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.