When it was announced on the 22nd March that three titans of U.K rap had come together to produce the collaboration album ‘Insomnia’, it would’ve been wrong to deny that we were about to witness a significant moment in the scene - nothing of the sorts had been done before.
Skepta, one of the pioneers of grime, and now highly
respected for opening doors for the new generation of artists, brought together
a grime veteran in Chip, as well as Young Adz who has been credited for
creating shockwaves across the culture with his new ‘traphouse’ sound.
Young Adz, who has been making huge noise alongside his D Block
Europe partner Dirtbike LB, have been credited for shifting the direction of
the U.K scene by challenging the typical British sound. In conjunction with
Skepta, who is a big advocate for artistic evolution, it was clear that we
could expect to see contemporary features throughout the project. However, what
I really like about this album is that we see a good combination of new school characteristics
as well as the more traditional sounds where Chip and Skepta would be bouncing
off each other. This is prominent in tracks such 'Sin City'. I feel like the
right balance was struck on this tape and all three artists should be credited
for this.
In the lead single ‘Waze’ a trappy/pop sound can be seen
which sums up in a track what the album represents. We see Chip and Skepta
providing solid verses and Adz contributing with his renowned
catchy hooks. Skepta also shows his ability to execute melodic rhythms on
tracks such as ‘Golden Brown’. The BBK co-founder also flexes his diverse
skill-set, for example on the opening track ‘Mains’ which he produced. Here the
three gel really well together where each of the rappers slightly deviate from
their comfort zone and tap into other areas to complement each other.
'Mic Check' is also a standout track which I can imagine being
played in clubs once they re-open. What makes this track for me is the
instrumental which is slightly reminiscent of the older days, Grime and
Garage going hand in hand. Chip also
kills it with his backing vocals to the hook as well as his verse despite it
being fairly short. Chip's inflections hit the ear beautifully, this is some of Chip's best stuff, he is really sick in this zone, showing he can do even more than just shell beats with dirty flows and clever punchlines.
Chip really proves himself as an elite MC on this project, and for me it never really felt he had to try that hard. His verses were potent, to the point and from a technical point of view he was riding the beats so smoothly, not a word out of place or a word wasted. An example of this is his verse on 'High Road'.
Overall, this was a very interesting project to listen to. Even though I like Chip and Skepta in slightly more traditional spaces in regards to their sound, I enjoyed what they did on this album. The three of them complimented each other very well and created some good songs. There was a nice mix of songs that you could hear in the car or the club but also more introspective songs where they address their current situations. They do come across as artists who work hard and care about the art they create, and this is what I feel they wanted to get across in this project.
Comments
Post a Comment