Raw Extractions
Album by Lukah
Released 16 September 2022
Conscious Hip Hop
Label – Raw Materials
Rating – 7.5/10
A new oxygen.
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If you find yourself listening to a Lukah album, you may feel as though you’re listening to something completely different each time. The Memphis rapper’s latest project, Raw Extractions, may surface as if hazed-out, stumbling from bushes in a slow-motion, hypnagogic stupor, before peering in an up-front, familiar, classically-minded hip hop manner.
Raw Extractions inspects the contradictions of faith – rooting around, finding spirituality through more than one measure – this is the same rapper who asked “why look up? God’s in the mirror”, now, he’s “in tune with the beyond”, whilst relating his findings to the conservation of black culture on half-clear-headed, half-drunk-with-thought single Thoughts Made Divine.
Many of these fascinations are instructed via spoken word segments, often pouring over the early stages of the album. We’re not only receiving philosophy on religion, but how rap has always existed in African American art, segmented by John Coltrane saxophone solos (his version of rapping), around cuts like Returned Treasures, which resembles a slowed, bruising take on OutKast’s ATLiens title track, operating on steady stomps, all to command attention.
Picturing Lukah’s spiritual indecision, Black Belt Jones continues one of his many ambitious traits; slicing songs in half, switching up the beat, blasting a series of different ideas over a short period of time. His abstraction is boundless; the madman soul equivalent of Jpegmafia’s computer-y mania or Fly Anakin’s stylistic barrages, but the familiar, the classically-minded takes over on dialled-back cuts like the east coast-lauding Ill Minded, or the record-scratching boom bap of Rawderves.
Both sides of the coin are observed over ten-minute posse cut Rare Formulaz, with verses taken by a number of other abstract rappers, including underground contemporaries like frequent collaborator Suni Katz, and weightier names, see the intimidating grizzle Cities Aviv brings to the track.
Spectral pianos float and dangle on Balaclava, another eidolic tie-in, depicted the after-afterlife where dead rappers go to reanimate – those who, according to Lukah, have been drowned in detergent. Lukah will just as likely channel the prettier side of religion – the gospel; the exhaling soul samples of Oxygen and Fluorine, the angelic, R&B-like blends of idiophone and west coast synths of Fractures.
But hey, we all know how multi-faceted the guy is. From start to finish, he’s tidying up the dirty south, only to mess it up again, redecorating where necessary. And while nobody could doubt Lukah’s versatility, there’s no reason to doubt his commitment either, leaving it all in the ring on Flying Low, spitting muscling brainwaves like “I am the virus that was curated by the executives / I cause the damage, then I provide you with all the sedatives” with diction, poise, and conviction. If that wasn’t authentic enough, Bohemia Lynch’s synth and drum-hit combos are out to cause serious damage.
Lukah continues to be anything he wants to be on Raw Extractions. Taking Nas-isms to his own, atmospheric locale, everything feels like a distant slang; defying territory or dialect despite following some southern guidelines. It’s the hip hop album’s take on herbal medicine, none of that overpriced cough syrup crap; a natural, curse-curing broth, that constantly has something worthwhile to say, producing a new oxygen with each breath.
Best track – Flying Low.
Rating – 7.5 out of 10
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