If urban music, as envisaged by those early hip-hop pioneers and rap rebels, has come a long way, then Money Counter, the latest from BC Cordarious, sits at the cutting edge of where such music has got to today.
In many ways, it is both an echo of those original sounds, encapsulating the same beat and swagger, the same outsider attitude and hard-won creativity and a reminder that music evolves over time and has to for its very survival. But as much as it looks back to those earlier music makers, it is where it is going, which is the more exciting proposition.
Lyrically, it is about success and getting on in the modern world against all odds, something that music and musicians from such quarters have always been fascinated with. Musically, it is made up of beguiling beats, swirls and swathes of electronica that have been turned into seductive and soulful slow jams.
It represents everything great about modern hip-hop, rap, and R&B, influenced and infused, as it is, with elements of each. But more importantly, it is both the sound of now and a glimpse of the future.
