title=Ren - Sick Boi|magazine=Clash|accessdate=16 May 2024}} Wayne Carey of Louder Than War named Sick Boi as "album of the week", saying that Ren produced "the most ambitious" album they had heard in years. Carey called the project a "mammoth" that offers a "harsh tale" of health.

On 16 October 2023,{{cite web | url=https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/albums-chart-update/20231016/7502u/ | title=Official Albums Chart Update on 16/10/2023 | website=Official Charts }} this album was placed at number two in the midweek charts with Rick Astley's Are We There Yet? being the number one album in the first chart update that the Official Charts Company released for the week. For most of the remainder of the week, Astley was number one in their updates, with Ren being only 133 sales behind Astley when the update was issued on Wednesday. At that point it was decided that a £4.99 digital version of Sick Boi would go on sale via Ren's website on the Thursday, with a number of exclusive tracks, securing 4,533 more sales on the last day of tracking and the number one spot when the Official Albums Chart was released on 20 October 2023. In the end Sick Boi clocked up a sales total of 18,653, including 6,226 CDs, 2,036 LPs and 8,619 digital downloads, putting him 6,996 copies ahead of Astley, who debuted at number two.{{cite web | url=https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/albums-chart/ | title=Official Albums Chart Top 100 | Official Charts | website=Official Charts }}{{cite web | url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/53929/ren/ | title=REN | website=Official Charts | date=26 October 2023 }}{{cite magazine | url=https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/ren-first-uk-albums-chart-title-sick-boi-1235450006/ | title=Ren Outpaces Rick Astley for First U.K. Albums Chart Title | magazine=Billboard }}{{cite web | url=https://www.musicweek.com/analysis/read/charts-analysis-ren-scores-first-no-1-with-sick-boi/088697 | title=Charts analysis: Ren scores first No.1 with Sick Boi | Analysis | Music Week }}

After the musician KUJOBEATS issued a copyright claim against the music video of the Sick Boi track,{{Cite web |last=Ren |first= |title=Ren - Sick Boi Official Music Video |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f_yHNaiDgM |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240905182409/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f_yHNaiDgM |archive-date=5 September 2024 |access-date=5 September 2024 |website=YouTube |quote=This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by KUJOBEATS.}} Gill released a video on his YouTube channel on 29 August 2024 detailing his perspective on the situation, including the removal of the track from other streaming platforms. Gill claims that the copyright claim is wrongful and that he legally bought an unlimited-use license to a sample through the music-licensing platform BeatStars from KUJOBEATS.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K72abdMZbGA |title=Why Sick Boi is off all streaming platforms / youtube - the KUJOBEATS and Ren situation |date=2024-08-29 |last=Ren |access-date=2024-09-05 |via=YouTube}} Gill also announced a "beat down", a kind of diss track, against KUJOBEATS, which he subsequently released on September 5 2024.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it_hPbqcYOA |title=Ren - KUJO BEAT DOWN |date=2024-09-05 |last=Ren |access-date=2024-09-05 |via=YouTube}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Sick Boi track listing

| title1 = Seven Sins

| length1 = 4:35

| title2 = Sick Boi

| length2 = 3:13

| title3 = Animal Flow

| length3 = 2:55

| title4 = Money Game, Pt. 3

| length4 = 6:34

| title5 = Lost All Faith

| length5 = 3:49

| title6 = Genesis

| length6 = 2:56

| title7 = Murderer

| length7 = 3:30

| title8 = Suicide

| length8 = 4:09

| title9 = Illest of Our Time

| length9 = 3:10

| title10 = Love Music, Pt. 4

| length10 = 3:24

| title11 = Uninvited

| length11 = 2:54

| title12 = What You Want

| length12 = 3:16

| title13 = The Hunger

| length13 = 2:27

| title14 = Down on the Beat

| length14 = 3:54

| title15 = Masochist

| length15 = 3:23

| title16 = Loco

| length16 = 3:21

| title17 = Wicked Ways

| length17 = 3:15

| title18 = Sick Boi, Pt. 2

| length18 = 4:11

| total_length = 64:57

}}

{{reflist}}

Category:2023 albums