Sublimely surrealist storytelling that doesn’t just take you into a different world, it immerses you in the bouncing rhythms of an entirely new realm.
Few creators are willing to dive so deeply into the abstract and spin a yarn with entirely fictional characters and universes, yet when done right the wonderfully woven tapestry is so much more vibrant resonating with the prismatic pulse of its divine creative energy.
While this level of the conceptual, strange, and captivatingly curious is most often associated with prog rock and the psychedelic movement, when mixed with the wicked wordplay and furious flow of a true MC it elevates the elements to a whole nother level.
I’m transported through time transfixed and transformed hearing albums like Temporary Forever and Deltron 3030 for the first time, then jolting forward, jaw again on the floor in awe soaking in the seminal and influential magic reignited with To Pimp A Butterfly and clipping.’s Splendor & Misery.
While some conceptual albums explore a political message wrapped tightly in a flowing narrative others like Busdriver celebrate the creative chaos of the absurd. Babu Oji serves up some viscerally vivid imagery that squirms out the speakers, oozing and wiggling with the rich and emotive language that summoned it.
The project exists in the slime of a reality of ravenous hunger and rot. It tackles the themes of corporate greed and the monstrous horror wrought by our capitalist overlords. It also looks inwards and through fiction and metaphor allows the artist a lens to view past struggles with schizophrenia.
The track gently fades in with the gentle cosmic beauty of a half remembered dream. Once the beat hits it quickly picks up the pace yet still allows the intricate instrumentation to explore it’s layered and lusciously deep soundscape.
Babu Oji has a spellbinding skill when it comes to storytelling, but that isn’t where his talent as an MC ends. The deep tone of his voice propels each syllable with perfect annunciation, perfectly placed on top the beat with his effortless flow and finesse on the mic.
If this is a sample of what’s to come, we cannot wait to trip-hop headfirst down into the kaleidoscopic rabbit hole of this enchanting and entrancing reality.
Words by Matt Miles.
