THE INSIDE STORY OF GREATNESS - IS HIS ALBUM REALLY BETTER THAN YOUR ALBUM
William Shakespeare once said
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust
upon them”. I think it is safe to say that when listening
to to this album, “Noble Stylz” was;
at least to me a first time listener, expressing some form of greatness.
According to online articles, from day one, or more accurately from releasing
his debut album Prince Butawo aka Noble Stylz has always seen, spoken and
behaved like a man who knew the extent of his ability and the rest of the world
was playing catch up. He broke on to the scene in 2013 with his debut album “Masofa Panze”, which in an interview
he stated: “The idea of naming my album “Masofa Panze” is
derived from our African culture of putting the couch outside whenever a
funeral occurs. So in the Zimbabwean hip-hop circle I am killing the game, it
is a mass murder I am bringing”[1]. It
didn’t end there he took shots at MMT[2],
a group that had a breakout year in 2013. From then on he has never looked
back. So, in light of the above it comes as no surprise that in 2017 he dropped
an album with such a title and a very provocative album cover. Like with previous albums in this category, this got Bad Cop’s ears
tingling, I wanted to see if I could figure out his “greatness”. Then I had a
false start, I couldn’t find the album online, I could only find the album
posted on Youtube which I have to be honest has limited me to only comment on
what I heard and limited my ability to say something about the album as a
whole.
On the opening track, “Mama Vakati”,
a ballad song from which I
was not expecting two things. Firstly I was impressed by “Elli-ot”, the guy can saang. Secondly I was not expecting to hear
Noble Stylz’s cadence especially given it being the opening track. It was
definitely different and unique but I was going to have to get used to it. However, besides my own personal issues Noble's mom sounds like an
amazing mother and delivers
an empowering message which listeners can relate to. Noble delivers one memorable moment where he says: “Slavery hainakungopera, that's why
tirimaslaves eGovernment, tichinzi maCivil Servants”. On the next
track, “Mari Kuna Papa”, a banging
and catchy hip beat, Noble
drops some memorable bars supported by Fun
F providing another catchy hook. In the first few lines says: “Ndirikuda Kubata Mari Yakasviba mumaoko
se yellow bone raka Bleacher”.
However given his all out attack and unfiltered style he
drops to bars, I found awkward because; one, he chooses to reference some south african history to
express his ability to kill it stating: “Murder
yacho yakanyanya, Apartheid”. The second
bar he says “I'm behind these bars, handisati ndapiwa parole”. On the next track, “Denga
Inyasha”, a dark and gritty beat, in
which he boldly decides to get more serious
and talk about his struggle with religion and the many faults we see in major
religions. I personally would have loved for him to go all in a
surprising thought given his unfiltered style. On the next track “Problem”,
another dark and gritty beat with an acoustic guitar in the background, where Noble opens up with an interesting short spoken word
about problems
I enjoyed
the concept of the track especially making pop-culture references like the recent viral hit song “Man's Not Hot”. I think my only
problem is that hear the bars and, I picked up another interesting bit,
when he says “BP yakwira sedeath toll kuMogadishu”, but maybe it's just me. So according to the track list, the next two tracks “5 IN 5”, and “Tipei Doro”,
buuut , I was not
able to listen to them. Moving on, the next track “G.O.A.T Freestyle”, a dark grand piano and orchestra beat, Noble
delivers a powerful poem. So
according to the track list the next
track “Munakandafa”, I was once
again not able to listen to it. The next track, “Wakandigona”, a slowed down ballad-ish, trap-ish track with a nice lead
guitar in the back. Which when I listened to, actually made sense, in that the
track is a classic urban grooves romance song about a girl who broke a guys
heart. On the next track “Wadis” (Interlude),
another banging hip hop beat, which I think summarizes Noble Stylz as an
artist,
“NO GUTS NO GLORY”.
On the
next track “Dzikama”, Noble in
conjunction with N jay-oh switch to
a west african inspired track. They both do well in interchanging verses. The
beat switches up to a bass banging trap where Noble show off his poetic flow.
On the next track “Njuga Dzorema”, my favourite track, where BlacPerl created an awesome hook on an urban grooves track. Simply
put it’s a hit. Once again, I unfortunately was not able to listen to the next
track “Ndotenda Nei”. The next
track “Nyaya Dzevakadzidza”, I only listened to a
snippet of the track wherein well known poet and comedian Madzitateguru delivers a classic and hilarious spoken word over a
break beat with some great live instrumentation. On the
next track “MaDays
Acho Aya”, with a hard beat where Noble
puts on his best Zimbabwean-Meek Mill flow. The most memorable and
controversial moment is when Noble claims to be the best ‘venac’ rapper dead or
alive.
Honestly at this point his modus operandi
is pretty clear, and he’s not about to change it for anyone at all. For me
personally though, I had not heard of the guy up until now so I can only rely on
what others have said and without much to go on.
APPARENTLY-this guy is the boss 😞.
So for me the jury is still out, I’m not yet
convinced he is THE ONE. On
the next track “Facts Only”, I think you can guess what this track
is all about. Noble Stylz goes after rappers, radio djs and ministers amongst
many other. I unfortunately had to skip the next track “Problem”(Remix), as I could not find it online. The last track, the
title track “Better than your album”,
I wish he once again went in and all out because I must commend the producer
for giving him the platform to do so but for me he only really brags rather
than body the track.
So overall, I must commend Noble Stylz for the
production and instrumentals on the album, or at least the ones I heard. He
chooses to stick to Hip Hop staying away from the urban grooves mix and blend
of many genres. In relation to the lyrics in 2017, once again as I have said
his modus operandi is always unfiltered however, I as Bad Cop had definitely
had not heard about him up until now. So
I’m only left wondering and trying to figure out his greatness. The
only evidence I have is that Prince Butawo grew up in an environment that
definitely inspired to do great things and that can not be taken away from him,
but, I need more evidence before I can agree with him.
My favourite tracks were “G.O.A.T- Freestyle” and “Njuga Dzorema”. Unfortunately I can only give an estimate score because of
the missing tracks, so I would give the album a 5/10.
[1]
https://www.southerneye.co.zw/2013/10/09/noble-stylz-launches-debut-album/
[2] http://www.herald.co.zw/mmt-blazes-hip-hop-scene/
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