Once it was announced that Top Boy fanatic, Drake, was planning on purchasing the rights to the show following its disappearance in 2014, a huge hype around the series emerged. To add to its anticipation, when leaked images of London rappers Dave and Little Simz, appeared online earlier this year, it was clear to see that executive producer Drake was aiming to submerge UK rap into the heart of the show to bring London street culture to the forefront of the series.
On the Monday of the week when Top Boy was set to return to our screens, it was revealed that a Top Boy Soundtrack would also be dropping featuring several UK artists ranging from drill specialist Headie One to an old school head in Ghetts as well as a bonus appearance from Drake with his well-received Behind Barz.
Upon listening to the soundtrack in full, I believe the artists involved did a good job in portraying what the show aims to reflect regarding the lifestyle of many young people trapped inside the vicious cycle of street culture in the surrounding London areas.
There were several stand out songs on the soundtrack which were executed brilliantly. For me, Feeling It by teeway was the song which most successfully managed to capture the theme that the soundtrack aimed to achieve. Its aggressive tone matched with intricate bars throughout the song ensured that you were following each word to understand the full story.
Little Simz gave an impressive lyrical display which left me surprised as I was initially unaware that she had the capacity to do so. Her significant contribution to this season of Top Boy will only do good for her career.
Now onto Santan Dave. Those who know me will be aware of my appreciation for this man’s musical ability, so when I saw that he would be gifting us with two new tracks I was ecstatic. The two songs are very different from one another. Professor X was teased on his snapchat story the week after the release of his debut album Psychodrama. This song has a faster tempo relative to usual Dave songs and its head bopping instrumental (produced by Santan himself) accompanied by his constant back to back punchlines is the reason why this song is the most popular from the soundtrack. In contrast, God’s Eye is a more typical Dave song and is very similar to teeway’s song in the way it leaves the listener hanging onto each successive line. These two songs demonstrated the rapper’s versatility and the reason why to many he is in a league of his own in the U.K scene.
Tracey’s Elastic is vintage AJ and TSB on production make this up-lifting song a nice listen.
SL has been making huge waves recently and the 18-year olds appearance on the soundtrack can only propel his popularity onto another level after he killed 100 thoughts.
I had higher expectations for Headie One as I thought he had potential to leave his mark on the soundtrack. I was also disappointed by the Baka and Giggs tune. I am aware that it was on Baka’s EP and my cynical side believes that Drake just hashed this onto the album to give his lifelong friend Baka Not Nice some clout following his EP release – the hook to this song is awful in my opinion.
Overall the soundtrack was satisfying and a nice listen with very good parts but also some low moments. In terms of aiming to reflect the message the show is trying to portray; I believe the tape did a good job. It was nice to see some of U. K’s top talent all on one album as well as other artists who are not renowned for having a typical British rap round such as M Huncho and Nafe Smallz.
Overall I give the Top Boy soundtrack a 3/5.
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