A “School Bag and A Mic” is all 23skali needs to navigate the Rap scene as he releases new EP

Genre – Hip-Hop, Rap, Afrobeats

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Rating: 3 out of 5.

Listen here

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On February 5, Hip-hop’s next best thing, 23skali, released his sophomore studio project, “School Bag and A Mic” across all streaming platforms.

There hasn’t been a better time for emerging acts in modern history like right now. The current mainstream market has seen a surge in general streams and has overflown to getting more underground acts getting heard. In other words, this is the perfect period to drop a body of work as an artist that wants to be heard.

23skali has been in and around the music scene since 2016 with his debut project arriving in 2019 to a decent level of relative success with lead single “Above” getting some recognition but he has struck abd arrived at the perfect time with the release of his sophomore body of work– School Bag and A Mic.

The Calabar-raised super act has found a way to mix his Calabar roots with his Hip-Hop music; which in itself offers a nostalgic aura of the late 2000s Nigerian Rap and we are here for it.

The 9-track tape opens up with an intro which is a feel good song titled Risky trying to appraise a better half with her risky body. Jogodo is a personal favourite, if you dig afrobeats rap, this is the one for you. Another standout jam on here is Persian Rugz, the trap-infused song was definitely one embodied with that new school flows.

Never know can be seen as the song talking about life’s issues and 23skali definitely shows his lyrical prowess here and the selection of Dejavu Dip as the next song was definitely the best decision and showed amazing tracklisting skills as the tempo and flows weren’t distorted. The project ends with another trap infused hiphop song, Rado/Intro to Zone 23, which definitely gives a nice ending vibe to a good project.

This EP tried to strike a balance between old school bars and new school flows and this is where i wasn’t totally impressed as there was a little disjoint here but notwithstanding i enjoyed d old school vibes mixed with d new school flows as Jogodo and Persian Rugz were my standout tracks. Like he mentioned he gets better after every project so we definitely expecting a more balanced tape on his next project, still i enjoyed SCHOOL BAG AND A MIC

Listen to 23Skali’s “School Bag A Mic” here.