Kesi "BO4L" (2020)

BO4L

release date: Jul. 31, 2020
format: digital (Deluxe) (15 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,08]
producer: Hennedub
label: Disco:wax - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 2. "Niveauer" - 3. "Tilbage" (feat. Hennedub) - 4. "Ik tænk" (feat. Benny Jamz) (4 / 5) - 5. "Blå himmel" (feat. Hans Philip) (5 / 5) - 6. "Snak lidt med mig" (4,5 / 5) - 7. "Baku" (feat. ICEKIID) - 9. "Forretning" (feat. Sivas) - 10. "Hygger mig pt. 2" (feat. Gilli) - 12. "Om igen" (feat. Noah Carter) (4 / 5)

3rd full-length studio album [or fourth when including his mixtape Ung hertug from 2013 to the list of albums] by Danish rapper Kesi (also stylised KESI, aka Oliver Kesi Chambuso) released on the Sony Music Scandinavian sublabel disco:wax and produced by Hennedub (aka Henrik Bryld Wolsing) - a usual suspect to Kesi and his associates. The album follows one year after the six-track ep 888 (2019) and five years after the full-length Barn af byen (2015). The title refers to and is the homage to the Danish music collective B.O.C. (aka Bomber Over Centrum / Bomber Over Copenhagen) - a short title for "Bomber Over (Centrum) For Life". The album is credited Kesi but many of his old friends from B.O.C. - Gilli, Benny Jamz, Kimbo, and Noah Carter participate on several tracks, and apart from these also Sivas and Hans Philip are featuring artists. The standard album runs just over 40 mins and the Deluxe Version contains two bonus tracks making it a 15-track album just below 46 mins.
The whole album appears as a look down memory lane, and more so than the usual rap lyrics about sex and drugs, although, you basically find all kind of existential subjects in this broad collection, which is mostly held together in a tight yet wide style of grime and trap. The album starts off with the intro BO4L, and with an older sound clip featuring a young Oliver (Kesi himself) telling a reporter how he has just quit secondary school to concentrate on his music career and about his hopes for the future and his dream about being the best Danish rapper. In several songs, Kesi takes us back to school days, to a harder time but also to days of his musical foundation, when everything was all new, unknown and yet falling into place.
Some compositions are echoing and sound like sequels of older Kesi hit songs, some are expressive up-tempo dancepop related like many of his recent (hit) single releases and others are near ballad-like and introspective - which shows us a new side to his talent. Sound-wise, it's a top-of-the-art production and an impressively coherent collection despite the many stylistic ingredients.
In a time when Danish rap may be looking for replacements for Ukendt Kunstner, Kesi sums up his strengths and simply jumps several steps up the ladder and positions himself as the current best Danish rapper.
Highly recommended and a strong contender to album of the year.
[ Politiken, Soundvenue 5 / 6, Gaffa.dk 4 / 6 stars ]

2020 Favorite releases: 1. Gorillaz Song Machine, Season One - Strange Timez - 2. Kesi BO4L - 3. I Break Horses Warnings

Little Simz "Grey Area" (2019)

Grey Area
release date: Mar. 1, 2019
format: digital (10 x File, MP3)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,72]
producer: Inflo [aka Dean "Inflo 1st" Josiah, aka Dean Cover]
label: Age 101 Music - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Offence" - 2. "Boss" - 3. "Selfish" (feat. Cleo Sol) - 5. "Venom" - 6. "101 FM" - 7. "Pressure" (feat. Little Dragon) - 8. "Therapy"

3rd studio album by Little Simz [aka Simbi Ajikawo] following 2 years after Stillness in Wonderland (Dec. 2016) on her own independent label Age 101 Music.

Her sophomore 2016 release came out to fine reviews but failed to attract a bigger crowd - bassically like her debut A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons (2015), which had been hailed as the new big thing, but as much as these releases didn't attract a broader public attention, then all of a sudden with Grey Area everyone now knows about Little Simz.

I didn't know of her until I came across this one by chance, and my initial thought was "yet another artist of conscious hip hop", I must admit - 'cause it's a genre, I mostly consider obsolete. "Conscious"? I don't get the term. When is contemporary hip hop NOT about social engagement anyway?! More interestingly, this is UK hip hop with bonds to grime and warm neo-soul with a blunt use of drum and bass. And musically, this is normally not a preferred genre of mine, as I find a lot of so-called contemporary rap and hip hop too generic building on the same well-known formulas, but Simz just makes her own original blend. Securely, she sings soulfully, she raps with speed and a sneer that doesn't let any angry grime rapper have a say, and she skilfully drops her points.

Grey Area came out to critical acclaim, and the album topped the Official Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart Top 40-list as well as on the Official Independent Albums-list in the UK. The album was also nominated the Mercury Prize in 2019.

She may not have as many believers as West, Drake, Ocean, or Lamar but imho, she links better with Lauryn Hill and ultimately has more to offer than most other and better known contemporary hip hop artists, and she rightfully deserves more recognition.

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Q, The Observer, 👍The Guardian 4 / 5, NME 5 / 5 stars ]

The Streets "Cyberspace and Reds" (2011)

Cyberspace and Reds (mixtape)
release date: Jan. 24, 2011
format: digital (13 x File, MP3)
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,42]
producer: Mike Skinner

label: self-released - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Came in Through the Door (feat. Kano)" (2,5 / 5) - 2. "4 O'clock" (3 / 5) - 3. "Don't Hide Away (feat. Wiley, Rinse and Ice Kid)" (2 / 5) - 9. "Breakbat Barz (Scru Fizzer)" (2 / 5)

A mixtape album by The Streets only made available as a download album in 320kbps MP3 format, and it features a different kind of music than what normally is associated with The Streets. The mixtape was released a month before the final album release but contains tracks Mike Skinner mixed after the completion of Computer and Blues, and reflects, according to himself, what he is concentrating on, as he already regards the final album as music of his past. Well, it may be a step into a new area for Skinner but it's not interesting to listen to. I merely find it sketches or unfinished mixes, experiments, more than much else, and not really comparable to his other studio albums.

Best of 2002:The Streets "Original Pirate Material" (2002)

Original Pirate Material [debut]
release date: Mar. 25, 2002
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,16]
producer: Mike Skinner
label: 679 / Locked On - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Turn the Page" (4 / 5) - 2. "Has It Come to This" (4,5 / 5) - 3. "Let`s Push Things Forward" - 5. "Same Old Thing" - 6. "Geezers Need Excitement" (4 / 5) - 7. "It's Too Late" (4,5 / 5) - 8. "Too Much Brandy" - 9. "Don't Mug Yourself" (5 / 5) - 11. "The Irony of It All" - 12. "Weak Become Heroes" (4 / 5)

Studio album debut by the Mike Skinner solo project The Streets, and what a great release that is! Skinner is THE dominant figure behind the project, he wrote all tracks for the album and produced it on his own.
The album was well-received and came in at number #10 on the British albums chart list, but in a few years time it gained even more recognition, and today it's one of the highest ranked albums of the decade.
Highly recommended.
[ allmusic.com, Uncut, and Drowned In Sound 5 / 5, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

2002 Favourite releases: 1. The Streets Original Pirate Material - 2. Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights - 3. Johnny Cash American IV: The Man Comes Around

M.I.A. "Kala" (2007)

Kala
release date: Aug. 21, 2007
format: cd
[single rate: 4 / 5] [4,08]
producer: various
label: XL Recordings - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Bamboo Banga" - 2. "Bird Flu" (4 / 5) - 3. "Boyz" (4 / 5) - 4. "Jimmy" - 5. "Hussel" (feat. Afrikan Boy) - 8. "World Town" - 10. "XR2" - 11. "Paper Planes" (4 / 5) - 12. "Come Around" (feat. Timbaland)

2nd studio album by M.I.A. Her debut album Arular (2005) was with reference to her father, and this is dedicated her mother, named Kala. Her third album /\/\ /\ Y /\ (aka 'Maya') (2010), succeeding this one, is literally her own.

I first came across her in 2008 after she had released the single "Paper Planes" taken from this very album. The track is (like most of her music) great uk hip hop dance-pop electropop fused with grime (making it very different from American hip hop) and some glitch pop, and then that track is very cleverly sampled from the song "Straight to Hell" by The Clash. Her style is unique, and then she utilizes her music to speak openly about Sri Lanka vs. India vs. England vs. how the world ignores the impotent political situation in her parents' foster land. Other great tracks from the album are "Bird Flu" and "Boyz", which were both composed, recorded, and arranged in the process of travelling. M.I.A. had laid the foundation of the songs at home, then left to various parts of the world and each new place she rearranged bits, wrote new stuff and added new instrumentation to the individual song making them real world tunes.

In my mind, this is her best album and also one of the most interesting releases in 2007, although, she's really a great singles artist, as her albums are more than just interesting but also lack consistency or homogeneity.

The album ended up on many best of lists including number #1 on Rolling Stone's best albums of the year. And quite deservedly, the album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]