Thursday 4 December 2008

'Dear Listener' - Lowkey (album review)

One of the best albums this year (see my newly amended list – I underestimated this one). Lowkey’s years of hard work, although lamented somewhat on document ‘Rise and Fall’, have really paid off – ‘Dear Listener’ is a complete and comprehensive release.

Observations and musings on subjects such as the motivation behind infidelity, the contrasting realities of life in Britain and Iraq, an interesting take on Hip Hop’s mortality and man’s morality are the order of the day here. But just in case you can’t see past the contents to the bare rhyme skills ‘Alphabet Assassin’ is thrown in to remind you that Lowkey is linguistically ahead of many of today’s MCs. In fact it’s the lyricism that makes the topics he explores impact so heavily.

‘Relatives’ produced by Sivey and featuring Logic is a cleverly interwoven tale of two men - one Iraqi, one British. It would have helped if the rappers had very different voices but it’s not too hard to follow who’s saying what. ‘Revolution’ is a beatbox production by Faith SFX and features a taste of things to come with Jon McClure on chorus duties. ‘I’m Back’ is a full on Quincey Tones produced banger – a tongue twisting exercise over a harpsichord-laced beat.

There are plenty more tracks that I could mention but instead, I’m just going to recommend a purchase – let the music speak for itself. It’s out now on So Empire/Hip Hop Village although its official release date is 26th January 2009.

1 comment:

Unknown said...



Rap and hip hop beats are used by recording artists and

rappers to create a complete song. When the word beat

isused with rap and hip-hop it usually refers to that

part of the song that is instrumental and does not have

any vocal part.Rap and hip hop beats is a layer of

instrumental musicwhich usually continues in a loop, for

example like the drums continuously playing.

hip hop beats
beats
custom beats
trap beats
rap and hip hop beats
hip hop tracks
beats for sale