lukah

Trauma can be inherited, generationally compounded by relatives who pass on their pain through destructive action or the self-destructive coping mechanisms they impart. Lukah has made music for two-thirds of his life, but when the 30-year-old rapper/producer finally found his sound, he honed in on the accretive effects of trauma. On January’s When the Black Hand Touches You and late September’s Why Look Up, God’s in the Mirror, he offers Griselda-adjacent street rap as a Trojan Horse for psychology and sociology. Alternately menacing and soulful loops score Lukah’s sharp wordplay, braggadocio, hustling narratives, and avowals of pistol-grip survival. Within that framework, he couches self-empowerment and the need to address personal and inherited wounds in the Black community. “And never a...