The last time we had a body of work from London-hailing rapper Akala was in 2010 when he released Doublethink, a sonically experimental album marrying a hip-hop flavour with elements of rock where he firmly set the tone of his musical direction with a careful...
A weekend of events celebrating hip hop at the Southbank Centre in Central London kicked off on July 14 with a presentation by UK rapper and poet Akala breaking down the musical history and origins of hip hop music,joined by Sona Jobarteh who is a member of one of the five principal kora playing, also known as Griot families from West Africa and the first female kora player to come from this prestigious musical family.
From the classical music that hits your ears on the intro, to the sickeningly insightful and observant lyrics and the gentle piano that signs the album off; DoubleThink, the latest offering from UK Hip Hop artist Akala, is not what you’d expect.
This is Akala’s third album and he’s come a long way from where he started on the underground scene back in 2004. He’s always been a highly lyrical rapper, with complex rhymes about widespread issues that would label him as a ‘conscious’ artist. A label that, on some levels, has been both a blessing and a curse for him, as conscious Hip Hop is effectively an oxymoron within mainstream music.