The Aspects Correct English
LP
Contrary to what you may have been led to believe, I take no pleasure in assuming the guise of ukhh
hatchet man when it comes to reviewing the latest UK Hip Hop albums. The problem is, when it comes to the media that bothers to cover it, there’s an excess of political correctness and affirmative action where
UK Hip Hop is concerned. All too often, there’s an excess of patriotic over-compensation, and in the absence of any substantial honest and balanced feedback, there’s too many excuses made for blatantly sub par material. This misguided acceptance of second best provides no
incentive for artists to progress nor push the envelope and it ultimately threatens to send UK
Hip Hop in ever decreasing circles down the creative plug hole. With this regrettable
trend foremost in my mind, when I first heard about the imminent release of the debut album from Bristol’s The Aspects, I was filled with mixed feelings. Of both excitement and
pessimistic worry. I was filled with high expectations and fierce anticipation of what was to drop – but at the same time, my reflex response was to commence honing the critical tools and prep myself for yet another post mortem on yet another UK
Hip Hop disappointment… The truth is, not since the soon to be re-issued “GANGSTER CHRONICLE” has there been a UK
Hip Hop album that so perfectly encapsulates the spirit of it’s time and does so in such a full and entertaining manner as The Aspects’ “CORRECT ENGLISH.” No matter how close I examine this brilliant album, I fail to see any fatal flaws or any of the typical faults that plague UK
Hip Hop projects. Having obviously overcome the first hurdle faced by 99% of UK
Hip Hop outfits by managing to drop that full length, this classic album hop skips and jumps over all other potential pitfalls to deliver 17 victory laps in
honour of the ministry of funny walks.
The first of a handful of tracks exploiting corny instructional records, the intro to this album find Specified laying down a beat over which an American presenter lays down some guidelines on
broadcasting and the alleged importance of conforming to the norms of broadcasting. Things get off to a good start when this voice-over attests “Every time you pick up the mic you are broadcasting and subjecting the world to your speech” and on matters such as mic control, stressing of important words and such, The Aspects more than
fulfill these criteria – that’s until it gets to “a word about regional accents” That is. Apparently, the Aspects are not the first crew to come across this set of guidelines because too many acts from Great Britain are all too willing to obey the order “once you leave your regional area you better bone up on standard American!” Indeed! As if to put the final nail into the coffin of
UK Hip Hop's authenticity and credibility, on Tim Westwood’s rap show yesterday New York deejay Cipher sounds put out an offer to be signed with a global distribution contract to any up-and-coming UK
Hip Hop; providing that they were “slick,” “shiny” and resembled Hot 97 fodder which could be
molded to appeal to “14 year old White girls”. Cipher Sounds aside, the Accent plague rages on and if it’s not the use of lame American accents it’s the adoption of those equally irritating Garage-style London twangs by folk who’ve never even been to London let alone New York. Thankfully, a lot of great
Hip Hop in recent years has come from outside the rat race of the Big Smoke from areas not considered
Hip Hop by crews who don’t fit the bill but nonetheless produce top billin’ music. These crews include Krispy,
Braintax, The Numskullz and of course, The Aspects. “CORRECT ENGLISH” is anything but the output of some cookie-cutter, estury-english talking lads trying to be hard – this is the work of some truly passionate
Hip Hop heads with big hearts who consistently break the proverbial mould. To start with, whereas too many Rap groups comprising “pop chart rappers straight out of stage school” sound so interchangeable that outfits featuring 5 guys sound like half an emcee, when El Eye, Probe Mantis and Lubbloui are found jostling for the spotlight much like early Pharcyde or Da Lench Mob During a track like “Psycho Boogie” The Aspects combine to offer a unique variety of voices and styles which has not been heard since the Wu or previous to that, Ultra Magnetic MCs. On that note, I remember once remarking to someone how UK
Hip Hop lacked it’s own Kool Keith or de la soul or similar charismatic icons to make itself seen and heard in the mainstream – I believe that the Aspects remedy this with “CORRECT ENGLISH” and tracks such as
“Adverse Curves” or “Kronos Device.”
Partly due to peer pressure and partly due to low
esteem and partly due to umpteen other things, Too much UK Hip Hop is dour, unimaginative
technique heavy stuff which takes itself waaaaaaay too seriously. However, before you brand The Aspects with the already over-used TECHNIQUE HEAVY iron, the stanza “One Is born every minute with Inhibited Britishness- Illiterate limited idiot gibbering gibberish - illegitimate limericks, mirror image lyricists - Shatter Into anti matter after hearing this!” (Yes Canibus, you may
weep in the corner you wretched cretin) is demonstration of how stylistically, unlike the conventional use of multi-syllabic internal rhyme schemes in rap today, Aspect’s tightly woven lyricism is crafted by emcees with something to say and not by Yanks who’ve fallen in love with their first
thesaurus. Indeed, when it comes to The Aspects’ own technically superior torrent
of wordplay, thank Zeus for the inclusion of lyrics in the liner notes because I’m in serious danger of wearing out the back shuffle button on my CD player trying to keep up “So what is the album’s topic?” I hear you asking…. Well, whilst too much
British Hip Hop is preoccupied with self-pity and bitter reproach and at a time when some UK
Hip Hop artists deliver entire albums about their sob-story of success, “CORRECT ENGLISH” makes for a really refreshing and entertaining ride rich in style, content and techniques. As El eye declares, The Aspects “don’t write for “bedsit critics” and are more interested with being entertaining and having fun themselves than being pigeon-holed and categorised. during “X Factor” whose bounding bass is very reminiscent of “Building a rep” off of Mark B & blade’s “The Unknown” LP, Probe Mantis taunts critics to “intelectualise and analise (and that’s not a spelling error) you wont come close” and he’s right. The only sense in which this project is formulaic or repetitive is how the Aspects deliberately ensure that no two tracks are the same in either style nor content as the crew go off on voyages of wicked wordplay on themes as diverse as witchcraft, a love of the opposite sex and a peculiar fixation with our feathered friends the birds. The track “We Get Fowl” could have gone horribly wrong in less capable hands but as Bubberloui explains “I let my hair down, shake my ass, act the fool, while these
head-nodding critics are too busy being cool.” The skittish but succinct style of The Aspects show a crew that’s serious about being funny and that’s why we’re up there like the hand of Keith Harris!” whereas Onyx had the “mad face,” and many other emcees display the scru-face with their blasé monotone rhymes about how trife it is for duns in the hood (which leads me to give the gas face), the way in which “CORRECT ENGLISH” contains all the
humor, whit and grace notably absent from most UK Hip Hop releases of the past 10 or so years means that The Aspects are the hyper active
embodiment of Hip Hop with a human face. Unashamedly outspoken, engagingly unorthodox
and amusingly honest, It’s refreshing to hear a project by a group not afraid to speak it’s own mind in it’s own voice. Anyway, back to the subject matter… Unlike The Brotherhood who attempted to sound all gothic and eery but who just came off sounding like a trio of trick-or-treaters draped in mother’s best bed linen, when it comes to those tracks where the crew indulge their characteristic fascination with the occult, their interest with the paranormal and pagan appears intended as a vehicle for art and not any serious beliefs. In other words, they don’t mean to offend, they just wanna send the local clergy into headspins with whirling word wizardry. Reinforcing this idea that their allusion to the unholy is just a bit of fun, El Eye explains “I’m no angel, I’m a stranger to the manger but I don’t need murder and danger to entertain ya.” In general, much like MF Doom, The Aspects Somehow take the cheesiest influences and childhood memories and make them dope. In other words, by not trying too hard to fit in with current trends nor hop on the latest conceptual
band-wagon, The Aspects succeed to deliver timeless Hip Hop. Whereas others allude to their childhood memories like some place they try so hard to revisit, The Aspects channel all these cheesy and cheeky influences from the past that make them and their sound what it is and utilise it for great progressive music in the here and now. I guess the best example of this is provided by “My genre,” a track which distills the entire “I love the 1980s” series down to a 4 minute track where Probe Mantis jeers “You can keep your high brow art house crap!” as he skillfully incorporates titles of and allusions to cult ‘80s movies into his verses – the best being the concluding: ”I’m a predator, you’re a Blue Oyster regular, I dub you Ferris, weird science don’t register, so put a sock in it and stop telling porkies, you’re dealing with the Brat Pack for the Naughties.” “
Concomitant with the absorption of childhood memory and influences into the album’s lyrics, producer Signify’s instrumentals are comparable to the work of acts like People Under the stairs or Zion I who, at the same time as championing progressive
Hip Hop display an appealing respect for old skool values and aesthetics. Furthermore, the series of cooky cut & paste jobs on cheesy American infomercials and film trailers which punctuate the album’s full tracks invite comparison with the early work of Prince Paul and KMD. Serving as slightly larger intervals between The Aspects lyrical loop-the-loops, producer Specify and deejay Nu Balance conduct a couple of thorough crate diggin and beat juggling workouts during “Scary Lesson” and “Bristol Fingers.” I’ll admit, I’m not into this pair of instrumental tracks as I feel that the strength of the Aspects is the way they combine rather than how each solo performer showboats. These are the only two tracks I have skipped during repeated listening.. Still, I suppose they give me time to recover my critical
faculties eh?… Well when it comes to the overall chemistry between beats and emcees, whilst much work has clearly gone into digging and editing stuff for intros and interludes, once they’ve settled on a handful of samples, beats rarely switch up or evolve within single tracks. Often, arguably in fitting with the lyrics and their celebration of kitch and corny influences, beats sound either low budget or dated. For instance, “Best music” features appropriately cheesy bits and it’s great when the guitar strumming comes in but often, tracks feel like an old pillow with all the stuffing squished down at one end and not equally distributed across the track. Similarly, “Witchcraft,” which sounds like the step son of De la Soul’s “Change in speak” and the intro to Doug E Fresh & Ricky D’s “The Show” is, in my opinion, let down by cheap sounding drums. Still, in terms of production, the best is yet to come because there’s not only a wicked remix of “Kronos device” but the album’s final track. “lost souls” is not only the darkest and most deep track here lyrically but given how it’s the first significant use of
layering and switching up of the beat within a single instrumental, it’s also the track with the most intricate and interesting instrumental. This track really doesn’t fit in with the rest of the album in tone content or style so as good as it is, it doesn’t feel part of the project.
Listening to this album in relation to many previous
UK Hip Hop projects is like finally getting a fulfilling three course meal after surviving for so long on snacks and finger food. “CORRECT ENGLISH” is the first UK
Hip Hop in ages which hasn’t had me thinking “Hmmmm nice but when’s the next album dropping because this isn’t enough!” There’s been a lot of good projects dropping in recent time but in all honesty, I believe this is the most important and exciting album I’ve heard so far this year! The Aspects’ refusal to conform to po faced stereotype marks them apart from the set and so hopefully, to answer the question they posed “ask of my peers patiently, who’s in here in ten years? We’ll wait and see!” it should be them. HOWEVER/BUT!!!! That said, to paraphrase that quasi-legal cliché “possession is nine tenths of the law,”
When it comes to pop music, production is 90% of success. In one respect, the production could be said to be in fitting with the spirit of the British creative tradition that includes Tony Hart, Blake's
7, Blue Peter and Red Dwarf but sadly I think it prevents otherwise universally accessible emcees from reaching the ears of the mainstream. I like most of the beats a lot and I enjoy listening to this album a lot but I cannot imagine anyone successfully slipping a track off this album into a set comprising current pop rap hits. As for the other 10%? That’s promotion and publicity and again, I fear this is where The Aspects are not getting what they deserve. I gather that “Correct
English” has been receiving glowing reviews in the arts sections of the UK’s broadsheet newspapers but so did Gunshot’s “INTERNATIONAL RESCUE” and look how well that did eh!? I look forward to the day when The Aspects get play on daytime Radio 1 and grace the covers of Rap magazines but the realist in me stomps all over my optimism and tells me that this
ain't gonna happen. These guys should become superstars but I fear that their geographic location, their novelty and refusal to submit to industry constructs of what a rap group should sound like mean that they’ll forever suffer the curse of being local heroes peering up at
Hip Hop's glass ceiling. Please prove me wrong.
© Copyright 2001, CD Goldie for ukhh.com
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