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And so it was with grim determination we set forth, knowing the journey would change us in ways we were yet to conceive.
Those are the opening lines for Synik’s second album, A Journey For The Broken.
It drops six months short of 10 years since his iconic debut jawn Sync City.
Every path is a catalyst for change, he says in Rukuvhute with Vusa Mkhaya, and this album has us reimagining him as a griot shaped by a decade of experiences that have formed his sound and words.
In The Other Side, Synik respects the path marked by the tears of those who have marched before him and accepts having crossed to some other space, where the journey has to be braver than it was before, to a place he had never known. Perhaps it is a reference to moving to Portugal, living in a new space finding himself and finding allies as he goes.
When we got the tracklist, of course, we were excited about the re-emergence of Shona Meistersinger Biko Emcee. Our ribs are gently undulated as the deft touch of his flow reverberates within our souls on Underground. Even if you do not get what he is saying, you’re beautifully taken in, out, worn with tapestry and sat in comfort. Biko has that effect.
In Wega, Synik’s lyrical dexterity is there to be seen, the experience of the ‘diaspora blues’. It is the restive will to survive pushed by sacrifice and wondering how one who has had to be broken and to be OK achieved it.
And with that, we are led to the title track, A Travel Guide For The Broken, which gets its beat from the late 90s, early 2000s inspired by the age of the Electric Lady studio sessions, which would later give birth to the Soulquarians. It is not as experimental, but it punctures the air with vibes, the poetry fracturing any peace. When someone says ‘borderless imaginations’ and ‘amalgamation of stardust and dreams’, turning brokenness into beauty.
At this point, then you know what this album is all about. It weighs upon itself a burden of expectation, taking it with seriousness, a testament to what life is, its daring nature and our ability to take in both the past and the present for the future.
After this, the album allows itself to be more playful, strolling through some personal braggadocio while dripping with consciousness still. Synik never moves far from socially conscious and political rhetoric all the while.
And just as you thought he might go over and decide to give you the mainstream, he brings it in with The Way Back Home (ft Mukamuri) and Kutenda (ft Vivalda Ndula).
As a body of work, it does the needful with ease and plucks up the courage to be a grown-up thought and charged hip hop album. It is a very well-thought-out, layered, nuanced piece of art. It is a refreshing exercise, a departure from the emotionally constipated, self-infatuated norms.
Our rating
Standout tracks to stream
Underground ft Biko Emcee
A Travel Guide for the Broken
Wega
A Traval Guide For The Broken by Synik is available on all streaming platforms and for purchase on your digital stores
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