St. Nelly-Sade's Stories of Revelation - worth the wait

I loved performing as a student. I really liked being on that stage to give it to all the haters but mostly, the girls that had rejected me…they were many!!!

Thus it was the same feeling when our class was picked to perform at one of the assemblies in 2006. The biggest rap song at the time was Mother Africa, by the Hip Hop Canvas.

Not to disrespect the other people on the song, but I was specifically fascinated by the guys that did verses in Luganda on that joint, thus, when we hit the stage, I went through all the local verses like I had written them myself.

It was a broke April but one of the girls tipped me with a ka-ten. And that was the first time I was earning from Hip Hop. But never took it upon as a career, in fact, I prefer my role as a genre activist.

Last week, St. Nelly Sade released probably one of the most influential Rap albums; Omulondo n’engero (Stories of Revelations) and yes, dissecting this album is as sophisticated as the craft itself.

With an intro that literally kills many local rap albums with a verse, this album pilots itself on a high.

Then goes on to tell stories, some of which by the way will tickle and make you cry at the same time; Story Zange the artiste talks about his life in music, his lyrically conscience songs that have at times rubbed rappers the wrong way.

What makes Omulondo a great album is St. Nelly Sade’s narrative and ability to improvise – there way many verses where the artiste sounds like he’s blabbing or literally free styling and it’s all okay.

He sounds flawless on Nina Plan and pitiful in pain on others like Suicide Note and Amaziga ga Namuddu, some songs like Tutandise featuring Agie and The Mith are beyond comparison.

All in all St. Nelly Sade’s revelations talk about a hip hop journey as well as paying respect to those that really supported the genre effortlessly like P-Tech, Saba Saba, Babaluku, Barna Mutibwa and Saint C.A among others.

The only thing I guess that Nelly Sade missed out on was a battle song, you know all rap albums usually feature a battle track where they invite friends to just spit and show off – it would have been nice listening to him and friends murder the mic.

The nineteen track album ends with a fantastic outro Zino Story, yes this too sounds like free style, he seems to be telling listeners that thanks for listening and make sure you make other people buy this album – well it is a great way to sign out.