Tehn Diamond – #SOTG3 Mixtape Review

When Tehn Diamond said he was dropping his third in a series of SOTG – Student Of The Game, for the unschooled – I was curious from the get-go.

After much of what we said of SOTG2, we wondered if the boy was indeed learning. Musically, the boy’s choice of producers and the works was never going to something up for questioning. However, has Tehn grown as an artist?

#SOTG3: In Pursuit of Amazing is a piece of art that could easily have been an album. True to the form that came with those before it, this one is inspired by a movie, the Will Smith drama, In Pursuit of Happyness.

This is an introspective look at what Tehn Diamond is all about. He looks within himself and finds deeper meaning within himself minus the mundane noise and drama of every day existence.

Some people may call it stupid but he calls it reality.

Three mixtapes into his evolution as a artist Tehn has graduated into hip hop, and has become more focused on being more of an artist and less of a rapper. He pulls himself away from the politics of the game and asks himself questions that most rappers wouldn’t dare. The young man has depth.

The depth of his understanding of self and his expression of it is derived from what appear to be changing circumstances and discovery of a side of him that he was either unaware of or had simply neglected.

While it has a lot of self-identification in it, it still falls short of being that which differentiates Zimbabwean hip hop from something out of New York. Though there are references to places in Zimbabwe – mainly Harare – the flavour remains foreign. The random use of the ‘n’ word throws you off, because it is not steeped in Zimbabwean culture.

This is not to suggest that it isn’t good, but that is something that Tehn will have to put some work on if he wants to really own that mic on international level. He is skilled enough to be the first true king of H Town in hip hop. He is developing his art with care and where he has come to is deliberate. He is pursuing amazing.