Style 43

“He’s dope! One of the best rappers in the UK” Now you’d be pretty stoked if anyone said that about you, right? Well imagine how it’d feel having that accolade thrust up on you by none other than Wu-Tang favourite, Ghostface Killah.
Yessir, Lowkey is definitely big in the game right now, whether its from getting high praises from veteran emcees, or in voicing his criticism of the latest wave of Palestinian slaughter in Gaza, his is a voice that is determined to be heard and with good reason. His debut album, “Dear Listener” drops at the end of this month and it looks like it’s going to be setting the bar pretty high for the year’s future releases.

There won’t be many of you out there who won’t have heard Lowkey before. His “Key To The Game” mix-CD series earned him a lot of fans and got them salivating for a LP release date. It’s been a while in the making but his debut album should not disappoint. From the opening bars of the title track, you know this is going to be a tight lyrical production and the reggae inspired beats on the second tune, “Tell Me Why”, lead you to think this is going to be an all round triumph and in most instances I’d have to agree.

Lowkey has a raw talent for word building and this is showcased impressively on the “Alphabet Assassin” track, a redo of the Gift of Gab classic, “Alphabet Aerobics”. Other highlights come in the form of “The Essence” and “Relatives”. The former is a look at how the hip hop movement has been taken over and saturated by 50 Cent soundalikes and I think it probably speaks for a lot of true heads out there, especially with lines like, “for every 50 Cent, there are 50 MF Grimms”.

The latter, “Relatives”, is a nice concept track with one of Lowkey’s favourite collaborators, Logic. It deals with two yoots, one in Bermondsey and one in Basra and it chronicles their separate (but at the same time very much linked) upbringings and their eventual disillusionment with the key players in their lives. The track builds to an awesome finale and to my ears, it is the best track on the album.

The oddest moment on the album comes from the track “Revolution”. It’s not odd in itself but I was surprised to see it was a collaboration with Faith SFX and none other than Jon McClure from Reverend and the Makers. Apparently this is the start of something new and we should all keep our ears peeled for a supergroup project featuring Lowkey as well as members of Arctic Monkeys, Babyshambles and Reverend and the Makers. We shall see…

The only thing that vaguely disappointed me on this album was the production. A few “A-Listers” have got on board (Scram Jones and Q-Tones) which is all well and good if you want the same production as Mariah and G-Unit, but having already dissed that side of the industry, it seems strange to seek out beats from their producers. I dunno, I’m probably just trying to find fault where there is none and you should all go and make up your own minds anyway. I’ve lost track of the number of shit reviews I’ve read that have been for some of the most amazing musical triumphs I own. “Dear Listener” is out on January 26th and will be available from, as usual, www.suspectpackages.com.

www.myspace.com/lowkeyuk

Review by Fyshh

Tags: dope, hip hop, lowkey