Blitz the Ambassador
Native Sun 
EMBS: 2011
85

There’s something distinctly different about Blitz the Ambassador. Could it be the confidence and pure intention in his music that transcends the average run of the mill hip-hop bravado and concocted swagger? Or maybe it’s the transfixed gaze in his eyes in the Malick Sidibé-esque photo on cover of his fourth album, Native Sun. It commands the kind of attention that can’t be cultivated with publicity stunts and beefs crafted for profit’s sake. That alone, within the greater context of contemporary hip-hop, speaks volumes.

Far from being a collection of tracks ballyhooing the archetype native African pride and resistance in the face of jingoism and corruption, Native Sun is a carefully crafted journey into the heart and soul of one of the continent’s most promising exports. The Ghanaian-born, MTVU/ MTV2 featured emcee opens his heart in part with the earnest, passionate open letter to his homeland “Dear Africa.” Featuring the honey-coated Francophone harmonies of Les Nubians, the track finds Blitz refuting myths and struggling with the notion that “people think that Africa is synonymous with charity.”

Spitting in his native Twi tongue, Blitz goes in hard on the funky “Akwaaba,” a retooling of his 2010 ode to FIFA hopefuls the Ghana Black Stars. Blitz makes it known that he’s not to be taken lightly as he waxes poetic on his lyrical prowess like a champ on the effervescent “Victory,” which sounds like an exhumed secret collaboration between Fela’s Africa 70 and Clyde Stubblefield. The title track is a virtual tag team rhyme fest with Canadian wordsmith Shad, which wondrously illustrates the existential complexities of immigrant life.

Blitz also displays his gifts as a percussionist and as commander of his own 12-piece band Embassy Ensemble on tracks like “Instrumentalude” and “The Oracle.” The sound of Native Sun eschews the straightforward hip-life approach for a more organic, vibrant mash up of Afrobeat, soukous, Ghanaian highlife music, and hip-hop. And while the album is littered with relics of Pan African liberation and its revered heroes, they only serve as robust sociopolitical reference points for his impressive trajectory from former teen star to Ghana’s de facto poet laureate. Judging from Chuck D’s stamp of approval, it’s apparent that all who failed to place their chips on Blitz may be find themselves running behind the bandwagon at this point. Wait too long, and you just might need a passport to catch up.

-Rico a.k.a Superbizzee