Attuned to his strengths and ‘ABILITY’, prolific Ugandan artist Kohen Jaycee has delivered a memorable debut body of work, RWEBEMBERA: The Raising Echoes.
For those who have known Kohen Jaycee from his early days 2019 career days of ‘No Letting Go’, “WENA’ the EP, and the string of his other releases, it is qualities of making a pomp combination of poetry, sultry vocals and production that made him stand out. His sincerity in delivery among other qualities have made him such a distinct artist, and even more pronounced as a performer, one who brings the masses ‘Special Fever’ in each record. This has over the years built anticipation for the day he would drop a full length album.
Read Also: Kohen Jaycee Debuts – Ndi Naawe Official Music Video
These manifestations and musical cravings came to fruition yesterday August 30, when he arrived RWEBEMBERA: The Raising Echoes, an 18-track towering ship on a shore carrying and showcasing high end musicality, with a wide range of features, from industry icons, fellow fast risers and even cross border collaborations.
Kohen Jaycee has always been a purposeful collaborator; from going all-out solo on his debut EP “WENA”, to consistently bringing fine musicians into the world of his sonic ideas on its follow up “WENA Chapter 2”. On the new body of work, Kohen portrays himself as a musical architect with a firm and purposeful plan, and this is evident into the unique choice of features and the weight of each record.
RWEBEMBERA: The Raising Echoes opens with Kohen Jaycee paying homeage to the legacy of Bunyoro, where he hails from for it is where his story begins, offering the LP a colorful opener, then transitoning into “ABILITY” and the rest of the tracks on the album, which upon listen feel like complex cardboard pieces, coming together to propel a larger vision even while being accomplished records by themselves.
Read Also: Kohen Jaycee Shares Ethereal Acoustic Version Of ‘ABILITY’. Stream It Now
On this particular one, he enlists the highest level of expertise in collaborations. From the linguistic verve of A Pass on “Byoyagala” to rejoining forces with his fellow new-schoolers Akeine on “Bwoba Ompulira”, Lagum the Rapper who doesn’t miss with his verses on “Oboniire”, Denesi, CXNRVD and Nutty Neithan providing a party flight anthem on “DANCE”. Kohen jaycee taps into the vocal prowess of Kenya’s new generation RnB princess Maya Amolo and Navio on “Night Like This” and together all three create RnB perfection.
This further speaks to what I mentioned earlier that, this time round, the “Siganye” singer collected all your favs like Thanos to the gem stones, and he put them all on RWEBEMBERA: The Raising Echoes. Among the other burgeoning stand outs are features from Keko, Azawi, and Elijah Kitaka.
We can’t help but notice the evocative guitar strums to make the hit-laden touch up that is “NVA WALA” on which Maurice Kirya lends his vocals, one of those collaborations that we didn’t know we needed, until we listened to them.
Related: Kohen Jaycee Links Up With Maurice Kirya In Studio.
Axon, Ledra, Allan Clive and Abaasa Rwemereza’s production all throughout the album and mastery provides an upbeat direction to the LP and assists Kohen Jaycee in creating one of the best albums to arrive this year. It goes without saying, Kohen appreciates the novelty of the amapiano log drum is the hack, and so some tracks on the LP employ this element.
The project is quite a very special one to Kohen Jaycee’s heart, for it has not only crowned what is already a monumental year for Kohen, encapsulating his growth from break out artist into a fully blown superstar, given its performance but also for the fact that is dedicated to his very first child, a baby boy by the name: Theodore’ (whos’ laugh we get a sound of on track 6 “Tell Me More”). We have previously seen such heartwarming gestures from artists like Patoranking dedicating his second studio album ‘Wilmer” to his daughter, DJ Khaled on “Father of Asahd”, and Davido (having an image of him and his then son Ifeanyi Adeleke on the album cover of [A BETTER TIME]), further portraying that fatherhood is a good thing and a turning point for those who get to experience it, and that Kohen is indeed learning from the very best in the industry.
Despite all the success, Kohen Jaycee isn’t done evolving, this LP is the start of a new era. Find RWEBEMBERA: The Raising Echoes where you stream/ listen to music from and run it up. Be sure to let me know which track(s) have stood out for you.
