Lisnaholic

Well, I haven't had a miraculous conversion like St. Paul on the road to Damascus, but I can see that there are more interesting things than I'd imagined in the rap genre.

> with Emanon The Words, predictably, I liked the jazzy instruments that gave the impression that it wasn't rap at all. When the guy started singing, I was mainly reminded of something else that I don't much like about rap, and that's the speed at which people sing and the length of time they go without pausing for breath. It's clever, but makes me slightly anxious, rather like when you watch a trick footballer who can keep a ball off the ground for minutes at a time: "He's gonna drop it! When's he going to stop!"

> To me, Grieves' Irreversible was a big improvement. As well as having lots of aural surprises the lyrics were interesting, clearer, and at a slightly slower pace. I could understand most of the words, and a reminiscense about childhood is a gentle topic I can relate too, so Grieves scores very well on the non-macho scale.

> Kate Tempest turns out to be a girl from England, so right off the bat she is atypical as a rapper. In fact I liked the stripped down sound of this track, which immediately caught my attention with the homely details in the lyrics and Kate's contempt for modern Brit culture:-



So, not a total rap convert, I'm afraid, but thanks to your recs I won't be so dismissive of it in future: there's more variety than I realized, and Grieves and K Tempest are both artists that I might return to. Thanks.

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953