Music Review By: Oratile Ndimande
The growth of technology and the internet in the last few decades have allowed young people to strive to create and share products to large audiences, especially during this lockdown. Sometimes these result in impactful and even lucrative careers in industries, including music and entertainment. Among those aiming for such a trajectory is fifteen-year-old aspiring rapper and hip-hop artist, Mello Kid – otherwise known to the government and his parents as Benel Mvita Matondo Mervyn. Born on the 24th of February 2005 in Cape Town, Mervyn has been writing raps and poetry since the age of nine and at the same time as been listening to RnB and Hip-Hop music.
The end of July 2020 marks the public release of his single “Don’t Pretend”, which he wrote and recorded amid a very difficult period of change and adjustment within his family and his place in the world. The single is within the Hip-Hop/Rap genre and features RE, a teacher from Mervyn’s primary school days who has been a supportive figure in his life. Mello Kid is an “alter ego” – as he describes – that does not allow him to complain about his difficult and traumatic experiences living in the Cape Flats, but rather, to express and vent his emotions and frustrations through his music and eventually to work towards making a bright future life for himself.
Imagine a house party or any casual gathering of sorts, a relaxed buzz in the air (you’ve probably been craving for such a setting for the last couple of months – I’m sorry), and everyone is enjoying the chilled ambience. The song is paced slightly slower than a moderate tempo (roughly 85 BPM), and starts with four beats of melody from a woodwind-sounding synthesizer accompanied with marimba and a soft keyboard for harmonies is looped over a trap beat with low volume and what sounds like a low-pass filter which quickly ascends to full volume, releasing a strong bass that doesn’t overpower Mello raps the refrain of the song. Now, the song is as full as you after you’ve devoured the snacks and food at the party, but not as heavy. The melodic instruments give the song a light, almost of airy quality; while the bass firmly anchors the song; and the beats invite you to sway and step, maintaining the relaxed buzz you might have been experiencing in the gathering. The instrumental is simple, with few but effective pauses and variations in volume and filters that let the rapping be the focus of the song while not feeling repetitive. Mello’s young, tenor voice is easy on the ear, and the simple refrain is easy to follow and chant along to.
It’s almost a minute into the song; perhaps secretly eyeing how your non-POC friends are manoeuvring around the re-occurring n-word.
RE’s verse starts and very soon after you’re smacked with the line, (trigger warning: potentially violent imagery) “Me and Mello gonn’ f*ck your lady friend”...
I find there is a need to address the language used in this song as it relates to women. This song follows popular tropes that have existed in Hip-Hop music, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing so long as it is done critically and respectfully. While frustration and anger are real emotions that can expressed in music and shouldn’t be shied away from, hearing the subjects of the song being referred to as “p*ssy n*ggahs” and RE proposing a potentially violent image leaves a sour taste in my mouth. We, as men and boys, need to be critical and careful about how our words contribute to a society that is unsafe for women. Multiple popular hip-hop songs have received and continue to receive criticism for objectifying women and connoting the vagina with negativity and/or weakness and unfortunately this song does the same. My advice to both RE and Mello Kid would be to be more careful and critical about how they think and write about women (and their parts) in the future. One of the songs weaknesses is clarity and articulation, I found it difficult to catch some words and had to go back to listen again. But this is only for a few words out of the entire three minute and twenty-one seconds of the song, and it is still quite easy to follow or, at the very least, easy to deduce what is being spoken about.
Mello Kid holds a good rhythm throughout the song while RE also holds his own through most of his verse, though I wonder if he could have used with a re-take to polish up on delivery.
While I don’t regard myself as well-versed in the craft of spitting on a beat, there are a few lines that are intriguing. The refrain, for example; “Same shed skins, man I swear these n*ggahs snakes. Same switch sides, man I swear these n*ggahs fakes…”, was a line I initially took issue with because I kept asking myself ‘Same what? Where’s the noun?’.
Mello’s creative decision to not include a noun, and in a way tasking the word, ‘same’ to perform the duties of an adjective and a noun is later I now interpret and almost appreciate.
“Don’t Pretend” is a catchy, well-produced Hip-Hop/Rap song in which each rapper confronts an unnamed subject of their two-faced behaviour before shutting them out.
Mello Kid also asserts himself and his goal for success and offers a ‘friendly’ suggestion to anyone to anyone who opposes this. I rate this song a strong six and a half out of ten, it’s a decent Hip-Hop song that follows popular characteristics of the genre – even its problematic and violent tropes unfortunately. All the best in growth and success to Mello Kid in further projects.
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