Album Review

Skepta – Doin’ It Again

• 7th Feb 2011

With Grime music being one of those ‘marmite’ genres in Britain at the moment and although it is considered only a London thing, it is still one of the most exciting genres out there at the moment. From Dizzee Rascal’s Mercury Prize Award winning album ‘Boy In Da Corner’ to other Grime acts such as Roll Deep, Lethal Bizzle and others, one man in particular is hoping to gain the success of these other well known Grime acts none other than Skepta.

Before we dive into Mr. Skepta’s new album, it is worth noting dear reader that Skepta has released two albums beforehand and released one very ‘catchy’ tune ‘Rolex Sweep’ and of course that Grime classic ‘Too Many Man’. His new album though has definietly served up a massive shout that this man means business to make it big on his own.

To start off with, the album contains fourteen tracks, six which feature other acts such as N-Dubz, Chipmunk, Charlie Drew, Shorty & well known grime brand – Boy Better Know. Oh and a Grime Mix of P.Diddy’s hit – Good Morning.

That’s quite an impressive list at a glance, a mix of orignal content as well as collabriations with other well known British acts as well as the Grime Mix. However, what I was most looking to was Skepta’s original stuff and one’s that he did all by himself.

The songs themselves are mix too. I mean sure you get your uncontrolbably spitting lyrics flying at you left right and centre in songs such as ‘Do It Like Me’ and ‘Nobody Made Me’ which is all good ‘cos hey I mean that’s what we expect to hear from Mr. Skepta. The lyrics too are what we come to expect too from Grime artists – talk about fit (In the British sense – sexy, hot etc) girls, clubs, nightlife, London and strangely, talk about stuff that we can somehow relate/be intrigued by. I mean compared to Dizzee Rascal’s ‘Boy In Da Corner’ which just featured constant lyrics about all the stuff mentioned above, occasionally, Skepta would throw in a line about Iraq, Unemployment in Britain and other ongoing things in Britain. I dunno about you but songs that contain these type of lyrics get extra brownie points from me in my opinion.

But enough about me and my wants, what about the people who are Skepta fans and wanna know more about this album, well what I can tell you that is if I a 19 year old lad from London who quite frankly is trying to break into this Grime thing as I do have a fair few of Roll Deep & Dizzee Rascal and ofcourse Skepta tunes in my library, I have to say I am highly impressed with this solid album.

The songs that do it for me are of course the hit that is going to be a big hit for him in the furure – ‘Bad Boy’. It is a typical Grime ‘tune’. The lyrics, the beat, the catchy chorus which is simple yet catchy.. simples. Another tune on the album that is getting a lot of hits is ‘Amnesia’, a song about trying what so many people have trouble with: ‘remembering a night out’ hence the name ‘Amnesia’. It has that ‘grime-esque’ feel and gritty sound to it with Skepta talking about his trouble with remembering downing shots of Jager and asking who he fought with and kissed – all the things that could go down on a night out.

However (yes and this is a BIG however) the album is lacking something, I mean that’s take a comparison here – Tine Tempah and his Disc-overy album, on that we had Pass Out, Frisky and other hits that made it big in the charts and clubs and in all honesty only one that will make it ‘big’ with Skepta’s new album is ‘Bad Boy’ as it does have that club feel like I said – catchy beat, catchy chorus and a catchy tune like Pass Out.

I ‘spose then this is a ‘Grime record’ don’t get me wrong but it’s hard to understand what Skepta is trying to achieve here. Is he looking for a number one album? A number one hit with ‘Bad Boy’? Heck maybe even International recongition and mainstream success like Mr. D.Rascal? Skepta does deliever on all levels – solid grime tracks and a big push for a top hit with ‘Bad Boy’.

I ‘spose then maybe it’s just this Grime thing maybe the punters just aren’t into it well certainly not when in particular on the album Skepta is in the first twenty odd seconds just repeating the words ‘F*** Skepta’. I mean it is a marmite genre like I said at the beginning, people will love it or hate and it most certainly ties in with Skepta and his new album.

For me though I did enjoy it mainly cos it sounded fresh to me, I haven’t listened to ‘Boy In Da Corner’ for a while now and I just started listening to a bit of Roll Deep again and Grime does have it’s own sound and meaning behind it all is which I find it an exciting genre but in all seriousness, will it be taken seriously? I mean the album is doing well, number seven in the iTunes albums chart I saw a few days back and ‘Bad Boy’ is somewhere up there in the top 30 somewhere on the singles chart too on iTunes.

Grime fan or Skepta fan you may most definietly want to check this out, if not a big Grime fan but a big fan of ‘popular music’, It wouldn’t surprise me if ‘Bad Boy’ were to come on your TV screen or on your car radio which will trigger you to have a cheeky listen to this solid album.