The Eagle has landed, and with him is a different colour scheme on his feathers, a growth evident in the way he glides through his latest record. South African rapper Shane “Shane Eagle” Hughes has made his album-mode return to form with his third studio offering titled AKiRA, the follow-up to his 2022 LP Green.
The nonchalant word assassin rounds up what has been a fecund year for Mzansi hip-hop, which has already seen a bloom of some of the genre’s brightest flowers. In a short space of time, Cassper Nyovest, Nasty C, and A-Reece have staked their claim in the album of the year race with Solomon, I Love It Here, and P2: The Big Hearted Bad Guy, respectively.
As the top dogs of the game, they all, in their differences, delivered. It has been a feast of lyrical rap, melodic musicianship, and gritty storytelling thus far in the game. With the bar already set at the highest it’s ever been in a while, the baton fell on Eagle’s talons, and he made good on not dropping the ball.
Listen to “MUTANT”:
AKiRA is a traditional rap album crafted to the taste of a purist hip-hop head. The fourteen-track body of work features rustic tailoring, the kind of aesthetic befitting of an old-school rap project with its low-fi bass drums, eerie piano keys, and jazzy seasoning. Shane has always been an old soul.
The leaning has been his greatest strength, allowing him to spit some of the most memorable lines; it has also been his kryptonite, keeping him stuck in his niche. On AKiRA, the SAMA-winning lyricist is as lucid as his Yellow self but with a clearer sense of direction and purpose beyond just being the best in the game.
Some of the album’s shining moments come when the “Need Me” hitmaker isn’t flexing his pen in a bid to be the greatest to ever touch the mic. With “MAGiC”, he positions himself as a verbal physician with slick wordplay and signature one-liners (“Sweeping under your carpet leave your crib dirty”), while on “AFRiCAN POETRY”, Hughes summons Rastafarian sensibilities with Afro-centric street philosophies.
The penmanship is at its punchline-zenith and the cadence at its huskiest on “MUTANT” (“I took my face off the cover so you can listen to my soul” and “N*ggas think they fly, but I’m the king of the sky”).
Listen to “MAGiC”:
