Label: Eagle Entertainment
Just before Yellow dropped, I had conversations with a few people that follow the South African Hip Hop scene on their predictions on how they think the album might sound like. Some said it might fail to impress, some said it would be a conceptual album and plenty were on the fence. I’m not in the business of predicting how albums will sound like – just to avoid unnecessary disappointment. But this time around I really believed that Shane would pull through with a conceptual album, especially after ‘Julia’, a song named after his mother which came from the same space.
To be honest, when Shane was a presenter on V-Entertainment I was so upset because I felt it took away from him being taken seriously as a rapper but the “young nigga from TV show” had the “album deep in the kitchen” as he raps on the song ‘On My Way’ one of the albums best sing along tracks, here he’s moving on the low, secretly getting along with his business and making music. But before we get deep into the bits and pieces of the album, I remember when I heard the name sake track ‘Yellow’, and realised the part where he metaphorically talks about his friend who got a girl pregnant when he just finished school and had thoughts of getting rid of it. There and then, I felt like Eagle tapped into something so important – the ability to relate to his peers while talking about something important.
If you hadn’t listened to Shane Eagle before the album you feel like you get to know him personally, as he opens up and becomes somewhat vulnerable, he talks about his dad being an alcoholic on ‘Mihi’ and causing him to not really drink because of that. He also touches on his desire to meet J.Cole. The album maintains a very mellow aesthetic, when I listen to it, it tends to create an ambience of Autumn/Winter. Then there’s the lone feature of R&B singer KLY, one of 2016/17 breakout artists, this one seems to be the jam to serenade the ladies. KLY leaves us with one quotable which I found interesting – “I only fuck with BBO’s bad bitches only” he sings on ‘Need Me’. Even with a feature Shane still carries most of the song and he doesn’t get stood out by his guest. The theme of this song really does touch on the topic of a girl who doesn’t believe in the vision but sees it all unfold at a distance, “so hit me you need me but I won’t remember you”.
One of my favourite songs on the LP has to be ‘Privacy (Interlude)’. “The problems of a twenty-something, all we do is get drunk, all we know is get high”. And one of my favourite parts on the song are his first opening bars, where he talks down on the old niggas in the game, which is something I’m really for. I think it’s really time for the youth to take over in the entertainment industry, I’m talking in all avenues. ‘Yellow’ has put the barometer so high that “these old niggas” have no room for error and that really goes for everybody in the game, the music has been so mediocre and it’s pathetic.
The album is 13 songs long but only spans a length of 45 minutes, very compact and concise, he manages to navigate plenty topics without sounding monotonous or saturated. ‘Aliens x Convos with God’, probably one of the best titled tracks on the project and one of the best moments on the album. It manages to sum up the album in its entirety, a seven minute song about almost everything, the intro phases are trippy and then the second part when he candidly talks to God with unanswered questions and being in a car accident. The album debuted at number on iTunes and came along with two awesome videos for ‘Let It Flow’ and ‘Need Me‘. Check out his YFM interview where he talks about the album and its influences which date as old as Pac.
‘Yellow’ is probably or even undoubtedly the best South African Hip Hop album in 2017, nothing comes close to it. It’s going to be interesting to scope it’s longevity, though it ranks with the likes of Mlazi Milano and Skhanda Republic but if compared to its peers – it stands uncontested.
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