May 20, 2008

New Release Emmanuel Jal/ Warchild


I'm conflicted on this video ( Click this link to go to the page and see it). Emmanuel Jal is former Sudanese Child Soldier. His new CD Warchild was released last week. I first heard of him in Metro a few weeks ago. In the article he writes about the reason that he chose hip hop as an expression: " It's cheap-I can rap with a drum, with a guitar, anything. If I had no instrument, I would rap with my hands. I don't have a great voice like Bob Marley but with hip-hop you just talk".

So of this video I don't really see any charisma...yet. The "rap" reads more like spoken word, I don't love it...yet. And even though the video has some cool elements ( like the kid who plays his inner child punching the wall), I think it falls flat...Yet, i'm going to follow behind Giant Step, Metro, Vibe etc and spotlight him. As a Sudanese rapper he is rare and interesting, I believe he should be heard. I have not heard of any art out of Sudan since The Lost Boys

So let me know, email me or post do you want to hear about stuff and form your own opinion or should i only let you know about it if I feel it is good?
Yours Truly, Khia

2 comments:

T. Brown said...

The beat is wicked and the hook is dope but yeah his flow is like The Essay of a Warchild on tape, lol.
But yes, let's support the brother, at least we can dance to it : )

Anonymous said...

I agree with Tisha, we should support him. Dissappointed in the video though. It could have been really powerful.