A couple of years ago, as part of a social media charm offensive that also involved hurling racist abuse at One Direction’s Zayn Malik, accusing Beyoncé of trying to “capitalise on blackness” and telling a 14-year-old Disney star that her mother could boost the girl’s career by “sucking dick”, Azealia Bankstook on the entire UK rap scene, allegedly calling it “a disgrace to rap culture in general”. Forget Drake’s boosting of Skepta and Giggs, she suggested: “No American rappers are looking to the UK for any sort of tips. Be as angry as you want to be. But facts are facts.” However wrongheaded she may have been about the scene’s quality, it’s hard not to think she might have had a point about American hip-hop’s parochialism. Almost 40 years since Rapper’s Delight was released, hip-hop has reached middle age without really breaking the rule that rappers from outside the US never make it there, unless you count Canadians and émigrés: Britain’s Slick Rick and Australia’s Iggy Azalea both moved to the US years before their careers began.
'Art Blakey: Holiday For Skins Vol 2 (Japanese pressing) (CD) - The rarest of all of Art Blakey's percussion group projects – and quite possibly the best, too -- Dusty Groove is Chicago's Online Record Store'. Rejjie Snow - Rejovich EP by Rejjie Snow on SoundCloud. See more What others are saying. Rejjie Snow: Dear Annie review – Irish rapper’s loverman reinvention. Into this insular world steps that rarest of. Online buzz around his 2013 EP Rejovich.
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Into this insular world steps that rarest of things, an Irish rapper: Dublin’s Alexander Anyaegbunam, or Rejjie Snow. His music career has progressed fitfully: online buzz around his 2013 EP Rejovich, which featured a guest spot by Loyle Carner, translated into a disastrous support slot on Madonna’s Rebel Heart tour; a string of acclaimed singles throughout 2015 and 2016 was followed by the abstract-sounding mixtape, The Moon and You. Nevertheless, he appears to have been clasped to the bosom of the American hip-hop establishment: signed to 300 Entertainment – home to Fetty Wap and Young Thug – partnered with To Pimp a Butterfly producer Rahki, given support slots with Kendrick Lamar.
‘People are vibing off each other’s cultures’: Hare Squead and the rise of Irish rap
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He recently relocated to Brooklyn and, on the evidence of his debut album proper, made the pragmatic decision to go creatively native some time ago. There’s a very traditionally Irish-looking child on the cover of Dear Annie, and a hint of a Dublin accent during the between-song skits, but there the influence of his nationality ends. If you didn’t know his background, you’d take his voice to be that of an American. His lyrics too sound as if they were conceived on the other side of the Atlantic. He inhabits a world where girlfriends are “shawtys”, bogeymen are “boogeymen” and breasts are “titties”. When Jesse James Solomon turns up on The Ends, rhyming in a way that underlines his London roots – “I’ve got a ting she’s peng” – the contrast is pretty striking.
It’s hard not to be a little disappointed by this. While nobody in their right mind would want the bloke to break out the bodhráns and samples of Mrs Brown’s Boys, it might be nice if something about the music on Dear Annie spoke at least subtly about the big difference between its author and most other aspiring new rappers. Instead, it positions Snow in a tradition almost as old as hip-hop itself: the rapper as soft-voiced loverman. He rhymes over pillow-soft confections of electric piano, jazz samples, and vaguely trip-hoppy beats. Occasionally the music bears the influence of 80s soul slow jams, including, on Spaceships, someone called Ebenezer doing an impersonation of Stevie Wonder, complete with harmonica solo. More unexpectedly, some of it is haunted by the boozy shadow of Serge Gainsbourg: both Mon Amour and Désolé feature guest vocals from singers who sound remarkably like Jane Birkin.
This isn’t a bad idea, given that there’s currently a gap in the market: there is not much room for romance in a world of mumble rap and righteous political ire, unless your idea of a hot date is listening to Drake whine on all night about how no one understands him. And Snow is very good at it indeed. His hooks are sharp, his voice as dreamily charming as the music behind it, his lyrics bold enough to venture into topics over which other hip-hop Romeos might draw a discreet veil: “I feel a little drunk, I’m nervous,” he informs us on The Rain: “I can’t get it up.” He’s also witty, as evidenced by Charlie Brown, a trash-talking duet with Norwegian singer Anna of the North that’s genuinely funny.
Snow has got a lot going for him: even if you wish he betrayed a tiny bit more of his geographical origins, you can see why he didn’t want to scupper his chances, or risk being labelled a novelty, by doing so. You could call Dear Annie the first major Irish hip-hop album, but it seems more accurate to say it’s a solid debut by a rapper whose nationality seems beside the point – which is pretty obviously what it intends to be.
This week Alexis listened to …
Rejjie Snow Rejovich Download
Hollie Cook – Survive
Bargain-basement synth sounds, gentle but steely vocals and a sweet melody cloaked in dubby echo: Survive is perfect latterday lover’s rock.
Bargain-basement synth sounds, gentle but steely vocals and a sweet melody cloaked in dubby echo: Survive is perfect latterday lover’s rock.