ShappaMan – Love Wild (Mixtape Review) Expect to perpetually bob your head...

Overview
Lyrical Content
8
Production
8
Creativity
7.6
Engagement
7.6
Lasting Value
7.5
7.7
Good

shappaman-love_wild

Ex-Camp Mulla rap artist ShappaMan is back with Love Wild, a brand new mixtape following his first official mixtape Wild Life On Tape released in 2015. The new 11 track mixtape revolves around the theme of love in all its fearful and wonderful forms. As described by ShappaMan, the tape is “about love of life and the challenges we all face as we face these problems through love. #LoveWild is based on the fact that we all love to love, love to party and love where we came from.”

For the songs to do with romantic love, ShappaMan and his collaborators go through some intimate moments. ShappaMan starts off by catching up a past lover on This Message and proceeds to get all hot and bothered in the steamy Bonfire featuring Tiri. For Me follows quite appropriately as one of those “post-climax smoke and chill out” songs, capturing the ordinary yet special moments lovers spend in each other’s company, doing nothing in particular: “I just ate two cereal at 2AM/ My girl’s complaining but we ain’t even got kids…That’s my down chick I’m on a cloud with…

The next batch starts with What’s Up which is all about cautious push-pull courting and flirting sessions before getting intimate. Don’t Mind is the polar opposite; this particular girl is all for a wild night where anything goes. It’s a gem of song particularly because of the contradictory emotions it provokes. While the lyrics are all about an unforgettable night of extreme fun, the acoustic guitar subtly conveys a deep sadness underneath it all.

The other gem, I Was Gone (Casablanca), is presumably about ShappaMan’s love affair with hip hop and music in general, channeling periods like the Camp Mulla break up and his hiatus after the mixtape. Think Common’s I Used To Love H.E.R or Erykah Badu’s Love Of My Life. On a sweet, head-bumping beat sampling The Jackson 5’s I Wanna Be Where You Are and the film Casablanca, ShappaMan returns to his girl after a long absence, hoping things are still the same.

Love for country and continent are expressed in East Side and Kesho which makes good use of a bunch of eloquent soundbytes by PLO Lumumba to enhance the track’s powerful social commentary on the state of the nation today, as well as the profound and understated responsibility of the youth to think differently, act differently and change this country for the better.

The strange sounding On & Up and no-holds-barred, hater-destroying SouthPaw are the perhaps the only tracks that don’t seem to sit comfortably in this mixtape from the concept point of view but showcase some of the more interesting production and lyrically potent verses on the mixtape respectively. With a producer list ranging from Ulopa Ngoma, Ceezy, RobArt, Coolibop and even ShappaMan himself, the tape has traces of the signature 25flow sound, this time leaning heavier on the hip hop side of that sound.

THE BOTTOM LINE

There’s lots to love and little to dislike about this mixtape. It’s easy to relate to the situations and emotions conveyed by most of the tracks. Expect to perpetually bob your head as you listen to this thesis on love and loving wildly. Check the mixtape out via SoundCloud and download it via Mdundo.