Ghetts released a new single, named ‘Mozambique‘, on the 7th of July. The track features Birmingham rapper Jaykae, and South African musician Moonchild Sanelly. The single is available to stream on all platforms, and is rumoured to be the first track from a forthcoming album.
The single, produced by grime stalwart Rude Kid, is an experimental return to form for Ghetts. The atmospheric instrumental provides a disconcertingly melodic foil for the East London emcee, and his two accomplices, to demonstrate a range of vocal talents. Like a fairground ghost-train, the track haunts and thrills in equal measure as Ghetts’ spectral wordplay, rhyme schemes and flow work in haunting harmony. Jaykae’s verse adds a certain punchy violence. He raps as if he is a poetic school bully, the type to mug a child for bus-fare before handing in an A* critique of Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 18‘.
Moonchild Sanelly’s hook makes the track truly distinctive. Her thick South African accent reflects that of compatriot, Die Antwoord’s Yolandi, and is in stark contrast to the two rapper’s heavy British dialects. She also recites a verse in Xhosa, a language native to a nation of people spread across South Africa and Zimbabwe. The result is a track which bubbles with diversity, and fuses the sound of the British Grime scene with South African Hip-Hop.
The single’s visual was released alongside the track. Artist Sahoud Khalaf half animates the musicians. Their faces obscured and their figures morphed, the trio race around a city in a world of murky blues, oranges and reds. The clip enshrouds in playful uncertainty, and compliments the track’s pace and tone. Website GrmDaily was quick to laud the visual’s ‘colour‘, ‘creativity‘ and the way in which it ‘display[s] life in a city through a range of different scenes‘.
Praise for Ghetts is common. He has been a key figure in the British Grime scene, since the release of his pioneering mix-tape ‘2000 & Life’, in 2005. He has since delighted fans with iconic tunes, such as ‘One Take’ (2015), and performed to a packed Wembley Arena with Eskimo Dance in 2017.
Initial reviews for ‘Mozambique‘ have been positive. Annie Mac made it her Hottest Record In The World, the night it was released. It’s budding popularity created because ‘Mozambique‘ haunts, entertains and intrigues in equal measure. An atmosphere of mystery surrounds the single and visual, a theme intended by Grime legend Ghetts. He simply quoted the first line of the single’s hook, ‘I don’t know bro‘, when asked for a press statement to announce the release.
