Skepta - Konnichiwa

only new one i've heard yet is "Man" which is a shade less but still hell yes

The Pharrell track is actually pretty good. The one with the A$AP twat less so.

i like "it ain't safe" more than the pharrell track, "ladies hit squad" is soooooo bad though

"ladies hit squad" is soooooo bad though

yeah i'm not feeling that one at all. rest is great, but on first pass hearing shutdown and that's not me in there feels like walking right into two towering monoliths in the forest

this is good so far

his younger bro has him beat for wordplay but he conveys a sort of measured menace that you can't teach

Tracks 8 through 12 are where this really takes off for me. Not so keen on 'Numbers' on first listen.

Text Me Back is so lovely <3

so i remember some of the ilx cru on twitter crowing this winning the mercury prize over bowie as some kinda victory for anti-rockism or w/e but like do people really feel like this is a great album? feels like...competent commercial grime w/lots of current hip hop/pop influences but i dunno, this is not as good as blackstar imo

A lot of grime is like that now, just sort of standard rap beats really without the roots in garage or the cavernous production that made the earlier stuff exciting. It suffers from bad sequencing as well. I wrote something about why it vaguely underwhelmed here:

"I provided all the pies" - a thread for Wiley's 'The Godfather'

A lot of people do love it but it definitely benefited from three great singles and a release date at the exact right point in the zeitgeist.

great post on the wiley thread, thank u

http://pitchfork.com/news/skepta-joins-mick-jagger-for-new-song-england-lost-listen/

First Stormzy does a song with Linkin Park and now this :(

Everything Skepta's put out since Konnichiwa has been average at best

He's dead good live though

fully agree w/paolo's post above, but.... he was actually involved with some p good tunes this year. (can't bring myself to post the jumpy remix because chip)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbj2Zss-5GY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPIOEheFoHs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEdOFOJxYMA

One of the reasons he's been so average lately is because he stopped spitting over grime-tempo beats ages ago, and jumping onto afrobeats/drill/US rap just exposes his limitations as an MC. That Wizkid tune is great but it isn't great because of Skepta.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-9dxYcH7sg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgnBBi1ewjI

New album out at the month and these tunes are pretty decent, both produced by the man himself I believe. Nafe Smallz can do one though

has JME retired

The album is a bit hit and miss but overall more hit than miss for me (even the Murder On The Dancefloor sampling garage track - good to see B Live back). It's more consistent than Konnichiwa, doesn't have any standout bangers like Shutdown or Man which is fine by me. The US rappers don't really add anything though

Looking at Skepta's whole career he's been a better producer than an MC. I'm old enough to remember when Doin It Again came out and people were talking about whether he should drop the MCing and stick to producing :(

I like this a lot more than I expected to, grimness of the Ike Turner line notwithstanding.

I guess we’re a long way from eat the cake Annie Mae