Now I freely admit I most likely am not the best person to review this cd. The last time I actually listened to rap was when the Geto Boys released "We Can't Be Stopped" in the mid 90's(who doesn't like a rap group with a dwarf in it? Bushwick was awesome). So I ask you to bear with any really stupid statements on my part. Until getting this cd I had never heard of "grime", unless It was something to fight in the bathtub.
But I was in the mood for something different so I asked to review this cd. Basically out of all the artists here the only ones I knew of were The Streets and Dizzee Rascal, with The Streets being the only one I had actually heard material from. Grime Is a distinctly UK strain of rap/hip hop(I don't know the difference between the two genres, sorry)and sadly probably never will make it big here. One thing that really struck me about all the artists on this compilation is the real feeling of the stripped down. DIY feel the tracks have. No polished beats here matey. Lots of cheapy keyboard plink plink sounds. The vocals are, as a rule, really well done. A lot of the times the vocals race along in competition with the music. Best of all, there seems to be little of the "fatter pockets than thou" subject matter of the mainstream rap we are pelted with daily.
This fits more with the rap battle idea of rap than with the glam rap stylings of 50 Cent and Ludacris. Though with a few of these tracks I couldn't get the idea of Eminem out of my head. I think it's more because of the actual rhythm he uses when he raps more than anything else. But I guess he is a sort of good example to use. As like his music, this makes use of those really cheap synth sounds popularized by Dr Dre when he made the Chronic album. Now I'm not trying to lump him in with these guys; its two different ball games entirely. I'm just trying to give an idea of the sound of this cd. All In all, I liked this a lot, my favorite tracks are 1, 4, 5, 6, 7(love this track), 14, 16.
If you sort of like rap(and maybe are afraid to admit it to anyone)check these guys and girls out. They are young and hungry, and man does it show, In a good way of course. This is good stuff. Plain and simple.
