I’ve made a horrifying realization about my dismissal of UK rap and more pertinently, UK grime artists. I was under the impression that they had forged a pact amongst themselves, acknowledging that U.S. hip hop was the true basis of their movement. Regardless of their transplanted Caribbean roots or East London parochialism, the basis was rap music, American music. Essentially, I thought cats like Dizzee, Wiley, Kano and yes, Lethal Bizzle were just the London counterparts to NYC MC’s. Watered down a little they may have been, but these guys were also bringing an alternative perspective, for lack of a better word, a ‘European’ one. So when I listen to this new Lethal Bizzle album, and indulge into his fantasy a little, I’m highly tempted to hate. There’s simply nothing ‘hard’ about it. At least not in Noah Webster’s sense of the word, who knows about Oxford?
I perused this album quicker than a hummingbird busts a nut, but here’s a few tracks to peep before we push forward with this critical analysis.
Lethal B – Money Power Respect Fame (Prod. by Dexplicit)*
Lethal B – Crazy Nightmare ft. 2Face (Prod. by 2Face)
Yes, I am aware that we could stop right here and engage in quantified discourse about the merit of this new Lethal Bizzle LP. It would likely end as a short and sweet judgement, a simple waving of the hand, not worth the download or the 60 minutes. But I promise you 3 things after the jump.
- A video of Lethal B appearing extremely gay (literally) with a clay pigeon expert
- The original “Pow” video (Lethal Bizzle’s biggest tune to date)
- My take on Lethal B, specifically, my reassessment/flip flopping on my original dismissive position of contemporary Grime artists
Lethal B doesn’t know how to answer the “Go Hard” question? Really?
The remix video is significantly more aggravating
The dizzle on Bizzle:
The moment of clarity I had was this: Grime artists are not manifestations of anything more than what they claim, English and hungry. They are not compromising their “artistic integrity” by pushing Euro Pop tracks. What they are doing is serving their peoples, more importantly, their customer base. Who am I to call all of Europe a bunch of fairies with no taste? So they like trance and they prance instead of dance. So what? Fact is that “Crazy Nightmare” track with 2Face is hard as shit, in a “Pow” kind of way. Yes, there are a bunch of flaky other tracks, the opening track included. Lethal B is not a true lyricist, he’s more of a hype man with enough swagger to justify mic time. Remember this is not English rap music. Nor are they emulating cocaine rap or any other genre you may have previously associated with grime. This is it, this is grime, not dazzling, nor grimey. However after a sonic the hedgehog like audit of this LP, I no longer condemn grime, neither shall ZIF. This is grime, it is crud.
I may shit on the British though, arbitrarily, with resilience.
