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Ελληνικά: Greek Ghanaian rapper Negros Tou Moria (NTM) returns with #Mpesa, his second full length effort just seven months after the release of his debut LP ‘Akougontas Kai Mathainontas’ for the Athens based imprint Black Athena. Its title #Mpesa is a reference to a medieval Balkan code of honour followed by members of different social groups and whose rules were developed and spread by word of mouth.The term has strong associations with the Greek Rebetika underground music and culture of the early 1930s.

1. Mpesa is NTM’s most personal release to date; it opens with a recording of his mother and is intersected with segments of heated telephone exchanges with his Ghanaian based father.

It tells tales of street living, hardship and racism while growing up in the neglected neighbourhoods of central Athens. It delves deep into Greek folklore, reminiscing about the Greek bank robber Theodoros Vernardos, who famously became an overnight sensation for his supposed striking looks, stylish attire and cosmopolitan attitude. NTM raps about women, relationships, good times and those late night, intoxicated studio sessions, across the album’s fifteen tracks. The record of course doesn’t come without NTM’s infamous bravado, which takes centre stage at several of the album’s most robust numbers.

Highlights include the powerful ‘Dinami’, produced by two of his closest associates Evan SBK and Masla.G; the Bumpy Johnson referencing ‘KoFi GavriLiA (pt.1)’ also produced by Evan SBK and featuring Dutch rapper Nicotine P: ‘My rhymes are rich like Escobar, dramatic like an episode of Marimar, as dope as Bumpy Johnson…’.

‘To Frago / Theodoros Vernardos’ produced by Jamal of the ATH KIDS, is a six minute long, bass heavy ode to teenage delinquency, matched closely by the GoldenChild Beatz produced ‘Martyras’, a tale about being a usual suspect by Greek law enforcement, due only to the colour of his skin. The album comes to a close with two of its strongest cuts ‘543 (Atelier)’, a late night cruising joint that sounds like it jumped out of a Curren$y mixtape, and the club classic that is ‘Den Echoun Swag’, a rough and ready trap cut that could ignite any dancefloor on the planet right now...Mpesa...