The Score – V of 40M (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Much of what sets V of40M, (standing for 40 million strong) apart from most of his rap and hip-hop competitors, is the ethic that drives his music. Whilst many are happy to talk about making money and getting revenge on perceived “haters,” feeding their ego and the lifestyle they dream of, V of 40M is more concerned with bigger issues. With a name taken, in part at least, from a movement that advocates Melanite or Black independence and self-sufficiency, it is clear that there is a more profound message at work here.

And so it is with his latest release, The Score, a song about realities and honest truths. It delivers these deft and dexterous lyrical messages over a track built of depth-charge bass pulses, swirls of beguiling electronica, and skittering percussive beats.

There is a beautiful dynamic built up over this, aided and abetted by 40m Tye and Hippie G, via the different tones and textures the vocal-scape moves through – matter-of-fact deliveries replaced by relaxed rap salvos, which in term move into knowing asides. And there is also a device at work that you rarely find in the urban realm. Analogy. While V of 40M and the team wax lyrical in the language of a discussion about sport, it is easy to see that this is a code for more weighted issues – social change, individual rights, personal freedom, and perhaps even revolution.

In a world where rap and hip-hop and all the scenes and styles those genres spawned seem to have been dumbed down to their lowest artistic benchmarks, V of 40M offers a glimmer of hope for a return to a golden age for those sounds by blending the integrity of the past with the cutting-edge sonics of the moment.