Hip-hop, and all the musical forms which it spawned, has always been about lyrical dexterity. If it doesn’t have a cool lyrical flow and deft wordplay at it’s heart then you are making that style of music in name only. You can’t make rock music without a guitar, not really, you can’t make pop music with our infectious melodies… and you can’t make hip-hop without essentially being a street poet in the first place. It’s as simple as that.
Thankfully Buss and Hype have got what it takes. Taking it in turns to fire of lyrical salvos using the language of the streets they talk of loss and retribution and of turning their back on it and leaving all of that behind them to focussing on a more positive route through life. But the real key to sounding authentic is confidence and conviction, such tough talk has to be convincing to sound real, it’s what separates the people who mean business from the wannabe also-rans sat in they bedrooms dreaming of making music with this much bite.
It’s easy to think that we have heard it all before but staying relevant in urban circles isn’t about trying to break new musical territory or fusing these core sounds with other genres. It’s about doing what rap and hip-hop has always done so well and just doing it better. Angels Cry is the sound of the familiar being balanced with the fresh and the past being reinvented to build a bright musical future. How cool is that?
