“If you’ve read any of my other music reviews or “critiQues” on music or if you follow Cocoa Chicks CritiQues on Twitter, then you know how I feel about music, especially hip hop. I love hip hop. Hip hop is one of the loves of my life. Even with most of hip hop being borderline garbage today, I still hold on to hope. Artists like Common, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Kanye, Jay-Z and the ones we’ve seen emerge over the last few years like Lupe Fiasco and the new guy out of D.C. who’s album is in heavy rotation in my iPod Touch, Wale, keep hope alive for me. Yeah, say it like Reverend Jackson would: KEEP HOPE ALIVE!
Those gentlemen do it for me.
But there’s a whole underground, un-signed artist, independent artist world that most do not know about. What’s poisoning our airways currently is NOT the best of hip hop. It’s actually the worst of hip hop. Then I get a tweet from a young man on Twitter, @terrasworld (follow him NOW), that says: “check out my songs.” Typically people will give a request like that the *kanye shrug* but because of my love of hip hop, requests like that is like seeing a new pair of Christian Louboutin’s. But when I clicked on his link and began to listen, it was like BUYING those new pair of Louboutin’s.
This young man’s name is Terra. He’s 21 and he’s from East London. That’s right people.. LONDON. Us Americans have always been skeptical of hip hop artist outside of the country. We’re known to write them off and pretty much dismiss their ability to rhyme. Especially ones from London. Something about the accents. We love to hear it any other time but when rapping, it just never sat well with us. Don’t shoot me. I’m just the messenger. But forget all that. Lets talk about this young man named Terra.
“I wonder what I’d do if I won a mil…I wonder how much I’d make if I struck a deal..Maybe 5, 6 or 7 million…I wonder if I move out cuz the gut is real. I wonder how these hatin motherfuckers feel.. to see me take over on my own cuz my bro said I couldn’t take over because I’m blown. So sometimes I wonder how my brother feels..”
Terra spits this rhyme on a song called “Wonder”. The melodic beat, the delivery, the hook, the lyrics, the arrangement everything about this song says HIP HOP. Terra goes in. Nothing distracts attention away from the fact that this song is so hard. When it ended I was salivating like one of Pavlov’s dogs. The sound of silence was like the ringing bell that let the dogs know there was food. I wanted more and I wanted it now. I couldn’t fix my fingers fast enough to click on the links to the other two songs. Those links were like food to a starving man and I was hungrier than a hostage and 3 POWs. Not to any surprise but the 2 other songs were FIRE. “Sexy Teacher” and “Mary” was just as great as “Wonder”. These 3 different songs made me feel 3 different ways. Kind of like how you felt hearing Tupac’s “Dear Mama”, “Me Against the World” and “Hit Em Up”. Although all by Tupac, each story was conveyed differently for each message. That’s when you know there’s a great artist behind the work. And London’s got a great one. If these 3 songs were a holiday it’d be Christmas.
I can’t wait for this album to be released. Hopefully by the end of the year we’ll all have the pleasure of hearing Terra for an entire cd length. But for now, please click on these links below and take a listen for yourself.”
Its a TERRAble World... 