Tomahawk - Black Swan (Digital Album)

Blasting out from beyond the sonic weaponry loaded by none other than Rob Shaker, the dark one himself, Lord Tomahawk is back!

It’s been eight years since Australian hip-hop has braced itself in the wake of his debut album which took body counts. Tomahawk returns to get rapid with his wordplay on the release of the long-anticipated follow-up aptly named Black Swan out now from Shake Down Records.

Syllabolix (SBX) is Western Australia’s realest MC crew that gave us the late and much-respected Hunter, and from whence Tomahawk rose alongside Clandestein, the rap trio featuring Mortar, Graphic and Tomahawk. Standing out from SBX is no easy task yet Tomahawk has found his own voice separate to that of his clansmen. Following on from his debut album A Bitch Named Hip Hop (2008) which was regarded a standout of the SBX catalogue and as a conceptual release in domestic hip-hop, Tomahawk has long been valued for his solo quest.

First single pressed into 7-inch vinyl copies and released prior to the album is ‘It’s Like That’ featuring Mortar and produced by Rob Shaker. Sure to be a killer album, once again, this single has already taken lives and has been on rotation on triple j. Apart from Mortar’s appearance on the single, the guest line up on Black Swan is an armory of vicious rhyme slayers featuring Vic the Bitter, Mouf, Defyre, Kid Tsu and Soma.

Musicality broached through each track paints an emotive soundscape. From traditional mandolin-like sampling on Not My Job to Most of the Time with the subtle horns backing the lyrical imagery where upon he and guest MC Soma dig deeper down into a blackened narrative. Going where most MCs wouldn’t, Tomahawk strips back on The Balance Acapella letting his thoughts out, unfettered onto wax. His honest yet brutally cold expression among the lack of accompanying elements exemplifies what makes Tomahawk the black swan he professes to be.

Where Tomahawk’s first album was helmed in production by Downsyde’s Dazastah, Black Swan’s soundtrack was a complete works of Syllabeats overseen by Shake Down Studio’s one and only Rob Shaker. And, where the first album stood out from the chosen ones of Clandestein, Black Swan is set, once again, to contrast vastly from the flight of his SBX fam. For the MC who proclaimed; ‘Tomahawk - that’s my name. I’mma put it on a bullet and put it to your brain’, this swan remains one of the most deft and murderous among Australian hip-hop.