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Real life Aussie hip-hop, local and deadly serious with deep orchestral beats and backings make this hugely underground release stand out as it demonstrates where Aussie hip-hop artists are going in the maturing genre that gains more and more publicity each day. The LP that has been long in the making by Ballarat local emcee Esvee scratches its way through the first track, “Untouchable K?”, curtesy of DJ Bogues who uses samples from release to create a scratch that prepares you for the rest of an already widely anticipated album. I will say that the genius of this album lies in Esvee’s sneaky wordplay and the raw passion that follows and technically the blatant disregard for the rules of safe music and generic hip-hop being pumped out these days. The deep beats and eerie orchestral samples hit you as hard as the lyrics, tracks like “I Have”, “Karaktah” and the scarily real “Beige Horse” which is more like a documentary of Esvee’s life than a track, the ups and downs and how he pulled himself out of the addictions that had hold of him. Esvee’s formula of track construction is somewhat similar to Tricky or Massive Attack’s formula of critically mashed up basslines and sampling anything that can be physically sampled, he uses seductive guitar samples like in the first single from the pre-release EP “Artform” or the calm and collected acoustic samples in “Blend”. The extremes that emanate from this release come from the passion of Esvee and those who feature on his tracks, he says it himself “I’m obsessed with hip-hop/like kids playin’ sony” are the fuel for tracks that are found inside. A harshly truthful mix of social commentary like in “Illusions”, sombre and serious philosophical tone and the meditation in reminiscing inside “Five Animal System” that’s split up into three tracks through the album and each represents a different animal: Leopard, Snake, Crane, Tiger and Dragon and each a metaphor for his life and how he has managed to over come. The Five Animal System works on a number of levels and it really shows off Esvee’s talent for attacking and philosophising with his words. With releases like this that are, on the whole, underground there is literally no filler as they are usually the fruit of years of labour and that’s exactly the case with Sovereignty. Each track is constructed fantastically with crazy vocal samples that work unbelievably well like in “Storytellah” but there is this variety of styles that makes each track original and new, not recycled or hypocritical in its lyrics. There are vocal melody based tracks like “Illusions” and piano based simplicity like “Peaceful Emcee”. Esvee doesn’t hide who he is and how he’s got to where he his now, but there is nothing more fake than an Aussie rapping with an American accent and you’ll find no emcees on this LP hiding who they are and where they’re from cause every single one of them is proud of who they are and what they are. It’s hard to write on this release without sounding false or without talking it up or making assumptions about what it is. What it isn’t is false, generic or mind-numbingly tedious. Its full of what makes hip-hop great – wordplay, phat breaks and cuts and some of the realest rhymes you’ll ever hear. Seriously I recommend this release for anyone new to Aussie hip-hop, in fact anyone who has even heard of the genre. If you haven’t experienced the phenomenon that is give Esvee a go it’s well worth it.
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