Anxious Confidence EP/ TxT Review
Tags: Thatguybruce, Zimbabwe, Rap, Review

Cold Intro (Anxious) prod. KKKash

Munya Murapa sets a blanketing tone with his opening stanza of what seems to be a homage to Kendrick Lamar’s Mortal Man. In comes RayKaz like a back up dancer with attitude, continuing in the mood vein with an enchanting hook. I love how they enhanced his dragged cadence, to mesh it really well with the beat. This song is his PSA announcing his arrival in the rap game, and few have outdone his. The creative choices he makes in this song such as the pregnant pauses and double stacked second hook, really play up the themes of anxiety that his voice is underselling at the moment.

KKKash really cooked up a sensual beat that accommodates both Munya and Ray’s distinctly textured voices and I can imagine just how much of a nightmare it was mixing this especially the double stacked second hook. Solid intro but it can be confusing for in the second half of the second hook demands a closer listen. Interest piqued RayKaz, let’s go.

Desire prod. Indrae and Tipy

This is a real solid beat that has me where Ray wants me, Tipy and Indrae cooked up an ear drum knocker. Respect for the well delivered Dragon Ball bars and that sneaky Mortal Kombat reference ha! How long has the game been waiting for a rapper with clever wordplay and intricate rhyme schemes? Ray can’t really be the first to do it but the level of skill he’s displaying here is admirable if not enviable. RayKaz lyrically sneaky as hell, he’s got shots for everyone from Rhodesian slavers to Twitter keyboard warriors with arguably the most authentic gun bars in the Miz. Is Ray packing?

It’s gang signs, you couldn’t throw up if you thots were bulemic

When shit get real/reel you not to be seen/scene with

Talkin' iron, oh the irony, the opps is anaemic

Man since Inception, I was...not the one you thought you could dream with

Okay this song is densely packed with witty bars and tongue in cheek references that will go over the heads of many and I love to see it! Rappers should be worried, coz their purist hip hop fans are at risk of desiring another rapper…get it? It’s okay, I’ll show myself out lmao.

CODE prod. KKKash

This has got to be my favourite beat on the tape thus far. I wonder who is not taking Ray off mute, that’s just disrespectful lol. I relate heavy to being seldom early. Does Ray’s mom know her son is at large for lyrical slaughter? The flow switches keep me in sync with the beat, but these backings and ad-libs my Lord!

Mr. Wednesday is the patron god for mid, weak niggas lmao. I know some of ya’ll wont understand this reference today, but one day you will. Can’t decide yet which is my favorite ad-lib, but ‘mhmm’ is the most confident thing to do when words are too much.

Watch your blood spill, I come alive with it

I don’t even like violence

This bar has me envisioning Ray as a ‘Vampire Diaries’ character, go watch the End of Daze freestyle video, you’ll see what I mean. The guy has the cleanest basketball references in the game, and that money making conversations only time we ever say cheese line got a ha out of me. I likes me a rapper with jokes. This is an early favourite in the tape coz of the several IG caption worthy bars in it.

CJ’s Song prod. Tipy

This beat is the vibes! Who made this??? [Editor’s note: Tipy produced this]. As far as romantic songs go, you can tell this is for the homies madly in love with a girl who doesn’t understand that this song is for them. Like it really is, only a nigga deeply in love that would croon,

(Weight) lifted when you spot me

Get if off your chest, no bench press, let you rest your problems on my heartbeat

Its deeper than bodies, we naked with our clothes on

Keep it in private, they ain’t gotta know what goes on

Come touch on the nigga you chose on

For some reason, I always wonder what Vince Staples would say to that lmaosmh.

This tune really does one thing best, which is display more of Ray’s technical skillset when it comes to delivery, which isn’t all that impressive considering the setting but appreciated all the more for balancing emotional vulnerability and technical skills. Smooth operator shit.

[Editor: This song got me laid]

Nabila prod. Sandest_

A timely addition to Munya’s mesmerizing piece on society’s toxicity and I really love its use as the album’s conceptual spine. This is a further step in the direction of emotional vulnerability that Ray took us on from the previous song. Only this time RayKaz is feeling more introspective and his hook clues you in but surely we all feel the same in regards to the self-healing process in the 21st century.

A nice verse really is the difference between Ray and the flock. The second half of the first verse is mind-blowing. The intricacy of the wordplay is disarmingly simple, but then the way he bends syllables using near rhymes and homonyms to basically set up that fish in sea and efficiency closer is what we don’t get enough of in the game. That’s them karate bars.

Bonus points for the Speed Racer bar.

Listen, who you know got the words twisting like afro?

Cooking dishes hotter than cass’role

My cast/cat’s roll quiet as the night’s sleep and tight as a gastro

Only trine' acquire cilantro, that’s green chasing

Shit is only Meek 'cause we dream chasing....thinking Mills

M’s on my head when I’m Speed Racing....growing gills

Learnt to swim with sharks surviving life as a fish in sea

Now I tackle life with efficiency

Sandest_ really cooked up a joint that works well for the introspective journey that Ray is taking us on, I wonder if he had to build the beat around Ray’s vocals or Ray had to sit with this one for a while. I refuse to believe that Ray wrote this in one sitting lmao this ain't ZIMSEC English b😂. The shorty harmonizing in the back is a nice touch, touché Sandest_.

Why is it that it’s your girl’s Uncle asking the hard questions Ray? lmao. Ray is going OFF, talk that crucial talk. I swear we don’t have enough people calling out these false prophets. This stream of consciousness is full of facts that would give J.Cole hope for the yuutes of the future. Black Lives Matter really is debatable, no cap. Future really trademarked misogynistic tendencies lol. RIP to all my favourite heroes, Robin Williams, Mac Miller, Chester Bennington and the rest. I agree Ray, Jesus really is taking his time.

This song really is a moment in time mood capture of our lives as Zimbabweans on the internet and offline as well. Some of these lyrics paint pictures of people we know either on Twitter or in the streets. We all know; drug addicts, sex addicts, and niggas with rapey tendencies, prophets for profit, hypocritical feminist male bashers as well as suicide prone human beings but the thing is we like to pretend we don’t see the same in ourselves. Ray is an ass for calling this an over-thought though LMAO.

Blexcellence prod. Shxvx

Another thing to appreciate about this tape is the sonic quality, like the sequencing is never hit or miss...so far and the mixing and mastering is levels consistently. I’m gonna Nardwuar this tape’s entire behind the scenes team, they deserve props for a good job well fucking done. I remember wondering who RayKaz’s dad was and my homie said “Kazembe Kazembe” and I broke my neck laughing. Banter aside, Ba Ray gots to link me with a tender, if it really is him. Okay I’ve seen Ba Ray, the banter is over or you really gon break your neck laughing.

This song is a bop and further validates my claims this dude is the quiet violent type. These gun bars are not to be taken lightly lmao. I like the trick he did in the last half of the verse. Short song but it’s provocative, it keeps you going considering the heaviness of Nabila. Shxvx did not miss here.

Not Real prod. KKKash

KKKash is 2 for 2 so far, ayo is there a bad beat on this like really? Ray’s production team didn’t come to play and neither did he, thus it stands to reason that RayKaz and his friends don’t play nice...rappers beware. 32 months in the dumps...damn, glad he got out.

This is my homie DIVA’s favourite song on the tape, I catch him at random moments mumbling the second hook and it probably would have been my favourite as well but I got out the dumps😎.

Still I relate heavy with this first verse, I ain’t been to church in a minute and seeing my grandma recently reminded me that she’s the one who’s been picking up my prayer slack. This song will be the deep cut favourite for many, a lot of it just clicks with a person going through their own struggle especially them young adulthood struggles. For me this song embodies the anxiety concept of the tape, mental health issues are recently finding voices in the motherland with more and more youth seeing the symptoms within themselves as they eventually grow. Stress induced suicide is real and is now given a healthy amount of fear, but more often than not, the reasons behind it are trivialized.

Sadly, aside from our closest ones being ignorant to mental health issues, we ourselves are in denial due to the negative connotation mental health issues has with the more serious mental illnesses. Niggas hear, “I’m depressed” and think Robin Williams when really it be Shia LeBouf. Really listen to the second verse and tell me that isn’t you on some level. This is a beautiful song Ray, my homie Diva says thank you…well that isn’t the thing first he said😂💀🤫.

Easy prod. Shxvx

NOW THIS HERE IS MY SHIT! SHXVX DOES NOT MISS!!! This song has the best of RayKaz in terms of those spectacular ad-libs and backings. Imagine this song at a live show, the crowd reaction would be maddening. I want a music video for this song for Christmas, hell I want a remix to this with more Ray verses hahaha. YESSSSIIIIIIIIIIRRRR

Spiderman prod. AleKaz

This is my favorite song on the whole tape. Why? Coz of the Due Date snippet💀💀💀. Nah for real though, the confidence he oozes in this tune is enough to be infectious, contagious and noxious for those who can’t handle a young king from the 263 in his bag.

AleKaz got the bass kicking like the Punisher with a vengeance and Ray is kicking back like he ain’t got nothing to lose. Ohhhh the inhumaity! One thing I hate about this song is how difficult it is to rap along to hahaha. RayKaz gotta be the most technically skilled rappers in the elite spaces of the game, I wonder just how much of that technical skill can hold up in a live setting. Did AleKaz make the Due Date beat too, coz the vibes scream KKKash but either way i gotta get more of this snippet.

ZayKaz prod. Suhn

Suhn got solid production chops but this ain’t in my top 5 for the tape, but I understand the sparseness needed to let Ray to spazz in his different voices, this dude is getting more voices in my head than Danny Brown and Tory Lanez.

Deuces ft. Suhn prod. Suhn

This however makes up for the previous lacklustre Suhn beat, although I feel the rumbling thunder was quickly cut off which didn’t sync well with the siren, but I’m just nit picking at this point. It’s easy to forget that this is the first and only feature on the tape, Munya doesn’t count lol speaking of him it’s been a while, but Suhn is a breath of fresh air in a tape that could really use a different vocal tempo. Really seems like Ray doesn’t like sharing though LMAO, he handles a bulk of the verses though but shiiiiid I ain’t complaining this is him cutting loose on a track that doesn’t demand to him to keep within the strict conceptual confines of the tape…unless this is confidence on maximum. Some really strong verses from RayKaz in this song, meshing well with Suhn’s teeth shattering kicks and 808s. They chose violence on this song.

Reaper prod. KKKash

Okay I’ve been putting up with this for a long time now, but this triple stacking of vocals against each other gets irksome. Say for instance, you got Munya’s enchanting word porn piece overlaid on top of Ray’s short bridge which I do admit that it makes for a surreal listening experience, but time time it makes you think if this guy is being shy all over again, hiding behind sonic clutter. Come on b it’s track 12 now, show us all the confidence.

I wanna hear everything not guess at it, again I’m nit picking on a song about his vulnerabilities, so now I feel like an ass *sigh* smh. One thing I do like about this, is how it reeks of old country nostalgia. I wonder if Yelawolf was on the mood board for this song, distinct Trial by Fire vibes being caught here. This song deserves a stoned late night audience.

Runners Outro (Confidence) prod. KKKash

KKKash sending us off with sombrely light and hopeful piano notes that thread in and out of this heavy hitting double time 808 bass line. The sonic make up of this song, brings the intro to mind and you can hear the completeness of the tape when you play them back to back. RayKaz brings us home with a verse that condenses all his wishes, anxieties and concerns in a measured reflective tone. The tone transitions into self assuredness as the writing becomes less doubtful and self deprecatory, with challenges to his peers and financial advice dished out for his future moves. The caterpillar has become the dragonfly.