riko - the truth

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viktorvaughn

Well-known member
Listened to a bit last night but i found it a bit dry and samey. Possibley cos I also had got the new Trim and Tinchy's Cloud9 EP and was feeling them a lot. I dunno if Riko has quite what it takes to pull off a full CD (or 2 CDs!) to be honest - he's obviously an amazing rave and battle MC and one of the original dan daddas with both jungle and bashment pedigree, but he is a bit 2D in a way and lacks the depth of character of Wiley and Trim.

However, I am going to Norfolk for four days to listen properly to Soul Food 3 (which sounds amazing in a wonky way), Cloud9 EP, The Truth and Quincey's 'You don't know the half of it', so may change opinion!
 
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Blackdown

nexKeysound
hmm. i love riko flow, always will, but to me the best stuff on the grime CD i've heard before. nothing tests 'dead that ft gift.'
 
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stelfox

Beast of Burden
yeah, a lot of it you will have heard before, but as a whole package, i like it a lot and it's the sort of thing he could only do on a mixtape, as opposed to a "proper" album...
 
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Blackdown

nexKeysound
stelfox said:
it's the sort of thing he could only do on a mixtape, as opposed to a "proper" album...
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the distinction is artificial tbh.

there's no mixing on mix CDs, no DJs and they've mostly abandoned vocalling US r&b/rap tunes. so mixtapes are basically independent grime albums, where the artists dont try as hard as they might if they were signed to a major, but then dont get pushed into unlistenable colaborations with acts like kate nash either...
 
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stelfox

Beast of Burden
er, let's stop talking about this otherwise it's going to bugger up a forthcoming newspaper piece i'm working on saying exactly that! on which note check your email in a sec martin
 
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mms

sometimes
Yeahthe riko cd - it's good, it's got variety and he's pulled in some of the best grime riddims for the job too, as well as some guests.
 
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faustus

Well-known member
Blackdown said:
Freedom of Speech arrived this morning, so far it's sounding incredible...
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yeah i reckon, mountain, commandments, buss and especially darkside freestyle are really on it. love how deep the production is on these songs (maybe not mountain), bit of a gamble just doing one producer but i reckon it's probably paid off.

to return to the topic - can any1 give me some reasons i should buy riko's cd? i can't believe there's more than a couple of ok tracks with 2cds worth of filler (don't know why i'm so prejudiced against it but i am)
 
rockypoppy2

rockypoppy2

wtf?
faustus said:
yeah i reckon, mountain, commandments, buss and especially darkside freestyle are really on it. love how deep the production is on these songs (maybe not mountain), bit of a gamble just doing one producer but i reckon it's probably paid off.

to return to the topic - can any1 give me some reasons i should buy riko's cd? i can't believe there's more than a couple of ok tracks with 2cds worth of filler (don't know why i'm so prejudiced against it but i am)
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im not sure about ghetto again - i thought i liked him - especially after fuck radio 5 - seeing him live etc... but on freedom of speech hes just reverted back to that over fast, overly nasal, over aggressive (not in a good way) - and its like calm down man - he is a good mc, he has good things to say, i should enjoy listening to him but i just cant on this - not to say that the production isnt good, i think the production is great - commandments is indeed stunning - but he just needs to stop trying so hard on each track to say as much as is humanly possible, if he calmed down a bit i think he'd be great.


really looking forward to rikodan - was watching practice hours 1 the other day where he said he was about to put a mixtape out - what was that 3 years? sounds about right in the grime scene eh...


dead that - aim high 2 = probably the best one for me - absolutely brilliant
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
ordered this but still waiting for it. cant wait to hear it though - riko always been one of my favourite emcees. hope the beats are good.
 
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petergunn

plywood violin
viktorvaughn said:
Listened to a bit last night but i found it a bit dry and samey. Possibley cos I also had got the new Trim and Tinchy's Cloud9 EP and was feeling them a lot. I dunno if Riko has quite what it takes to pull off a full CD (or 2 CDs!) to be honest - he's obviously an amazing rave and battle MC and one of the original dan daddas with both jungle and bashment pedigree, but he is a bit 2D in a way and lacks the depth of character of Wiley and Trim.

However, I am going to Norfolk for four days to listen properly to Soul Food 3 (which sounds amazing in a wonky way), Cloud9 EP, The Truth and Quincey's 'You don't know the half of it', so may change opinion!
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huh, hearing the one track w/ Scratchy, i was way more excited for the Riko CD than Soul Food Vol. 3... the bits i heard from that just sounded dull... Vol 1 was the best album of last year, but vol 2 was kinda lame...

hearing Scratchy spit on the Riko track reminded of all the things i liked about Trim, that off kilter, lazy sounding approach to spitting... eccentric... but, still funky... new trim is not that funky, in general...

but, yes, Cloud 9 EP is SICK... i really like the EP thing, 5-10 solid tracks as opposed to 22 track CDs with 4 good songs... tinchy is really sounding good... he has a good ear for beats and the type of flow and charisma to make even lame lyrics sound good...
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
this is good - riko has a good ear for beats (a lot of these sound like they could be from a few years back - always loved that grand theft auto vocal, nice to have it at last) which makes a change from a lot of emcees, plus hes good as a 'recording artist' as well as a live rave one. but theres quite a few properly duff tracks on this that sound very poorly recorded and he sounds bored. not as ferocious as i hoped for. but its decent overall. hes one of my favourite emcees. would have been better as a short thing though - i agree, EPs are much better than overlong mix-cds. this one kinda tested the patience, despite it being riko. wouldnt have minded more of geeneus' next level type tracks and starting off with so amazing is pretty odd (dont even like that song) but its worth it.
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Bloody hell! Never heard that 'Dumplin Riddim' before, is this an old tune or what? This track really stopped me in my tracks after hearing the first cd.

Saw Chase and Status recently in Newcastle and they were brilliant, pissed all over Goldie who was headlining.
 
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Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Another amazing track that I've never heard before on the second cd: The Wiley produced Freestyle. Sounds like Kraftwerk :)
 
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stelfox

Beast of Burden
gumdrops said:
this is good - riko has a good ear for beats (a lot of these sound like they could be from a few years back - always loved that grand theft auto vocal, nice to have it at last) which makes a change from a lot of emcees, plus hes good as a 'recording artist' as well as a live rave one. but theres quite a few properly duff tracks on this that sound very poorly recorded and he sounds bored. not as ferocious as i hoped for. but its decent overall. hes one of my favourite emcees. would have been better as a short thing though - i agree, EPs are much better than overlong mix-cds. this one kinda tested the patience, despite it being riko. wouldnt have minded more of geeneus' next level type tracks and starting off with so amazing is pretty odd (dont even like that song) but its worth it.
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it's a mixtape, it's not supposed to be perfect and it's not supposed to be the definitive statement of anything. that's the difference between a mixtape and an album. in the absence of any raves whatsoever and given the lack of pirate radio outlets existing now, mcs need a space to use as a proving/testing ground, somewhere that provides more freedom than a finely honed, professional album. you're right, quite a few tracks are old (several of the best ones, actually), a few are duds - i could quite comfortably live without women's liberation, which is horrible, or the being locked out of the house one for starters - but there's some real gold here, too and that's the important thing. these releases give tons of music for six quid. for that kind of price, you should expect to have to flick through a few tracks you don't like/have heard too often. the too long critcism, while true, is a bit pointless in this context... mixtapes generally are too long/half full of ass, it's what they are and what they do! and grime EPs/12 have always been extraordinarily expensive. give me quantity and i'll happily do my own quality control, thanks,
 
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