Hip Hop fans in the 254 have been purposefully waiting for this project from ‘Number Nane’s’ finest, Octopizzo, since last year, but now the wait is over.
Octopizzo just dropped his 4th Studio Album, ‘Next Year’ on 4/20/2018 (International Cannabis Culture Day) same day J Cole dropped ‘KOD’ and we have to give it to him as it’s a handy piece of work.
Octo had been releasing tracks in the run-up to the D-Day: ‘Level Up’, ‘TBT’, ‘Sing Along’, ‘Red Numba Plate’ among others but amazingly only two jams, namely ‘Nu Afrika’ and ‘Noma Ni’ made the final cut on the tape.
‘Next Year’ comprises of 17 tracks with very few features – just four from Natasha Randhawa, Taio Tripper, K green and Tracy his daughter. The rest of the jams Octo is in his zone riding the beat comfortably doing what he does best, lay bars after bars.
The stand out feature for me is the instrumentation and production aspect. Octo gives credit to the producers who worked with him from the USA, including celebrity engineer Chris Athens who’s produced for Drake, Rick Ross and Jay Z. Octopizzo is very comfortable, audible and he just bodies the beat to the best.
On the content, Ruby who is a 254 Music Critic feels that Octo is taking jabs at Khaligraph in various: “Octopizzo has 4 jams that I feel are subtly attacking Khali. Listen to ‘Noma Ni’, ‘Eight’, ‘Make Peace’, they all make you feel like you know who is being spoken about.”
On the album’s artwork, Octo says one of the images is a family photo, shot at Kibera’s Darajani Studio on Christmas day. According to him, the Album is inspired by his late Mum, Mrs Millicent Ohanga. ” ‘Next Year’ is dedicated to those of us who managed to break the stereotypical boundaries and society classism that we were born in.”
Be sure to cop the album available HERE and enjoy the sounds of Nairobi.
