Album Review- Asaka The Renegade “Duality”
Asaka The Renegade is an artist that bares all, even without an audience. He journals aloud and often, confessing his most minimal of thoughts to get his point across. Throughout his latest album, “Duality.” Asaka continues to divulge on his experiences, between mourning the passing of his friend Tracy “Zuu” Buggs, being backed by Sprite, and dealing with the rollercoaster of life, “Duality.” is an album that feels like a transitional state between hardened youth and determined man, creating Asaka’s most captivating project to date.
“Duality” occupies the different sides of Asaka’s artistry, as, throughout this album, he seems to blur the lines between remaining bar-centered versus occupying harmonic pleasantries. Opening the album with the bar-blitzing “Devil’s Diary.” This aggressive side of Asaka is a breath of fresh air, as he displays technical excellence in his pencraft and ear for providing heartfelt rhymes that feels journalistic in their delivery.
Asaka’s penmanship has always been high-class, especially when delivering clever one-liners and crowd-pleasing punch-lines. But the story of “Duality” is Asaka’s growth, both as a writer and, in his versatility, as often he displays himself as a sharp enough storyteller to carry a large bulk of the album’s content. Whether the topic is love, homelessness, hardships, or the patented rags-to-success bars, Asaka finds himself fluent in his approach to these all-too-familiar topics and makes you, the listener, relate, even if you’ve never experienced these things.
What separates Asaka from the pack is his high musical sense, he takes advantage of the open-endedness of instrumentation and provides the subtle fillers that allow a track to reach completeness. This tactic is evident on the album’s outro, “Gotta Make It.” Where Asaka employs background vocals and instrumentals so angelic that it comes across as borderline religious.
Continuing on “Duality's” standout production, each beat on this album is nothing short of ear-catching. Having each track tailor-made for Asaka's signature style of blending story-driven raps, with the occasional rap-sung hybrid style that Asaka occasionally employs. Each beat accompanies Asaka, alongside his plethora of features perfectly, allowing for the artists to shine without ever overshadowing or seemingly overpowering the artist.
“Duality” is an album worthy of praise and hype. Finishing at just over an hour, “Duality” is the perfect balance of musical talent and thought-provoking subject matter. If nothing else, Duality is the best album to start in the year 2021.
