LIFE BEFORE 40 – VARIOUS (LOW LIFE)
October 11th, 2005 by rui
Running an independent label is no easy task, so when Low Life records reached their 40th release after 13 years, they decided to celebrate with ‘Life Before 40′.
It’s a double CD pulling together under-rated and overlooked tracks from their back catalogue into one, easy-to-load-into-your-cd-player double CD package!
13 tracks of proper hip hop (with an English accent) this album shows that the label’s no way ready for pipe and slippers. It probably wouldn’t say no to a bong and a new pair of trainers though.
Super T, Lewis Parker & Braintax open up with the atmospheric ‘Life & Breath’ – all downtempo moodiness (in a good way) with far-eastern plucks over a solid rhythm that you can’t help nodding your, er, noggin to.
The quasi-ubiquitous Rodney P pops up with ‘Big Tings We Inna’. It’s still compulsory for UK hiphop albums to feature at least one rapper called Rodney, and Mr P shows us why. His trademark double-tracked, peace’n'love lyrics, straight outta Londinium, tell us he’s ‘got no shame like fat girls bussin’ they thongs’ (and that he wrote the lyrics while ‘puffing his bong’). See, told you! Solid flows and a solid groove keep you locked, and the vibe keeps you nice.
‘This time when we splash, we’re gonna smash’ opens Skinny Man on the interestingly-punctuated ‘Who? Me.’ providing a fugee-esque soul sampling highlight with a great call&response chorus.
Prize for the best best play on words has to go to Verb T & Harry Love to the genius that is ‘Showbitchness’.
Across CD1, styles range from brow-furrowing headnodders to dancefloor wigglers. Inevitably, in a compilation that seeks to bring ‘overlooked’ tracks back, some of the featured songs aren’t huge, but with a couple of killer tracks and a clutch of above-average tunes, one or two moments of filler are par for the course. An album with no filler at all is a rare thing indeed, especially in the single-centric world of hiphop and reggae. Life Before 40 keeps the lyrical content on the right side of the tracks, and the production is as good as you’d expect from a label that’s survived 13 years on the uk hip-hop scene.
The second CD contains the tracks from CD1, blended into a 44 minute mix by Kam. They’ve also managed to squeeze all the Low Life videos onto the disc. If you’re ambivalent about ‘mixed’ versions of albums, and rarely watch promo videos, you might have preferred another 13 tracks. But some people prefer mixes to unmixed albums and lots of people love videos so I can’t really diss their inclusion.
If you like your hiphop and you like it with a uk accent – you don’t really need to be told to check this one out, do you?
If you do need to be told then Check IT!
rx
Life Before 40 is out on Low Life Records on October 24th
Tracklist
1. Life & Breath – Supa T, Lewis Parker & Braintax
2. The Last Tune – Task Force
3. City Of Industry – Jehst
4. Big Tings We Inna – Rodney P
5. Showbitchness – Verb T & Harry Love
6. Mad Runningz – Ricochet
7. You Know Who You Are – Rodney P, Farma G, Mystro & Braintax
8.Money In The Bank (orig. version) – Asaviour feat. Jehst
9. Tellin’You – Mystro
10. Straight Dirt – Kashmere The Iguana Man
11. Who? Me. – SkinnyMan
12. Just Me – Braintax
13. On The Road – Braintax & Mystro (exclusive)
CD2 features a mix of all the tracks by Kam & all the Low Life videos
