"...had a Gareth Southgate, couple summers I missed the pen"
Some great lines in this. Seems like most of the UK rappers I enjoyed years back have all but retired so good to see Kano's got a new lease of life and is basically killing it right now. Garage Skank and 3 Wheel Ups have been in permanent rotation over here since they dropped. Think I'm gonna go get the 'Made In The Manor' album now.
As this blog is 99% old music I don't tend to indulge in end of year lists and 'best of's, but as Kano's 'Garage Skank Freestyle' has rendered everything else obsolete for the last 2 months it's only right I give it some shine and name it my tune of the year (in a year where new songs I absolutely loved seemed to be in short supply). Its not one for the Purists but when have they ever been any fun?
Save for a couple of tracks here and there I never really liked any early Grime - the MCing and production was a bit too raw (a nice way of saying it was terrible) but Kano stood out as someone who was a notch above the rest of the Channel U goons and could cut it with "proper" rappers. My mate had text me a link to Garage Skank and it was few days before I got round to checking it while I was stuck in traffic. The cut-n-paste style video was cool but it was Dot Rotten's beat that immediately got me. Chipmunk Soul might be my favourite rap sub-genre so something that sounded like a UK version of an early Just Blaze/State Property album deep cut was right up my street. If this was 2004 Kano could throw Twista on the remix and have a US hit in the bag.
"Your girls pum pum stinks like the A13 Beckton exit" >>> that whole Drake vs Meek Mill nonsense.
