CMU Approved

Approved: Yugen Blakrok

By | Published on Thursday 31 January 2019

Yugen Blakrok

One of five South African rappers to be featured on the Kendrick Lamar-curated soundtrack for Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’, Yugen Blakrok has been a figure on the country’s alternative hip hop scene for several years already.

Until the soundtrack was actually announced, all she knew was that – some time before – she’d been asked by someone at Top Dawg Entertainment to record a verse over an instrumental they’d sent over.

That then ended up being a guest spot on Vince Staples track ‘Opps’. But while that development seemingly came as a surprise to Blakrok, she’s not letting her sudden international exposure pass her by.

Already recording her second album ‘Anima Mysterium’ – the follow-up to 2013’s ‘Return Of The Astro-Goth’ – when the fortuitous email about her soundtrack guest spot came in, she’s now begun dripping out new tracks from the new LP. First ‘Carbon Form’ last November and now new track ‘Picture Box’.

Although she’s certainly been afforded new opportunities of late, she has let none of it dilute her artistic vision. The new tracks allow the talent she’s developed during her years on the underground to really shine though.

“The song is about self-illumination”, she says of ‘Picture Box’. “Fire was the first storyteller, now we gather around a television like in times past. We mimic and echo shadows of ourselves in alternate dimensions through the picture box; characters that influence our thoughts and lives on this timeline. Where do they go when we change the channel or switch off? The mind cannot imagine what does not already exist”.

‘Anima Mysterium’ is out this Friday. Watch the video for ‘Picture Box’ here:

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