Sounds.

Review: Meyniak: The Werther Effect.

I Hope You Kill Yourself.

It’s been a minute since I listened to any new Zimbabwean rap. That has changed recently, as there has been a little movement on the scene, with Alpha Centauri rebooting his Centauri Saturdays drops and a few other moves. One of my favourite drops is the one I’m reviewing now. Meyniak’s “The Werther Effect”.

Cover Art for Single

Firstly, the beat!

I love the beat on this tune. It’s the type of beat that resonates with me, especially at a time when everything is 808s and too much mumbling on beats. While I enjoy listening to Future Hendrix just as much as the next guy, I’m a big fan of beats that don’t take precedence over, y’know, rapping. So I’m glad Meyniak went for this beat. Question is, was it the right choice? Well, yes. It was, because Meyniak can rap, and can do so quite well!

So, what’s The Werther Effect anyway?

While I’d like to claim I had a clue what this was, I really had no idea what Meyniak was on about with the title of this track. A quick Google search (and a glance at the helpful material he sent through to the blog) gave me the info I needed. Simply put:

“A spike of emulation suicides after a widely publicized suicide is known as the Werther effect, following Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. The well-known suicide serves as a model, in the absence of protective factors, for the next suicide.” – Wikipedia. (Don’t do your college assignments with this as a source. Please I beg you).

Interesting. That quick search gave me the context I needed to give Meyniak’s raps the appropriate degree of attention. It’s certainly an interesting topic for a tune, and one that deserves more treatment, especially from an African perspective. We treat suicide and depression like they’re the reserves of demonic presences. This is obviously untrue, and I’m glad someone from Zimbabwe’s rap scene decided to discuss it in his own way.

Meyniak does away with intensive rhyming and patterns on this one, instead opting for simple, meaningful and accessible lyrics and a flow that sits well with the beat. There are no insane quotables here, and the flow and lyrics match the melancholic tone of the tune as a whole. If the idea was to deliver a sombre look at the psyche of someone going through depression and the thoughts that fill up one’s head at that point, then Meyniak has achieved his goal.

It’s also well-produced. This isn’t usual.

While I’d like to say Zimbabwean artists put out consistently great-sounding work, they just don’t. The mixing is almost always off in favour of the beat, and there is almost always volume fluctuation. It’s weird and annoying, especially if it’s coming from someone who claims to be a full time rapper. I don’t know if rapping is Meyniak’s only hustle, but I will say that his tune shows that he cares about how he sounds. He’s one of a very small group (including the like of Simba Tagz, Kapital K, Alpha Centauri and ASAPH) who have figured out how to make music sound good on a wide variety of audio outputs. Most of the others just haven’t, sadly.

Okay so what’s the deal here? Good or Nah?

I like it! It won’t be a smash or anything because it isn’t jumpy hoppy music, but as at the time of writing, it has a decent (for Zimbabwean Hip Hop) amount of plays on SoundCloud. I enjoy mellow, pensive music, and this tune fits right into the Lens Blur African Hip Hop Playlist which we started a while ago, and has been growing slowly. Will it make it onto my playlist? Probably not, but that’s because I can’t stream it off of Google Play. Enjoyable tune!

There’s an E.P coming too.

I’m kind of interested in what Meyniak is doing. He has an E.P coming, that’s eerily titled “Suicidal Ideation: Ideation”, and slated for a May 2016 release. If, like me, you’re interested in that project, hit Meyniak’s e-mail, meyniakmusic@gmail.com. Otherwise, follow him on Twitter or Facebook.

Listen to Meyniak’s “The Werther Effect” below!

Review: Kanye West: The Life Of Pablo

“what genius isn’t a little crazy?”

Y’know, when I first spun this new Kanye West, my expectations weren’t high at all. After what seemed like years of hype, underwhelming singles, name changes (that were probably fake, in hindsight) and finally a string of really odd tweets, I felt like we’d get an unhinged, disjointed mish-mash of bad songs from Kanye, that he’d defend as art.

I thought he’d drop the Yeezy Season 3 of Music.

I don’t like Kanye West’s clothing. I’m not part of the avantgarde fashion troupe who think wearing rags and overly-distressed (and expensive) clothing is sensible. I’m a regular guy, working a regular job, who happens to really like music. So much so I’m two paragraphs deep into a review of an album, while I’m in the office trying to pay bills. Slow day, let me breathe will ya?!

I subscribed to TIDAL for this joint.

I’m not a Yeezy stan, and I’ve never been great at being an all-weather supporter of any musician’s career. I’m quick to call bullshit on a bad tune, be it from Nas, Kanye or even the magnificent Tame Impala. So subscribing to TIDAL for this guy’s album (I mainly use Apple Music for streaming tunes) was both a shameful act of hypebeasting from me, as well as an act of sheer curiousity about TIDAL’s HIFI streaming chops (spoiler: it really isn’t that epic). Anyway, TLOP was my first taste of HIFI streaming, and Kanye’s “God dream”, and while it certainly isn’t bad, it certainly isn’t the best album of any time.

It’s the first Kanye album that feels utterly directionless…

Kanye always seems to have a plan, a theme, and a sound to his albums. From College Dropout’s ode-laden soul to Graduation’s forward-thinking Hip-Pop sound, he’s had a plan. Hell, even the odd, trippy Yeezus (it was garbage) had a sound. TLOP feels, at all times, like an odd step forward, backward, to the side, then a regression into fan service. The good news, is that all of it generally passes muster by not being awful.

Disjointed albums are difficult to enjoy, though.

One minute Kanye is Gospel, next he’s Graduation Yeezy, and then he’s Yeezus, then he’s Kanye from Southside Chi-Town (or Chi-raq, if you’re nasty). It’s a jarring listen, when you try to go through the project in its entirety. The fidelity of the production is excellent (and TIDAL helps in this regard. I’ve listened to the ripped versions and the loss in bitrates is annoying) and Kanye being funny and boastful in his lyrics is, as always, endearing. But seeing as how he isn’t a rapper, and seeing how Rhymefest, his main writing partner (he was his writer basically), sensationally quit working with Kanye over what he believes are Kanye’s mental issues, the bars are just as disjointed as the sound is. It plays like a collection of singles from different eras of the man’s career. “Feedback” could have been the best song on Yeezus, while Real Friends is soul Kanye at his absolute zenith. The raps themselves sound like a guy who’s learned how to rap not by talent, but by reading what’s been written for him before and attempting to follow the template.

Sometimes the braggadocio is too much or too little, but sometimes, like on “I Love Kanye”, it’s perfect. Endearing, funny, and narcissistic as all hell. Kanye, just as Rhymefest and CyHi Tha Prynce wrote him all these years. But they’re gone, and therein lies the quandary. Ye is trying to recapture things that can’t exist any longer. “Highlights” is probably the cleanest amalgamation of various eras of Ye’s career on the album, though. The Graduation-era chirpiness and synths combine with the narcissism of Yeezus and auto tune of 808s and Heartbreak to create a sure-fire hit, helped along by Young Thug and the ever-present-on-everyone’s-projects impresario, The Dream.

So it’s disjointed, but not bad. What stands out?

I always say to friends, that had Ye not panic-produced Yeezus, it could have very easily been his best work. “Freestyle 4” is a triumph of interesting, non-rappety rap beats I’ve heard in years. The menacing violin, the synths that pop in out of focus and assault your ears, the slight distortion on the vocals and the eventual entry of rent-a-Future at the back-end of the track…. It all combines to create a visceral, dark soundscape – one that feels like the album’s first real step forward in Kanye’s sound.

“I Love Kanye” pads the gap between production motifs in “Freestyle 4” and “Waves”, where Chris Brown, as is usual, pours out a lovely chorus and manages to add to the soulful, but current-sounding beat. Like most of the album, this track is excellent alone, but it really benefits from the beat-less palette cleanse provided by “I Love Kanye”.

A song that stands out mostly because it’s just SO BAD, is FML. I don’t know whether Kanye should have tapped his post-Amber Rose album for inspiration at all, honestly. It was a great, left-field and heady project that doesn’t need replication. FML just feels unnecessary, even in an album that’s already disjointed. The Weeknd’s vocals don’t work with what Kanye is going for on this song. Maybe a female voice would’ve worked.

Real Friends is easily the best traditional song here, though.

I’m a HUGE Ty Dolla $ign fan. Daft name aside, this man’s husky, weed-enhanced voice carries more soul than a graveyard of restless ghouls, and added to the highly-touted collabo beat (Madlib, Ye, and Havoc worked on this, I think?), the soul and heart is on overload. Kanye doesn’t need to rap well or say much, but he does reasonably well, and makes apt use of the magic that is Ty’s voice to lather your ears in some of the best music Kanye has released in years. Current, yes. Soulful, yes. This is the Kanye most of his fans want to return in full (won’t happen) and it isn’t hard to see why.

What comes next, is Wolves. It’s a great My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy-esque track, which came out last year, albeit with Vic Mensa and Sia on it. This time, Ye harnesses music’s most elusive crooner, Frank Ocean. Over a stanza or two, Frank reminds us why we’re all so depressed about him not releasing something (honestly, even a damn spoken word poem from this guy would be called a classic right now).

Okay this is dragging. Good or nah?

Man, it’s tough… There are many, many great songs here. Almost all the production is perfect, too. But this album, seen as a whole… It’s just so badly jarring over an entire listening session that I can’t say it isn’t annoying. The lyrics are lazy on the whole, apart from the places where Kanye admitted that Drake assisted him – “30 Hours” is the best rapping Ye does on the whole album. The sounds are haphazard and seem like a number of discarded A-sides spanning his entire career. If that was the goal, then bravo. Maybe it explains the name The Life of Pablo. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t result in a cohesive album.

VERDICT? 3 Flame Emojis out of 5.

Great collection of songs, PLENTY to stuff onto a playlist for the party, the trunk and the office. It just isn’t a cohesive project, and as a rap album, it isn’t very good either. Also, I’m insulted that Andre 3000 only sings “30 hours” on the entire album. Kanye, WYD???

Stream The Life Of Pablo on TIDAL by clicking here

 

Bheki is just a guy. He has opinions, and they’re usually based on some form of knowledge, however flawed they may be. Find him on Twitter.

An Intro To: Meyniak.

Lens Blur certainly benefits from its wide array of subject matter and art forms. This blog accommodates a lot of stuff, meaning I, being the guy who sees everything that goes up on the blog, get to see a lot of stuff. Among that is music. Lens Blur isn’t a music blog, it’s a blog that accommodates music, and as such we now present to you, Meyniak.

I won’t lie to anyone and say I’m the purveyor of all things Zim Hip Hop, so this intro is an intro for Lens Blur. Let it not be said that I thought I was introducing a guy who 98% of Zimbabwe’s Hip Hop fans already know.

It’s an interesting intro, too!

Meyniak sent me two tracks – The first being a Trap-based trunk assaulter entitled Michelle Chaminuka, and the second entitled P.D.R. I’m a big fan of Trap, and truth be told not many people do Trap well outside of the UK and the US. The first good Trap I heard from Zim was done by the South Samora cats, whose article on LB can be found here.

I’m inclined to be intrigued  by P.D.R because the instrumental is a sample of one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite bands – Of Monsters And Men’s King and Lion Heart. The folk band made its name from honest and naive folk ballads about love and monsters (duh), and it’s such a nice surprise to find a Zimbabwean rapper hopping on this.

The song itself is well-rapped. Meyniak has cool bars and delivery, handling a beat that not many rappers would want to get on because it isn’t particularly catchy. It’s pretty damn good!

This isn’t a review. So just listen to the tunes embedded below, and pass your feedback on to Meyniak by following him on Twitter by clicking here

CAIJO: Average Jo (Reson8) ft. Tatmyster

Caijo and Tatmyster are to Hip Hop in Harare what The Underachievers are to New York’s scene. Woozy, interesting, and possessed by the indigo and third eye, these guys put a really interesting spin on their cuts that won’t appeal to everyone at first listen, but will definitely leave a mark on those who do stick around. Hopefully this latest cut makes more of you stick around. Enjoy!

THE GUESS THE VOICE CHALLENGE & QUESTIONNAIRE!

Well see, the first Guess Challenge on this blog came from the lovely Jean_n_tonic (find her on Twitter she’s great), and since then a few other people have come up with their own guess challenges for the blog. I decided a simple twist on Jean’s formula would be kind of cool – have people guess who sent what voice note through, but to make it inclusive and fun for any and everyone, why not ask some super random questions to these people that they would respond to? What’s the worst that could happen, right? Well… the results are embedded below… Be sure to hit me up on Twitter (@__LensBlur & @__Nifty) with who you think participated, and any other comments you have. Enjoy!

CAIJO’S KILLER MINDSET.

I’m a fan of music. A big fan, So I’m always happy when musicians reach out to me and tell me they want LB’s audience to hear their tunes. Here is a trippy cut from a 3rd Eye Visionary, of the RoRaGaHu collective, Caijo! 

“AGE: UNKNOWN
ORIGIN: UNKNOWN
Representing all my 3rd eye people. May I never be bigger than my music.
RoRaGaHu is the movement and that stands for:
Rockstar – we do what we want to do
Rasta – we’re all spiritual too
Gangsta – I do what I say, but I don’t always say what I do
Hustler – because I was told C.R.E.A.M. a long time ago
Peace, Love
Lord Caijo”