Musical confession I'd like to make...

[Eddie Bryant]

Four years ago, I thought grime sucked. I listened to Dizzee Rascal's debut album and remember thinking that the production and his rhymes were just ****ing terrible. Fast forward to the present, and now, I think that grime music is so ****in ill. I'm listening to Kano's newest album and the way that this whole album is put together reminds me of the way hip hop albums in the 90s used to be put together. It's a complete album. Here's some highlights:

"This is the girl" ft. Craig David - This is one of the best "me and my girl" songs I've heard in a long time. I figure, if I listen to this all week, my ears can flush itself from the T-pain diarrhea it's been fed this past year.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/2915442bfb9d96/


"Fightin' the Nation" - This song starts out with an acoustic guitar, like Thugz Mansion. And then the beat drops towards the end. But Kano goes deep on this one, I was surfing the web, listening to this album in the background, but this song made me sit up and relisten to it.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/2915465fc714c7/


"This is my life" - This song is more introspective, talking about his life, and is the last song on the album. What a way to close.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/291549209db893/


Damn, this is the type of album that reminds me why I fell in love with this **** in the first place. Drop your thoughts people.

[Zayus]

I hope you changed your opinion on Dizzee's first album, but I have to disagree with all those songs. London Town is such a step down from Kano's first album, which was really nothing special next to his mixtapes (Kano Mixtape + Beats & Bars), but at least that had mostly good songs. London Town has 4 that made it to my ipod - Over & Over, Buss It Up, Feel Free & Me And My Microphone. Everything else sounded either like creative overreach (Kano needs to let someone else oversee his albums, he sucks at it) or, despite the fact people barely use the term anymore, selling out. When you're already connected with the best producers in the scene (Wiley & JME) why do you need these no-names? London Town sounds like an Eminem beat and Production Of My Environment is lazy as sh!t.

I'm not one of these people that will defend Grime's underground status to the death. I personally like Home Sweet Home a lot, and until that point that was the most overt concession to the buying public that anyone in the scene had made - the chick songs like Nite Nite were actually damn good and it sounded a lot more to me like a complete album than London Town. I'm just generally disappointed with the album, especially considering it comes from the supposed future of the scene. Dizzee & Wiley released much better albums, despite the fact they're nowhere near as talented as Kano (lyrically, at least).

[Dead End]

The only thing I don't like about Grime is that most of the people into it the most remind me of punk rock scensters. Snobbish, greater than thou opinionated middle class assholes. At least that's the impression that I get, but yeah, I always liked grime. Dizzee, Kano, Roll Deep, Shystie, even Lady Soverein...

[Eddie Bryant]

I hope you changed your opinion on Dizzee's first album, but I have to disagree with all those songs. London Town is such a step down from Kano's first album, which was really nothing special next to his mixtapes (Kano Mixtape + Beats & Bars), but at least that had mostly good songs. London Town has 4 that made it to my ipod - Over & Over, Buss It Up, Feel Free & Me And My Microphone. Everything else sounded either like creative overreach (Kano needs to let someone else oversee his albums, he sucks at it) or, despite the fact people barely use the term anymore, selling out. When you're already connected with the best producers in the scene (Wiley & JME) why do you need these no-names? London Town sounds like an Eminem beat and Production Of My Environment is lazy as sh!t.

I'm not one of these people that will defend Grime's underground status to the death. I personally like Home Sweet Home a lot, and until that point that was the most overt concession to the buying public that anyone in the scene had made - the chick songs like Nite Nite were actually damn good and it sounded a lot more to me like a complete album than London Town. I'm just generally disappointed with the album, especially considering it comes from the supposed future of the scene. Dizzee & Wiley released much better albums, despite the fact they're nowhere near as talented as Kano (lyrically, at least).


Word, thanks for replying. I'm definately not as into the grime scene as you seem to be off that reply, so I'll take any knowledge you drop. But let me clarify what I'm saying why I like this album.

The reason why I like this album is because it's a fresh breath of air compared to all the hip hop (all the basic bling bling ****) I've been listening to the last couple of years. (FYI - my favorite albums from the last couple years have been A Piece of Strange, Evolution Fight, and Hell Hath No Fury). First, this album sounds like a complete album, with highs and lows, fast songs/slow songs, touching on different topics, etc. Kano impressed me because he thinks like a musician in this respect.

Second, and this is probably the fact that I haven't listened to enough grime yet, but the production has come really far from when I listened to Dizzee's first album (feel free to disagree with me on this). But the production on songs like "The Production of My Environment" and "London Town" have the garage sounding aspects in the drums, but combined with Timbo like synths. I just couldn't get into the production of the Dizzee album - I couldn't get into the drums and the garage sound.

The album might not hold the aesthtic qualities of grime, but to me, where hip hop is in 2007, this album is sounds ill.


P.S. What do you think/know about The Joker Productions? I read an article about him a couple months ago on Pitchfork and went to his myspace. I was very impressed with his production, it sounded like it came from outer space. What can you tell me about him, producers that sound like him, his crew, albums he's put out, etc? Any input and recommendations would be appreciated.