Few Kings is an award-winning hip hop collective from Zimbabwe. The group is comprised of rappers, Tehn Diamond, Jnr Brown, and producer Take Fizzo. After taking a four year hiatus, the rap group dropped their second body of art titled “The Feeling Ain’t Fear” in 2017. This album, in particular created quite the buzz in Zimbabwe for beautifully pushing genre boundaries and for the deeper meanings entwined within each track. The album is comprised of thirteen songs, and is reportedly about “relentless youths, brutal honesty, and urban parties”.
The songs “Still The Few” and “Long Live The Few” reminds its listeners of Few Kings’ reign over the Zimbabwean hip hop industry, and reiterates their “awesomeness”. After giving this album a listen for myself, I would have to agree that Few Kings is indeed a very talented group. I will definitely be adding every song from this album to my playlist.
If I had to pick a favorite song from this album, I would say it’s “Kutaura Newe”. The sample in the beginning of the song caught my attention and prompted me to do some research on where it came from. I found out it came from a classic gospel song by Vabati VaJehova called “Ndinoda Kutaura Nemi”, hence the title of this song. “Ndinoda Kutaura Nemi” is Shona and translates to “I want to talk to you (God)”. Another aspect of the song I loved was how intimate the lyrics are. Tehn Diamond talks about his father’s battle with cancer and Jnr Brown speaks about the passing of his uncle. I appreciate that Tehn and Jnr Brown let us listeners in on very vulnerable parts of their lives. When artists are able to do this, I believe that it shows that they have a more trusting and familial relationship with their fanbase.
In summary, I really love what Few Kings has done with this album and hope that they are able to make a bigger footprint internationally within the hip hop world. They definitely deserve it.
“The Feeling Ain’t Fear” Album: https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/the-feeling-aint-fear/UaXQQTZqYbQ_
Listen to “Kutaura Newe”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYFuzxVFD4k
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