To this day, 031, alongside the famed Maftown and the inimitable Pitori, remains one of South Africa’s talent-rich hip-hop reservoirs, honoured with the bragging rights of producing household names and internationally-recognised luminaries. A fervent representative of the region, Cape Town-born and Durban-bred rapper and singer-songwriter Luke “LucasRaps” Malong has released his latest project titled Location Hurting 3, with sumptuous beats with nifty price tags and multi-faceted performances which range from emotive rants to avoidant soliloquies swaddled in the gift paper of effortless word selection. LucasRaps’s mixtape features a constellation of wildcard features, including Nasty C, Young Stunna, Emtee, DJ Speedsta, MajorSteez, Saudi, Kane Keid, and KindlyNxsh, among others.
With 19 songs on the track list and a playback time that’s almost an hour long, LH3 is a primarily trap-inspired tape, with miserly influences of alternative R&B. Malong’s sound for this outing is mostly guided by the ears of producers Khulisani Lee Bhebhe, Anashe Chizhande, and Tyler Sally Africa, who shape the skeleton of the music, which vacillates between bass-reliant and gritty turn-up music seasoned with handsome helpings of autotune and mind-stimulating yet bar-laden lyrical fests build atop the foundation of coarse beats fit for the underground scene and fringe-dwelling purists.
LucasRaps | SUPPLIED
As with most, if not all, mixtapes, LH3 exploits the format’s flexibility. Licensed with the ability to treat the tape as a sandbox – a thing that doesn’t necessarily aspire to be cohesive and coherent – Malong’s LP sees him scale the precarious heights of selfish ambition (“Fly On My Own”, “All In”, and “Bananaz”), proclaim his status as one of the game’s finest wordsmiths (“King Kai”, “Make It Right”, and “On Their Necks”), search for inner peace (“Location Hurting”), and explore the cruel beauty of love with trauma-tainted experiences (“Damsel In Distress” and “Take Care”).
Central to the mixtape’s strong grip on the listener is the undiluted and street-like skin of the sound, particularly those songs which are helmed by Tyler Sally Africa. Furnishing LucasRaps’s lush songwriting and wordplay with rough production such as on “Okay/Tank” and “On Their Necks” accents the rapper’s presence, preserving Malong’s purist heart in the resin of a background score that feels like a piece of 90s hip-hop in America. When not plumbing the depths of the ol’-school and underground aesthetic, the producers tailor softer and appreciably mellow beats such as the Manu Worldstar-assisted “Location Hurting” and “Take Care”, which features DJ Speesta and his signature ad-libs.
Another jewel on the mixtape’s crown are the features who, to Malong’s detriment, outdo themselves and arguably steal the spotlight they are given. From Nasty C’s staccato-like yet hypnotic verse on “King Kai” to Young Stunna’s appearance on “Only One”, in which he shares words of wisdom and encouragement while gliding on the beat, none of the guests add lard, keeping their contributions tight and flavourful.
With 2024 coming to an end, album of the year debates are brewing and reaching a boiling point. Co-existing alongside boundary-pushing albums and EPs, LH3 holds its own as a worthy candidate for standup hip-hop projects released this year, excelling in the disciplines of lyricism, feature curation, and sound selection.
Listen to Location Hurting 3:
