Earlier this week on Tuesday, Yodda released his second EP. Titled ‘Nakab’, it actually easily qualifies to be called a studio album as the 9-track EP clocks in at 35 minutes, but the rapper has chosen to call it an EP.
“Tara ma ta ramro manchhey, taal parey mukh bata aago faalne”, he raps in the first track titled ‘Ramro Manchhey’. And quite honestly, he actually spits fire when he raps.
He reminds everyone that it doesn’t matter who has been in the scene for the longest and it’s actually the talent that matters the most, as he raps, “Jo paila aayo tehi thulo hoina, yo khelma huncha sabai ekai naas”, in the second song ‘Kharab Baani’.
With the line, “Yaha sabailai yo kura thahai chha, raja huna tesai kaha painchha, kasailai yo khel ko taaj haasil garna, Yodda ko style ra flow chahincha” in ‘Kharab Baani’, he might be referring to Yama Buddha. YB’s last album ‘Khatra’ that was released earlier this year had the rapper adopting a slightly different style and flow, which is pretty similar to that of Yodda. So, it’s a wild guess, that he might be referring to YB and the first song titled ‘Taaj’ from his ‘Khatra’ album.
That being said, the two never ever had any problems with each other; in fact, both of them loved each other’s works. Yodda had specially mentioned YB in the ‘Thank You’ track from his debut EP ‘Aatma Bibadh’ for all the support. On the other hand, YB too had a massive respect for Yodda and he had made it pretty clear when he rapped about the Nepali rappers he loved the most in ‘K Vako Hola’, a song from ‘Taaj’ album, that only had the names of only a couple of rappers including Yodda.
Yodda becomes a little serious and emotional in the third track titled ‘Untitled’ as he talks about some of the ‘unnecessary’ practices we need to stop. He raps, “Bikriti rokau haami, sabai aafnai daju bhai didi bahini hau haami, kasari chaldaina aafnaile chhoyeko paani, nirdosh pariwar ko kina rujdai chha sirani”.
The UK based rapper also takes a jab at Songs Nepal, a popular video hosting service on YouTube that has over 385k subscribers, while he talks about how it is becoming tougher for the talented and established artistes to survive while some extremely bad ones are gaining the popularity.
“Aaja ma jastai yatri haru chhan behaal,
Purana kalakaar ko zindagi yaha jhan behaal,
Paisa tiri chhoto baato hidne khate kalakaar,
Barambaar famous banaudai chha songs Nepal”
On the other hand, he is also very inspiring at times.
“Harek galti pachhadi ek mahatwarpurna paath chha,
Harek antya pachhadi ek naya suruwaat chha,
Harek yantra pachhadi ek manushya ko haath chha,
Naya paaila pachhi ek ujjwal bhawishya ko aash chha”
The sixth track titled ‘Ghrina x Ghamanda’ also features Spark on vocals. The 16-year-old rapper who has released two original singles ‘Nobody’ and ‘I’m Going’ has done a good job. It’s good to listen to him rap in Nepali for the first time.
The EP also includes ‘Safalta’, a song he had released on YouTube earlier this year in January.
Many rappers usually tend to mix English and Nepali lyrics as that makes it easy to rhyme words; but it’s appreciable that Yodda has hardly used any English words except in the eighth track ‘Only Takes One’ which frequently has English lyrics.
Overall, this is a fine album that will earn itself a mention whenever there will be talks about the finest Nepali rap albums. The beats produced by various producers are on point, special mention to the beats on ‘Bihanai Saberai’ (produced by Corbett) and ‘Sansar Ko Sab Vanda Daami’ (produced by Don P) which sound very interesting.
‘Nakab’ gets four out of five stars from us.
Stream the album on Spotify, Google Play, Apple Music, iTunes, Tidal, or Amazon. More details on Yodda’s official website.
You can also listen to or download his debut EP ‘Aatma Bibadh’ that was released in April last year from HERE.
