But Wait, Who Runs what? Lessons We learnt from We Run It

We would go on to give a review of the song but I guess you can always ask Synik to do that for you. As we watched social media turn into a hashtag, kind words, unkind words, war chants and re-tweets, we decided to only talk about things that we could all learn from the current situation (which can change as we type, so gotta get this out quick). Back to school

Lesson 1: We Run It is NOT about ONE RAPPER!!

It’s a like MMT’s “Wake Up” with no names. Guys really...Don't you get it! LISTEN TO THE SONG.. Geez! The “new guy /…2 by 4” line is just one line. And that line, for all we know, might not even be talking about the rapper you are thinking about. A lot of really erhm.. feelings were expressed in that song, chief of all, being looked down upon, being slept on, not being acknowledged and simple social commentary about his journey and things that have been happening, but you know what, you might not understand it and its why we have lesson 2.

Lesson 2: Throw “subliminals” and let the crowd drive the war

Shots fired? we don’t quite think so, buy maybe we are being naïve. We listened to the song, again and again and again, no name was mentioned (except Beefy Harrison), but they did mention the alleged victims neighborhood, which trigger happy supporters could take as “shot fired” because, logically speaking, if as person says that “your neighborhood” knows “we run it”, its really up to you to feel disrespected or to take it as childish talk. In response to Kendrick Lamars assertion that he was the king of New York, P Diddy didn’t hit back with a diss track, or anything hectic really, he just gingerly poked fun at it. BUT.. did you see how peoples reaction immediately made it look like Junior Brown had gone “Ether” on Calvin? People want blood, people want war.. sometimes rappers just want to express themselves..but what if..

Lesson  3 : that could have been the plan all along.. MARKET IT!

What if, just what if, the expected reaction was exactly what Junior Brown and his team wanted and they got it? Smart thinking. Retweets are the fuel of group think! Get three people with a large following on social media, a well produced song, clever timing…and you can control the masses. Love it or hate it, one needs to respect the promotional campaign for We Run It. Think about it, we are still talking about it now right? Did you know that Marcques and Mile dropped a very GOOD album? ..YEAH.. Its called Lost In Translation!, we recommend the songs  Easy, KFC Drive By and  Rufaro. Point is, the Breezy team was clever and more resourceful enough to get all the attention to THEM.  What we are more impressed by is what Junior Brown and his team did before and after the drop, not the fact that they actually dropped it and what made it better was…

Lesson 4 : “We Run It” is a good song

Happy to say that it was a good jam, everything in there.. guitars, beat, effects.. DOPE DOPE..SUPER DOPE.. therefore

Lesson 5 : Never let ANYONE tell you that a market for Hip Hop doesn’t exist

Some people say that Zim Hip Hop is a dying genre because it has a small following. We believe that people only think that its only good Hip Hop if so and so releases it. That’s why we aren’t afraid to call out the crowds favorite on a bad song, even if the crowd is a little too timid to admit it. That’s why we don’t blog some people music . However, we  cant blame the consumer. To feed off the Zim Hip Hop market, you have to work twice as hard and three times smarter than a dance hall and sungura artiste put together. We exist, we are the market, we are just hard to please

Lesson 6: Lets push forward vs Lets beef and feed our egos?

Some people have expressed the imagined altercation as anti progressive because well, no real constructive industry gets built around beefing. Some people think that competition at least, gets people talking and Hip Hop becomes part of the conversation again. We just want good music and people to live off of it. So whichever way this goes and a big shout out to Calvin for making it clear that this isn’t a Ndebele vs Shona or Bulawayo vs Harare thing, we really just want artistes making music again.

there is lots more we could say, but we may just be jumping the gun...so for today

School is over kids.. 

heres your homework

Check out the lyric Video to "We Run It" here

@pushzw

WHY WE DIDNT BLOG YOUR S*#@ !

We do not believe in using profane language, don't let the title mislead you, read on and you will get it!

Girls used to namedrop our local rappers...make sure they called you Tendai while the rest of us called you Tehn. Now they never admit in public that they know you guys..Hip Hop. Deceased

Hello Mr / Miss Rapper, PUSHZW has not posted any new blog post of late. Are we apologetic,eeeh slightly. However, we shall be sincere, its not totally our fault. We would love to tell you about how blogging about YOUR career is something we do  late night or weekends when YOU will be turning up on cheap vodka and with overly made up girls who lie about the HOTNESS of YOUR JAM buuuuut...This is NON-PAYING! Its OUR DATA, TIME, EFFORT...what do we get from this? At best, free tickets to The Zim Hip Hop awards if we are fortunate enough to get nominated for re-tweeting your data file links to less than pleasing badly mastered material. Worse off, the Hip Hop awards are a pain to go through too, if its not the late starts, its the bad sound, if that's not the problem, its the organization..we could go on..but long story short, We ain't getting jack but satisfaction of YOU actually making it in the Music Industry. Trust us, we are really more eager for you succeed than you think. Just because there is no post about your new "hit" do not assume it means we didn't listen.

But here's WHY we didn't blog your s*#@

Lets start with some of the leaders of the game, Junior Brown , Marcques, we will never forgive your performances at the AKA show. Junior Brown gave us an accapella performance. Accapella. Are you telling me I was there to watch Junior Brown go Karaoke?? I'm sure that was also an eye opener as to how much music you DON'T have and we thought your Shoko performance would have fixed that. Dai kufunga kwebenzi nhai? Marques had who on stage at the AKA show? singing? oh ok. Lets go to the music they did drop since then, "Maria" and "Who got Next"...sigh.. Breezy, we would have expected a video for Maria, for an example,  go to a darkened room, have a light bulb swinging, illuminating your depressed face Mr Brown, while you sit on a stool and sing Maria Maria Mariaaaaaa! You can thank us later for the idea! Our point, more could have been done on that song, it could have been promoted more, hell,we know Zifm will play you anyway, how about a video, cinematic, lyric video, ANYTHING.  Lets not even talk about Morning Glory, that was addressed by Mr Zunguza in  the "state of the nation address" jam Marcques "leaked.." well, They say it was leaked. It was okaaay, just didn't really move us. Here's whats funny, HE STILL HASN'T DROPPED NUTHIN EITHER! We don't hear him featuring on songs anymore.. That album better drop fast because we hear the word IRRELEVANCE is starting to get louder than the clickety clack of the keyboard as we type.

Which gets us to one of our biggest reasons for not talking about your s*#@, Dear artist, your music doesn't appeal to us, not only is it un-entertaining, it doesn't do ANYTHING to us, it lacks the WOW factor, it doesn't provoke us to be happy, or sad, or hyper or to be proud of you! So yes, even if you do release a follow up dope jam, we wont give it a second thought because YOU didn't give much of it either when you dropped your first jam. A lot of Zim Hip Hop artistes and R & B artistes know how to rap and sing,  How to make a song, however? A BIG FAT NO. If the studio that you record in does not have studio monitors, get your stuff mastered elsewhere, if it takes a day to get a song done, dusted and out..don't send it to us, have other bloggers talk about you s*#@. Sometimes we cant even hear what these artistes are saying, the songs have no structure, the verses are boring and so much noise...pure and utter WHACKERY! 

Lets be honest, 2013 is soon going to be three years ago, I bet you Tehn Diamond will still be performing Happy (first heard of in 2011 at the awards and won an award Zim Hip Hop laaater), Madrinks the remix..and having us go through that awful journey of love (pills and potions blah blah frikkin blah...just don't sing that s*#@ )! Mr Diamond, we miss you! the SOTG you, the really cocky NON SINGING YOU. A lot of people said Tehn used to be Mr Untouchable and lots didn't like his attitude,in hindsight, He shouldve stayed that way. He isn't cool no more! All the beads and the clothes you always recycle on videos and stuff don't fit the COOL we want you to have as THE CHOSEN ONE for ZIM! Tehn had lots of swag when He was MR SOTG both in his music and as the image of Tehn Diamond, I kid you not, we don't care what the economy is like, I shouldn't always see my favorite rapper wear the same outfit! But lets take it to the music, "Sumudza Gumbo"...bruuuh! I have never heard a greater wastage of lyrics than on that song. WE JUST CANT BEAR IT.  Really though, that song was as tired as the Simbatagz and Iceprince "Dont Leave Me Remix". All that hype for thaaaat SHOW TIME!! .. no man! "Daijes in the Sky", such a nice title, but Tehn..singing isn't doing it for us. Maybe the fans soon to be hounding our mailboxes like it. Hell, the song hasn't dropped like the Perfect Tehn, we should call it "THE PERFECT WHEN??!!" 

 Matter of fact, we listened to TRK's The Come Up 2 and we couldn't help but think that if Tehn had stayed as Tehn (Mr SOTG Tehn), he would have sounded as nice as TRK on that Mixtape but alas, he had to get the beads.... Side note, we think, The Come Up (the first one) wasn't as yay! The sequel to that showed a lot of growth, we might just review it, Growth and progression is what we like, unlike the next set of rappers we wanna talk about

WHERE THE HELL DID MMT GO? You know what, Marcques was right, ONLY ONE rapper in MMT is still a rapper, MC Cut, as to if he will ever really get thaaat song, (remember the wow factor) is really up to him. Maybe he is happy introducing other rappers on stage, We would rather hear him introduced! Such talent, such a crew, they revived the game...now??

Lets go to some of the recent happenings, Kapital K dropped an EP, You see Mr Keezy, we think you are one of the nicest, but it always seems as if every song has to be about bottles/Sex with Unamed Peoples Girlfriends/ Clubs in Cape Town/ ...repeat. We listened to the whole EP... and didn't blog about it, why? loud as it was, only one song really did it for us, that would make for a very bad post. How collaborations or working with producers who bring the best out of you like SimbaTagz on "high" because as far as we are concerned that's the only hit you got...or do you want us to go to the days of Lil' Keith

The team that makes the music that most people will "say they enjoy"...SHOWTIME. the stable with the best pre-release grind. No one works as hard as Showtime on social Media music hyping. and they are not afraid to invest time into it to. This is of course when they don't pull as surprise immediate EP/Mixtape drop that 20 people download. We remember following the road to Reverb 7's "Friends Season 1" - then the digital booklet it came with! damn! that put most international CD packages to shame. Hats off to you. Showtime does however utterly suck and post release. They never talk about a song for more than 3 days after its release. it's like they have the attention spans of 3-year olds on a sugar high. Some of the music they released into the wind had the chance to change the face of young Zimbabwean music. I guess they are too busy being cool to notice huh?

Team Bho, we have a confession, your IMAGE and grind.. AMAAAAZING, whether other bloggers or podcasters like talking smack about your sneakers we don't care. However, the music yall make is just sometimes boring. You guys spend more time topless and exhibiting your dirty innerwear than perfecting your craft. What really saves you are your performances and visibility, hell they are as visible as Anonzi Xndrs relationship advice hashtags, we wish he would drop more hits than hashtags though. Team Rehab used to be the heart beat of Zim hip hop but now.. [insert crickets chirping here]....

Lets take a moment to talk about Bulawayo rappers lest they start dedesaring, kuyema, being cry babies about How Harare this Harare that. Nxa imusic yenyu ingachazi mafethu kayichazi! (if your music ain't entertaining, it ain't entertaining). Don't hate the player, hate the game, or just PLAY BETTER! For example, these guys play better, Yung Tyran, Calvin, Naboth Rizla, POY (yes, KeSummer was dope). Those ones, we like...a lot! Go through our blogs, you will see them. However, whats with always calling out Stunner / Pokello on cyphas  though, is there nothing else to rap about? If Calvin can get played on air then murder people on their own jams (yes XQ ) then, get one of Africa's BEST RAPPERS to feature on a jam, drop an EP, then an album, damn right you can! Stop complaining, Bulawayo has better Hip Hop than Harare right now anyway, grind smarter..not harder magents!

KiddActive, GZE, Calvin, Meyniak, Sharky, Team Bho, thank you guys for keeping some semblance of hope in the game, Peakay is definitely not a rapper anymore...He last rapped when Ill Ceey was secular..damn...before he became the mature Courtney Antipas. We dare them to nominate him as one!

We think that FTR and Abnorm are a good working couple from Blow Hard Records, we have never liked the name but the only thing that went wrong on Love Begets Love was when Abnorm seemed to roll over his words on some lines. It wasn't perfect,that jam was fire, just the finer bits guys,THE FINER BITS, so yeah, we didn't blog about it, Yes, That and Killin em, which was a twitter name for so long that Mr FTR had to take it down. Ftr and Abnorm make great sounding music in terms of quality but how many time do the weak raps have to get saved by a feature? Although FTR killed it on the Marukaz remix. However, He is just like Junior Brown and not dropping an album or a song, we really don't care anymore. Damn right you killed em, you killed em with silence and meh...

We had to use strong words on a femcee before we posted this, She had asked us "what will it take for us to blog about her new jam"

So lets get this straight ladies, DONT EVER COMPETE against other girls, compete against the whole game! From Drake to bloody Lexxii Alejai. Lets STOP using the word femcee (its now the F-word).We have always stressed that with how music is accessible everywhere, one has to fight for space on my and everyone else's playlist as we have become very trigger happy with the delete button! Zim rappers have to STOP making mediocre music, we loved that after #SHOKOFESTIVAL, Joe Black, went on a rant about how we need to be honest about how crappy or how good we are, MisRed has constantly stressed about the importance of perfecting our own music. Why do I have the latest Game but not your track, simple, your stuff sounds like it was recorded on a phone and the rhymes are as old school as Noble Stylz's fashion sense! Fight to be on our playlists, fight to be on radio, not by bribing DJ's coz that don't work, but by being DOPE! Stop telling each other lies, have different people listen to your song before you release it, don't put us on no whatsapp broadcast list, we don't download sometimes, JUST BE GOOD, Here's an exercise, play your favorite international rappers song to the end, then play your song, if they are at par, YOU ARE READY, if they aren't, quit Hip Hop or WORK TOWARDS BEING BETTER!

I bet you guys are gonna be arguing about who deserves awards this year. If I was Beefy or whoever is running it this year...I wouldn't give anyone anything...except maybe Calvin.

In plane English, this is what we hope people take from this post

Master the Art of Making a good Song/ Album

We flock to shows where rappers from outside our country rap in languages we don't know. Why? Its because they make good music. Its not about the language, its the whole package. Its not about where you are from, its how good the song is. Pass the song to your Ex girlfriend and or boyfriend, have a DJ listen to it, hear what they say, improve! Sound changes every year, try to not get lost in experimentation though, RAISE THE BAR! Make it count, make it nice, If you are paying money for a beat, get the files too, make noise if your producer didn't master it right, play it on a radio with no sub-woofers, listen to every detail, correct the flaws, make the fan happy!

Image is Everything

Vanity is a bad thing, looking the part is an obligation. We have met lots of personalities and they look the part. When you see Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa ANYWHERE... she got swag!! You instantly want to associate with her, Tatea Da MC, actually looked like a rapper, SWAG! Ammara Brown, Shingi Mau Mau, Team Bho, they ALWAYS looks the part in public. Once you choose to be a musician, you have to wear the uniform 24/7. Whether you are rehearsing, walking down the street, in a kombi or wherever, you need to look presentable because we really do judge a book by its cover.Lets stop looking like struggling artists. Most album artworks have improved and we are great full but please INVEST IN YOUR IMAGE, its an extension of your music!

Don't go quiet for too long, we will forget you

Whoever idea it was to not drop content, fooled yall! Lets say you make an album for a sound that's popular in 2015, you decide that the timing ain't right, so you wait for three years and drop in 2018, the sound would have changed, fans would have grown up, then you complain that we don't blog your S*#@, we mightz actually do it, as a #ThrowBackThursday. Next thing, content makes you stay relevant, if you aren't going to drop an album, make it a mix tape, take other peoples beats, rap on them! Feature more, collaborate. You wont get cooperate sponsorship because you were hot THREE YEARS AGO!

Performances can make or break your career

A lot of people who perform Hip Hop at say HIFA, are people we don't really know, but they turn the place up, eg, True Vibe Nation. They make sure that their performances are epic! In an age where piracy is killing digital sales, performances and shows have become the cash cow for musicians. Now, if you don't work on your performance, you don't practice, you show up to shows late, its always back tracks, your movement is wrong, then don't send us a press release to your weak stuff. We wont tell our respected readers where you are because YOU might give US a bad name!  

If you got to this part, we would like you to know that we shall and never use profanity in our posts, lest the title misleads you, here's what it really meant for us, read between the lines and improve your craft, understand these four bars

"We know the post might have been long /

 The language a bit too strong /

But Your music really sucks

Thats why we wont blog about your s*#@

@pushzw

WHY YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO B.A.E & LOVE TRIANGLES: RAP LOVE SONGS

It seems like this year will have some variety after all, that and a lot of lady snatching. Last week and a day ago Alpha Centauri and FTR respectively dropped love jams. Not quite love as both of them dwell on the forbidden nature of it all. So since some people had gotten used to turn up turn up jams with the incentive being their ability to make rumps move, here is we think you should have these heart moving jams

Side guy emotions explained

We are absolutely thrilled to find that the two songs essentially put into words, feelings behind two sides of the coin of guys dipping their fingers in somebody else's honey pot! Or hands in another brother’s cookie jar (whatever works). Alpha Centauri explores the  "I want to steal your girl", side of it. In his release statement he says

...This song is about a “situationship where a guy falls for another man’s girl. The girl seems interested and leads him to a point where he develops genuine feelings for her and is willing to fight to make her his girl. However, her previous relationship remains intact and since he is ready to put her first he wants to know if she is willing to put him “before anybody else"...

 Yeap, he is that punk all boyfriends dread. FTR's on the other hand is the punk people would kill (nudge nudge wink wink) because he is pretty much sleeping with someone’s woman. Top it all off, the girl likes it! The reason why we had such detail is that, THEY BROUGHT IT OUT WELL. Lots of rappers don’t go that descriptive anymore but it seems like all it took was being side guys to make it happen. Thank you!

The productions are on point!

Let’s start with Love Triangles this time. Noone doubts the productions of Blow Hard Records (eish the name though)... However the quality of productions can often be judged better when we strip down all those loud 808's, MMG type bass lines and just noise. They showed us that they are very capable of making a really dope love jam. We heard Alpha Centauri's previous album. He has the type of music which hinges on complex harmonies and pseudo futuristic patterns. Mastering and overall production of music aren’t things that are difficult for him and his team. This type of sound is his home ground so obviously no problems there.

Structure and stuff

The name of the song to begin with BAE (Before Anybody Else), sweet stuff innit! The two verses on this song of some-o-pure sob story tale (it’s a good one, the type rom coms are made of) are simple to follow, the second being the more “getting out of the friendzone” determination packed one. On Love Triangles, Its pretty intense too coz its FTR telling off the girl that he don’t want her no more (hit and run will ya?), Chorus, then Tru North crying for more, man! Dee girls aint loyal though! You know why we getting emotional, it’s because they wrote them well!

Samples and Features

Former Major playaz R & B specialist Chyllur drops a really cool mellowed down chorus for us and Surprise surprise, an unknown but really pleasure to hear girl rapping, Tru North does the second verse. Introduction into the game? We hope so!  Samples can be hard to deal with, where to use them, how to use them? On BAE, Alpha rides on the instrumental with them placed appropriately in the background. Using the right ones to go with his subject matter made something difficult look easy...

Bars, Lyrics…

“Who could plan to trip and fall and still know where to stand” Alpha Centauri

"to me you a scheming devious, minor/ messing with me major/ ..” see what FTR did there

“The grass is greener till you water your own/ so when u call me your queen I know your bed is my throne” Tru North (we heard the lyrics, he ain't call you no queen, he said you devious!!)

This and more is all why we think these songs are worth downloading and listening too! So get Alpha Centauri’s BAE over on this link and FTR featuring Chyllur and Tru Norths Love Triangle over here!

But all this might just be us saying things, heres where you can get more that we say

Or just follow us on twitter @pushzw or like our page on Facebook here

NEW ALBUM + REVIEW : WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

We have been waiting for it, now it’s here. The rap trio, The Art Departments, “While You Were Sleeping” album is out now! You see, when you go out and say that the industry has been sleeping on you and you offer the industry an album, you have to show us that we were wrong for sleeping on you. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to have the album for over a weekend and as it drops, here’s what we thought about it.

The album starts off with an intro that summarises pretty much all the songs on the album, but it’s not one of those intros we can say a whole looot about, let’s go to the first song.

Bang:

This song was the official second single from their album. The instrumental was appropriate for the song. We won’t say much about this one, because we already talked about it here

For The Money

It’s that song that has never ceasing affirmation of what rappers/ hustlers/ anyone really will do to get money. Only this one was more centred on them. The flows switching content slightly between first, second and third verse, Tone LakeSide on that gotta grow up tip, the second was on the more retrospective of how irrelevant Illsicker was before and the third being about what we do for the money, “sell a shirt for $3.00” anything but selling cough mixture hopefully. Veiltorn laid a beat that people could dance to, not full out shake it but move to slightly.

Ride with us

This was the introduction we got to the Art Department. The PHD produced and Alaina featured song as explained in one our blogs is really a “we will have the last laugh” typa jam. Message to the unbelievers of the crew that they are “fly with the Desert Eagles”.. well, we get the message fellas, you have guns and you don’t want us to ride with you. The feeling of being underrated is one that most rappers in Zim and albeit, the world over have, however not most of them can put the words in song and bring it out properly. The Art Department did a good job at this. Alaina was great on the chorus vocally but we think a lot more could’ve been done there in terms of the wording.

Drunk in The Morning

This song excludes Navy Seal. The beat is not vicious or hard so much that you nod so hard your neck hurts or anything. BUT, the title of the song and the content are misleading. One would think “Drunk in the morning” would have more to do with being drunk in the morning, e.g, we were partying all night and woke up drunk in the morning, but more than anything  else they were talking about the city having their backs or yes again, getting money (it would be hard to get money if you are drunk in the morning to be honest, unless of course you drink for a living). The good thing is the delivery of the verses was top notch but it’s one of those songs which leave you thinking “so what are these guys really saying because we don’t see the connection between the phrase “drunk in the morning” and the song itself…except on the chorus.

All night

Once this song goes on, you magically turn the volume up and get a head dance going. Navy Seal starts it off like he was born with the beat on his tongue! The synthesiser effects that jump in mid verse make you wonder who the hell produced such artistry! Good thing we have the answer, PHD! By that time, you are in the chorus which sounds oh so delectable, Rob Illsicker takes over, more effects are added as he murders the second verse like Navy did in the first. The song is a party jam straight from 2003! As the third verse starts, some effects are removed, we get a closer feel of Tone Lakeside who like the first two verse owners kills it with finesse. The song is so good Navy comes back with a bridge like thing and magically, you press replay. WHAT MORE CAN WE SAY!

Dreams of a man

After “All night” the feel of this song sobers us up. “Dreams of a man” sounds like a more mature, poetic, real and honest version of “For the money”. Robbie to us had the verse which we feel stood out, the word play and how he just carries the mood of the song without the usual rap “the more that I get colder the more I write again, the more that I feel lonely , the more I can hold this mic again” , something really special about the verse. If one thought that these guys weren’t lyrical, it’s the song that shows you that they are.

Cooling Off

The reason why this song is good is really because you just can’t find anything wrong with it, NOTHING! It was not made for radio exactly but it would still be good for radio. It’s a drink in cup song or driving home from a lit situation type of song. The really lovely bit of the song is that it was produced by PHD who produced the two songs before this one on the track list. The guy is versatile. It might not be played like “All Night” but it will probably never leave your play list. “ you know we international, the flow is metaphysic” If this was a play on words with the name of  the diaspora legend MC Metaphysics then… good one Navy

Bring it Back

Navy seal goes solo on this TR Hitz produced song. Like “All night” it’s straight out of the early-mid two thousands. You immediately confirm that Navy Seal was probably influenced by Aftermath/ G Unit / Dr Dre sound. The awesome thing about it all is that he left the song in a body bag. We think it’s one of the best songs on the album. Party jam but it still packs a major gangster punch.

Set It Off

“Beats I am f**king the beats up, means I am leaving em pregnant, which means you gotta get these f**king beats some contraceptive”

This is a straight up street, gangster rap sounding; take no prisoners, ME AND MY CREW ARE BETTER THAN YOUR CREW type of song. First Class showed us why he is named that way. We thought this song was a killer till we heard the third verse, after that we had no words, just listen to it.

Like This

Braggadocio flows, The song seems to be supposed to get our hands up but, with the current way in which turn up songs are done, it might not be the most possible thing to do with the song. Not too much stands out about the song. it’s a good song. It doesn’t hold a candle to some of the better moments on the album.

Top of the World

This track is a motivational song. “why fly when you can walk on water”, it’s all about being on the top of the world without the fear of falling. The mellow nature of the song and the message behind it merge to take the message through to the listener. It was a good way to close the album. It has a good balance content wise, a more intimate and honest version of the come up of the crew. The Grind continues

The Over view

This collaborative effort was a success. The Art Department have excellent synergy, their articulation of their manner was well presented. They don’t sound like they are confused about what sound they want to present or what they are associated with. There is an undeniable American Hip Hop from the peak of the 50 Cent, G- Unit era influence in this album. Strong hints of Aftermath type Dr Dre, 2002-2006 type of hip hop are underlying characteristics of their music. These are especially apparent in “All Night” and “Bring it back.

Question is, is there a problem with it all? Most Zimbabwean MC’s are looking hard for the next exclusively Zim sound? There is this “originality” thing that Zim rappers have been told to look for but in the case of the Art Department, they seem to have taken all that and flushed it down the toilet. When you listen to the album again and again (like we did) you see as Navy says, that they make music for real G’s, that he will still wear Timberland boots to church. THEY DON’T WANT TO SOUND ALL VERNAC OR ZIMBO LIKE. We think that it was a bold approach and they nailed it. Their choice in words, phrases, metaphors and similes really sound like they are from some neighbourhood in New York but for some strange reason, it’s not irritating, it’s really good.

One thing that we noticed is that in as much as the songs are different, they all pretty much talk about the same thing, “I am outchea hustling, tryna get paid, don’t mess with my crew,” and repeat. We were not going to let them go especially with “Drunk in the morning”. The album is pretty long too, slightly monotonous sometimes mostly because of the content. The other noticeable (could be) flaw is that, unless you listen to the whole album at least three times, you might have a hard time picking out which one is Rob Illsicker, which one is Tone Lakeside, you might just hear  Navy Seal because of a slightly different voice and style. Our issue here is that, they all have the same style. Compare this with other groups, say G- Unit or MMT, their individual differences in style make us anticipate what X will rap like in the next song, as in say, at the beginning of the song when the beat drops, it’s a healthy thing to always be prompted to have a , “I wonder what Tone Lakeside will sound like on this beat”. However, because of their similarity, we can kind of predict what will happen.

The Art Department have songs that are nicely cleaned out, mastered, flawless in delivery. There aren’t any words out of place, the instrumentals are balanced perfectly, chosen appropriately for their content and just sound beautifully mastered. They are disciplined in their approach; one can tell that they put a lot of thought in this project. They respected the art and the producers didn’t give them a shoddy job of it. We have nothing but praise for the technical team, the producers of the song, the ones who arranged the songs and the artwork. The only feature on the song, Alaina, didn’t do a bad job either and we hope to see the visuals of some of the songs.

In conclusion, this album has brought a sound which we had missed from Hip Hop in general. We are so used to the trappy DJ Mustard sounds, loud bass, ear tearing beats or slightly pop going Nigeria records where men dance but these guys kept the G in HIP HOP. They stuck with the theme and truth be told, we have been sleeping on them.

You don’t have to take our word, just download the album here and see if we are calling a bluff or we are PUSHING THE SOUND HARD.

Rating 3.5/5