Scene and Heard – CCLXX : Leading Nuh Race – Dupriece Kreed (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Leading Nuh Race is a strange creation, one which sits at the cross roads of a number of conflicting ideas. It combines a soundtrack feel with a forward thinking rap work out, it has the honesty of a live take, an improvised flow (check out the unedited noises before the vocals start) but comes with a visually high concept video. It is lo-fi in its production, wilfully meanders into and out of the song but has a vocal catch which stays in the mind long after the video has finished.

Not everything has to be polished up and presented to the highest standards, the fact that this feels more like a demo makes for a wonderful change from all the slick gloss that passes by me these days. It also shows how great the technological revolution is, that music isn’t just made in high end studios and that anyone with a few hundred bucks worth of equipment can now be part of the underground revolution which is taking back control from the big industry machine. And often it is where the most innovative ideas come from…no big budget to justify, no expections.

Leading Nuh Race is wonderfully minimalist, a mix of ambient vibes and skittering trap beats but with an “in your face” top end vocal delivery. It’s beguiling and odd, it’s like little that you have heard before and it resists easy pigeon-holing or genre assignment. But that’s the whole point I guess.