There’s a strong feeling of unease running through the second album from Thebe Kgositsile.
The Odd Future dude became a hip-hop cause célèbre when he was packed off by his mother to a military-like Samoan school, before, in 2012, he reappeared on the scene as his fellow collective members were making merry in the mainstream.
His debut album proper, Doris, caught a rapper nimbly ducking and diving around dysfunctional relationships and impending adulthood.
Two years on, Kgositsile is wiser and warier. The death of his grandmother and a relationship break-up weigh heavy on the new album’s stark, tense moods.
Grief and Grown Ups are outlines of his paranoid settings, where it's as hard to step outside his door as it is to trust anyone, even his friends and crew. It's the sound of an artist slowly adjusting to the world around him.
