Alex Blood The Alex Blood EP EP
As the driving force behind the Deprogrammed crew Alex Blood has moved through several crews and groups, eventually joining forces with Simon Jones to form the duo "Blood & Jonez". It was after spending over two years working with Jonezy, preparing the Blood & Jonez debut EP “Spare A Little Change..." (which he self produced), that Blood decided they needed a label to work under. Over the 18 months of touring and performing with Blood & Jonez, Blood formed Deprogrammed Productions.
After locking himself in the studio since Christmas, Alex Blood, Deprogrammeds Founder and in-house producer has completed his first solo EP.
The EP consists of beats mainly produced by Blood himself, but also Blood spitting ‘freestyle’ on a couple recognisable Hip-Hop beats from the states and consists of:
‘Beef’
A nice blend of the self produced, electonica club based Hip-Hop, where Blood spits battle raps on the state of affairs in the UK game, and the usual frustrations of seeing worthless emcees seeing major coin. Cuts by Angelo
‘Freedom (Men Bleedin)’
Socio political rap, as Blood cracks on about everything from Bush, Kids with guns, war and murdered children, over a beat laden with some nice strings, cuts from DJ Angelo and guitar hook.
‘Back Up (feat Sonny Jim)’
An Asiatic harp twangs a pleasant enough loop as Blood spits an aggressive style, as Sonny Jim throws down some drug running raps.
‘All I do’
A piano intro leads into an almost ska-esque sound, particularly the pipes. Blood shows a bit of versatility as he switches up his flow to a stop-start style fitting in with the beat. A track about days going by Blood dreams his life away. The futility of people working their nuts off in an office “to fill their lives with shit/socks & gifts for Christmas/box of tricks for kids to sit with”.
‘New Day’
A piano hook plays over a decent enough bass loop, again some nice strings (violin) on the chorus. Cuts by Angelo.
Overall Blood’s original sample less compositions, result in some nice moments. This is a fairly accomplished debut set, with some intelligent lyrics and some nice flows (with some nice switches of flow/style). The standard of the emceeing is pretty decent and the content isn’t a one trick socio political horse (something Deprogrammed has been accused of previously, by some).
The only complaint I would have is that with the exception of ‘Beef’ the rest of the beats are a bit too samey, by which I mean, although they are well crafted, I have heard that style of piano/strings based too many times before particularly in UK Hip-Hop. ‘Beef’ is definitely the standout track and Blood can be a bit more varied with his tracks for future releases.
Over than that, a fairly solid debut.
Rating: 7/10
The Alex Blood EP is available through the Deprogrammed website & independent stores around the country as well as online retailers such as Suspect Packages. I am told that those who order through the Deprogrammed site will receive a free ‘Funk on the Side’ Depro mix tape, which includes rare collobos, freestyles, and tracks that didn’t make it onto current releases.
- Coakley
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