Last night we caught an exclusive preview of grime veteran and master lyricist Ghetts’ Ghetto Gospel: The New Testament at a sick event in East London.
The event took place in a ritzy venue in Old Street and featured an awesome exhibition of photos and art inspired by the album as well as an in-depth conversation with the legendary interviewer and DJ Semtex. Finally, guests were treated to a playthrough of the album on a crazy sound system.
The exhibition, or appropriately named Ghettsibition, featured a number of different instalments. One depicted the myriad of producers who contributed to the album including The Confect and Sir Spyro. Another instalment a personal message from Ghetts describing the build up to Ghetto Gospel: The New Testament .There were also a variety of works linked to different tracks on the album such as a photo of the black women in his family wearing traditional clothes for the track “Black Rose”, a artwork of Little Simmz sitting in a throne for the track “King”,another piece of art made by a young black female artist called Asha for the track “No Love”, and a movie style canvas for the track “Slum Dog Millionaire”. Furthermore the exhibition included a model of Ghetts’ bedroom, photos of music video shoots, and a myriad of printed lyrics from the new project, and a tribute to Stormin who we sadly lost earlier this year. It was a really cool touch to the album launch, and truly something to behold.
After they had time to soak in the instalments, guests were ushered into a next room where Ghetts was joined on a podium by DJ Semtex for an interview with Spotify’s Who We Be Talks. During the interview, Sem told us of the admiration people have for Ghetts, from his comrade in grime Dizzee Rascal, to the American hip-hop icon MC Hammer. They touched upon the process of making the album, how it was originally scheduled to come out in September 2017 marking a decade since the original Ghetto Gospel. However being the perfectionist he is, Ghetts decided to delay the project the make sure every little intricacy from the lyrics to the production, was fully on point, and Ghetts elaborated how he would record multiple takes of a verse even if the first one was perfect, just to make sure it could’t somehow be improved. Ghetts also told us it was the first time he didn’t have a title for an album before he made it.
As for the album itself, it is a contemporary grime masterpiece. Semtex reiterated how he thought it would definitely be album of the year and after we got to listen to it we understood why. The album reflects the duplicity of Ghetts life as he has matured and developed as a man taking so many roles and positions including an ex-convict, a family man, a father, a voice of the black British community, a poet, and a leader of the grimescene. His daughter was a huge inspiration for the new project, and he even revealed that he had taken her to the studio on some occasions. The sonic range on the album could only come from a artist of real talent, from the track with Prez T which saw two ends of the grime spectrum join together, to the more sentimental tracks like “Jess Song” about his friends battle with cancer, the album is a roller-coaster of sound, emotion, and energy. The album contains a star-studded line up of British artists like the aforementioned Little Simz, President T, Wretch 32, Donae’O, Stefflon Don, Chip, Suspect, and Kojey Radical.
Ghetto Gospel: The New Testament is a project from a master lyricist, a true craftsman and a perfectionist. Without a shadow of a doubt, it will be one of, if not, the album of the year for 2018.
Ghetts wears RS-0 Optic Pop
Photography: @knonoodles / @zeksnaps / @kenvshots
Further imagery from the night can be found on our Instagram, here.
