Audio By Carbonatix
Toronto’s Kheaven Brereton challenges hip-hop conventions with his sophomore effort, Joyful Rebellion, just as he did on his 2002 debut, Exit. He sings as well as he raps (which he demonstrates on the hook of his breakout hit, “Superstar”), and handily flip-flops from reggae to rock, flowing beyond the looped boundaries of his contemporaries (except on single “B-Boy Stance,” which rocks a hip-hop formula quite well). On “EMCEE Murdah,” he describes the pathway of rappers walking to their deaths, his point accentuated by the flourish of a flamenco-influenced guitar. If not for the sporadic rhyming, one might mistake “Man I Used to Be” for glorious Seventies soul. Chaos doesn’t normally sound so tight.
