Low-key Kiwi rap at its best
It’s a quiet time for music releases through January but Kanye gave us a choral Christmas present and a sleeping, summer smash surfaced from an unlikely location. Tautoko is an exciting debut album from Tipene. Not the X Factor contestant but the understated rapper from Flaxmere also known as Stephen Harmer. It went largely unnoticed on release but these songs deserve a loud summer airing.
Guest appearances by Che Fu, Dam Native and the elusive Scribe add instant credibility to the unknown voice and, upon listening, it’s easy to see why they got involved. Tipene is a genuine talent and has harnessed all that is good about New Zealand hip-hop.
It’s got that summer island vibe, the stories are humble but strong, local references and slang litter his confident, easygoing flow, all carefully packaged in a picnic basket of musical treats.
It’s not showy and it doesn’t need to be. Tautoko opens with a Prince Tui Teka sample and pays homage to a plethora of New Zealand talent that has paved the way for today’s artists. This is low-key Kiwi rap at its best.
When Kanye West went full Christian on Jesus is King last year it really was a match made in heaven.
Gospel choirs and traditional spirituals benefited from his creative ear and maniacal passion for pop song production.
Kanye benefited by being able to rap about forgiveness and his discovery of God rather than address the total bag of spanners he had been behaving like these last few years.
(It’s possible the author is deeply sceptical of public religious conversions and sudden upheavals of character but sincerely wishes Kanye the best with his spiritual path.)
All through last year Kanye has been holding Sunday Service, where he gathers choirs, musicians, friends and family together to create uplifting, rapture-inducing musical experiences. God worship or God complex? It’s hard to tell but it’s all very exclusive and cool, and it’s from those sessions that Jesus is King emerged. But wait, there’s more.
On Christmas Day we got Jesus is Born by Sunday Service Choir and it’s all choir, no rapping but again it sounds great. In creating a contemporary album, these choral arrangements lose none of what made them powerful in the first place.
Kanye knows when to let melody be melody so any beats or brass are handled with restraint.
Sure, 19 songs might be too much gospel to consume in one sitting but, between some beautiful originals and powerful covers (SWV, Soul II Soul), there’s something here to stir even the most cynical of hearts (mine).