ain't it just!
although he reckons he's doing hip-hop, which has caused a fairly exhausting amount of controversy on rwd... an interesting debate, though i'm bored of it now so you'll forgive me if i don't recount the pros and cons here..
http://www.rwdmag.com/forum//showthread.php?t=83704
I can see what he's on about though - some of this really reminds me of the super nimble lyrical style of Gift of Gab from Blackalicious. The track where he personifies music as a woman (Give Me the Music I think) has been done before - eg Jeru the Damaja on his 2nd LP I think. Lots of long complex narrative sentences. And there is no shank or strap talk. 'Switching Songs II', with it's UKG and Jungle pastiches, acknowledges his places him in the rave continuum like no other Grime track I have ever heard before. There is lots of references to his personal experience and life, has lots of 'state of the scene' talk in it and creates a cogent portrait of An Artist rather than an MC just spraying bars.
I do think it is moving away from the grime paradigm for better or worse, especially with the Coki instrumental, the mini mashup of 'Switching Songs II' in there and the fact he has a slight US accent on some of the tracks which I really dislike (B-Live anyone?).
I DO like it a lot, i'm just not sure it's the masterpiece that will save Grime from itself that some 1/4s seem to think (or wish??) it might be. I will still enjoy the best bits of 'Durrty Whirl' and 'It's Real' (Jammer's Pulse X rfx, Gimme Dat etc.) more than the Axiom EP.