MC Yallah "Yallah Beibe" LP (2023)

Details: MC Yallah "Yallah Beibe" LP (2023, Hakuna Kulala). New stock, sealed.

Description: "More charged than its predecessor, "Yallah Beibe" is an apt soundtrack to a challenging era. Yallah is an experienced and versatile MC and channels her layered understanding of the complicated global cultural landscape into 12 stories that skate through Trap, Dancehall, Club, and Industrial styles. Her authoritative guiding force is never more evident than on 'No One Seems To Bother', a collaboration with Duma's gravel-voiced singer Lord Spikeheart. Trading bars over Debmaster's slippery, bass-heavy rhythm, Yallah, and Spikeheart ink an alternative East African sonic landscape, with activated lyrics ("the world is going under, no-one seems to bother") and rasping, death metal-inspired groans.

"Yallah Beibe" is a call to action, a loud siren that's intended to educate the wider world of East Africa's shrouded history and bright future. Yallah's collaboration with rising star Rati Gan 'Bigbung Song' is the best evidence of this, looping Rati's Afro-Caribbean dancefloor flex and Yallah's politicized flow around a twisted bass-heavy beat from Chrisman, joining hands between the DRC, Uganda, and the wider diaspora. Tracks like 'Baliwa' and the anthemic 'HERA' meanwhile completely center Yallah's signature lyrical dexterity, playing her tongue-twisting raps against Scotch Rolex's pan-global foley-trap splatter. At times, the sounds feel as if they're from their own planet entirely - a fourth world that's rooted in collaboration rather than appropriation.

If "Kubali" re-established Yallah as a force to be reckoned with, "Yallah Beibe" cements her status as one of the world's most exciting MCs, both on record and on the stage. There's nobody doing it quite like her."

Grade: M (new stock)

TRACK LISTING SIDE A:

A1. Sikwebela
A2. Miniboss
A3. Tuli Mukintu
A4. Sunday
A5. MC Yallah feat Ratigan Era - Big Bung
A6. Baliwa

TRACK LISTING SIDE B:

A7. Yallah Beibe
A8. Mbakebere
A9. MC Yallah feat Lord Spikheart - No One Seems To Bother
A10. Moss
A11. Ukweli
A12. Hera