TAWANDA CHARI & TAKUDZWA HILLARY CHIWANZA
When discussing one of the most impressive hip-hop releases of 2024, Mutsa’s 'WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF SOIL TO BURY OUT DEAD' cannot be overlooked. A piquant album, it can best be described as an emotional intervention and also as a raw cry for healing. The album is a layered masterpiece that mirrors the trials of life, death, and everything in between. While its understated brilliance may have escaped the radar of mainstream audiences due to limited accessibility, those who have taken the time to listen are greeted with an intricate, riveting, and cinematic body of work filled with heavy themes, masterful lyricism, as well as powerful samples. It is as wonderfully musical as it is masterfully theatrical. That takes a lot of genius to properly execute.
The album opens with 'an intervention', a track that sets the tone for the album’s sorrowful, passionate, introspective, and hopeful journey. Featuring a sample from The Sopranos—the infamous Christopher Moltisanti intervention scene—the song places judgment, hypocrisy, and the collective denial of shortcomings front and center. It's a metaphor for the human condition: we fear to live, yet we fear to die. In Mutsa’s words, the album serves as “an offering,” a message of healing and hope, no matter how fragile that hope may be. The opening of the album sets the perfect stage for the project to unfurl into a potpourri of pertinent social commentaries.
The Duality of Existence: Rage and Serenity
Mutsa expertly weaves cinematic references into his narrative, using them as tools to dissect life’s dualities. On 'rage interlude', the iconic “I’m as mad as hell” speech from Sidney Lumet’s 1976 film 'Network' rings deeply. Delivered by Howard Beale, the speech captures raw frustration with a society spiraling out of control. (In the clip from the film, one truly gets the sense that society is under the spell of the powers that be, without the autonomy to make decisions for itself. Impressive how Mutsa infuses this into his music.)
That rant has become iconic in popular culture, symbolizing a powerful expression of frustration and outrage. In the context of the film, Beale is a news anchor who, after experiencing a mental breakdown, begins speaking out against the state of the world and the media's role in it. Most importantly, the anchor's chant "My life has value!" is everything we need to know about how important his rallying cry is. His outburst resonates with Mutsa, becoming a rallying cry for those feeling disillusioned with society.
Mutsa channels this rage into a reflective moment, exploring the value of life even when anger and despair take center stage. He reminds us that pain and healing, grief and happiness, anger and serenity are intertwined—one cannot exist without the other. To remember life has value even in rage. For what is pain without healing, Grief without Happiness and Anger without Serenity.
The track’s emotional impact extends beyond its sampled dialogue. Mutsa’s vulnerability shines through as he confronts life’s daily struggles, reminding listeners that showing up is an act of courage, even when hope feels distant.
Protest and Abandonment
On 'Infitada', Mutsa ventures into global and local sociopolitical commentary. Borrowing its name from the Palestinian intifada, the track takes a agonizing turn, probing into the injustices faced by children worldwide. All the world’s collective ills, weaving a narrative that could hint at a third intifada for the Palestinian people. On this track, his unparalleled spoken word skills illuminate the whole project, with evocative diction designed to rouse you to meaningful action. It makes you livid at everything that's happening in Palestine, in the world, while it moves your soul in epic proportions. On Infitada, Mutsa is just effortlessly excellent.
This message is amplified on the subsequent track, a chilling sampled narration about Zimbabwean street children who are lured to ZRP farms or whatever was the case with promises of food, only to be exploited, beaten, and left to fend for themselves. This stark juxtaposition highlights Mutsa's protest for the world's abandoned children—a universal cry against the neglect and suffering of the most vulnerable. Mutsa’s reference to There Will Be Blood serves as a grim reminder of greed and moral decay, extending the album’s thematic depth.
Cinematic Genius
Mutsa’s love for film and literature shines throughout the album, with samples and references that feel like hidden Easter eggs for those willing to dig deeper. From the haunting Bon Iver sample to Maya Angelou’s recital, each layer adds texture to the narrative. Mutsa’s cinephile tendencies—seen in nods to The Sopranos, Network, and There Will Be Blood—elevate the project, making it a cerebral experience as much as an emotional one.
A Special Body of Work
The pacing is deliberate, the lyricism impeccable, and the themes deeply reflective. Mutsa unpacks grief, anger, hope, and despair with a sharp pen and an even sharper sense of self-awareness. Despite the heaviness of the subject matter, the album offers moments of hope and resilience, even as it acknowledges the fragility of these emotions.
In We Are Running Out of Soil To Bury Our Dead, Mutsa exorcises grief in powerful language marked by highly creative bursts of thoughtful energy. The pain in his consciousness metastasizes throughout the album as he seeks a much needed artistic moment of catharsis and genuine human respite. Such is the potent artistry that Mutsa possesses—with each track being a mishmash of sheer rage and innocent optimism; each track rolling into the next without shedding off any iota of momentum.
There is a pressing sense of urgency and immediacy that makes his flow a living testament of a genius who is unafraid to lay bare his soul for the salvation of others. That takes loads of courage—a sort of courage that is running in short supply lately among some of the country's budding rappers.
The album, building from previous projects he released this year, is a eulogy of lives lost, dreams scuppered, and a hope extinguished amidst the existential angst of our contemporary times, particularly for the demographic of urban youths. His is a message that is well-wrapped in elysian, incandescent rap instrumentals. He has an ear for enlivening production.
And the most resonant quality of the album is its melding of sounds that are not as popular in Zim—sounds that transcend our geographical confines.
Mutsa is what happens when a poet fully masters the art of rapping eloquently and with crystal-clear articulation unencumbered by societal conventions that often put limits on self-expression. His is earnest poetry vividly painting the cycle in which he feels trapped; in which we are all trapped. His is a cry for love to be the universal language for an immensely troubled humanity and planet. In between the less optimistic urges to drown in substances are heartwarming messages of hope, resilience and success.
In his own vacuum of deep reflection and calculated dissonance, Mutsa is a rapper to keep an eye on as his stature grows alongside his prolific and clear artistry.
This is Mutsa’s intervention, not just for himself but for all of us. It’s a call to face life’s dualities head-on, to feel, to grieve, and to heal. For those who missed this album, it’s time to tune in. This is hip-hop at its most profound—a nod to the power of storytelling, introspection, and art’s ability to connect us to the core of our humanity. This is the kind of individuality (rooted in an altruistic need for collective wellness) and impeccable artistry that keeps the underground alive.
True, we might indeed be running out of soil to bury our dead. But there is still hope. If we fight enough.
Album Rating – 8.5/10
Listen to WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF SOIL TO BURY OUR DEAD, an album by MUTSA on SoundCloud:
0 Comments