Stream: Home Grown African – Blantyre Blues EP

by Phil Chard

Home Grown African is a Malawian Hip Hop duo based in Blantyre, Malawi consisting of Yankho Ackson Zulu aka Classick and Sindiso Casper Msungama aka Hayze Engola. The group's 9 track EP titled Blantyre Blues was released towards the beginning of the year and features the duo rapping about the regular subject matter covered by young artists, women, partying and a pinch mid quarter life crisis raps.

FOKN Bois & yoyo tinz Present FOKN Ode To Ghana

by Phil Chard

Ghanaian rap duo FOKN Bois have partnered with yoyo tinz on the 21 track album titled FOKN Ode To Ghana. The album features instrumentals solely produced by Hobo Truffles and are taken from an instrumental album of the same name that was released 2 years ago.

This album will edutain you and hopefully inspire positive action. “Sorry it took us so long…there was traffic and light off and pipe off in Dansoman”

The album is available for free via the FOKN Bois soundcloud and bandcamp pages but they are also accepting donations towards their work via their paypal account (foknbois@gmail.com) or you can choose to pay for it via bandcamp.

Album Tweet Review | Part Time Cooks – 7:30

by Phil Chard

The Hip Hop duo of Saul Goode and Black Moss collectively known as Part Time Cooks recently released their third full length project titled 7:30, this time they partnered with New Zealand producer Soulchef to handle all of the music and the results were impressive. The album is still on brand with the Part Time Cooks message - young adult men who want to get drunk, party, and get hgh, who also have a streak of social consciousness and a love for women. But, on this effort the combination of incredible production from SoulChef, coupled with their evolving rap styles makes for a potent release.

Check out our detailed twtter review of the album below.

Part Time Cooks 7:30 - Curated tweets by AfricanHHB

Myke Pimp Run It Featuring Gold Finga

by Phil Chard

We last heard from Myke Pimp on the laid back Get Mine featuring TRK, this time the Zimbabwean rhyme-slinger is back with a more aggressive Run It featuring Gold Finga. We see a man on a mission to let people know that he is going for the crown as he delivers his bars in a husky voice. We look forward to hearing from this guy. Let us know what you think of the song.

@MykePimp

Watch Priddy Ugly’s New Video For Hunnids And Stream His Album

by Phil Chard

Despite our numerous accolades (no humble brag) we are not an infallible entity, and there have been times when we have literally been caught sleeping on some incredibly talented artists.

Without question an artist who should be a regular on our site is South Africa's Priddy Ugly. Despite us being aware of and being impressed by some of his high profile collaborations , we have inexplicably been caught napping on his solo work. I was privileged enough to see Priddy perform at Back To The City during my last trip to South Africa, after witnessing his set up close, I can indeed say that young man has the juice. The combination of his stage presence, energy, and chiselled features had the crowd (particularly the ladies) in a tiff.

Boasting a solid catalogue to his name and having just released two versions of his You Don't Know My Name album Priddy certainly has the talent and drive that could translate into success if he remains consistent.

He has also been releasing a solid set of visuals to accompany his songs for some time now. His new video for Hunnids is no different. The Nkululeko Lebambo directed video makes excellent use of tracking and lens zooming effects to tell a story cantering around store fronts and what nefarious activities may go on in the back

The Wichi 1080 song is available on Priddy's YDKMNY project.

Submission | Fade Orange – Alive Ft. Tyler (Prod. VI Bittz)

by Phil Chard

New submission from a South African rapper based out of East London going by the name Fade Orange. His song Alive features Tyler was produced by fellow "043" resident VI Bittz and is the first single off his upcoming release The Dire Times of Fade Orange

Submission | Lincoln The President – HANDE

by Phil Chard

New submission from Harare based rapper Lincoln The President titled Hande. The song is an ode to hard and grimy looped beats from East Coast American rap during the Hip Hop Golden age. Much like the songs of that period the beat is coupled with some great rapping skills as Lincoln unleashes an impressive arsenal of alliterations, wordplay and multisyllabic flows in both English and Shona,

Lincoln Ngorima Aka Lincoln the President is a Zimbabwean born Mc /Rapper/Songwriter & Poet raised in the high density suburb of Chitungwiza. The second child in a family of three children. The Prez was born a fiend for melodies &rhythm which found him joining the choirs both at school &church. (Yes choirs) He met with Hip hop through his brother an avid listener, fell in love with the level of expression (which I feel no other genre can match).Eminem, Ludacris & Lupe Fiasco were some of his first influences. This triggered an additional element that is lyricism, carefully conjugated verbs &nouns assimilated into rhythm &melodies to produce beautiful art for ones listening pleasure. My first local influence was &is my older brother Livingstone (AyyDawg) Ngorima .Already immersed in the art he was writing verses at a time I could even grasp the bare basics. So my lesson I got by playing his little shadow like any little brother. Growing into it I was drawn to the art of freestyling, impromptu to spontaneously time your thoughts to the beat which was & is still a power point before I found that which is mightier than the sword. Recorded my first track in 2012 starting up a chain of events that led to a lot of performances, cyphers and the discovery of spoken word through my fellow artist in a coalition by the name "VeKwaSeKe" which comprises of me Aspaya&Kevin Munetsi.With this collective we managed to organise a monthly open mic event Dream elevation movement. Along with Peace in the hoods events, local clubs ,Bocapa shows in 2014 I managed to perform at Shoko festival alongside the country's top tier in the music industry which I consider a marker for me to take things professionally. Participated in the Next level tour of Zim which found me collaborating with American counter parts in performances. Currently I’m about to release my debut project a compilation mixtape" Peasant's Son" early July

Submission | QzA & Solo – Above All (Official Video) + Forever Stream

by Phil Chard

The raspy voiced QzA just dropped the video for his song Above All featuring BETR Gang member Solo. Directed by Mandla N and Scott Ross the video utilises low light studio shots and tinted lighting to create a dark visual ambience.

The song is part of QzA's 13 track release Forever which you can stream below.

Zimbabwe Legit’s 2007 “House Of Stone” Album Just Landed On SoundCloud

by Sabelo Mkhabela

It was through Hype magazine in the mid-2000s that I learnt about two brothers, Akim and Dumisani Ndlovu, from Zimbabwe who rapped under the name Zimbabwe Legit. Their song “Doing Damage in my Native Tongue” was on one of the CDs that came with the magazine. An interview with the duo would follow on a later issue.

House Of Stone which I only got on my first years of varsity, around 2010, was a lot of things to me. It was, first of all, a great hip-hop album. Everything was on point; the lyrics spoke to me, the East Coast-style production was what I was into. But what House Of Stone did was instill some pride in me. It was my first time listening to a hip-hop album by Africans that was from outside of South Africa. And it was great. It made me want to dig more online for hip-hop from across the continent – leading to me discovering the likes of Modenine, Nazizi, and more.

The album also featured hip-hop legends like Stic.man (from Dead Prez) and Mike G (from The Jungle Brothers). Mike G appeared on the jazzy video single “Where I’m At”. The single was just a glimpse to what the album was – jazz samples, warm basslines and crispy snares – New York mid-90s type of stuff.

Maggz, one of my favourite rappers, also appeared on “All Over The Map” alongside other emcees from around the continent, and M.A. Double was smooth as he has always been.

House Of Stone is a timeless body of work. And I’m not just saying that to be politically correct. It still sounds as new as it did when I first heard it. And I’ve been following Dumi Right ever since. He has always been my favourite – his lyrics were easy to grasp, and his precise cadence and clear vocal projection made sure you heard each and every word. His Connect The Dots album (2012) is another collector’s item.

Stream House Of Stone below, and grab a copy on iTunes.

Album Review: EL – E.L.O.M (Everybody Loves Original Music)

I’m a big EL fan. A new one (been hooked since 2014’s The B.A.R mixtape), but nevertheless a fan. I bought his latest album E.L.O.M (Everybody Loves Original Music), released towards the end of 2015, without even previewing it, his The B.A.R and The B.A.R II mixtapes were enough to convince me what a solid emcee he was.

“Kwame Nkrumah”, the opening track of E.L.O.M, convinced me the album was taking off where his mixtapes left. The song, which is not a song about the ex-Ghanaian president, sees El spit some heartfelt rhymes about his country and himself. It sets the tone, giving you a reminder of who the man is, where he comes from and where he’s going. He raps:

“A young black proud African nigga/ forget your collabo, man, I’m tryna be rapping with Jigga/ Please. I never said that I’m better than another man/ I tell’em I’m the best artistic product from The Motherland.”

At this moment I’m all smiles – I’m convinced E.L.O.M will be packed with bars and mid-tempo minimalistic production just like his last two tapes.

But El has a different plan. The second track, the lovey dovey pop-inspired “So Amazing”, sees El singing in autotune more than he raps. I dismiss it as one of those “radio songs” made by El the businessman, it’s also not a bad track anyway. But then the third track – “Watch The Way You Dey Waka” takes the same path. The fourth one, too.

At this moment I’m convinced this album is not made for me. It’s replete with flirtations with pop through excessive autotune singing and multi-layered high tempo beats. I’m asking myself, “Where are the raps?” “Don’t Let Me Burn” takes the same route but wait, it actually bangs! There’s no rapping on it, but it’s more dancehall than pop. I’m impressed by the simplicity in the lyrics. It’s simple yet moving. Like really, who makes a song about lying and it still sounds this dope? That bass guitar sound and that clean sound like something off a Bob Marley song and so is the poetic content. “My mama told me one lies is two lies and three lies is more lies/ If you lie, then you die then it’s bye-bye, oh boy, bye-bye,” he sings on the hook. My iTunes has made this song a favourite because after every listen, I press repeat. More than once.

I like the catchy “Mi Na Bo Po”, it makes me happy, even though I don’t understand much of the lyrics. The rest of the album, is just hit-and-miss for me. “Bolemor”, with another of my heroes Nigerian dancehall singer Patoranking, is another track I like, even though there’s little-to-no rapping. Even the song with Sarkodie and Dex Kwasi just doesn’t hit the spot – at least for a rap fan who expects bars back to back.

In short, E.L.O.M disappointed me a great deal. I want to believe that I don’t understand it – that it wasn’t made for me, than I want to believe it’s a bad album. Try it, you might get it. Sadly, after multiple listens, I just don’t.