In the summer of 2019, Atlanta-based rapper DNDSection released his debut EP titled ‘Love Lies Bleeding’— an eclectic 8-track set that marked the start of his budding career. Now, after a three-year stint, he returns with ‘Bad Things Will Not Happen Again’, and with it, a more refined sound and resonant stories about his background.

 

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‘Bad Things Will Not Happen Again,’ the title of the 6-track EP loosely translates to “Ozoemena” in Igbo which is a popular unifying maxim used to express solidarity with the fallen victims of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war. While the project is nothing about the war, the weighty title is an apt harbinger of the staid and cloistered environment of the project. ‘Bad Things Will Not Happen Again’ mirrors the growth that DND has experienced over the past few years.

Compared to 2019’s sunnily jovial ‘Love Lies Bleeding,’ his latest release is more sonically cohesive, rich with piquant stories and raw shrewdness. ‘Bad Things Will Not Happen Again’ can feel serrated from the stings of the impassioned message that traverses the project. However, the moody amber-hued ambience that colours this project also functions to amplify the poignant effect of his message. DND Section turns inwards and tunnels through dark alleys, heavy under the weight of his own personal reflection, exploring his humble background and the staid reality of his current state in life.

In classic Hip-Hop fashion, DND opens the project with a corpulent pensive record about his humble background. On “Villian,” he is as ravenous as a lion, ardent and deft as he sets the tone for the entire project. Brimming with unbridled vim and poignant words, he lances the gospel-esque Drill beat, rapping about the crushing reality of his life — his childhood, his relationships, his future and racism. Bookending the track is a resonant phrase “Made out plastic out here”.

On “Twist & Tease,” he maintains the pensive ambience that colours the project but contrasts this with salacious lyrics — teaming up with SMV and A.been to deliver a sexually charged ballad. The bouncy percussion and melodic guitar riffs on “Runaway” sound like an apt soundtrack for a fantastical vacation on a lush remote island encircled by the turquoise waters of the ocean. It’s a proper Afropop record but without the archetypal jovial salacious lyrics. Instead, he renders a foggy silhouette about spirits, fire, the devil, fake love and haters. It almost feels like the lyrics of “Twist & Tease” and “Runaway” were accidentally swapped.

“Flyest In The Room” sounds like a swanky walk up Mount Olympus. Over the shimmering production, he sings and raps about opulence and ebullience with lyrics like “We got bad bitches and rich niggas too, we got Casamigos and some 1942, she says she like my accent and my dialect smooth, I’m the highest and the flyest in the room.” Just when the energy of the project starts to trail off, he dials it up a notch with the bouncy percussion of “Larry Bird.”

Over the trap production, his message is simple and conspicuous, a fine point that has carried him throughout his career. He traps with affable vim about feeling blessed and grateful. Like sharing the Grace in a church, this penultimate track subtly functions to indicate the project drawing to a close. The last track “Stomach Hurtin” forms a harmonic exclamation point so grand, that it seems to yell “The End!”. On it, DND has come full circle. He is as pensive and introspective as he was at the start of the project, a fitting end to a project that peeled back more layers to his artistry.

The pensive tone of the EP may feel extremely heavy at certain points, but the jovial ambience of songs like “Twist & Tease” and “Flyest In The Room” offer reprieve from the project’s weight, infusing levity into an otherwise difficult melancholic stretch. While ‘Bad Things Will Not Happen Again’ is not quite an experimental oeuvre, on it, DND is not sticking to the formula. He picks his battles and tells his story with an undiluted purity and it pays off heavily.

Stream ‘Bad Things Will Not Happen Again’ below.

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