Fake For Real - Tag - LondonThe English written companion of Fake For Real: since 1997, reviews and articles about rap music2024-03-11T20:40:46+01:00Sylvain Bertoturn:md5:a035ff44a020bb716e18191580d6e9ecDotclearDIGGA D - Back To Square Oneurn:md5:ef0fe73e533a3f5545b31813634ec1422023-11-29T22:45:00+01:002024-02-23T22:32:06+01:00codotusylvAlbums2023Black Money RecordsDigga DEnglandLondon <p><em>Back To Square One</em>. Such is titled Digga D's fourth album, a release he presents as a mixtape. It is misleading, though, as it doesn't actually go back to basics. Quite the opposite. The boy who, at seventeen and beyond, became a figurehead for UK drill through a series of top-charting singles, is moving away from this style. On that project - his first for his own Black Money label - one song only sounds like his music of choice. And it is called - guess what? - "Fuck Drill".</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2023/digga-d-back-to-square-one.jpg" alt="DIGGA D - Back To Square One" class="media-center" title="DIGGA D - Back To Square One"></p>
<p>The roots Digga D pretends to unearth are, in reality, those of rap music, a genre much wider and more heterogeneous than the repetitive UK drill formulas. He indeed goes back to its basics - US hip-hop - when he reinvents the Luniz "I Got 5 On It" hit single on "Bine On Em", when he mentions Nicki Minaj on "Façade", when he uses the melodic and catchy loop of "Soft Life", or when he deploys "DTF", a banger that mixes the sound of No Limit Records with UK drill. He targets a larger audience, as evidenced when he uses the sugary sounds of R&B, or when he sings his hooks.</p>
<p>Digga D delivers rap music, not drill music. Nonetheless, he remains a Brit. Tracks such as "Braids" are close to trapwave, the local take on Auto-Tuned depressive trap music, whose pioneer, M Huncho, is one of the guests on the mixtape, and supports one of its best songs, "Baby Mum's Crib".</p>
<p><em>Back To Square One</em> goes back to rap. But it is also, for Digga D, a return to Powis Square, in West London. On melancholic guitars, the rapper talks about his life in the streets on the outstanding "I'm From...", and on "Me & Kinz". He reminisces about raising hell with a friend, who is deceased now. The risks of gang life are treated in "Cherish God More", a track he named after his crew (CMG), and where he talks about other dead ones and personal pains.</p>
<p>Digga D talks about a past that doesn't pass, his own. As soon as with the first track, "Fighting For My Soul", he confesses suicidal tendencies. Sounding like a beaten dog, he confides about religion, fame, prison, drugs, violence, and freedom of speech. And on the last one, “West To North West”, he questions how his lyrics impact the youth. He is bitter toward the music industry on the strong "Kindness For Weakness" song. And even in his angriest moments, there's a bit of vulnerability, like with the "Energy" single.</p>
<p>Digga D managed to evolve. He passes the exam, with this fourth mixtape. He addresses with success a risky challenge: the intimate record, the "maturity album", that awful cliché. In Great Britain, Digga D was already a star. And now, he proves that he can be much more than a formulaic rapper.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://amzn.to/3OQ8vwZ" hreflang="en">Buy this mixtape</a></strong></p>
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https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2023/DIGGA-D-Back-To-Square-One#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/3434FREDO - Money Can't Buy Happinessurn:md5:41020b9606c6466a45601d6ae6649d332021-03-02T22:06:00+01:002023-08-12T22:04:41+02:00codotusylvAlbums2021EnglandFredoLondonNeighbourhood Recordings <p>Some time ago, on the forum of this very blog, one of the regulars compared Dave to Abd al Malik, a quite embarrassing French rapper. Ouch, that hurts… However, it is not entirely unfounded. Both rappers, indeed, share this unnerving way to talk with way too much gravity, on beats full of pathos. Both have a disposition for contrition and whining.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2021/fredo-money-can-t-buy-happiness.jpg" alt="FREDO - Money Can't Buy Happiness" style="display:table; margin:0 auto;" title="FREDO - Money Can't Buy Happiness" /></p>
<p>There are two significant nuances, though.</p>
<p>First, whatever some biased people are willing to sell, music from the UK has ridiculed ours for more than half a century. And even though nationalistic partisans of French pop or French rap might differ, it doesn't look ready to change.</p>
<p>Also, more importantly, Dave still relates to the traditional rap context, the gangsta one. This is all about a cocky thug, a swaggering crook obsessed with money and street life.</p>
<p>This judgment also applies to Dave's acolyte and counterpart, the one who featured a while ago on his hit single "Funky Friday", and who just released his second album.</p>
<p>After other successes such as his <em>Tables Turn</em> mixtape or the <em>Third Avenue</em> album, Fredo went a bit too far into pop territories with "Hickory Dickory Dock", a track from 2020 he's disowned since then, and he removed from the streaming platforms. After a few intense months in his life – a little daughter was born, his close friends Billy Da Kid and Muscle Gotti died in tragic circumstances – <em>Money Can't Buy Happiness</em> goes back to the basics: this is about being a dealer and a street hustler. After all it was in prison, in 2016, that Marvin Bailey the delinquent became Fredo the rapper, thanks to the viral success of his "They Ain’t 100" song.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, Fredo never really escaped the underworld he is from, judging by the video of the lead single, "Money Talks". There, the story goes back in time, and shows the journey of a 50 pounds banknote from the rapper's illegal activity to his video's shooting crew, including detours through a prostitute and a minister. Despite his success, the rapper still evolves in the same universe. A universe cemented by the thing that - according to wise men from the last century – rules everything around us: cash.</p>
<p>Fredo goes back to his fundamentals. He says it explicitly with "Back To Basics", a single that talks heavily about drug traficking. Same with "Spaghetti", where he mentions his prowess as a dealer and as a sex machine. And it is still the same dangerous background on "Burner On Deck", a collaboration with Young Adz and the late Pop Smoke. Fredo also talks about his previous life, on "Aunt's Place", when he says that his mother had kicked him out of their house. He even misses such tricky old times, according to "I Miss".</p>
<p>Fredo proudly talks about all of this, using at times the rattling and bass sounds of UK drill. But he does it with bitterness and melancholy, like on "Biggest Mistake", an introductory track about the painful events of his life – his absent father, juvenile delinquency, imprisonment – with introspective lyrics not dissimilar to Dave's psychotherapeutic raps.</p>
<p>The latter seconds him on "Money Talks", and he is also the executive producer of the album. And this is heard, whenever the instrument of this accomplished pianist accentuates Fredo's lyrics on "Biggest Mistake", "Spaghetti", "I Miss", "What Can I Say", the beautiful ends of tracks like "Money Talks" and "Blood In My Eyes", and his most fragile songs.</p>
<p>Among those, we have the admirable "Ready", that elaborates on "Ready Or Not", the Fugees hit song, with the support of Summer Walker, and where Fredo shares some regrets about his previous life. And there is also the aforementioned "Blood In My Eyes", with some intimate words about his daughter and his relationship with his partner.</p>
<p>There is a bit too much of sentimentality, like with the conclusive "What Can I Say", a tribute to Fredo's dead friends, he ends with words for those who are in prison. <em>Money Can't Buy Happiness</em>, though, has great music, and the young man from Queens Park has impeccable raps. They brighten his story about someone who moved too quickly from rags to riches, about a criminal torn between regrets and a desire for revenge, between relapse and redemption, between his loyalty to his origins and his desire for escape.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, not much separates these two British rappers from Abd al Malik. Almost nothing. Except for nuances, ambiguities, and the music, i.e., the essential pieces.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://amzn.to/3QpjuyL" hreflang="en">Buy this album</a></strong><br /></p>
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https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2021/FREDO-Money-Can-t-Buy-Happiness#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/3380KATE TEMPEST - Let Them Eat Chaosurn:md5:1b26517c5f8668cf01dadd0ce5f6dfd52019-05-28T23:11:00+02:002023-01-13T18:04:43+01:00codotusylvAlbums2016EnglandKate TempestLondonUniversal Music <p>Kate Tempest represents another tradition in UK's rap scene. The one, as a matter of fact, which is not really about rap. The one from other Brits connected to hip-hop, like The Streets, but also from people unrelated to it, like John Cooper Clarke, the punk poet, Kate Calvert worked with. This is the spoken word tradition. This is also a socially conscious kind of poetry. Tempest sees herself as a rapper, and she started in a hip-hop group, Sound of Rum. But she has more to do with literature than with music. As is happens, she is also a playwright and a novelist, and she is a favorite of the cultural elite, who rewarded her through various prizes.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2016/kate-tempest-let-them-eat-chaos.jpg" alt="KATE TEMPEST - Let Them Eat Chaos" style="display:table; margin:0 auto;" title="KATE TEMPEST - Let Them Eat Chaos" /></p>
<p>That kind of recognition could be dubious. Quite often, such praises reward the artistic approach, more than the final product. What is celebrated is an ambition, or a pretention, more than the actual work. And such ambition is very visible on <em>Them Eat Chaos</em>, Kate Tempest's second album. It starts with a poem recounted on dry beats, "Picture a Vacuum", that smells of experimentalism. And its narrative is rather conceptual. The story, indeed, starts on "Lionmouth Door Knocker" with a general view of planet Earth, that progressively focuses on London and some of its inhabitants. Then it turns into some social commentary, through the description of seven neighbors who, when a storm impacts their lives, get to know each other.</p>
<p>All these characters are impersonated by Kate Tempest over a series of monologues. Each of them, one after the other, reviews his or her life during times of insomnia. One can't cope with the death of her partner ("We Die"). Another one is a party animal, drinking his monthly wage in one go ("Whoops"). And a third feels that life is a failure ("Pictures on A Screen"). All these people are all self-centered. They overconsider their personal problems and miseries. But through them, Kate Tempest addresses more fundamental issues. The main theme on <em>Let Them Eat Chaos</em>, which title comes from famous – and apocryphal – words from Marie-Antoinette ("let them eat cake"), is about the individualism and isolation of ordinary citizens. It is about the void of Western civilization on "Europe Is Lost", its disregard for the rest of the world on "Tunnel Vision", or the deadly gentrification process in London, on "Perfect Coffee".</p>
<p>Substance matters. But the format skillfully serves it. Whenever relevant, Kate Tempest's tirades turn dexterously into melodies, or into something much closer to proper raps. They are self-sufficient, as demonstrated with some a cappellas. But the synthetic music that dominates most of the album is also appropriate and efficient, from the bouncy "Whoops", that looks designed to a grime rapper, to the inspired "Perfect Coffee", and the atmospheric "Pictures on A Screen". And at times, with equal success, it is supplemented by more organic sounds, like with the guitar and drums on "Europe Is Lost". Beyond the concept, in addition to her clichéd criticism of individualism, all her intellectualism set apart, Kate Tempest does good music.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LFEPUH2/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01LFEPUH2&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20" hreflang="en">Buy this album</a></strong></p>
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https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2019/KATE-TEMPEST-Let-Them-Eat-Chaos#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/3053NADIA ROSE - Highly Flammableurn:md5:98ec35082e1137989e76aaf842fcaa9a2019-04-12T23:11:00+02:002023-01-13T18:04:58+01:00codotusylvAlbums2017EnglandLondonNadia RoseRelentless Records <p>Grime is a family affair. Nadia Rose, indeed, is a cousin of Stormzy. She grew up close to him, in Croydon, South London. Moreover, she is the daughter of a dancehall DJ and MC. Naturally, considering such a background, she started writing quite early, with enough talent to have songs buzzing, like her "Station" freestyle, or her appropriation of a DJ Mustard beat on "D.F.W.T". This resulted into a contract with Sony and, in 2017, into her <em>Highly Flammable</em> EP, a first official release heralded by the outstanding single "Skwod", and its well-thought video.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2017/nadia-rose-highly-flammable.jpg" alt="NADIA ROSE - Highly Flammable" style="display:table; margin:0 auto;" title="NADIA ROSE - Highly Flammable" /></p>
<p>That video was shot with a full bunch of ladies, since "Skwod" is about celebrating her friends. It is about having a good time among women, and it is irresistible. It is indisputably the highlight of that release, and it is setting its tone: only female rappers are to be heard on it, its only guests being ladies like Thai'Chi Rose and Alika. All over it, Nadia Rose asserts her femininity. She glorifies it on the "Puddy Cat" ego-trip, and on "Tight Up", a song about, well... tight skirts. She is also a dangerous and threatening woman on "Poltergeist" and "Murder". She claims to be a murderer, even though the only thing she is trying to kill, is actually her microphone. The Londoner, indeed, is full of playful creativity and brazen humor. Jointly with the electronic tones and the inventiveness of her music, that earned her flattering comparisons with Missy Elliott.</p>
<p>In the introduction, Nadia Rose alludes to the death of her grandmother, but this is misleading. Her music, indeed, is neither sentimental, nor vulnerable. Quite the opposite: it is all about proving her verbal dexterity. This is a deluge of words, a waterfall of punchlines, delivered rapidly, with a quick flow and a thick dancehall influence, expectedly considering her roots. This inspiration is particularly visible on "U Know What", and on the Red Rat-sampled "Tight Up". The rapper extends the metaphor in the title, she is flammable. She is incendiary, she is an arsonist. Being on fire is one of her themes, like with "2H2H" ("Too Hot to Handle"). There, "Poltergeist" is the one and only track slowing down the fast pace of this well-rounded release.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NAERUQ1/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01NAERUQ1&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20" hreflang="en">Buy this album</a></strong></p>
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