The digital age offers networking sites a plenty: MySpace, ReverbNation, Facebook, SoundCloud and so on have made it easy for anyone with even the most rudimentary PC skills to release their musical creations into cyberspace at the click of a button. The quality often veers wildly between tragic, relentlessy mediocre or crushingly average to interesting, genre-defying and bonkers brilliant. These two tracks from Manny O fall somewhere in the middle.
First track ‘2011’ kicks off with moody strings, and features local MC Mr Hazz. The track is a decent enough club banger, but some of the clichéd rhymes unfortunately let it down. It’s also a shame that Manny O’s strong, baritone voice isn’t featured more on what is, after all, a track taken from his own ReverbNation page. His is a distinctive voice that at the moment appears to lack confidence.
‘Never let the party stop’, whilst generic, is still a guaranteed party starter. However, it also highlights the problem with this demo: some of the rhymes appear half-arsed and lazy, which is a real shame, because with a little more time spent on fine tuning and quality control, this could have been so much better. The demo also appears to be a little too indebted to American hip-hop, and consequently lacks character.
My girlfriend has said to me on many occasions “everyone’s a bloody rapper”. Having listened to many hip-hop demos, I see her point. There are some decent ideas here that can be developed with a little more attention to detail. Ultimately, though, a love of hip-hop shines strongly. Manny O and his team should step up their game – then they can avoid being tagged in the ‘standing room only’ of the “everyone’s a bloody rapper” bracket.