In recent times Holy Ten has undoubtedly been a menace to society. Armed with just the ability to go live on Instagram, he has been a harbinger of chaos. So much so that his antics have often swallowed up the conversation around his music, and even resulted in him having to withdraw from the public eye.
In 2025 after one such sabbatical he returned with the reset that was Musoro WeNzou, an album that had a life for a few weeks, before once again being swallowed up by his antics. The brilliance of the music was lost in the drama, and just like that Holy Ten needed to reset again.
For that he conjured up the name of his magnum opus, Risky Life. The first attempt was Risky Life Interludes, a 5 track EP of singles just lumped together. It landed with more the gentle ripples rather than a splash, which made it not nearly enough. So 6 months onwards from that false start, a long teased new Risky Life album finally arrived.
Risky Life 3 once again sees Holy Ten trying to reset the clock. Seeking a return to the status quo that once saw him revered as the "Leader Of The Youth." Well that maybe now impossible with how the facade has fallen off, but certainly a return to the music charts, to the event lineups and to the place he calls home. All of which the album might have pulled off.
Now although seemingly driven by necessity, Risky Life 3 is still shaped by clever artistic intention, a keen understanding of Zimbabwean hip hop, and it once again reminds us of what Holy Ten can do when driven to create.
The piano ballads, the catchy duets, the self indulgent gritty raps, and the dance floor ready anthems are all present across the album's 13 tracks. Rife with introspection and social commentary, it looks both within and outwardly, while exploring soundscapes firmly in the mainstream. In short the music is good, dare I say great.
The album's achilles heel is without a doubt Holy Ten himself, and how much weight we can put on his words despite his actions, but he still manages to be insightful. Of course only if we choose not to shoot the messenger.
"Rape Case" opens with the statement "I tried to talk to the girl child, hazvina kusvika, so rega ndimbotaure namudhara wake," and proceeds to paint Holy Ten's most fair assessment of the lives young women live over melancholic production. Sexual immorality is still a key talking point, but he doesn't paint the situation with broad brushstrokes but nuance, even the song title reflects this.
In fact for the most part Risky Life 3 is reflective, this is captured in "Hoping For Change" - the beautifully sung rap duet with Tamy Moyo, "German Freestyle" - the album's outstanding rap performance, "Feeling This Way" - the Suno AI assisted love song and "Pfungwa Dzinonyura" - a cultural grounded tale of spiritual and mental battles.
The project wades into the gritty with the hustle driven "Munhu Wema Game," infuses the sounds of mbira to tell a story with biblical inspiration on "Pauro," and has the rhythms of marimba at the heart of the club record "Tapfunya."
The music is not intricate in its lyricism but it excels in storytelling. As has been the case with previous albums to carry the Risky Life title, the project says "life is complicated and humans are flawed, but there's still something to live for." It doesn't capture the heights of the first album in the series and neither is it a match for Musoro WeNzou before it, but it revels in its own brilliance.
Musicality is at the fore of every song and there's a vulnerability in Holy Ten's introspection. For all his faults, his understanding of music constantly arrives as a plea for redemption. Whether earnest or not, it is certainly a plea well put together.
Greedysouth rating: 7.6/10