Only a week since ‘SETE’” hitmaker K.O dropped his motor-mouthed diss track ‘Forecast 23’, Bantu Ntukza Hanabe has retorted with a response of his own titled ‘Long Road to Freedom’.
After years of Twitter back-and-forths and subliminal jabs in the shape of interviews, the ex-Teargas member has come in defence of his honour, but the result is an ignoble record with poor lyrical merit and dated production. A response that damns Ntukza’s status rather than exalting it.
While K-Hova’s ‘Forecast 23 exhibits dexterous lyricism, deft punchlines, and energetic charisma, ‘Long Road to Freedom’stands as a polar opposite, with Ntukza’s clapback being slouchy, lacking cadence, and void of complexity.
Ever since their Teargas days, K.O has always been the words guy, appreciably a tier higher than his other bandmates. But where Ntukza fell short lyrically, he made up well for it with his signature brash delivery and cutting one-liners. On ‘Long Road to Freedom’, none of his trademark qualities are evident.
Rapping over a lonesome piano and retro production akin to something from the 2005 days, he begins his foray with: “Hlomla Dandala said ‘All you need is love’ / K.O hurt, all you need is hugs”. Rudimentary penmanship that is a shadow of his true powers.
Most lines of ‘Long Road to Freedom’are direct responses to lyrics on ‘Forecast 23’, and while glimpses of the old Ntukza show, they only flash as intentions and not properly fleshed-out lines. One such example comes when he raps: “Ung’tshel’ ukuth’ ng’khulumi inyongo manje / What you thought this shit’s sweet, sebenzis’ ub’chopho, san”, a straightforward reference to one of the lines on K. O’s diss track.
In as much as the vision is present – vague as it is – the lack of innovative thought and wording pales in comparison to the song it was fashioned to equal. The “Sorry to burst your bubble, but that Lady Du line a gimmick” line is another example of this. The mental positioning and intention are there, but true to Lamarck’s Law of Use and Disuse, the faculty feels underdeveloped, turning the response into a caricature.
There’s nothing wrong with rolling back the hands of time. It’s a well-known trend in hip-hop music, with rappers exploiting classics through samples and soulful loops. Others even distil a certain time period into their music through a combo of retro beats. Ntukza took this path with ‘Long Road to Freedom‘. However, his success with perfectly replicating the K’shubile K’bovu era is the greatest reason the song feels out-of-date, trapping Ntukza in a time capsule of the old days he just can’t seem to get out of. An ineffective response to a song as forceful and modern as ‘Forecast 23‘.
