NEW MUSIC | MAKOLA (@MakolaMusic) ‘CROWN’

By Rishma Dhaliwal • On What is New , ,

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Released on 7th Septem­ber, ‘Crown’ chan­nels ele­ments of grime and hip hop into a boom­ing cine­mat­ic com­ment­ary on the eth­ics of the Brit­ish empire, the rel­ev­ance of the mon­archy and exist­ing hege­mon­ies of our time.

Rap­per and one-half of the rising artist/producer duo, K Mensah recalls “The idea for the track was con­ceived upon hear­ing the news that Wiley had been awar­ded an MBE which he accepted…it got me think­ing what does it actu­ally stand for and who are the real kings and queens of our mod­ern day soci­ety?”

Omin­ous, claus­tro­phobic and on the front foot from the off, ‘Crown’ sim­mers with psychot­ic energy as Pete.H’s whirr­ing, skit­ter­ing pro­duc­tion of beats, bass and unnerv­ing synths, under­pin rap­per Mensah’s cryptic open­ing salvo. The accom­pa­ny­ing video com­pli­ments the track with a stark mono­chrome aes­thet­ic, Mensah upfront, Pete.H in the shad­ows, with bib­lic­al ref­er­ences and pro­jec­ted images of street protests and his­tor­ic­al fig­ure­heads adding weight to the mes­sage. As the track pro­gresses it rises to its name then drops into a wide-screen chor­us of sub-bass and brass, with haunt­ing chor­al synths offer­ing siren-calls to the estab­lish­ment. The pro­duc­tion feels like the soundtrack to a revolu­tion and con­jures the kind of atmo­sphere Hans Zim­mer would be proud of.

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Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

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About Rishma Dhaliwal

Rishma Dhaliwal
Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless. Currently working in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media knowledge to I am Hip Hop and other projects by No Bounds.