Emerging rapper/songwriter austin fox 狐 boldly drops his newest release shaka raza! to close out the year. The 11-track project is a showcase of his raw talent as a lyricist. Over hard-hitting cinematic soundscapes, austin and his cohorts team up to remind listeners that the art of lyricism will never die.
The project opens with “Rozettastone,” a mellow and soulful piece comprising vocal chops, soft guitar licks with punchy glitchy drums in the lo-fi style. Here, austin fox steps up to the podium with his layered and internal rhyme schemes that leave listeners dazzled with lines like “when it found me/Buried in the rubble black/Seen the muzzle strap around the neck/Hugging, gripping on the cranium/Put em in stone cold stunner Full Nelson Titanium.” The next track “quantumleap” has a retro R&B/soul sample with soft grooves that form the perfect backdrop for austin fox’s expressive flow and abstract lyricism. This is followed by “midnightWAXPOETIC,” a collaboration with Phiik. Over a jazzy horn arrangement, the duo led us deep into the mix of the action with their descriptive rhymes bolstered by a no-holds-barred energy. On the atmospheric “star aquafina,” austin fox brings a refreshing vibe to the forefront with his energetic flow and lines like “In the hyper beam mad Lavish orchestrated spits dressed it out with STEEZ/I’m just glad the snorkel fit thats my Niga steve He the DJ, forging magic”n that underscore his distinctive abstract style.
On “witchez brew!” austin fox 狐 teams up with Caboose Winston for a reflective piece. The track uses a familiar string sample to good use. Both emcees bring a different energy to the track from laidback, devil-may-care styles to non-sequitur-driven rhymes and off-kilter schemes to match. The soul theme is extended on the short “specklinz glair ,“ a warm guitar-driven instrumental that evokes nostalgia. This is followed by “ASHTRAY” featuring rapper Louis Farkon. The beat is a brooding string vocal sample with no drums underpinned by a plethora of nonconforming rap schemes and vivid lyricism. austin fox 狐 shows his skillset on“ATLS-VI,” a smooth piano-driven piece that is riddled with engaging lines like “Kitsune kanji Lucid through the eye beam/Student of the god stream Putrid bile projected/Corrected trajectory Sectioned off the nibble bits/Inspect the speckled seeds.” Other notable tracks include the solemn “tro caperz” and trippy “AL CAPONE.” The former taps into the 90s and is reminiscent of warm but gritty tracks from the OGC catalogue while the latter’s vocal chops underscore austin fox 狐 off-kilter approach. The final track “yibz o’ rum” produced by FFamily has a trippy and soulful aesthetic and is underpinned by austin fox 狐’s expressive flow and insightful bars that dive into self reliance. Lines like “cause who you really fighting for/when the spark that ignite the flame/met combustion manifested the righteousness from the sword/and the battles won rattled drums/slice into the babbled onion/what’s funny’s that you dummys playing crapshoot on a broken axle” really stand out to us.
Overall, shaka raza! is chock full of hard-hitting and soulful beats and raw, unbridled lyricism that lovers of rap would enjoy and appreciate.
The Author
