ALBUM OF THE WEEK: ‘The New Era Sessions’ a solid debut by Rouge [REVIEW]

Rouge the Rapper released her anticipated debut album titled ‘The New Era Sessions’ this past Friday.
The project consists of 15 solid tracks including her lead singles; No Strings, Déjà Vu and Sheba Ngwan’O. Rouge breaks down the album into four subjects Old school, Trap, Love and Woman empowerment, all delivering a centric sound in trap, old school flavored rap and club anthems. On this one, she decided to call on Big Star, Kly, Shasha, and Moozlie as featured guests.

Rouge takes it further by acknowledging the importance of ProVerb, Prokid, Amu and Skwatta Kamp who set the solid foundations for local Hip Hop, from days of 90’s.

Rouge opens up the album with a poetic piece talking about love, heartbreak, progression and it ends with a robotic interaction.
>Underatted which carries old school rap sound, sees Rouge opening about the game and the struggle. On Celebrity, Rouge goes deep inside the life of being a celebrity, with all the fame, luxuries and the paparazzi. To put you on ease, Let It Go is a groovy jam with bumpy beats letting Rouge deliver a dope flow on the beat. And it’s as much as Déjà Vu which is already a club anthem and stands one of the lead singles which paved way for this project.

No Pressure, Dololo (feat. Bigstar), Arumtumtum are some the heavy jams which lead way for trap sound in the project. Rouge responds to the genre’s detractors by delivering poetic and profound lyrics over hard knock trap beats, proving the contrary. And ofcourse her aggression is more pronounced.

The Break-Up is one outstanding mellow jam that sets the album on different mood and introduces us to a different Rouge. The song is about two lovers who are about to hit rock bottom and trying to give it a good end.

No Strings, Mbongo Zaka (feat. Moozlie) and Sheba Ngwan’o are on the end of the tracklist, setting the album on a high note before the closing with ‘Mabele,’ a centric, choral and rhythmic outro.

This an album about everything, love, struggle, heartbreak, celebration, and wild-fun. Rouge delivered a solid project and has put out more energy from song to song. Much credit for the solid lyrical content, creativity and narrating the story from first to last track. ‘The New Era Sessions’ is a solid statement that Rouge has a point of view, she has defined her sound, and as the tracklist proves, a mood.

If you haven’t heard the album, you can stream it below:

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