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Ben Sharpa
B. Sharpa
Pioneer Unit
We need to get this out the way right now: Ben Sharpa is nice with his. Actually, screw that: he's a monster. Almost every track on his debut, B.Sharpa, is loaded with quotables. We’d drop a few here, but we’d run out of space. Whether it’s simmering anger (Hegemony) trippy storytelling (Edwin the Hardboiled) or just plain lyrical lunacy (The Eye Seen) Sharpa comes correct.
His spiky, whiny flow, one of the more recognisable in the SA hip-hop circuit, never gets old, and although one suspects that when faced with slightly more sensitive beats he might struggle, one also suspects that Ben doesn’t do sensitive. Opticial Ill this ain’t, and neither should it be.
And yet, for all his lyrical dexterity, the album as a whole is like a packet of Marie biscuits. Eating one or two at a pop is OK, but eat the whole packet and your mouth gets as dry as some of the beats here. DPlanet, Sibot, Hueman and Milanese all contribute individual moments of fire (special mention to the liquid ba**line of Hegemony) but listening to all twenty-one tracks in one go leaves your ears ringing and your mind aching for some variation. And it takes ages to get going properly.
Of course, the whole ear-aching, head-splitting thing is sort of what Ben sets out to do in the first place, so make of that what you will. And even if you don’t rock with all of the beats, the talent and quality is leaking from everywhere on this record.
It’s not as essential or as epochal as it promised, but immerse yourself in the twisted world of Ben Sharpa; chances are, you’ll emerge convinced, with dreadlocks and a f***ed-up world view. Go get that.
