Review

The sixth studio album from rapper and producer dream team Slug and Ant begins lightly, ‘Like the Rest of Us’ opening the record with the sunlit wisdom of a father speaking to his son. The rhymes flow as if taken from a hip-hop golden age where the Fresh Prince rhymed about summertime, or Warren G reminisced about shootin’ dice in the corners of public schools. When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold is dedicated ‘to all dads’, going beyond the bravado of aggressive hip-hop caricatures to create something for guys who have grown up with the hip-hop mainstream but outgrown its primary concerns. Darker moments like the wobbling, ‘in da club’ stomping pimp parable ‘Shoulda Known’ provide the edge. Each track is built around prosaic, professional beats, with bass drums bumping like a heart heard through ultrasound. Overall, the record reads like another accomplished chapter from the life and times of a hip-hop daddy. Kiran Acharya

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DOWNLOAD: ‘LIKE THE REST OF US’, ‘SHOULDA KNOWN’.
FOR FANS OF: GANG STARR, NON-PROPHETS.

Posted on: 27th January 2010

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