Nigerian gifted rapper Tuff King kicks off his “Black Sheepizen” EP with an emotive cut dubbed “Pain Pass”.
This is the first song off the project and it sets the emotional tone that the rest of the CD is based around. His bio characterizes it as an investigation of street trauma, and that holds up once you truly sit with the words instead of skimming past them.
Tuff King comes from Abakpa Nike, a place in Enugu that was born out of true suffering, thus he doesn’t talk about pain as an abstract idea here. He writes from experience, not borrowed images, and the record has weight that conventional street-rap toughness frequently misses totally.
Clocking in at just under two-and-a-half minutes, “Pain Pass” stays tight and doesn’t squander a single bar chasing filler. That self-restraint is really helpful, letting each phrase land without adding additional padding to stretch the moment thin.
There’s something about putting this one first on “Black Sheepizen.” Before listeners get to the shouts of “Waka Waka” or the technical exhibition of “Ichaka Ike” Tuff King wants them to have a sense of exactly where he’s coming from first.
“Pain Pass” is still the clearest beginning point in his whole oeuvre for anyone wanting to grasp the man behind the Black Sheep character.
Listen to “Tuff King – Pain Pass” and leave your comments below!
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