YG guests on “Last Night”, an A$AP Rocky style, “let’s deepen the voice on the hook” type track which overshadows the underwhelming verses. There are gems like these scattered throughout “The Long Way Home”, it’s whether you can tolerate the commercial sound tying these tracks together. The nerve of dropping “Allahu akbar” in a terrorism context too, is brave. The “old guy in a hoodie” is a reference to the viral video of a man hijacking a televised news report by shouting “Fuck her right in the pussy”, which has also become a catchphrase used in everyday conversation in the UK (or maybe it’s just the type of people I associate with). Of course, doing things for banter is a common phrase used by youngsters in the UK, as an excuse for anything. Just in these 8 bars alone, Konan effectively translates “I crashed an Astra for banter”, with “I treat whips like Nascar” being the same thing, just that a different audience will understand it.
Now restaurants wanna give me black cards Just as it feels like the American references are overdone, they’ll throw something in for British fans. “The Long Way Home” has its best moments when it retains what made them so popular on their mixtape “Young Kingz” – barebones production and bluntly delivered rhymes. There is the sense that they are trying to please as many fanbases as possible, and it does beg the question as to what surprises are in store on their sophomore release, as only names such as Jay-Z, Drake, Rihanna or Beyonce are going to feel like progression to new listeners. The main issue I have with “The Long Way Home” is the inconsistent flow of the album, as it jumps between ignorant club bangers you’d play whilst pre-drinking, and serious, introspective numbers that feature my parents’ favorite singers Emeli Sande and Ed Sheeran. They don’t claim to be tough guys, despite one of them having done a stretch in prison which is either a missed opportunity, or an artistic decision.
Sex is a prominent theme throughout, overshadowing the back stories of Krept and Konan. There’s wordplay all over this project, some of it remarkably well hidden. This careful bridging of two cultures highlights how Krept and Konan can’t be labelled sell-outs, even if purists would insist that they are making accessible music for a wider audience. Lines like “Showing off your skin, ah wanna see more” (a Simpsons reference) and “Have you ever ate McDonald’s on a G4?” (eating cheap fast-food on a private jet) are decidedly American yet feel typically British and lend some character to what is a largely derivative club anthem about bagging a chick. As far as DJ Mustard productions go, it’s arguably his laziest (and I’m a fan of his minimalism) – it’s Beenie Man’s “Who Am I” updated for a new generation, something Beenie has acknowledged by appearing on the remix.
The single that’s currently tearing up the radio is a DJ Mustard production – “Freak of the Week” featuring Jeremih. The key difference here is that Krept and Konan don’t try to sound American themselves – they remain London through and through. has there been an album so heavily directed by what’s popular in American Hip-Hop. These guys are closer to Sway or Giggs, who both transcended the Grime/Hip-Hop divide albeit through short-lived success – an all too common facet of being a UK rapper with buzz.īoth Krept and Konan were on Hot 97 recently, and mentioned how Rick Ross explicitly stated that he didn’t know “this type of music was coming out of the UK”. The uniqueness of Leaf Dog and his crew The Four Owls has led to collaborations with everyone from Vinnie Paz to DJ Premier, but taps in to a certain section of Hip-Hop that Krept and Konan couldn’t be further from. equivalent.Īt the end of the 2000s however, High Focus became a leading label in UK Hip-Hop, combining the nostalgic production of 90s New York Hip-Hop with self-deprecating, often reckless (sometimes feckless) rhymes that connected with a new generation. Your Jehsts, Klashnekoffs, Tys, Task Forces et al were popular but remained markedly underground in their sound, being unique from the U.S. Hip-Hop on the other hand, has tended to be the more down to earth, working man’s music, particularly during the same time frame that Grime emerged from UK Garage’s ashes. Thankfully Grime has progressed from the grainy camera phone videos that could be seen on Channel U (pre-YouTube outlet for amateur rappers) in the mid-2000s, whereby every track seemed to be a vicious snapshot of London gangland mentality, spilled forth upon a 140+ BPM instrumental. Grime is of course, a sub-genre of Hip-Hop, but the two scenes are markedly different. Krept and Konan are the hottest thing in UK Hip-Hop right now, despite having heavy links with the Grime scene.
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