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.......
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.......