“This is first world problems, brought to you by the oppressed” – Remi
Saying that this line in the opener to Sensible J and Remi Kolawole’s follow-up to critically acclaimed Raw x Infinity sums up their sophomore debut would be an insult to the deeply-rooted and nuanced amalgamation of personal and political sensibilities that informs Divas & Demons. But this almost-sighed epithet is the first of many signposts throughout the record that signify a changing of the guard, in terms of the voice that dominates our local hip-hop scene, which is subsequently plagued by its own agency.
Whether you’re outspoken in admitting or not, Australia’s hip-hop had for a long time been just like its history lessons: white washed. Now that’s not saying it was an intentional conspiracy nor is it disparaging the artists who have waved the flag of rhymes and beat breaks in the little-regarded land down under of popular music. It was just a fashion. For a long time the hip-hop from our shores was a suburban sound, a safe and house-party catering music which was right at home being blasted during BBQs and road-trips.
REMI is but one of those acts which has changed that for the better, and for the good. It’s been said, since the group debuted with their first record Raw x Infinity in 2014, that we finally have an act who can stand toe for toe against overseas counterparts and not get overshadowed. Because there were two things Australian hip-hop in its Dickies shorts and DC shoes era missed: bravery – real bravery – and a cliché-free voice. These are but the first and second of many things Divas & Demons has in spades.
Lyricist Remi Kolawole calls the album a “diary of depression”, but that doesn’t mean it’s a trip into nothing but sardonic cynicism and darkness. It instead represents a truthful depiction of the melancholy too many suffer from but are afraid to speak up about. There are as many high notes as low notes in both mood and lyrical content throughout Divas & Demons, a title itself which perfectly symbolises the world both Remi and Sensible J create with words and music.
What makes depression the blinding vision of despair that strangles our worldview with black flames is that knowledge of the flipside – a contrast Remi conveys with humorous insights and trivial anecdotes painted atop Sensible J’s canvass of bopping live drum-breaks and smooth layered but sparse instrumentation. It’s this musicality, alongside Remi’s progression as James Joyce-meets Q-Tip with a splash of Redman, which elevates the record – not just as a step-up for the scene, but for the boys themselves.
What defines Remi is his syncopated flows; sentences run-off from each-other, punchlines and wordplay intersect lines, stanzas and verses, each line containing several phrases and combos which feel like poems unto themselves. Meanwhile, Sensible J’s craftsmanship with everything from synths, bongos and Rhodes guitars to MPCs, 808s, closet drums and Kaoss pads, composes a schizophrenic but balanced resonance, like The Joker dreaming in a rocking chair.
Raw x Infinity’s charm laid inside its grunge-rap aesthetic, pounding percussion samples with minimalist harmonies and melodies that left room for Remi’s tongue-tormenting cadences and pen game. This isn’t completely abandoned in Divas & Demons; Remi can still spit like a boom-bap era battle rapper whilst still being a self-aware but self-effacing songwriter, and Sensible J can still mix live instrumentation with sampling and good old fashioned beatmaking. But what’s changed is a move towards the soulful and even more textured, for both artists.
The work opens with what is essentially an editor’s note from Remi and Sensible J, an invitation and a glossary for the tone of the record. The variation in what follows in ‘Forsaken Man’ and ‘For Good’ (feat Sampa the Great) perfectly matches the movements and crescendos that permeate the whole album. Trickling keyboards, Afrobeat guitar licks, melodious bouncing and pulsing bass synths, popped stabs and soul samples with live snare and keys seamlessly chopped together.
You can tell Sensible J’s been waiting to snap on this one, and Remi answered tenfold and then some, perfectly stated back-to-back on ‘Uh Uh I’m Gone’ and ‘Contact Hi/High/I’, which I’ll be damned has one of the most satisfying hooks to please both producers and lyric heads alike. It’s these early entries into what seems like party atmosphere vibes that allow for what follows.
The next three tracks all tell the story of what many mixed raced Australian kids think every day. ‘Lose Sleep’ (feat. Jordan Rakei) is the voice of the voiceless, tackling ignorance in such a beautiful place which is followed by the defiant but downtrodden ‘Young And Free’ and the happily outspoken but humble protest of ‘Outsiders’. The political contention of these tunes doesn’t exist as an island within itself; the deologies and perspectives pop up constantly throughout the album, informing the escapist confessions of ‘Substance Therapy’ and ‘Hate You’ (feat. Baro) and the heartbroken soliloquy of ‘Laaa La La Lost’ (feat. Syreneyiscreamy) and ‘Move On’ (feat. Lorry).
It is worth noting at this juncture how effortlessly all collaborators elevate what seems to be a project already soaring above the limits. Simon Mavin’s delicate fingers are a signature on guitars and keys across numerous tracks, while Sampa the Great, Jels, Silent Jay, Jordan Rakei, Syreneiscreamy and Lorry manage to complement Remi whilst simultaneously also swagging the fuck out and respectfully not upstaging him (seriously, how they do that?). Finally Baro, Tom Scott and Cazaux O.S.L.O (of Man Made Mountain) deliver syrupy smooth verses, lightly merging vulnerable professions with offhand bravado. Like the main act, all these guest voices (in these songs and their own work) further our country’s hip-hop scope and vision with their sound and perspective.
Whilst summarising this album’s breadth and undertaking, I’m reluctant to make a Kendrick Lamar comparison for fear of relegating this album to the role of a front seat passenger in the progressive hip-hop bandwagon, but in terms of the world the instrumentation and poetics this record calls its habitat, there isn’t a more relevant comparison. Both J and Remi have spoken about trepidation in terms of the record’s sound, believing that it will be a divisive entry from the duo that may take repeated listens to fully comprehend.
This is definitely the case for Kendrick on all three of his projects, at least for this reviewer. The density and darkness of the Compton emcee’s vision was the antithesis of commercial and easy listening (which I would imagine was entirely the point) on all of Mr. Lamar’s full-length albums to date. But once you settle into the torment and desolation and allow it to wash over you, what was bleak is instantly recognisable as if one’s eyes were born in nightfall.
I respectfully disagree with Remi and Sensible J, in the form of the highest compliment, that the songs on Divas & Demons, due to their sound and lyrics, inhabit this undecipherable atmosphere. While the subject matter of this record (break-ups, political persecution, racial profiling, misanthropy, anxiety, infidelity, substance abuse, capitalism, first-world indulgence and unfortunately so on) is far removed from light, what the South East Melbourne duo have achieved is delivering a message with no words lost in translation, but also but with no compromises in tone or atmosphere.
Looking back to the days of “play it safe Aussie hip-hop-radio”, Divas & Demons is exactly what our nation’s hip-hop needs – to sound like music, not just ‘Aussie’ music. Not that this album doesn’t represent a unique experience and perspective told with a deft touch and silver-tipped pen, but what it achieves is that it defines itself as itself: A bittersweet love-letter to the divas, the enticing but distracting objects of our affections, and a flaming crucible of the demons, the plaguing and biting pests of the shadows and our deepest doubts. While Raw x Infinity was the sledgehammer that struck the concrete, Divas & Demons is the decaying rose that has been waiting to bloom since before the bone and mortar was poured on the ground.
Divas & Demons is available now on iTunes via House of Beige.
