Avoiding a delve into the thorny issues regarding the authenticity of all non-US hip-hop (genres are borne of a time and a place, and for their own social reasons), this album was a decent one at the time. Though one could (perhaps uncharitably) mark off many British homeboys’ embarrassing efforts during rap’s golden age as a kind of modern urban minstrelsy, Mike ‘Million Dan’ J and Demon D struck it how they saw it while the iron was hot.
There’s no escaping the glaring derivations (every-beat-the-samepace production precisely mimicking that of Bronx legends such as Ultramagnetic MCs’ Ced Gee; the largely mid-Atlantic accents) but respected landmark releases like this did create an atmosphere of acceptance that allowed more individual and interesting UK styles to flourish in their wake. Classic UK rap is currently enjoying a vogue. Dig this, rare bonus cuts and all, before it fades once more.
