Proklaim returns with “NOTHA 1 DOWN (MINI),” and the song is a combustible reflection of the rapper’s grimy rawness. And although it was recorded at Pen Pushaz Studios with Audio Art Namibia on engineering duties, it came as a result of an urge for blunt creativity. “That’s about the best I can work with,” offered rapper MKI, excusing herself. The chorus is my primary verse; everything else bounces from that. That visceral, in-the-moment method also carries over into the feel and intensity of the album itself: it plays like a snapshotted moment rather than a meticulously planned blueprint.
Because Proklaim is going to keep on doing what he does best: making hip-hop that pushes boundaries, evolves, and tells the truth. The song embodies his belief that music should help people be themselves. It is a line of thought that courses through his art, connecting human narrative with world-encompassing ideas that know no borders.
Its origins lie in that alloy of introspection and rawness he welds together, a love fuelled as much, it appears, by his elders (Bob Marley, Wu-Tang Clan, and Biggie Smalls, whose image is on the cover smoking a Cuban cigar). Impressed by previous singles such as “Kingz,” which enjoyed support from MTV Base, they were supported by having Proklaim, a radio-friendly commercial artist, served with the right amount of food for thought. Every time he goes on the air, he unpeels another layer of his vision and extends its frontiers farther afield.
“NOTHA 1 DOWN (MINI)” is only a bite-sized morsel of what lies ahead for Proklaim. That’s what he does, and here he is very much working to do it once more. Proklaim’s ability to turn the studio passings into something classical here proves that if there is a little spontaneity and a hell of a lot of purpose, hip-hop will never cease. The more of Proklaim’s music that is released, the more of this brave, lawless moment we can anticipate.