The first time I listened to this, I didn’t like it, but now I understand it more and have grown to appreciate it. Starting off, this mixtape does not mention Africa much at all, besides referencing where Krukid came from in the first track entitled “Black Immigrant”. This song basically blends together his cultures of being African and African American. He can’t turn his back on the hood because he’s part of it, he feels he has to sneak around the government, and basically mentions the reality of living in the street culture.
This entire album covers the social aspects of his life and hip hop culture. In the song “Good Lord!” he is once again talking about himself as a rapper, proving his status, and even says “I could do this in my sleep”. The requirement to survive in the hip hop world is to be that talented that it comes so naturally to you just as sleep does. In “Hip Hop”, he criticizes the people who are using the art just to make a good beat and make money off of it. Krukid wants to know what’s happened with spitting the truth to help out your world. You can’t applaud a lack of lyricism and just rely on the sound, because that’s not hip hop. He says there has to be more to you. I think from these two songs, the intended audience is actually other hip hop artists so they know that himself and many others don’t plan on becoming empty sounds.
Krukid has many songs about girls in this album to, further expressing his success and benefits that have come along with it. He seems like a very happy, almost carefree rapper when he does this, which really clashes when a serious song about the terrors in his country comes on like in his other album Afr-I-Can. I’ve noticed that because he is so into his words, his instrumentals suffer a bit in that they are basic and repetitive. In this album he did sample a couple of songs, which worked out pretty well, but overall his music makes you listen to the content because the sound isn’t good enough to keep you just bumpin’ and groovin’. They can be for a minute, but my attention could easily get lost. This album was a lot dirtier or harsher than the others; a little bit in content talking about money a girls, but mostly in the sounds. The beats were more in your face and this seemed like a more energized project. Usually it bothered me that his topics in his songs varied so much from song to song, but listening to this album last tied it all together in that he really has a lot to say about anything and everything he sees and experiences. It was definitely put together better in this mixtape.
Leave a Reply