Black and White review.

Review: 4 out of 5.

Been awhile since I did Chicks and Vans review, but here I am, any person who are fans of this page send me any possible or manageable piece of media, be it films, TV, music and games to review. Now, I plan to review the ground-breaking artist, Wretch 32. The first time I heard this artist was about 4 years ago, when Grime was on a hiatus. I have a few of his mix-tapes which I need to go back to. What I do know is this artist has been in the game for a long time and only just broke to mainstream. He is a very clever MC who has well constructive lines that build with one after the other. As the title suggests, Black and White is about the positive and negative aspects of his experiences, which I believe shows the artists' character, rather than settle with a narrow concept that is to me generic. I think Wretch 32 stands out more than most UK Grime MC's, in that he refuses to be put into a category. Is it enough though? You wretch, he did it!

Good:

Black and White has gone in, working his magic. Luck is not an option he plays as he went out to a whole lot of trouble in finding an retrospective, medium tempo, hard base, electronic but fresh take on British Hip Hop and Pop. Released in August 2011, his single, Traktor was one of my favourite tracks. I saw the music video for that and its very rectifying. Wretch has even added dub step, acoustic and anniversary versions of some of his songs in the deluxe edition, which shows he has an appreciation for other genres of music. Either this, or Wretch became smart and went the "Tinnie Tempah" route and crossed genres in order not to target a particular audience, rendering it a niche in the market. What is great about it, among other things, like being with many artists to name one of them; Chipmunk, he moved to new territory without moving too far from his roots. His work has cut out for him and he shows a strong essence of those he collaborates with.

The one big trait about Wretch 32 is that he is not all that serious, the way he executes his lines at each end of a bar is quite offhand without being so blase and he raises his tone that uplifts you at the same time. Most of his tracks mainly talk about his childhood, teenage years and career. Not only that, but misguidance, financial problems, growing up, his exploits and parent's. You wouldn't really call this Grime at all. In fact, about 10 miles away from it. There is just songs for everyone here, tracks like "Never Be Me" featuring Angel "Anniversary (Fall in Love)" ft Alex Mills and "Please Don't Let Me Go" ft Darren B are nostalgic, dreamy and have a common use of synthesizers and is down tempo reminiscent of electronica in a way. While "Unorthodox" "I'm Not the Man" and "Sane's the New Mad" have a moving quality to it.

Bad:

There's not much downsides to his album, except the style is a little sparse, which isn't a bad thing as such. It just makes it hard to define what it is. However, music is an art form that is expressed through sound. It is not really meant to be contained. On the other hand, there's a point where you have to settle down with subjects or approach that sticks with your interpretation without being unstuck. Another thing is "Black and White" and "Air" were both the least type of tracks I liked. I will not go hard with judgement with Air but the first track I said out of the two has to be, it was the first one on its track listing, hence the reason I've had a crack at it the way I did. It must be a good impression from the start, otherwise the listener may not have a reason to listen to the rest. Black and White (the track not the album, keep up) was a solid intro to everything for what's to come, even some of his words I was thinking "Come on, you can do better than that". It was just slow, flat and could have had a great impact. Although "Dark side of my life", "Light side of my life" were good analogues for the whole concept that drives the piece.

Those who don't have the Deluxe Version, this doesn't apply to what I'm about to say here. Those who do, you can pay attention to what I said earlier on in this review. Wretch added many remixes, if you will, to the album. Now I personally favoured acoustic versions of "Tracktor" and "Don't Go", he even made dub step as well. The other version was terrible, especially "Tracktor" in Friction remix. It gives you a choice though, which I believe the budding artist was aiming for. One more thing, even though Wretch had evident teamwork he did make some bad choices, for instance, Chipmunk featuring on his track "I'm Not the Man" did not add substance. Instead it detracted from the material, away for a bit. I'm not usually this critical over a respected MC's alliance with other artist's, but a few were not good, one of them on "Air".

Overall:

Black and White has got to be one of the best album's this year, while Wretch won't be seen on the "Jeremy Kyle show", I am confident when he comes back with a new album it is just as good. A fresh take on UK Hip Hop, this edition has the best of many different world's including Pop, Dub step and the like. His great strength is his bars, swagger and tracks "Never Be Me", "Please Don't Let Me Go" and of course "Tracktor". A little hiccup with the kind of collaboration he's associated with but he didn't lose focus and carried on until I saw hope. Many can enjoy his second outing into mainstream.

- Written by Kbon.