At first glance, Akala is someone straight outta hip hop central casting. The often angry child of a broken home, his schooling was punctuated by rows with teachers. After teenage years spent playing football (he was on the schoolboy books of both West Ham United and Wimbledon), he dropped out of college. Aged 12 he saw his best friend's brother get a meat cleaver in the back of the head while sitting in the chair in a barber's shop, a tale touched on in the DoubleThink track Find No Enemy. "What interests me, looking back now, is that nobody stopped cutting hair," he says. "Even though I hadn't seen that before, I just accepted. I'd heard so much and knew so many people who'd been shot or stabbed that it was just a part of life."
So far, so rapper-backstory-clichΓ©d. But it's in the gaps between these de rigeur hip hop CV bullet-points that the real Akala can be found. His step-father, a stage manager at London's Hackney Empire, would sometimes take the pre-teen Akala with him to work: so the wide-eyed kid got to stand in the wings, soaking up Sarafina! and Shakespeare. Despite being put in a special-needs class at six years old - he still doesn't know why - he fed a ferocious intellect with self-taught history and philosophy. His response, at 13, to racist remarks by a teacher was to write to the headmaster and governors to complain.
DoubleThink is partly a concept album inspired by the three classic novels of dystopian fiction: George Orwell's 1984, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, "with a little bit of The Matrix in there too." The record takes its overall tone - the edgy paranoia, the sizzling menace, the spine-tingling tension - from these literary classics and transmutes their atmospheres into musical form. From Welcome to Dystopia's static-laden distortion to Peace's simple, sparse piano accompaniment, via the electro-funk keyboards and metal guitar riffs of Faceless People, the breadth of musical ambition is matched by the rich variety of topics Daley addresses.
βThe only way we can ever change anything Is to look in the mirror and to find no enemyβ
Race, politics, self-deception and social conditioning are among the recurring themes on a record that presents its concerns as barbed comedic satire. But in tackling those topics Daley finds himself confronting the issue that defined his MOBO Award-winning debut, It's Not a Rumour and the acclaimed follow-up, Freedom Lasso: lamenting the decline of hip hop as a social and political force, angrily restating the genre's credentials as the best, most powerful means of delivering what KRS-ONE called Edutainment.
Edutainment is something Daley knows more about than most. As well as releasing music on his own Illa State record label, Akala (the name means "immovable") is a teacher himself. He recently set up the Hip Hop Shakespeare Company, running successful Bardic workshops in schools. His prowess at communicating effectively with young people has won recognition in unlikely circles: among recent clients for his consultancy work has been the organising committee of the 2012 London Olympics.
His music has always reflected Akala's personal struggles - against ignorance, against racism's divide-and-conquer imprimatur, and against the dumbing-down of the musical form that helped provide him with the answers he needed. "I remember when Wu-Tang Forever came out," he says, casting his mind back to 1998, and the second LP from the Staten Island collective. "And I remember going to buy books because of references I heard on there. I literally studied that album and went away and learned because of it. They weren't some obscure, underground rap group - that was the first rap album to go to Number One in the UK. What made hip hop powerful was its education, its culture, its musicality and its intelligence. Yet immediately after that, it went from being about history and philosophy and culture to being - literally - money, cash, and hoes."
Indeed, Akala's refusal and inability to conform to prevailing stereotypes means that his records are largely ignored by the sections of the media that proclaim to speak authentically of the "urban experience": in that regard, he stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of Saul Williams and Gil Scott Heron, artists who he considers inspirations as well as heroes. But while the message is vital, Akala knows that it has to be delivered wittily and attractively, too: edutainment is mostly entertainment, after all.
So DoubleThink distils these messages in cogent and weighty blasts of musically fierce, lyrically adroit hip hop, but it's also an excitable, effervescent listen. There are, of course, some harrowing moments: in Yours and My Children, a track reflecting three months Daley spent in Brazil, he talks about favela children being killed by police; and that meat cleaver to the head in Find No Enemy isn't the only violent image on a record that refuses to pull any punches. But Akala's unquenchable appetite for intricate wordplay and his teacher's instinctive awareness that heavy topics need to be got across lightly mean that, despite the often serious points, the record is an affirmative and often explosively joyful experience.
There's XXL, which relentlessly chips away at the clichΓ©s but has some fun with them at the same time; Peace, a collaboration with the classical pianist Paul Gladstone Reid, MBE, which provides musical and atmospheric contrast to the juddering electro-rooted rap that sits either side of it; and, right at the end - the thought Akala wants you to take away from the album - there's Not That Serious, a jaunty slice of popped-up '80s-style buzz, poking fun at Akala's furrowed-brow reputation without suggesting you shouldn't care about the issues he wants you to consider. At the risk of descending into another one of those pesky clichΓ©s, there really is something here for everyone.
Akala touches on race, class, sexism, history, war, hip-hop culture and what it is to live in a world one knows to be inherently unequal, yet rounds it all off not with accusations or anger but inward self-analysis.
"My mum's a white Scottish woman and my dad's a black Jamaican, so for my life not to be about bringing people together would almost be a contradiction in terms," he says. "I want to reach everybody but do it truthfully and honestly. That's got to be your ultimate aim as an artist - that's what the best artists do. I'm not saying I'm there yet, but that's what I aspire to."
2) Lithuanian industrial band on Findesiecle media label.
Mr. Fire in the Booth
Akala Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
(All on my own)
Cos that's the way im made
Maybe in your culture suicide is being brave
The sage of the page makes graves plagued with dark ages
And ainβ²t no choice to be buried I only do cremating
For little idiots thats not even rated
Not even hated not even a factor that needs to be calculated
Roll with us or get crushed, that i've already stated
In the plainest terms
But fools never learn
Still tryna be what theyβ²re not like wearing the blondest perm
Cos of loss of purpose, I have you lost on purpose
You canβ²t escape the furnace, so best you praise my verses
Look around the cooning's a lot
I spit a sentence quick like a judge with a coon in the dock
But these clowns with their dead sound hate me
Still they donβ²t count like a dead brown baby
In Akala's song "Mr. Fire in the Booth," the lyrics reveal how he is confident in taking on opponents by himself. He says that's just the way he's made, implying his natural strength and courage. He then criticizes other cultures that glorify suicide, as he believes it is not a brave act. As the sage of the page, he creates lines that put those from the dark ages into their graves. He is not concerned with burial, only cremation. He intends to dispose of little idiots that are not even worth being rated or hated, showing that he does not consider them important enough to be calculated. Akala has a group of people that he rolls with since they are loyal and committed to him. However, those who want to challenge him will be crushed since he has already asserted himself in the plainest terms. Despite his warnings, fools continue to imitate Akala, and he cautions them against doing that because they will end up losing their sense of purpose.
Akala stresses that there are several individuals who are willing to coon and sacrifice their dignity to be noticed. He compares himself to a judge who does not hesitate to pass a sentence quickly in a courtroom, indicating that he is efficient and effective with his speech. Akala believes he is underrated since some people, although they hate him, do not count in his world. The final line about the dead brown baby is a powerful one. It suggests that those who refuse to recognize Akala's talent, skill, and contribution to the industry are equally insignificant.
Line by Line Meaning
I take β²em out
(All on my own)
I handle things myself without any help
Cos that's the way im made
It is my nature to do things on my own
Maybe in your culture suicide is being brave
In some cultures, taking one's own life is seen as an act of bravery
The sage of the page makes graves plagued with dark ages
Intellectuals who write are responsible for creating a grave situation in times of darkness
And ainβ²t no choice to be buried I only do cremating
I don't allow myself or my enemies the choice of being buried, I only cremate them
For little idiots thats not even rated
I only cremate people who aren't worth rating
Not even hated not even a factor that needs to be calculated
These people are so insignificant that they aren't even worth hating or considering as a factor
And you can't explain it, much less contain it
My actions are inexplicable and cannot be controlled or contained
Roll with us or get crushed, that i've already stated
Join us or face the consequences that I have already warned about
In the plainest terms
I have made it clear and simple
But fools never learn
People who act foolishly never learn their lesson
Still tryna be what theyβ²re not like wearing the blondest perm
People are still trying to act like something they're not, like wearing the blondest permed hair
Cos of loss of purpose, I have you lost on purpose
Because some people lose their sense of purpose, I lead them astray intentionally
You canβ²t escape the furnace, so best you praise my verses
There is no escaping the consequences, so it's best to admire my lyrics
Look around the cooning's a lot
There's a lot of insincere behavior happening around us
I spit a sentence quick like a judge with a coon in the dock
I speak my words rapidly and decisively, like a judge who's already made up their mind in a court case involving insincere behavior
But these clowns with their dead sound hate me
People with fake music and no talent dislike me
Still they donβ²t count like a dead brown baby
These people are so irrelevant that they don't even count, like a deceased infant of color
Writer(s): Daley, Vieira
Contributed by Luke A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Adam Marksby
Akala, Logic, Low Key, Crazy Haze, Dot Rotten, Skepta and many others inspired me to turn the TV off and read books, a couple years later and my life has never been better. Knowledge is power.
RealityyBytes
When he gets into the beat with "They call Mr. Fire in the Booth!" - Goosebumps mate, fuckin goosebumps.
Warren London
Real Hip Hop. This Is What The Game's Been Missing π―
Life Decoded
Don't even like rap, but damn this guy has serious talent.
Raoul Parant
True respect to AKala he raps about the truth gets to the youth and he truly is MR FIRE IN THE BOOTH
Robert Ryan
Since its founding the truly great rap artists have been extremely rare. You have real rap lyricists and storytellers like GZA, GURU RIP, Scarface, Killah Priest, K-Rino, and KRS One. Akala has the lyrics, message, and he teaches history. I do not say this without deep reflection, but Akala is certainly one of if not the best emcee to ever hold a mic.
Trippe Zero
Akala's flows make you think and even act on what you thinking. That is saying something.
kodblu
My workout playlist is incomplete without Akala!
Mo Deria
"Sounding like enlightened fools, runnin' from a spiteful brawl, but in my city we dunno how to be nice at all" π₯π₯
motek
Scroll hit this comment as he spat the bar π