when i first heard synners on the foreign beggars track 'glacial' (asylum speakers,2003,dented records) i knew i'd stumbled across someone special. his nasally tone and clever wordplay along with that sick dag nabbit beat, started my long lasting affair with the beggar fam/beer and rap tunage. a few years on and one 'off the radar bootleg' later and we have his debut album. i can't really begin to describe how truly unique this album is, subcultures describes in parodic detail the faults with common fads and pasttimes alongside another ill dag beat, max miller flows with such relaxed confidence and intelligence it's like he's not even trying, slow down is the perfect lazy afternoon spliff in the garden tune, animal hides nails 2 minutes of exquisite wordplay and cockiness without the need of a hook disturbing it halfway and instead places it at the end to close the tune with, she's quite some picture uses a juggled sounding beat to back up an analysis of women who are two faced and dull, and to be honest i think i'll let you discover the rest for yourself.
needless to say the lyricism, and beat production (by ido, dag and others) is flawless throughout, and i can say without doubt that this is a joint 1st place with, if not maybe slightly ahead of, the aforementioned beggars debut 'asylum speakers' as the top uk hip hop album of the last ten years. it's important, topical, and above all intelligent, i honestly can't recommend it enough. big up yaself benjamin hughes, look forward to whatever you bring us next...
