In 2016, Lil Kesh, under Olamide’s tutelage shared his debut project, Y.AG.I (Young And Getting It), a dynamic nineteen-tracker that inverted existing notions of street Hip hop in Nigeria. It’s been four years since he made a statement with that project and with just a handful of releases to illuminate his path back to relevance, Lil Kesh returns this month with Ecstasy, a mild attempt to reclaim the hold he had on his brand of Hip-hop.
From Drill to Trap to Classic Hip-hop and a number of hybrids, Ecstasy is an eight-track project that subsumes every relevant sound in Hip-hop at the moment, resulting in an oversaturation of genres that cause a malignment. Lil Kesh’s energy is high and his demeanor menacing, so he’s able to make up for the sound disparity. The project is also packed with stories that shed light on his journey from fame to obscurity then back to the come up. These narratives in turn serve as a pedestal for the rapper to stand and command credibility wielding edgy bars and his street swagger.
Lil Kesh sounds as certain as he ever has, and with contemporaries like Fireboy DML, Naira Marley, and South London native, Shaybo contributing their quotas to his big reveal, the weight of Ecstasy despite its muddled state, is heavy enough to carry the rapper back to a place of influence.