It’s as predictable that I’d carp at a bad UK hip-hop review
It’s as predictable that I’d carp at a bad UK hip-hop review in Pitchfork as it is that the zine would run one in the first place. But actually I’m not complaining about the mark, or the verdict really - I’ve not been that impressed by the New Flesh tracks I’ve heard before now, so quite possibly the album does suck. But in its reasoning the review illustrates the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t dilemma for British hip-hoppers: stick too closely to a rigid US production blueprint and you get a roasting for being feebly imitative, but try to incorporate more native musical elements - like Jamaican music, or UK garage, or drum’n'bass; you know, the music you might actually be growing up around - and you face dismissal anyway. “As it is, though, we have two classic tracks, and a bunch of dub/drum-n-bass drivel, melded together with raspy-throated dancehall vox and some other booshit” (The two classic tracks, of course, are the ones with American MCs on.)
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