Isha: what we liked, or not, in “Blue Labrador”

After a long wait, Isha’s debut studio album Blue Labrador is available and marks a turning point in his artistic career.

Announced for 2021, Isha’s long-awaited album is finally out. Featuring: Limsa d’Aulnay, Caballero & JeanJass and OG Gold. When the Belgian rapper unveiled the last part of the triptych Life Increases, he announced that he wanted to quickly continue with his new project. However, coming up against a lack of inspiration and new expectations from the public, Isha decided to take over the album entirely. In the meantime, he’s releasing the EP Don’t piss off, I’m preparing an albumwith the explicit title, retaining part of the first version finally abandoned.

Finally, the Belgian rapper finds inspiration through a new writing process: “One thing has changed in my approach. I questioned myself a lot when I had my inspiration breakdown and I have since changed my working method. Now I go to the cabin and I write sentence by sentence on the production, it works very well for me like that» he confides for BACKPACKERZ.

Read also: With her EP, Isha has prepared the ground well before her first album

The story of Blue Labrador

The project’s intro is significant: it’s an ultrasound, maybe Isha’s. The album is the course of a life. Some titles, which refer to the elements, are explained by the rapper in his interview for Deezer : “When you put the elements in a certain direction, it gives a life course. The wind symbolizes the breath of life, fire sin, water means purification in many beliefs and finally the earth, since that is where we end.

And at the end of life comes death. The outro references his brother’s, when the family was asked to choose the color of the tombstone. Blue Labrador, it is the color of the granite used for that of his deceased brother, but also the last eponymous track of the album. In this one, Isha evokes the theme of death without being afraid of it. “It’s a reminder that allows me to take advantage of the present moment, to get over certain troubles with brothers… Life is short” he explains in The code.

His relationship to death also goes through “The Reincarnation of Biggie”. The track is released on February 17 as the first single from the project. Reference to The Notorious BIG, this one was talked about when it came out Life After Deathalbum which may seem premonitory of his death which occurred shortly after its release.

Isha: “I talk less about myself on this album”

Yes Life Increases was a very personal introspection of the Belgian rapper, the album gives the impression that this one has less things to say. An obstacle that he confirms against Narjes Bahhar: “I feel like I’ve said so much about myself in the trilogy that I talk less about myself on this album. I place myself more as a spectator.”

The gray atmosphere of the album is translated by less solar prods than those which animated the previous projects of Isha. Evidenced by the collaboration with Limsa d’Aulnay, a real connection between the two artists. However, the first part of the album remains long and less digestible than the rest. Despite everything, the transition to more trap give a new reading to Blue Labrador. Pieces like “Fifa” and “Royauté (Eau)”, short and effective, deserve to be multiplied in the second part. The narration ends with darker and personal pieces like “Bullet in the head (Earth)”. The passage of Stanley Zotres in particular, the artist’s manager, brings more introspection. The piece is very consistent with the universe of Isha.

Too dense and less intimate than Life Increases pt.1, 2 and 3, the Brussels man still manages to immerse his listeners in his new way of rapping. Moreover, after their first collaboration on “Starting Block” and their joint performance on Blue Labrador, Isha and Limsa d’Aulnay announced in March the preparation of a joint album. What amplify the expectations of the public on the artistic turn of the Belgian rapper.

In the rest of the news, we have classified the featurings of Alpha Wann since the don dada mixtape.

Isha- Blue Labrador