The Best Kept Secret Vol. 2, the latest
offering from hip hop crew group Royale, segues to the group’s formal release,
which is expected later this year. Royale is a collective from Lesotho and it
features artists, Mr. Maps, Nuch and L-tore. Royale employs the talents of an
array of other artists for this piece as well. The vast number of influences
makes the compilation seem schizophrenic and moody. The changes in tempo,
narrative and humour can be very jarring when you first hear it. But, once you
get to the end, the oscillations naturally blend into each other.
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Unlike
most hip hop mix tapes that begin with the inescapable and interruptive ad libs of
obscure hype men or the DJ himself, The
Best Kept Secret Vol. 2 starts of as a conventional radio promo. A creative
and fresh introduction to the mix tape, it’s like your mother calling out for
you from the kitchen door to stop playing and come home for supper – it is hard
to ignore. It is homage to Mr. Maps’ previous stint as the host of what was
arguably one of the best music radio shows on Lesotho’s airwaves. I was hoping
Mr. Maps would explore the radio motif throughout the album and not just use
elements of radio to punctuate it. It might have been cool, Ray Ban and a
leather jacket cool, if the whole mix tape was carried out like a radio show.
The songs.
Let’s
start with the car bangers. Ka Mahetla
by Nuch is possibly the most idiosyncratic song on the album. Nuch almost
effortlessly manoeuvres 4 different parlances in the same verse. He exhibits
his bravado by interspersing English, Sesotho and Zulu lyrics. Then he adds a
forth dimension of slower reggae-dancehall-inspired rhythms. Qekha’s Banana (not to be confused with the
fruit) is an impressive ode to Basotho women with a very catchy chorus. The
backing track is chilled and summery. It is the kind of song that could be a ubiquitous
summer anthem.
Real Talk, much like All I Need, is reminiscent of the hip
hop street cypher - when emcees spat rhymes from the top of the dome and blew
you away with lyrical mastery before you even noticed that there was dope beat
behind it. Listening to these tracks is like one is peering over a wall to
watch emcees make magic in a secret basement.
L-Tore’s You Not Me and T-Mech’s Ba Tseba (ft Mosta Pi) are the most pop-oriented
songs on the tape. Ba Tseba’s chunky
guitar and the synthesised mid-tempo chords in You Not Me are en vogue.
The
transitions between the songs seem too abrupt and jolts from one song to the
next. The explosions that accompany these transitions are needless sometimes
grating. By the time you notice you are in a completely new zone, the song has
neared its end, punctuated with another ‘bang’ or ‘shoosh’.
The
strangest transition occurs between L-Tore and Qekha’s interpretation of Kelly
Rowland’s Motivation and Soul Slipping Away (Leomille ft Olive
Branch). The rugged sexually charged lyrics of Motivation are juxtaposed with the morose theme of death and a
broken silver cord found in Soul Slipping
Away. An uneasy vibrato carries - the shuddering yet reflective offering.
The beat hauntingly lingers over melancholic lyrics, forcing one to pain
attention to what is being said.
Under My Arm (L-Tore Qekha &
Mr. Maps) is an audacious but penetrating narrative of sexual rapture told over
a hypnotic beat (see what I did there?). However, the women-sex theme is
repeated so often in the rest of the album that by the time the record has spun
into It’s Yours (Royale ft Minister
Po), the whole idea is just trite. It’s
Yours is a psychedelic trip through the minds of the hip hop stars as they
vividly describe their erotic escapades, real or imagined. The stars almost
sound lovelorn.
The rendition
of the Bad Boy anthem, Bad Boy For Life
– which here called is Backdoor For Life,
for obvious reasons - is a rather underwhelming finish for the entire album. The
nostalgic reference to radio at the start of the album sets one up for a more
dramatic conclusion. Understandably, the song is an emphatic pronouncement or
even anthem of The Backdoor team. But the track and the chorus take away from
the strong lyrical content in the song. It is a rather lazy choice. Backdoor For Life does not do the rest
of the mix tape any justice. It is like buying a Rolex for your father on his
birthday then wrapping it up in the brown paper used to cover school text books.
The mix tape augurs well for any forthcoming releases. It whets the palate – a good
appetiser.
Find the
link to the album here: http://www.mediafire.com/?17bvt6rl77rxfid
