It has been a long time since I bought my copy of Sharky’s latest album Take Back the Land and when Mzaya handed me the copy I knew deep down that it was all worth it.
I took my time listening to the whole project, analysing and seeing if the industry was paying attention to the project or not. Well that doesn’t matter, does it?
I had previously written something about this album before but my laptop decided to crush and I lost everything including Sharky’s album review and other artistes’ too.
Take back the land was recorded at Monkey Bznz studio and the executive producers include; Achieve “Dj Krimz Beatz” Moyo, Ronald “Afro8i” Muchenje and Sharky himself.
Sharky is now a big brand in the Zim Hip Hop vicinity and is now known for his composing skills that are deeply rooted in Zimbabwe’s culture and not mentioning how he addresses issues affecting the status quo.
The 13 track album consists of tracks like #2, Homu Homu, Make up your mind, Side to side, Ndambakuudzwa, Take back the land and many more.
I am probably going to talk about the above mentioned tracks which I found to be my top favourites from the project.
#2 which the second track on the album is kind of a trap song in which he talks about how he has ‘shut down’ the whole game with the second album on his belt. The catchy chorus is probably a sing along to all the trap lovers as one can also dab to it.
Homu homu is the fourth track on the album and it features his brother Italist. The song which is laden with English and vernacular bars is one of the standout tracks as they managed to fuse it with a sprinkle of some Dancehall madness from Italist.
Make up your mind is simply a love inspired song where the rapper is pleading with his lover to make up her mind and stop having a dilemma on what she wants.
Ndambakuudzwa which is track number 8 on the album is based on the Shona expression which refuses to condone bad and stubborn behavior. ‘Iwe wakaramba kuudzwa, kumhunga hakuna ipwa’ goes part of the slow paced chorus. The song is also laden with witty wordplay and Shona idiomatic expressions.
The last song on the album, which is also the album title, Take Back the Land, might be controversial to others but to me it is the heart of the album. The 7 minute acapella track is laden with some hard hitting bars as he addresses this that are affecting us as Zimbabweans in a country which used to be the bread basket of Southern Africa.
Other tracks on the album include; Henaroo, Kwete, Issa Melanin, Ndarira, Family and Far away.
This album is probably one of the best projects from the Hip Hop fraternity considering many artistes have also dropped albums this year.
One thing that is exciting about this album is how diverse it is, the dancehall feel, the trap, the love songs, you name it.
People have been complaining about the Hip Hop content lately, now that someone in the industry has addressed the real issues, can’t it be said that Sharky has struck the right chords?
To get a hard copy of Take back the land you can contact Terrence on +263 77 455 0834
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