What’s great about the young and developing scene we have in London (and beyond), is the sheer diversity of it. It seems every day a new artist is coming to our attention, sounding new and innovative and original, yet still so distinctly British.
Artists are getting weird and artists are getting experimental, and it’s due time we started highlighting some of these creatives that may otherwise slip under our radar. With that being said, welcome back to Go Left; GRM’s guide to alternative grime, hip-hop and R&B, the best of what you may not have heard yet.
This week’s Go Left takes a detour from our usual playlist, in order to give recognition to alternate music duo 808INK’s new album Hungry.
The duo, consisting of producer 808Charmer and rapper Mumblez Black Ink, have produced a quintessentially London sounding rap LP, with sprinkles of overseas influence.
Hungry, which spans 13 tracks and sees a handful of features including DanielOG, JD Reid, Ideh, Sam Wise and Kahlia Bakosi, amalgamates bold, forthright beats with charismatic word-play and hooks. “Beeper” is a solid example of this, featuring the Neverland Clan founder himself DanielOG.
Ink’s crisp vocals go hand-in-hand with Charmer’s spacey production throughout; there are instrumental moments reminiscent of Canada’s KAYTRANADA too, such as “45 With Sam” and the rickety “Huni Yo”, segway-ing seamlessly into the flippant “I Just Wanna”, revealing personal lines like, “I know you think about me, hoping that you can find me/I know you screen shotted those pictures from my Instagram.”
In terms of 808INK’s involvement in the UK rap scene, they are absolutely killing it; proving that being Hungry is a whole lot healthier than eating Tinie Tempah’s Junk Food.
We will be uploading more alternative videos onto our YouTube channel. If you fit in with those who don’t fit in, are part of the Go Left gang and have something wavy for us, send an email to [email protected]
Check out last week’s playlist selection here.