KAPABAL: No Rest

By Tim Gruar

Like many before, Kapabal (aka Aaron Wyatt), rolls from the Valley of the Hutt – not exactly the streets of South Central, but there’s still plenty of ‘hood’ in them ‘burbs. References to the Canterbury earthquakes, bad relationships, the joys of GPS, Huntley and Palmers crackers, David Dallas on Bebo, drugs in Naenae and plenty of standard jumped-up rapper jargon show that this boy has studied his craft and can stay true to his roots. Musically, the beats don’t move far from the standard 4/4 tempo with a chorus to bridge, and much of Kapabal’s style is similar to Scribe – especially his phonetics and unashamed Kiwi dialectic. There are a few lyrical clunkers (Violent Thoughts), but overall these rhymes are pretty good, especially Rude and Abracious with its huge dose of sarcasm and mimicry of TV personalities. But it’s on Calling With Emotion, featuring some sweet vocals from Me2ua, that he drops the act and gets down to some serious emotions about family. I’d prefer more variety, but overall this is a pretty strong example of straight up hip hop in Aotearoa.

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NZ Musician

October/November 2011