Various Acts - 'Run The Road' (679)
5/5
By: Toby L
Grime. An 'urban' (sigh) genre; a shout from the disparate streets, a call-to-arms, from the bedroom-producers, the teenage voices. The truth.
In basic - it's a form of unrelenting, gritty hip-hop that perhaps most commercially broke through via young Dizzee, his own woes and concerns of being a youth today hitting home, and - thank f**k - hard. Now, through his and partially The Streets' breakthrough, the greater London city at large is opening up.
Kano, Terror Danjah, Riko & Target, Wiley, Jammer, No Lay, Durrty Goodz, Shystie, Demon, Ears, Lady Sovereign, Plan B, and friends, comprise 'Run The Road'; a potentially very important document charting the sentiments and cut-up beats and stop-start abrasion of the young emergents. One thing they all have in common: there's a lot of shit going on, and they're going to voice off. Listen... react, will you?
It's punk, obviously. In what other genre has there been so much, literal, vocal dismay and interrogation. Teenage pregnancy, drugs, paying the bills - crucially equating to lost hope... day-to-day issues the average, white, haircutted indie-fan can do without addressing. For others, however, just looking out the window is a daily reminder.
But, inversely, despite the weight of the subject-matter and the inspired imagery evoked in each track's portrayal, it's not without some form of productivity - these are innovative, angry artists standing up to be counted and trying to inform, actualise. The lighter end of the spectrum is catered for most saliently in Mike Skinner's 'Fit But You Know It' - itself, however, a foray into the glorious escapism of the Great British holiday, a retreat from the mundanity. It all seems so compulsive, so grilling; but, in reality, it's the sound of modern living.
'Run The Road': not a mere compilation. An album. One you can't fail to do without.
Artists in this article: Various Acts
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