Tanya Morgan return with Abandoned Theme Park, a hip hop salad bowl of poignant lyricism and unconventional beats.
Hip hop is often misinterpreted as a genre of excess and criminality. The finer points of humanity rarely receive the exposure they deserve and that’s a damn shame. Tanya Morgan are a duo free of these harmful clichés and their “freedom of speech” have provided the basis of incredible music. On their latest joint, Abandoned Theme Park, the duo aimed to reflect on their influences without copying the styles of their preceding albums.
“It’s not Moonlighting, Brooklynati, or Rubber Souls, it’s brand-new.” – Von Pea
There are themes of mental health (“Enter Through The Gift Shop”) and cultural identity (“Who Are You”) explored with care and consideration, while Che Grand is at hand with the free-spirited production, prevalent on tracks such as “Clappas”.
“I won’t say life caught up to us, but we couldn’t just be two dudes riding around in a van touring the United States selling merch all the time. [laughs] We had to come back home and figure sh*t out.” —Donwill on Tanya Morgan’s new EP
This is a thinking (wo)man’s album. You won’t fully appreciate the beats or the rhymes if you play it in the background. Music like this deserves the feeling of stasis; why should the world go by in moments of contemplation? Unfortunately, they do but you could do worse than pass the time with a soundtrack like this.
Don’t forget Tanya Morgan’s forthcoming album, You Get What You Pay For, will be out early 2017.