Low-Life | UK Hip Hop Story | Wolftown Comittee

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Underground Years:
1990-1995

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Wolftown Committee - Legendary Status

Track Listing
1. R U Ready For Us?
2. Legendary Status
3. Blast
4. It's How It Go
5. Boxed
6. WV
7. Dangerous Place
8. Gimmie Wot U Got
9. Yout Wid A Mic
10.Could It Be
11.Dark Angelz
12.Thieves Like Us
13.Big Batty
14.Think
15.High Timez Bash
16.They Call Me...
17.Session On The Hill
18.Amo nition
19.Maintain
20.Protected By The Shield
21.MC's For Days

Well, this is an extra late review, which as with so much stuff I intended to put up, probably a year ago or more. To co-incide with the info on Late's International Rhyme Spittin LP I have put it up now despite the time elapsed since its release, so read on...

Those Wolftown lads are back, and after hitting the ground running are well on their way to becoming one of the UK's most prolific independent labels. After being dropped by Pinnacle distribution they have sorted out other means for getting their product out there. Here we have their third LP release in a little over a year and a half and they are continually improving. This is I think their best release yet and continues the development since the Villains and Vicious Circle LP's which came before. Again the LP is full at 21 tracks, but again I feel could benefit from a bit of trimming and more time spent developing the tracks. That said there are some outstanding tracks and the variety of MCs and how they work together shows a crew in full flight at the top of their game. The Wolftown Committee are basically all the Wolftown affiliated artists coming together in one group, but each still retaining their time to shine within the product as a whole.

The opening track Are You Ready For Us is an intro to the LP that gets you vibed up and expectant as to what might follow. Each MC in turn gets to spit a little verse each asking at the end, are you ready for us? The beat is typically Wolftown making use of electronic sounds and sampled scratches over a drum box. As the intro ends all too soon, the album title track Legendary Status quickly cuts in. I think they are overstating their standing in the music biz, maybe they get props round their area and certain circles of the media give them glowing reviews like HHC and Breaking Point amongst loads of others, so maybe they are getting there, but lets not have heads swell too soon.

Blast comes with Moody classic strings with clever ambience fuse with militant breaks and a thunderous bassline for this lyrical blast from Wayney G, Late and Size8. Imagine the state of the world if everyone blasted for a solution; here we get intelligent wordplay and scientific metaphors. From her debut on the Villains 4 Da Mans Dem and her guest appearance on Committee Cut by Vicious Circle, Jai Boo has been working hard pencilling her forthcoming album. As one of the Midlands finest female MC's on A So It Go she spits lyrics as she she’s it, not just representing the female community but representing the hip hop community as a whole. This is how it goes.

Inspired from the short film "Boxed" by Sai Smith and Richard Lyold from Ballistic Productions that Wolftown Recordings supplied the soundtrack for, this track, with the same title Boxed (Kai's Anthem) is the second single and comes with a hot video filmed on Sony HD. All the crew get hefty on this with blazing flows and intricate wordplay.

The bass goes hefty for Dangerous Place, a catchy street anthem by Size8 from Vicious Circle. He asks why the streets are so hot and why certain people are backbiting. He asks why when certain people make moves do they get jealous? Is it surprising that people are messed up in big hating puddle when the UK is renown for it’s lack of support for it’s home-grown artists? Check out 10Shott, Wayney G and Lee Dee who join the proceedings and listen out for the catchy hook.

I'm sad to say it, but it seems to me that it is the vocals of Late that I'm not overly feeling. When the Villains first dropped he was refreshingly different, but I don't really hear new styles or different flows and on this LP when placed next to better rappers his failings are more apparent. An example being the Gimmie What You Got track which is more of an average album track.

I would say that the majority of the tracks are just about there, but have one or two elements that let them down. Yout Wid A Mic is like this. The youngest member of the crew Vicious Circle member Waney G does his thing over a fairly simplistic beat, leaving aside some of the cheesy sounds the chorus just doesn't get me. The middle of the album looses direction a bit with the bland Could It Be, instrumental Dark Angels and the self explanatory Thieves Like Us which improves as the different MCs come on, but again has a pretty poor chorus. Big Batty as well as being offensive is really fast forward material.

Things start picking up again with Think, which although a played out topic, looks at the issues for legalisation of Cannabis from a different perspective. Basically the message is simply think before whatever you do. Late starts off the track and is followed by Size 8, Jai Boo and of course who else, but High Timez to round things off. The High Timez Bash is an up tempo bounce track for parties when they are really jumping. Its the first of the mega posse cuts and was surprisingly recorded in the summer of 2001. In order of appearance the featured MCs who keep the pace going are Conman, Jai Boo, Late, Size 8, 10Shott, Lee Dee, Wayney G, Tricksta and Staxx. Conman gets his turn on They Call Me.

Session On The Hill is another tale of drugs and reckless behaviour all over a lazy break driven track made for summer. The thing obviously missing from the record is any form of cutting or scratching. All the turntablist skills are squeezed in the one short track Amo-Nition, where DJ Amo is let loose cut up a frenzy. Just don't know why scratching has been sidelined and ghettoised on its own and not incorporated into the rest of the tracks. Apparently there is going to be a mixed LP from Wolftown in 2003.

On Maintain Tricksta steps up and takes one of his few turns behind the mic. The track is really nice relaxed and spreads a meaningful message in that one has to stay focused in order to maintain. The closing track MCs For Days features Dass, Early B and Staxx who go back and forth over a largely percussive beat. Just to prove what they say all bring some tasty punclines and battle raps for 7 and a half minutes to end on a high point.

People will say I have been over hard on the individual tracks, but yet somehow this is an impressive offering, the total is more than its parts. Perhaps it has suffered from lack of direction, or simply too many influences and it is more a collection of tracks than coherent LP, which the previous releases had eluded to. Although not entirely to my liking due to the fact I prefer more sample based classic type beats, where as Tricksta and Pez work their sound modules to the fullest and mix in all sorts of Drum & Bass and other UK urban influences. I'm afraid that this is the way Hip Hop is developing, what with extortionate fees demanded if you are to clear samples legitimately and as younger heads bring their own new styles and copy those of DMX, Jay-Z and the Neptunes etc. I'm increasingly warming to these sounds and Tricksta & Pez produce beats within their own style as good as any man's, not to say that they can't lace up a nice repetitive sample to make an old skool club banger, just that it isn't their preference.

Visit the Wolftown Committee on the web: www.wolftownrecordings.com
Wolftown Recordings, PO Box 1668, Wolverhampton, England, WV2 3WG
Email: info@wolftown.co.uk :: Tel/Fax: +44 (0) 7974 977 376