Oh yes, it’s a live and kicking music review battle on Represent as our resident reviewer, the delicious Dawn Penny, puts two new South African releases up against each other… RnB meets HipHop… We did warn you muso’s, don’t mess with Dawn, she knows what she likes and of course readers, what she believes you’ll like and what’s worth spending your hard-earned dosh on…
Read all about it:
Tamarsha – I ain’t givin’ up vs Imbube – Hip Hop Theatre
Tamarsha – 4 beats out of 10
Imbube – 7 beats out of 10
I’ve decided to introduce something new to my music reviews and that’s “Battle of the Beats”. This will basically consist of a head to head between two genres and our first one is Hip hop vs R&B. The songstress Tamarsha going against the gutter rappers, Imbube. My criteria for this battle is Talent, X-factor, Sound and Favourites. Let the battle begin…
Tamarsha – I ain’t givin’ up
Talent: Before receiving this CD to review, I had never heard of Tamarsha before. I must say off the bat, she is talented. I mean she has an amazing voice and takes the time to write her own lyrics, which is always refreshing of an artist. Tamarsha has a beautiful voice and sounds like she knows how to use it. With so many males dominating the R&B scene in South Africa, it’s quite refreshing to hear a female vocal in the mix. But then a beautiful voice is only a mere fraction of what makes an artist.
X-Factor: Um, this is a hard one because either you have it or you don’t. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck in suckville with no passport to leave. If you do, you will remembered – or at the least be sung along to. I have no doubt that Tamarsha has talent, she just doesn’t move. She doesn’t stand out, she doesn’t have her sound but rather a quilt of Destiny’s Child, Keyshia Cole or any such artist – but the 90s sound of that. I think she just needs more experience and more time spent finding that thing that sets her apart from the next girl.
Sound: The production on Tamarsha’s album is not quite something that’ll make the short list in demos sent to producing greats. It’s mediocre at best. I mean it’s not bad, it’s just not good. It’s a sound that’s been heard before and doesn’t do much for her X-factor strife. Oh, she does her own rendition of Humpty Dumpty, ‘cept there’s no story behind it, no depth to it, just Humpty sitting on that wall and taking a tumble – that just seemed very unnecessary and random.
Favourites: My favourite track out of all 14 tracks is track 12, “My love is all for you” featuring Big Boy (who is also the executive producer of the album). Out of all the songs I heard on the album this is the only one I listened to. She even managed to showcase the range of her voice in this track, I enjoyed it – and I sure am a sucker for slow jam rap, preferably the LL Cool J kind but Big Boy does alright.
Imbube – Hip Hop Theatre
Talent: Imbube is made up of a pair of MCs/rappers. I don’t know which is which out of the two but one of them has this cool, deep voice, sorta like Lord Have Mercy from The Flipmode Squad. He has this command about him, can’t help but listen when he raps. I mean the other dude is cool too don’t get me wrong, they both have massive talent. I believe they’ll be bringing something to the hip hop scene in SA for sure.
X-factor: Or as they would say in hip hop, swagger – Imbube most definitely has that. There’s something about them that’s fresh but familiar. These boys are from ko kasi and they try to bring that into their music – because if you’re gonna make music, make music about what you know. They’ve also been smart enough to develop a chant of their name, which gives a recognisable slant. They can add that to their music as a production element in any or all of their tracks – not to mention how they can get the crowd going with it at concerts.
Sound: These boys put a lot into their production. Right down to having a sample of Thelma Houston’s “Don’t leave me this way” on track 3, Iplani featuring Young Nations and Lucky Nkosi. I mean I think I recognised it so certainly cos they looped most of the sample to make the track – it still sounds hot though. A lot of the music is quite musical, with distinct instruments making their sound a lot more real than produced – if that makes any sense.
Favourites: Wow, I have a few here. I really enjoy the sampled “Iplani”, “Bayete” featuring Zuluboy (kinda made me think of My Man’s Vumani featuring the late, great Lebo Mathosa), “Umile”, Uzojaiva, “Amavuvuzela” and because there’s an unwritten rule about hip hop albums having one sick track featuring as many hot MCs as you can fit into the studio (or on a six minute track), they remixed “Amavuvuzela”. When I heard this track for the first time, I played it five more times. It features HHP, Young Nations, Selwyn, F-eezy and El Nino from Driemanskaap. There’s an ancient South African expression that dates back for generations and it’s YHO!!! This track should be reason enough to buy this album, the lyrical content, the production, it all set fire ‘pon the track.
If you read over all the comparisons between the two genres, it might seem pretty obvious which one came up tops. If it isn’t so obvious to you, it’s most definitely the hip hop. Without a doubt in my mind my favourite listen and the hottest listen out of the two is Imbube – nuff said!
