The success of Just Jack and Jamie T may mark a turning point in the direction of homegrown rap. These white boys with estuary accents and backing bands are proving increasingly palatable to British tastes and, with guitar music maintaining a tighter grip on the eardrums of hip young things than at any time in the past 20 years, where does that leave rap's meat and potatoes variety?
Klashnekoff is a Hackney MC who's already a very big fish in the saucer-sized pond of UK hip hop on the strength of a few EPs (collated on The Sagas Of... CD) and mixtapes. Drawing heavily on his Rasta background (reggae samples abound), he's more concerned with Babylon beatdowns than night bus dust-ups, setting out his stall on the opening 'The Revolution (Will Not be Televised on Channel U)': 'We used to be proud to be black and positive/ But now we scream loud about crack and hollow tips.'
If that latter sentiment sounds rich coming from a man named after a Russian assault rifle, Klashnekoff's bullets (and there are plenty of them on the brilliant 'Two Guns Blazing' and 'Terrorise The City') are largely metaphorical.
His picturesque and often impenetrable slang (Jankrow anyone?) bears comparison to Ghostface, the only other rapper who could perform the open heart surgery of the biographical 'Rest of Our Lives' without seeming mawkish. Nottingham's Joe Buddha deserves credit for the production, but Lionheart... is Klashnekoff's album, one that lays down a significant marker for British rap in its original voice.
Download: 'Two Guns Blazing'
