Irish rap hasn’t had a great, rep, really. Thanks to some really bad wannabes getting press, Irish Hip hop has been viewed by many as a joke. This means a lot of the serious rap and hip hop artists of the country are still underground and unknown. With his new album ‘LD50’, Lethal Dialect does more than his fair share to dispel the myth.
Before the rap stylings, before the Dublin accent, the first thing I notice is how good the production is. This is what a producer is supposed to do, take an artist and make them marketable and sellable in a particular genre. This sounds like proper hiphop as you would hear in a US or French suburb.
‘The Beginning’ starts with a city soundscape and a couple of American voices before Lethal Dialect delivers. Yes, he has a Dublin accent but the accent shouldn’t make any difference as Lethal Dialect puts gritty rhymes together with ease.
The majority of the album is produced by G.I. and is of a mid-tempo boom bap style with dark undertones. What’s Boom bap? A rhythm made from a fat bass drum sound and a sharp snare. ‘Hold You Down’ also featured Tommy Hand and its exciting to see how two interact on record. Both ‘Cold Case’ and ‘Far from the End’, produced by Jonnyboy aren’t as dark as the other tracks. ‘Far from the End’ in particular is slightly more commerical/radio friendly sounding. A radio edit would be needed but hey, this is hip hop!
This is a damn fine hip hop album, the fact that it’s Irish is a bonus. If you want to find out about Irish rap and Hiphop, this is a brilliant place to start.
LD50 is available from iTunes