Saturday 29 March 2008

Charlie Sloth - 'It's Hard Being Good' review

With a title like that I expected two things. One was ‘I’m not going to like it because the kid is big headed’ and the other was ‘I bet it’s not actually good anyway’. It’s so annoying to be proved wrong. To be fair, the reason why I got in contact with Mr. Sloth was because I’d heard his verses on Teef’s latest and because I loved the tracks on his Myspace page.

It’s surprising that The Source should rate this MC as the UK’s finest; in my experience the average US resident who likes rap absolutely hates UK rappers and Charlie Sloth hasn’t exactly the most likeable voice. But his voice is half his charm and I soon tuned into it; it wouldn’t be as good if he had a generic, boring rap voice.

‘It's Hard Being Good’ has a great range of themes meaning it never gets boring – dealers, travelling, crime, honest living, his come up, youth and truth all get touched on – this is rap with substance.

4 tracks will stick in your head: ‘Can’t Forget About UK’ name checks everyone who made the UK rap scene, I’m always admiring when people do this kind of track. ‘Mr Rapman’ is based around a sample of The Cure’s ‘Love Cats’ and is a funny tale about lying rappers. ‘Guided Tour of Camden’ will have you singing along and makes even more sense with the excellent video. ‘Come on Back To Me’ is a brilliant metaphorical love story, I guessed the twist at the beginning but I wont spoil it for you, I strongly recommend you check this track.

Go and download this, you can even order a hard copy for a measly sum, find a way to support this guy; he really deserves it.

Certified Bangers: ‘Mr Rapman’, ‘Guided Tour of Camden’ & ‘Come on Back To Me’
Top Lyric: “And like to brag about the stuff that you sorta got//Cos all your stuff is financed, with massive APR’s//Just give me my chips you bitch, and make ‘em large!” (from 'Mr Rapman)

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