Renovate
Soft Lipa
The album cover promises that this contains Taiwanese rapper Soft Lipa’s naked confessions. It is about the best and worst of him and it holds nothing back. It is a bold claim, but then again, there has never been anything timid about his music. In previous outings, he had bridged hip-hop with jazz (Moonlight, 2010) as well as hip-hop with folk (Have A Holiday, 2012) with various collaborators.
This time, it is Soft Lipa front and centre over a sprawling two-disc set. On the first disc alone, the subjects tackled run the gamut from the fecal to the carnal. The provocatively titled King Of S*** goes: “Longest bout of diarrhoea, best way of wiping the a**/Finally reached this stage, all hail the king”.
And on Ahhh Yeah, he delves into desire and seduction: “With you, I want to/Ahh Yeah Ahh Yeah/ Emanating, and grasping, just the right amount of humour/For just the right reward”.
On the album closer Shi Poem, he raps: “You should be 38, if I could change anything, you would be rich/Are you still on meds? Returned to the middle path or sneered at for being crazy?/What about your parents? Have they signed the divorce papers?/Have you remembered the stories of them and them?”
It feels deeply personal and confessional at the same time. As promised, no holds barred.
(ST)