Still Life review.

Review: 3 out of 5.

Here, another underground artist, the visionary Graphic Designer and Rapper Kieron Boothe has made it with "Still Life". This mix-tape is the demonstration of his artistry. He worked with Aaron London, a singer-songwriter, MC and producer. From East London, Kieron has done well and revealed putting out another mix-tape very soon. My opinion, I have listened and I got to say, the originality is there and the content is quirky. No, that's not the right word for it, I think a perfect term is hybrid. Oh yeah, it's U.K. Hip Hop but this one crossed genres. I spoke to Kieron and insisted Grime is not where he'll go to. That, I can understand, but I'll get to that later.

Good:

Kieron really went all out in this collection of awe-inspiring tracks. Still Life is clearly about the many aspects of his entire life that has shaped up in his work. Every list of music, ripe for the picking, has a taste of who Kieron is as both an artist and the mistakes, problems and willingness to move forward. There are crazy times and other times he would share in this set. The mix-tape has many subjects people from aged 16 and older can relate to, but this ain't the usual school boy aggregation that fuels all of our teenage hormones (twenty somethings included). This is on a whole new level of development, I continue to listen and the hooks really do hold you in place. That is thanks to singer, Amanda Mellid, who sung and hit notes as pleasant as a Robin. Still Life reminded me somewhat of the Wretch 32 album, Black & White, though less about opposite ends of contrast and more of a half way point between vague and exposed. It is balanced and just about right, which bring me to the amalgamation of the crossed genres I said before.

From the rhyming to the production, most of whom composed by Aaron London, the airplay that came to a total of approximately over 32 minutes was amazing. While the crew swung by with songs as uncanny as Awkward, fast enough on point with any beat boxer and Mistakes featuring Mellid herself. This is the ballad or rainy day feel that showed the depth of how far he could plug away and elevate your conscience. On Still Life, the title track of the same set, I couldn't get over that punch line Kieron made "So I went from a boy to a teen, now a teen tryin' tah live a man's dream, Man it's real stuff, then it all went Almond's, real nuts". That was cool and the rest which followed blew up and combined everything neatly. I could go on and on, though it could drag on the whole review. Oh No weren't bad, the chorus was more on the irritating side but Kieron saved about a large majority of the song. Nice touch on the guitar, though.

Bad:

Not much I can say about the negative sides. Most tracks were likable, a couple stood out more than others. The only thing I didn't like was there are too many "fillers" and what I mean by that is a tune used only for the soul purpose of "chilling out" or "raving". Examples of these are Blue Sky, Oh No, Awkward and Dead End featuring Aaron London and Labrinth. While Awkward and Dead End were fine, Oh No was a bit much. I also felt they put a lot in at once, plus they were some that was a downer at times. I needed a high, something upbeat instead of mellow and only steady. It made Mellid not having much to work with even if they did fit her tone. Apart from this, it was a brilliant run and I did enjoy it.

Overall:

Great performance from Kieron, excellent concept and execution by many of the artists such as Aaron, Mellid and Labrinth and well mixed, composed master pieces by XX and again Aaron. I am blown away from the lengths that has gone into this mix-tape. It did come about as overwhelming at certain points and the hybrid flew easily through a pretty reasonable duration of air play. It fell right into place and the ideas didn't encircle. They are close to Karat gold.

- Written by Kbon.

Graveyard Grind (2012) review.

Review: 2.5 out of 5.

My next showcase of music is an underground artist called Igniite, with his mix-tape Graveyard Grind. It was released on the Datpiff website on the 27th January and has so far had quite a few plays ever since. He's fresh on the Grime scene and did a couple music videos you can actually view on his Igniite channel on Youtube. So what's my opinion? Not too bad, actually, but I feel it can be a little bit better.The artist did a lot of work to break through to people in any community about pain, struggle, hard work and happiness. However, I don't think it did enough to move everyone universally.

Good:

The mix-tape did have some parts that were adequate, like the Intro was sonically solid. I thought Igniite's tune was hot but I felt the start could of been more uplifting instead of slow and resolute. In this case, it's the set-up that started the whole part of the air play to a smooth start. "Grind Hard" feat. Young C wasn't too bad. The artist opposite Igniite has some hidden talent, which fell short only by his delivery. Apart from rocks, there is some tunes that speak for the ladies such as the track "She The Type", "My Strength" and "The Business". The last one was better out of all of the three and is well defined for its dreamy melody and finer content.

Bad:

Sadly, there was only a few tracks out of this mix-tape I believed was fine and saw past my judgement but I felt it didn't do enough to make a favourable clash on my I-Tunes library. Igniite promised, or at least attempted to reach to many age groups and barely crossed genders. The tape had a limited resource for content that spoke mainly about street credibility such as grinding, I am saying it's not right and I'm not trying to be a Good Samaritan. It's how you do it: sex, drugs, money and other illegal acts or negative stuff can be dealt with in another light and this was blatant.

Overall:

With a swell choice in selective range of music, cool swag and satisfactory list of guests such as Young C, J.A.Y and Jay Tee it was dampened by a concept that dries up fast. Sometimes it's okay to showboat but other times it can be too much. The statement Igniite made about the tape doesn't prove to me everyone can really connect with it. Graveyard Grind can only target Londoners who just hit puberty or those in their early to mid 20's. Igniite would do better in breaking out of the force bubble he trapped himself in than embracing it, especially in a niche genre as this.

- Written by Kbon.

Thank Me Later review

Review: 3 out of 5.







What's happenin',

I'm here again this time to do a review on one of the most recent and best rappers and singers' in the game now from non other than Young Money Entertainment. Yeah, that's right, Lil Wayne's crew. I'm going to do the latest album of the Canadian artist, Drake, this is his first studio album made and it's called "Thank Me Later". Now I first listened to his tunes from his mix tape "So Far Gone", his third mix tape, but it turns out he's been doing some other mixtapes as far as 2006 such as "Room for Improvement" and "Come Back Season", which I definitely need to get a hold of. Some people out there compare this artist to Kanye West. For me, this is really true and I could see the similarity between them. It is from both their mannerisms and their flow that makes them out to be very compariable. To be honest, I felt this album was pretty good, but not as good as his last mixtape. His lyrics spoke a lot of volumes but I just feel this album didn't really jump out to me in the way that "So Far Gone" did. Anyway, the artists features Lil Wayne himself, Nicki Minaj of course, a young abrasive Trinidadian diva, The Dream, Alicia Keys, T.I., Jay-Z and Young Jeezy.

This album was released on June 15th 2010, which has been signed onto the Cash Money, Young Money and Universal Motown label and one of the producers of this was Kanye West. The single is "Over", I've seen the music video of this sometime in April-May as there has been leaks going around on the Internet. That is the 2nd favourite track of mine, the visuals on that video is really good and how it was laid out was really well done. No vocoder crap, I'm thankful for that, keep it real. To me, a vocoder only works on certain artists' like T-Pain but what I'm curious to know is why do most artists' use that? I mean, is it really that necessary or just part of the cool factor the same way visual effects are carried out in some films? Anyway, off topic, let's get back to my review. There's other tracks on this album like "Karaoke", "Fireworks" or "The Resistance", which are more love orientated or independent moving songs more focused on either family and relationships between either hardships with girlfriends or thereof problems faced with friends and parents, mostly domestic. On the other hand, there are tunes such as "Over", "Unforgettable" and "Fancy" that remind us why a majority of us really love Hip Hop. The verdict? Well since there is a track on it such as "Miss Me", featuring Lil Wayne I was dissatisfied with this. I mean Mr Carter, seriously, you can do better than that. It is hard to decide because it was good, don't get me wrong but personally, it could have gotten much better. I will break this down in three stages that I have done in the 4.3.2.1 review.

The Good:

I appreciate all the different beats on it, some of them, "Unforgettable" remind me funny enough of the slow jams from the 90's that we all need to get back to. Good artists should drop the whole quick-album-run-of-the-mill cash making scheme that all have sunk to these days. As stated by David Banner in an interview on Vibe magazine, it's all of the record producers fault who get cardboard cutout musicians and it's not about how good you could rap anymore. This is true and if we don't get anyone to do something about it before it's too late the rap, hip-hop genre will be destroyed. Passion talk for another time, I love the balance in here because most albums I listened to recently don't have that, it's got feel good tunes which make you repeat the words every time and nod your head whereas the others almost tell a story through metaphorical speech which comes off as a small biography. I'm glad he's talking about variable subjects here. "Fancy" has a well good ring to it that could blast off in the nightclub somewhere. I just like the chorus on this.

The Bad:

I would have given this at least a 1/2 in front of the 3, but this didn't really do enough to value that. There was not much depth to his lyrics, not much punchlines and the music felt a little all over the place. It was as though it was contemporary R&B in this mixed with Rap and other things in this, which makes you wonder in your head "What is it I'm listening to?" before checking the label and going yeah "Parental Advisory - Explicit Content". Drake needs to stick to what he knows. No actually I take it back, be versatile with your music, but not too much that it dilutes it with a litre of water of different stuff thrown into it. This means not too many guest appearances and rap with things in good context like what he did on his last mix tape. Those are the main points that had brought this down. Otherwise it was a good listen and I wish the rapper all the best with his music. He's got potential and if he keeps it up could probably be a next Kanye West. This album has pretty good recognition out there and is received very well. He is listed on the Billboard Hot 100 at the top five.

Overall:

Drake makes up for his less construed lyrics in content with a slow paced, relaxed, rap story which keeps you wanting more as he delivers. His vocals help level the balance of his smooth base and takes all of us on a soft cruise back to what slow jams were. The good choice of instrumentals shows us what he is made of and that he cares about the quality. Although it does not help when you are thrust with different vibes meshed together. Those who are more interested in pop are not left behind. There's a little of that in there as well. I would listen to this over and over again, but it's mainly targeted at those who are looking for just a chilled out evening or wants rhymes.

- Written by Kbon