Between otherworldly visuals, industrial soundscaping and an outright torrent of lyrics in Swahili, Nah Eeto provides nothing short of a sensory overload on her latest single ‘Hunijui’. As vehicle lights motion blur in the background and costumes change more than would be expected even from a Nah Eeto release, ‘Hunijui’ (itself meaning ‘You Don’t Know Me’ in Swahili) conveys an overwhelming sense of transience and Nah Eeto’s hard-to-pin-down identity take centre-stage. With production that fittingly occupies a grey area between hip hop’s bounce and dubstep’s murkiness, Nah Eeto’s softly-spoken discordant lyrics cut through the gloom to repeat the line ‘you don’t know me’ in both English and Swahili. This refusal to bow down to conventional identities feels right at home given Blah Records’ trailblazing defiance on the UK hip hop scene and is practically woven into Nah Eeto’s globetrotting lifestyle. Rather than conform to typical hip hop representations, she presides over her own industrial wasteland on a ripped red velvet throne, addressing the camera directly as if it was a national broadcast. If this was how the Queen’s speech usually went at Christmas, I, for one, would definitely tune in more often.
