Style 43

At last. Something rain related for UK heads to be happy about. I am of course talking about Reain, the talented British emcee who many of you will know from his unrelenting battles under the moniker Wha’s His Face, both here in the UK and in the US. Well now he is set to drop his debut album, “The Metaphorcast“, which has quickly become my favourite home-grown hip hop album of the year.

The album kicks off with the intro which includes some of his more memorable battling moments, before launching into track number one, “Who Am I?“. The jazzy riffs and laidback mood combine to give a good intro to Reain, whilst slipping a few punchlines in there as well. Next up we have “The Rap Game“. There is a lot of clever wordplay here as he manages to mix in a whole heap of computer game titles and fellow UK emcees in amongst the lyrics.

The album continues with a number of metaphor filled battle and conscious rhymes, as well as one party track in the form of “Carnival“, which features Precise, who also appears on three more songs, “Capital City“, “Back 2 Back” and “Dear Diary“. He is another strong lyricist and him and Reain work well with each other; I reckon they’d do a good live show too.

My favourite joints are probably “Super Lyrical“, which is as it sounds - full of nice wordplay and punchlines but with a filthy beat, “Back 2 Back”, for the piano riff if nothing else and “M.O.N.E.Y”, which might sound like your typical whackass gangsta material, but is in fact an overview of how everyone, big and small, is controlled by the green.

The production comes mainly from K-zen and while it’s hard to pinpoint his sound at the moment, due to the broad range of beats used on “The Metaphorcast”, I can say with confidence that he has the abilities necessary to support Reain’s technique.

The transition from battle emcee to conscious lyricist, or vice versa, is not always easy and a lot of the time we see that the particular individual involved does not have the necessary skills to do both. That’s why it’s so fucking dope when you do get someone who can walk on both sides of the line, putting the same amount of skills into both aspects (Eyedea). Reain is another one of those lucky so-and-sos and “The Metaphorcast” is the perfect showcase for all his talents.

Set to drop on August 11th, anyone wanting to hear some fresh new UK hip hop should keep their ears peeled.

http://www.myspace.com/reain

Review by Fyshh