Pretoria-born rapper and singer-songwriter Lehlogonolo “A-Reece” Mataboge has been teasing the sequel to his debut album Paradise (2016) since COVID hit the globe and lockdowns restricted economies worldwide. Nearly three years and countless mixtapes and EPs later, the second instalment of the Paradise series has arrived. Titled P2: The Big Hearted Bad Guy, the album is Mataboge’s third full-length studio project, and it’s his first since his Wrecking Crew days back in 2017 with From Me to You and Only You.
Clocking in with 19 songs and lasting for 46 minutes, P2 is a core rap album laced with traditional hip-hop performances and inconspicuous production that calls more attention to the writing than the sound itself. The album features guests such as Sjava, Blxckie, Jay Jody, Shekhinah, and M.anifest.
Lyrically, the album explores a variety of themes comprising progressing in life (“West Africa Time”), the authenticity and current state of the rap game (“Bruce Wayne”), as well as betrayal and seeking closure (“Better Now”). The Boy Doing Things is unflinching in his scathing commentary on “Bruce Wayne”, calling out rappers who migrated to amapiano for streams and plaques, with the most prominent being rappers Cassper Nyovest and Reason (now Sizwe Alakine).
On ‘Better Now‘, the Revenge Club head honcho is at his most vulnerable, detailing the fallout between himself and an unnamed character, although it’s not hard to replace the pronouns in the song with the name of his estranged long-time producer and former friend, MashBeatz.
Click to watch “Bruce Wayne”
In between the straightforward subject selection and commercially deviant beat selection, the album features poly-syllabic rhymes, pop culture references, slick wordplay, and fleeting imagery wrapped neatly in smooth flows reminiscent of Drake between 2011 and 2014. P2 is a record of lyrical longing and the escapade of a man who’s gone out of his way to prove he’s one of the best to ever do it on the mic (a 2016 prophecy from “What U In 4” completely fulfilled).
However, the record’s leaning is what lands it in a dilemma: A-Reece no longer has anything to prove. The pen is there and at its sharpest on the album. Any debates about his supremacy swiftly ended with 2021’s SAMA-nominated mixtape Today’s Tragedy, Tomorrow’s Memory: The Mixtape.
With that said, the album was left with the task of expanding upon A-Reece’s musicianship, something it failed to do due to its lack of musical diversity. As a result, P2 plays like a collection of well-written rap songs rather than a carefully curated experience meant to elicit different emotions through an ever-changing scape of moody music.
Some of the highlights, though, from the album arise from moments when A-Reece doesn’t take himself too seriously. One such example is ‘The Run‘, the tone-setter of the body of work, which sees Reece throw around boasting of his status in the game over languid production and sporadic playfulness towards the end of the song.
‘Too Much‘, the album’s most kinetic undertaking, is a joyous song styled with mellow piano keys and triumphant trumpets, a foundation that affords the lyricist enough space to finesse his love interest with rap-sung verses in which he seems to be at peak ease. There’s his punchline-infested verse in the M.anifest-assisted ‘Champion‘ and his slinky performance on ‘Ving Rhames’, but those songs showcase a side of the rapper most are already familiar with: the lyricist. Whereas ‘The Run‘ and ‘Too Much‘ exist on the opposite end of the spectrum, permitting A-Reece to enjoy himself and the music without having to worry about how secure the crown on his head is.
P2 is a step up from the opener of the Paradise story all those years ago while with Ambitiouz Entertainment. The album is a lyrical feast for street intelligentsia who prioritise bars over beats and those who are more obsessed with writing structure rather than sales. The third outing does very little to talk about Lehlogonolo and much about Reece. As a result, it’s a flashy capsule of blindingly fantastic songs without much personal detail. The skill is there in many places, but the man is agnonisingly missing in equal measure.
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