Skivrecension: Erik Lundin writes through the fear and the sorrow

How do you become a zebrapojke? What is it even?

in the Summer of 2017 was Erik Lundin on tour with Håkan Hellström. Night after night he stood as the opening act on the arenascener and helped thousands of rusiga swedes to once again find their inner Göteborgs-sailors. Between konserturladdningarna experienced the then trettiofyraåriga rapper a harder time. Several people in his proximity dog, and some days ended with that he had to switch from the funeral to the scenkostym the evening.

The past few years was then: a blend of light and dark, sadness and joy, black and white. Erik Lundin describes it as that he felt ”striped”.

”Zebrapojken” is, perhaps not surprisingly given this background, in parts, fairly dark album. Lundin has written texts, to use his own words, the pen as a consolation, and he keeps hard, almost convulsively, in the. Just by describing the fear and the grief, you can get through it without completely going to pieces.

the huge ”Now they ask” raps, he that ”it never stops bleeding, the chests will never be satisfied/ hugged the parents that I never met”. ”Spökhistorien” is a cold sweat walking between dream and reality in Stockholm's northern suburbs. The depiction of losing someone to crime - ”When the lift stops” is as sad as accurate: ”she, he asks, please stay, but will be abandoned once the/when the sound of the elevator finally stops/she is sitting in the room with the lurking and just listening to/no longer have the ability to even sob/but humming in the quiet.

the Music in the same style. If the four-year-old first ep:n ”Suedi” was a musical festbord, an abundance of inviting and easily accessible smaskigheter in the form of sharp hooks and dance beats, ”Zebrapojken” more the sound of someone trying to swallow begravningskaffe and sandwiches with tears in the throat. Producentbröderna Nils ”Nisj” Svennem Lundberg and Måns Lundberg has built an extremely dimmed and muffled sound that fits lundin's Swedish tone of voice is perfect.

and then, when he can keep his head above the surface, to truly see the light in the darkness and see how far he has come, where the music has taken him, and allows himself to feel some happiness and pride. As in the last song ”I am enough”, where he pays tribute to both themselves and their families, and by extension everyone who has ever gone through difficult times, by saying the absolute easiest and most important.

It is a music encouraging pat on the shoulder, which slowly grows to an almost gospelaktigt hopeful ballad and Lundin raps, ”you all are phenomenal/so ask yourself in the mirror and say to yourself that ’I am enough’” and ”will never be perfect/but I know that I am enough”.

After the emotional exorcism that dominates the rest of the ”Zebrapojken”, it is a finish that feels liberating and hopeful.

Best tracks: ”When the lift stops.”

Read more music reviews by Mattias Dahlström , for example, about how the Silvana Imam still searching for more .