TSOL
- Shad
- Black Box Recordings/MapleMusic
"Conscious rap" became crippled by its own moniker once its adherents resorted to self-righteous rhymes. Since Shadrach Kabango hews to the genre's original meaning - lyrical thoughtfulness -let's use the Kenyan-born, London, Ont.-raised rapper's own terminology and call him "true-school."
Shad embodies hip hop's late-eighties/early-nineties golden-age aesthetic so effortlessly that, much like Sharon Jones's sweaty soul revivalism, his songs can sound like unearthed classics. Perhaps he includes so many pop-cultural references - Tina Fey, Lost, Twitter - to ground the record in the here and now.
But though these pop references add welcome levity, Shad's exhilarating skills are all that's required to make TSOL sound present-tense. Backed by slow-burn beat-scapes built of layered samples, orchestral elements, bluesy hooks and musical assists from several Broken Social Scenesters, Shad methodically drops deep thoughts, clever wordplay, juvenile jokes, societal insight and even battle rhymes (on lead single Yaa I Get It, he boasts "pick the drug or the rapper/man, I'm better than Meth"). Over the course of the record, he calls for more female MCs ( Keep Shining), discusses his African heritage ( A Good Name), rocks out philosophically ( We, Myself and I) and signs off on an a capella ( Outro). Following Shad's critically acclaimed, Juno- and Polaris Prize-nominated breakthrough album The Old Prince was no mean feat and, admittedly, TSOL lacks that that record's revelatory rush - but it's a fair trade-off for the new album's portrait of an assured artist as a young MC.