Songs that I’m listening to (2)

Eastenders, Ambush Buzzworl

Beef over gyal is mad! Ambush Buzzworl (one of my favourite UK rappers) dropped a track with a message last Thursday. The song is called Eastenders and like the soap, it is full of drama.

However, word to Ambush, “life’s real dirty, this ain’t no soap” (I only just caught that double entendre).

The Camden rapper gives us three short stories of men who couldn’t handle their emotions. Stories of jealousy and betrayal. Stories that went too far. But the worst thing is that they are based on real situations.

The last verse is based on the murder of fashion model, Harry Uzoka.

I remember that his death on January 11^th 2018, stood out amid concern over knife crime in London because he was so well connected to our scene and remembered as such a positive person.

This shows that Ambush is trying to highlight serious issues and show people that it is not worth it. There are too many emotions involved when it comes to love interests so the consequences of acting on these emotions can be grave.

As usual, when I hear a powerful track like this, I showed it to my mum. She told me a story about an ex-boyfriend who wanted her and another girl to fight over him. She didn’t know that he already had a girlfriend so was shocked to find out the truth. This situation could have gone left since the other girl confronted my mum but she was cooperative and straightforward so drama was avoided.

Whether it’s gyal or man, the beef is mad and not worth it. Listen to Ambush. God damn!

Slick, Ant D

I’m embarrassed that I’ve come across this song so late. But in reality, this is just the start.

I came across Ant D after listening to Sapphire with him and TBO. I thought that the beat was hypnotising and that his verse stood out in particular due to his deep voice, nonchalant lyrics and smooth flow.

This encouraged me to check him out and I found that he only had one other track out on all streaming platforms. It didn’t disappoint.

When I first listened to it, it made my eyes water. He’s got that old school style that I haven’t heard for a while, particularly from someone his age.

He gives me Potter Payper or Skrapz vibes but with his own style and the beat gave him enough space to deliver his message.

“Beating up the track like Anthony / Girls try trap me / Said she on her reds / But she’ll eat it like candy”
Ant D, Slick

Whenever I hear an artist deliver lines like this, in such a laid-back way, I can tell that they’re a problem. In addition, it’s basically a freestlye with a short chorus, showing me that he’s a rapper’s rapper. I’m basically asking for a feature at this point.

Fronto Isley, Smino

This sounds like a Sunday morning. A Sunday morning with Smino. Despite everything that’s going on, he continues to lift us. Because of everything that’s going on, he continues to lift us.

He dropped his mixtape, entitled She Already Decided last week and I love it. It was difficult to choose just one track to highlight so I went with the first one because of its message.

The track slaps because even though we are in lockdown, life is good and don’t you ever forget it. There are also those people that you wish you could spend time with now as Smino sings “ain’t no place I’d rather be than with you”. Obviously, that isn’t possible but the track sparks the emotion that I feel for those people.

This is uplifting, like the whole mixtape. He tells us that he only worries about what he can control because the rest has already been decided by mother nature and that’s how I feel right now. We didn’t plan this but we have to deal with this pandemic.

And like Smino, I just want to get these ideas out. No rushing though since I’m not Russian. This sounds like a classic and it dropped at the perfect time.