Pedigree

You know, I can’t help it. Listening to this guy rap I’m forced to smirk because he’s able to rap and utilise street talk/brash bully rap in a way only a small handful can do. Legit, I’d say only cats like -Bub Styles, NEMS and Chubs can utilise the way he can on the mic! It’s for this reason that he’s become one of the most renown names in the hip-hop landscape and pair that up with a monster behind the beat like this guy? And you’ve got yourself a recipe for an instant classic! Let’s talk about it! This is the brand new album by MC -CRIMEAPPLE and Producer -MichaelAngelo and together they drop this 14 track experience with features from - - And fuck me, again to put further emphasis on what I said in the introduction. Crime is just one those guys who stands out for all the right reasons. His lane & style of rhyming is unlike any others and he’s just so fucking smooth that it makes me question whether he even thinks of bars at all or if all his thoughts and inner dialogue just rhymes! At this point I’m really not sure! For example when we heard him post on IG the snippet of the song -Puppy Love and hearing him absolutely destroy that instrumental with his perfect execution of bar placement, fluent flows and one of the best examples of enunciations we have in the culture. It’s his effortless ability to brag and show off while Insulting every man, woman and contemporary in the world while doing it! But the problem is he’s backing up every single action he claims with receipts! So there’s not really anything we can say about it because he really is ‘that guy’ I found it interesting how in the later half of the album we get a few key, self reflection tracks such as -Poppa and -Right Of Passage when we see CRIME take a deeper look into his life, situations he’s dealt with and the consequences of them. His brag raps are excellent but the moment he decides to go story-telling mode he’s even better! It feels like you can touch, smell and see everything he’s talked about it gave me goosebumps especially the latter! If CRIME is in his prime then what does that say for the man behind the beats? I’ve reviewed a handful of his projects and he hasn’t missed yet. He’s a man who lives up to his alias in creating timeless works of art in the most creative and powerful ways possible! In this instance he’s formed what I’d argue is his most surreal and diverse bag of beats we’ve heard across a single album, allow me to elaborate We have tracks like -Puppy Love which begins with the repeat loop of the vocal queue ‘You’re a no good woman!’ Accompanied by some light guitar strings that advances into this almost surf rock vibe with a continuation of those guitar strings, light drum work, subtle bass and and an overall party atmosphere associated with these beach inspired instrumentation! But on the same album we have beats like -Right Of Passage which is a complete 180 into sombre territory. On this one we have a completely stripped-back, minimal effort by the man. We’ve got these heavy-handed, deep-toned guitar strings that have a hint of tragedy laced into them. There are some intense violin strings in the background as well as some methodically used guitar taps to replace drums. A truly ridiculous track that engraves itself into your brain! Then there’s the song -Cloud 9 which sounds exactly as the name suggests. This one has such a light, heavenly feel to it. Firstly you have those echoing chord progressions that have a synth style to it that takes away all your stress! This is accompanied by some swaying and glowing keys in the background with some soft drums that add that little extra texture to the track! This is the track you play when you want to sit back with a fat joint and relax! I had no doubts that this was going to be a solid album but I wasn’t expecting it to be this! These two are giving us another masterclass in album creation and it’s one you won’t want to sleep on TRUST ME!