K’naan – Troubadour (Champion Edition)

First of al, I take off my hat for this Somali boy, dis is the best Hip Hop album I have listen to in a long, long time, b’live me. The Platform2’s aim nd obligation is to the transforming, building and supporting of Mzansi Hip Hop but dis time we had 2 outstretch our hand into Africa. We searched Africa nd we find a nigga in Canada, a Troubadour (medieval travelling poet and singer) from Somalia. K’naan the grandson of a poet left Somalia in times of Civil War to the native land of Canada where he resided with moms and the nigga found himself and his music. But I’m not here to tell u abt the history of this artist, u can visit Wikipedea encyclopaedia for dat, I’m here to review the album. K’naan has done justice to the Hip Hop family; he’s the God gift to Hip Hop. Troubadour is a classic album, its fresh, hip, conscious and revolutionary. He brought in the heavyweights like Mos Def, Damien Marley, Adam Levine of Maroon 5 fame and Chubb Rock but the best part is, the whole album is produced by K’naaan.

K’naan knws how 2 make agood album, rap and do the other staff dat Wayne nd Drake do. From the first track dat we knw him of ‘T.I.A’ (which means this is Africa) to the last track which is the Coca-Cola anthem for the World Cup “Wavin' Flag’ the songs r of the world class. K’naan brings the soul of Africa in every song xpecially in song ‘America’ featuring Mos Def and Chali 2na nd the original ‘Wavin flag’. In his words the rapper says ‘I got my own sound/ I don’t sound like the rest’ and yes he doesn’t sound like the rest, he holds his own on outstanding tracks like ‘I came prepared’ feat Damian Marley and ‘Bang Bang’ feat Adam Levine true hits. Well, all the songs r outstanding, I’m jus mentioning few dat r produced 4 commercial market but not diverting from the message. I seriously b’live whole-heatedly dat this is one of the dopest album and dat K’naan is in 4 the big kill, he’s fresher than the word Ayoba and doper than Mike Jones…..nd I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s raving abt this dude, the FIFA body and World Cup Organising team approached him for the remix of the Coca-Cola anthem. In 1999 K’naan was invited to speak on behalf of refugees before the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees where he also performed a Spoken Word poem, in 2009 he performed again in the UN’s Millennium Development Goals Ceremony. He’s the son of Africa, carrying the glory of Africa around the globe. Troubadour is an album I have been looking 4 after I listed 2 Nas’s Untitled, I encourage bo - mrapper 2 get this one for keeps…u wont regret.

On his biography on Wikipedea, they say he fuses the style of Eminem together with the consciousness of Bob Marley…I can’t agree more.

ColourFULL – JR

There is no doubt abt it, Mzansi Hip Hop is raising like the sea level in the Antactica and JR is in the middle of it but he best describes it as ColourFULL. He made SA knw who he was with the ‘gata lenna’ tune and yes we took notice, motswako nation expanded and the man knwn as JR became a house hold name in the rap scene up till to this moment. Well it is 2010 and the nigga is making music and to be clear it is ColourFULL as it gets. He reminds me of Andre 3000 nd Big Boi wen they started without the bling. JR knws how 2 make a dope tune u can dance to within the perimeters of Hip hop, I listen to ‘aga shame’ his first single of the album and yes u guessed its motswako. Then came ‘go JR’, ‘hao Jaive’ ft Thebe nd Nothende and ‘show dem ft HHP, it’s a marathon of the nigga spitting punch lines dat, don’t really hit u back or chill yr spine but r hard to forget. Xpecially with the way his delivering the lyrics on the fast paced beats its hard not to fall in love with dis motswakolisto, he says “I can’t stop nje nge VW e phele ma-brake pads”. There r tracks like ColourFull Music ft TeePee nd O Batshabe ft Bantu Sould & Bloque which I think were saved by those individual respectively. On the other hand N’ veigh came on track # 10 called ‘toast to da nu breed’ and he literally kicked JR’ s ass on 16 bars, the nigga forgot abt the ColourFULL musique nd he raped nd im pleased to say the track rocks, so is track # 11 Y B R F( Young, black, rich & Famous). JR took time to come up with dis one but im questioning his commitment to the project, like the fact dat the CD has only eight original tracks if u take out the intro, outro, skit and the remix. Dis is a very beautiful, nice music 4 my collekxion nd maybe 4 u too. Remember, spin n span, we do it 4 Hip Hop, we do it 4 art and we do it 4 the Love.