Marger - Flow Flood

Ok, so I feel kinda bad for writing this as Marger's actually one of the best in the scene right now, but his first mixtape is pretty weak and I'd hate for someone to catch on to Marger's hype, download this, dislike it and then not bother with him again. So I'm here to say this one doesn't really display Marger's talents well at all.

Marger has flow on this and that's about the only thing going for Flow Flood. Back then (sounds like it was ages ago, we're only talking early 2010) he was Money Margz, and way too much of the lyrics here are concerning money, paper and stacks. Whereas on his recent singles, freestyles and EP (Kush Wave) he's great with his similies, he lacks the originality here with stuff we've heard plenty of times before like "more dough than a baker" and at least two examples of those Weezy-patented "shit/piss like a toilet" bars. Instrumentally this is interesting but doesn't quite work. I dunno how many of these (if any) are exclusive but it dots around with grime, hyphy-sounding stuff and some snap. Only one I recognised was Soulja Boy's Donk instrumental on Money Margz. Some of the hooks are pretty weak too. And then there's too much American slang for a grime MC, too much swagger, hustle, paper etc. Just feels kinda all over the place.

Some nice bassy beats (like Wow) and it's not really terrible music, just weak for an MC that I'd consider one of the best in the scene right now. Listen to some of his recent singles like What You Got or get the Kush Wave EP, he's really leading the new wave grime scene, but this mixtape isn't a good example of his talent. Skip this one and check out everything he did afterwards.

Lioness - Loch Ness Monster: It's Not a Mystery Anymore

Talk about disappointment. Lioness finally returns to the grime scene after a bunch of great radio freestyles and ringing endorsement from Bearman and gives us this - a weak mixtape of half-baked hip hop tracks with a really annoying host.

Yeah, first obvious and damning flaw is that she's rapping...over rap beats. Good beats (You're a Jerk, Comfortable, a few others) and only a few remotely grimey tracks (Good for a Girl (perhaps the best track here) and Where's My Sister (three guesses what that one's based off)). Grime MCs attempting hip hop almost always results in failure, they have to be damn good to pull off both genres equally (and as far as I'm concerned, only Ghetts and Goodz can deliver both and unfortunately Lioness doesn't have it, or at least not on here.

Her lyrics are decent, she's definitely capable, but nothing exceptional on display here. Sometimes she complains about being regarded as 'good for a girl' and treated differently because of it, then every other track sees her making a point about being female, like she can't make up her mind about whether or not she wants to use it as a gimmick. She sounds like a British Cash Money reject, throwing out some silly and non-sensical similies like "nuts like seeing Wallace without Gromit" (or something to that effect) which of course makes no sense as anyone who's watched the show will know they appear apart quite often, usually involving one rescuing the other.

The DJ/host guy is super annoying, it's like a Southern US hip hop mixtape where the guy just likes to be loud and funny without thinking things through (like saying "Okay let's knock up the tempo"...followed by a beat that's SLOWER than the last).

There are moments of interest but otherwise it's inconsistant and generic. Not worth your time despite being a free download.

Lethal Bizzle - Pow 2011

Quick rundown:-

Lethal - standard Lethal, no more no less.
JME - "well, well, well" bars from Blam, pretty cool.
Wiley - "wududududadadada", wasn't sure what the fuck he was doing at first, but with multiple plays it becomes really catchy. Bars come from a tune he released a few weeks before, one of his "ok I'm definitely back doing grime now part 228" kinda tracks.
Chipmunk - Once you go yank you never go back, lyrics about swagger and money, still, not especially bad, and definitely not the worst here.
2Face - Pretty hype but what's with the line "how can you say I ain't hard, shut up you ain't hard either", isn't that admitting that he'd not hard?
P Money -  Pretty hard yeah, quite typical P Money, he used these bars as a hook on one of the songs on the Ibeatthetune mixtape.
Ghetts - Skippy flow, pretty cool, standard Ghetts
Kano - Really shit, one of the worst verses I've ever heard. Of all the versions of pow 11 I've heard, this is the worst verse. Kano is TERRIBLE nowadays and this examplifies it better than no other. Terrible, completely loses the hype and momentum Ghetts had built up. Bullshit way to end and what's worse is he gave him a fucking 16 bar! The first four bars are "I'm old-school, I'm from the manor, I duppy every rave, bitch I'm MC Shaba". Seriously, that's his contribution, what a fucking waste.

But before that it's pretty good. Not as good as the original Pow obviously, or any of the others (Forward 2 All-Stars, Forward 2 Fire Camp, Da Bizzle Remix) or some of the other 8 bars to come out this year (Lock Off the Rave 8bar Remix, Pull Up Dat 2011, Spartan Remix) or even some of other versions of Pow 2011 (the Wales all-star version linked in StemLongStem's review is indeed much better) since the instrumental's a banger. Also youtube the remix by DJ Raph, mixes in different instrumentals that each MC is known for spitting over, it's really sick.

Pretty good tune but for sure it doesn't live up to the expectations set by the original. Still, circulated a great Silencer riddim and got grime in the top 40, can't argue with that. It's mostly a historical piece, all these MCs on one tune together isn't likely to happen again any time soon.

Lethal Bizzle - Go Hard

Well I never heard the first two Bizzle albums after hearing that they're inconsistant and littered with filler and genre hopping, but now I think I might have to cause this is fucking top. After retiring from music and then returning and then getting bottled by the crowd at Download, Bizzle comes back harder than ever. That is to say that every song here is an absolute banger and Bizzle knew exactly what he was doing on this one. It definitely covers the whole map...mostly centered around grime but there's hip hop (Lost My Mind), funky (So Addictive) and rap-rock (Rockstar), but rather than sounding messy and disjointed Lethal masters all the styles perfectly and the album flows nicely. Yes, you know how I normally am when grime artists dip into rap but Lethal handles it well, and even makes the crossover rock track a banger.

Sure, the lyrics aren't that special, Lethal's just a fun MC at this point in his career, he tries to get a bit deep on Money Power Respect Fame and Push It but other than that he's funny and entertaining. The Rockstar track will fail as a crossover track though, why don't hip hop and grime artists realise that rock fans don't want to hear brag lyrics?

Besides the unimportant lyrics though what makes this is the fantastic production. Stand outs would be Dexplicit, who here displays himself as one of the strongest and most innovative producers in grime and I'm gonna have to check out his solo stuff, but we also get some great stuff from Donaeo with his drums and horns with soulful hook sound. Silencer and Youngstar also deliver, there's really no weak tracks on here.

From everything I've heard so far, this is my pick for best grime album of '09, I really never expected Lethal to top Newham Gens, P Money and Wiley but he really delivered here and even though he might not be as strong a lyricist as those his management skills he used to organise an album of fantastic beats and hooks pushes him to the top of the pile, add to that the fact that the album is diverse enough to make it interesting without it sounding messy and that it's just the right length clocking in at around 40 minutes you can see why it's a classic. My one complaint is that the least interesting track (Flap Your Wings) is the longest here, but it's hardly worth moaning about. Great album, definitely recommended.

Jammer - Jahmanji

Don't understand why a lot of fans were disappointed with this. Pretty much everything Jammer has ever touched is gold and this is no different. Maybe I don't like it quite as much as the Are You Dumb series, but maybe that's because I'm a really big fan of pure grime and this takes influence from a bunch of other sounds (funky house and various 90s dance music), however it's all still backed by hard bass and a steady 140bpm pulse and nearly all of these tracks would sound right at home on a grime playlist. The productions are very creative, not really limiting themselves to any one sound or being tied down by the confines of a genre, nothing's pure grime or pure funky or anything. Comparable maybe to Preditah or L Starr (in neither sound nor quality but concept). Jammer himself, I've always thought, is a madly underrated MC and contender for top 5 easy. He's always had mad flows, a unique voice and cool, hype lyrics, as well as some serious diversity where he can join a bunch of other mcs on war tracks, conscious songs or club bangers and still burn all competition. He sounds a little more complacement here than usual, he's not QUITE as creative as he's been in the past but he also sounds confident in the fact that he can write catchy, free-flowing bars for days and days. The opener is brilliant and contender for best song, last verse especially is brilliant. Murkle Mode follows up hard, although the hooks might sound weird on the first few listens, they really grow on you in an odd way after you warm to Jammer's singing voice and kinda unorthodox vocal patterns. Bad Mind People and Better Than are the grimiest (lyrics are top in the latter) tracks, Party Animal is the farthest removed and easily my least favourite song here. It really bugged me when I first heard it and had me lose hope in the album, but everything else is better. I've warmed to it a bit now in context of the album it's a little better, but the album would still be just fine without it. Back to the 90s is brilliant too. I like that this album, unlike the long anticipated debuts of some other grime mcs, makes no attempt to cater to an American audience whatsoever. All influences here are from uk/euro dance music, there's no signs of hip hop on here at all, no Lex Luger beats, no Rick Ross flow. Not that Americans couldn't enjoy this, but it's cool to get a good British-produced album on the shelves that isn't ashamed of the fact and doesn't try to mimic a more popular culture. Loosen up your expectations a little, approach the album with anticipations of fun and just enjoy it.

Ghetts - Freedom of Speech

After a strong debut and uneasy follow-up, Ghetts delivers on his third mixtape Freedom of Speech. He claims to be 'back on the darkside' and I won't lie, this is pretty dark stuff and is recommended highly to fans of artists like Mobb Deep. Ghetts is a phenomonal MC, probably the strongest in the UK, and he spits very dark but real lyrics about London streets and life from British youth. The beats are often quite minimal, there aren't really any big gully bassline tracks, these ones are atmospheric and grim but still hard hitting. This just feels like the album Ghetts was supposed to make, I almost feel bad calling it a mixtape because it just feels so much stronger than that. Every line and rhyme is on point and every beat is banging, all the hooks are solid and each song has a personality of it's own.

My favourites would have to be Ghost Town, with it's great beat and hook and really solid lyrics, Mountain with it's strange orchestrated house-type beat and catchy, quotable lyrics, Convo With a Cabbie with it's touching message, and the emotionally powerful How It Is.

This is a grime essential, no two ways about it. If you're interested in any way in grime you need this.

Demon - Demon's World

What a massive disappointment. Demon was one of the sickest MCs to touch mic in grime, whenever he'd draw for "you don't wanna bring arms house!" or "gangsta toys make gangsta noise!" it would be instant reload. Tunes like One Way Flow, Gangsta Toys, Adrenaline Rush and one of the best verses on Pow displayed an MC on his way to the top. When I found out he released Demon's World at grime's peak, I had to hear it.

Shame that it's nearly all shitty rap on G-Unit style beats. Yeah One Away Flow's here, and at the end we get Adrenaline Rush and (an inferior) remix of Gangsta Toys, but it isn't enough to make up for the lameness of this weak US imitation. Some say he switched to hip hop cause he was scared that Chronik would jump him again if he misinterpretted one of his bars. Maybe that's why he stopped writing about breaking your teeth and started writing about generic shit like money. Either that or he thought he'd blow in America with a 5th-rate rap album comingout  about 4 years too late to even be significant in this lame Beg for Mercy worship. Either way it's as lame as the cover art. Released in 2006 when grime was at it's best this could have been a classic, but I can assure you it's not worth your money.

Highlight is a short recording of Demon going sick at Sidewinder somewhere in the middle. I'd sooner just catch the original set though, avoid this.