Let’s talk about rituals — not the candles and incense kind, but the kind hidden in contracts, casting calls, and champagne-stained mansion carpets.
Timbo King and Shaka Amazulu The 7th just returned with “Rituals Gone Wrong,” a haunting exposé wrapped in raw lyricism and boom-bap shadows. As the first single off the upcoming album YThOMIT, it’s already showing that this second trilogy isn’t pulling any punches.
The song leans into the spiritual rot that infects an industry obsessed with shortcuts and clout. From demonic orgies to blood oaths, Timbo uses shocking metaphors — or are they metaphors? — to explore the soul-crushing price of overnight stardom. “The back door is rigged, booby traps for opportunist,” he warns. “Life insurance to labels or morgue forged paperwork…” This is rap-as-warning label, not just rap-as-art.
Shaka’s production adds weight. He doesn’t overdo it — he lets the lyrics sit in your chest like static. It’s minimalist yet sinister. It’s cinematic, but not Hollywood. It’s hip-hop, but from the temple, not the club.
And then there’s the timing: dropping August 30th, same day as From Babylon to Timbuk2 did in 2011. A full circle moment. A ritual completed… or broken?
The animated video lands September 11th — and if the lyrics are any clue, the visuals won’t be PG. Expect something dystopian, symbolic, maybe even biblical.
This isn’t for casual listeners. It’s for thinkers. For the ones who paused mid-song and asked, “Wait, did he really just say that?”
Yeah. He did.
Out now. YThOMIT coming soon via Black Stone of Mecca / Real Estate Ventures.
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