Album Review

Foreign Beggars – United Clours Of Beggattron

• 23rd Oct 2009

UK hip-hop is good and healthy, but, barring a few big names, it’s for the most part Stateside rappers that dominate our charts. Homegrown prospects come and go, but are often overlooked in favour of artists from the homeland of the genre. One such prospect is London-based group Foreign Beggars, on its fourth album here.

That United Colours of Beggatron will only receive the minutest fraction of attention compared to, say, Jay-z’s latest effort is both a sad inevitability and very much irrelevant to the profound quality of this record. Combining great beats from start to finish (see first single ‘contact’ or the devastating synth/bass of ‘get a bit more’) with technically top-drawer rapping and lyrics that combine traditional themes of money and girls with a resolutely British sense of humour (‘seven figure swagger’ and ‘asylum bound’ are particularly good for the latter), this is a powerful testament to the vast talent of the collective behind it.

An album you should be in a rush to hear if you want some fresh, exciting hip-hop and one of the freshest-sounding efforts in the genre this year, it confirms Foreign Beggars’ status as next-big-thing in waiting of British rap.