June 29, 1999

MSI & Asylum

[a]Roots Manuva[/a]'s stunning debut, [B]'Brand New Second Hand'[/B], would've been enough to put British hip-hop on the map....

8 / 10 Roots Manuva's stunning debut, 'Brand New Second Hand', would've been enough to put British hip-hop on the map. But 1999 is bringing us an embar-rassment of riches, with this debut bomb from West Midlands kru MSI & Asylum.

/img/MSIAsylum799.jpg MSI & Asylum don't go in for the kind of radical reshaping of the genre Manuva's electroid platter indulges in; they prefer a sticky funk, a more 'street' hip-hop. They number many, at any one time there are half-a-dozen or so voices audible in the background, giving the impression of a field recording taken in a dark alley on some Brummy housing block.

It's the same kind of rough-edged gang-style that The Specials made their own on their debut LP, a kind of 'this-is-who-we-are, don't-fuck-with-us' bravado which is, of course, completely irresistible. The 'Intro' disses journos who 'study hip-hop, but don't feel hip-hop' and fake Americans, sighing 'We all fightin' on this one lickle island called England', before segueing into slab after slab of inspired post-Wu mire-funk.

The non-PC rhyming might offend the more, uh, sensitive sensibilities; 'Sex' sees the kru chanting, "Don't be offended girl/It's just a horny world" over porno beats. But it's some fucking inspired shit, eminently addictive, and light years beyond the fake-ass posturing of Eminem. So, from the home of Sabbath, another shade of black attack.