Bruza

Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
As I think I may have mentioned somewhere else, i had the good fortune to see Bruza MC-ing live the other night. Yet more exciting I actually greeted the dude and passed on my compliments.

I think Bruza is ace, but some people clearly disagree. I have a suspicion that these folk are perhaps traditional hip hop heads (OK don't beat down on me just yet! Hear me out aight!) What Bruza seems to has grasped is that Grime requires a different style of delivery. You need to be audible over this very loud music. If you cast your mind back to HipHop, the noisiest group was possibly Public Enemy c.Fear of A Black Planet. Chuck D and Flavour Flav weren't really operating in the "funky" sonic context of most MCs, not to say that the Bomb Squad's squall wasn't funky, just that it's dynamics weren't so focussed on the inter-relationship of beats, more on that of volume. And appropriately Flav and Chuck _declaimed_. They used pungent slogans, they hollered, made as much as they could of weird vocal tics, like Flav's "Yeah boyez".

Bruza definitely took the lesson at the heart of D Double's "Mui" sonic to heart, which is i suppose that of the sonic slogan. He's built his style, less on the sinousity of flow, less on the "cleverness" of his lyrics but more that of his audio signature sonix and also crucially that of his brazen audibility. Bruza must be the only MC whose every lyric i can actually hear. OK (winks) I may fumble a little with the local slanguage, but at least i can hear it! Compare him to someone like Kano, who it strikes me all the traditional Hip-Hoppers like, Kano is both a lyrics-man and someone with an exquisite (bordering on prissy if you ask me) flow. The general crispness of his diction kind of attepts to take on the same "problem" of Grime's crazy loud beats, but I always to feel he's lost amidst the volume.

But Bruza's lyrics aren't bad either. The other night he did an accapella with something approximating this hilarious line:

(addressing a girl he'd brought home who seems resistant to his charms)
"well you better be off unless you want to watch me mash the bishop"

....well i laughed.......
 
A

Ach!

Turd on the Run
I think it's "bash the bishop" !

Bruza's flow is clever, in that it's new and interesting - it doesn't so much follow the beat as lollop around and about it, but it always makes rhythmic sense. It's probably more difficult to formulate a lyrical flow this way than to pristinely follow the beat. As far as content goes, his lyrics are often witty, and he always comes up with interesting phrases, twisted similies and such like. Personally I thought his freestyle on the Risky Roadz DVD was excellent, although I'm sure someone on here had a completely opposite opinion. When I first heard him on a N.A.S.T.Y set at the end of 2003 I hated him, mainly down to his voice - but over a couple of months I did get used to it and his off kilter flow, and this is probably the hurdle that some are finding difficult with regards to appreciating him.
 
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stelfox

Beast of Burden
i love him. thing is whereas other mcs place the emphasis on flow and complementing the rhythm, he doesn't go in for such niceties. instead he just flat-out attacks it, charging headlong into it . some people might think this is the sign of an "undeveloped" mc, but i really don't because it often gives a real bounce to his phrasing, like his syllables are ricocheting off all that noise, like he knows he can't really win but still keeps getting back up and scrapping. far from being sonic the hedgehog i'd say he's more like that stumpy bloke with the battering ram on his head in the he man cartoons.
 
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jeffthedeaf

Active member
I don't think you give Bruza enough credit for the intelligence of his lyrics...compared to the vast majority of MCs who use simple one line repeats, Bruza actually changes up his flow completely, and combines that with an East-End mockney cockney effect...all in all hitting the spot in my opinion. He has the hooklines (Get Me) as well as the lyrical content, I can see big things for him.

If you want to hear one of his biggest tracks right now take a listen to a new track with Terrah Danjah called "What You Waiting For". Favourite at the moment, very catchy and clever.
 
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Noah Baby Food

Well-known member
The man has character in spades.

That line's from The Streets "Get Out Of My House" remix - "Telling me her ex-man's a pillock/But I'm not interested/Give it up, or get out/Or watch me bash me bishop".

I love that chant "expert players in this game"...find myself chatting that one to myself quite a lot.

Bruze is good for a lot of reasons, but the charm and humour is a big one. Even when he's doing the aggressive bit there's tounge-in-cheek intelligence going on there...you can see girls getting with this, which is ALWAYS a good sign. Compare and contrast to a lot of these younger cats chatting gun-gun-gun 24-7, which is a bit of a sausage party really, scares girls...but these young boys are VERY young some of 'em...let 'em get it out of their systems innit.
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
ive grown to like him quite a bit actually. especially since hearing him on sway's version of that ja rule new york track. he makes sway look really boring actually (which for the most part, is what he is).
 
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stelfox

Beast of Burden
i've always really liked his voice, especially those long, drawn out growly syllables at the end of words
 
outraygeous

outraygeous

Well-known member
when i 1st heard bruze, i was like who let this big fat white dude get the mike.
then he got more exposure and i found out that he was not a 'big fat white dude'
in fact, the complete opposite. i think what he has done is kinda like how mike skinner delivers his rhymes and just put the whole cockney/down the pub type thing into grime.

i like bruze coz he talks like the chaps down my local or at football on sunday.
its just real london slang
 
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bun-u

Trumpet Police
outraygeous said:
when i 1st heard bruze, i was like who let this big fat white dude get the mike.
then he got more exposure and i found out that he was not a 'big fat white dude'
in fact, the complete opposite. i think what he has done is kinda like how mike skinner delivers his rhymes and just put the whole cockney/down the pub type thing into grime.

i like bruze coz he talks like the chaps down my local or at football on sunday.
its just real london slang
Click to expand...

yes, the "frank butcher of grime" I've heard it said - Lord of the Mics was my first encounter I think and I warmed to him loads - but I think he is a little limited...once you 'get him' (ya'getme?) he's kind of done.
 
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Blackdown

nexKeysound
i wasnt sure about him til i saw him live (@Sidewinder last year). he smacked it.

plus "Get Me" is a masterpiece. total g(funk)rime..

that Terror Danjah r&g time "life" (another potential landmark tune?) that cameo plays has bruza going on about being so broke somone's nicked his fridge. lmfao.
 
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Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
Love 'im like cooked food.

"they gave me love before / they said I was shit before / but now they want me, so come and GET ME!". That bit in the middle, "they said I was shit before", is just genius to me. Really shoving it back in their faces.
 
Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
jeffthedeaf said:
I don't think you give Bruza enough credit for the intelligence of his lyrics...compared to the vast majority of MCs who use simple one line repeats, Bruza actually changes up his flow completely, and combines that with an East-End mockney cockney effect..
Click to expand...

aah but again thats maybe less lyrical? more to do with toying with sounds.

i do like his lyrics though.

"running past you in the game, like sonic the hedgehog"

"your rhymes just aren't working.........sorry if it hurts

etc
 
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cooper

Well-known member
can one of you london folks explain more about this whole mockney-cockney thing? as an american i find it somewhat bewildering... like i know wiley will affect a "posh" accent sometimes, which i guess is funny because it's meant to be a product of upper-class (white) upbringing, private schools and all? but what are the stereotypes that go with cockney in this day and age - is it an accent that goes with football hooligans and going to the pub, eating sausages and all that? "my fair lady" is not helping me here.
 
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ripley

Well-known member
Yeah I'd like clarification on that too, even though I lived in Lower Clapton for 2 years.. I'm sure that's not long enough for a yank to get all the symbolism..

cooper, don't go to "Mary Poppins" for help either. It totally doesn't clear any of that up! :)
 
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Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
I was gonna do a big Bruza post today ["get me!"] but I'm merely going to talk about how the Bruza-philosophy is a robust outline of the principles of Cognitive Behavioural psychology. "What You Waiting For" is, as the title suggestions, a self-help treatise on avoiding procrastination. Cognitive behavioural therapists would agree with his motivatinal message of "don't say you're gonna do it, do it and then say it's done", where decisive action is used to overcome the procrastination what usually accompanies a difficult task. Also, as Bruza says, if it's important for you to do something , it's worth reflecting that you don't want to end up "watching someone else doing what you want to be doing".

Those neat conceptual turn-arounds and word-plays, although they're simple, are executed with such glee and humour that it creates these lovely, tight rhymes.
 
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