All together: (recited in Ali G-style cod-Jamaican patois)
“The Coalition is coming in to fix da nation after da Labour devastation
The flowers on da trees are the blossomest blossom since Potter popped ‘is clogs
Don’t let the haters tell you dat we’re goin’ to da dogs.”
All right, maybe I should never be allowed to write rap, but wouldn’t it be nice if proper hip hop artists showed a bit of optimism for a change? The title of The G-Block Family‘s new record sounds welcoming but what’s on disc too often sounds depressingly sullen.
Still, the concept of the album is unusual and original. Instead of the usual synthetic accompaniment of processed beats and samples we have Pedro deVasconcelos’ nimble Spanish guitar as the alpha and omega of the backing track. It all sounds like it’s been recorded by a few mates in a bedroom in Blackbird Leys, with no concessions to modern production values. In some cases this works pretty well, as in ‘The G Block Family’, which benefits from the vocals of Jada Pearl on the chorus, who should probably be the sole singer on the record. The blokes may be decent rappers, but they’re pretty off-key when they burst into song. I wonder if ‘Empire State of Mind’ would have been the monster hit it was if Jay-Z had been allowed to warble approximately beneath Alysia Keys. The rapping is a bit all over the place-alternately optimistic, hospitable, then angry and paranoid. This might be due to the volume of weed being consumed, or the fact that each verse is rapped by a different member of the crew. Still the chorus is excellent, and this is the best tune to listen to if you only listen to one.
Going back to my little parody at the start, I find it unusual to hear right-wing sentiments expressed in rap, but I suppose there’s no reason why hip-hop crews need to be Marx-reading advocates of collective ownership of the means of production. At any rate, ‘This World’ sounds like a quickfire romp through a particularly fruity Daily Mail Op-Ed section, with the evils of life in Blackbird Leys and beyond being blamed on public-sector pension provision, high taxes, liberal parenting and even immigration. Since most of the Family are black, the fact that this is being aired here confirms what I’ve noticed recently: immigration has become a post-racial issue. Be that as it may, this scattergun approach to the troubles of modern life is hard going, and often descends into unintentionally amusing bathos. The following sounds like two songs condensed into two lines to me:
‘There’s towns where whores in gowns drop down and in their own blood drown.
No noise, just a little gurgle. It’s sad when its Christmas and you get burgled.”
Other tunes suffer from the minimalism of the backing. I’d like to hear ’28 Years of Tyranny’, a brief trawl through the rake’s progress of Robert Mugabe’s political career, with a full band. Again, the chorus is quite striking, and the rapping is more fluent and focussed than on earlier tracks, but Pedro’s guitar-work could do with some production support. ‘Shining Like Gold’ has some of the worst R and B singing you’ve ever heard, which is ridiculous when you have Pearl to call on. It would be like playing Wayne Rooney in goal.
Pedro and The Family have plenty of individual talent and invention, but they need to show more discipline in their choice of subject and the subsequent execution. Stopping bad singers from singing may lead to ructions in the group, but will lead to a more listenable record, and not trying to deal with every social evil in the space of one verse will make the message more digestible. And while they’re at it, can someone write some decent songs for Jada to sing solo?