having previously been a strong advocate of the 'grime artists must make full on grime albums' (i didnt even like just a rascal on BIDC cos it was too close to normal-at-the-time hip hop production or fix up look sharp cos it was too much like normal old school hip hop), i now am starting to wonder what the big fuss is, in regard to kanos album anyway - he does hip hop tracks, yes, but he does them really well (mostly). and the beats arent typical or imitative - theyve actually got quite innovative production. apart from all that, im sure no one would have a problem if kano did an old school UKG-style song or a proper old scholl jungle track either, both of which are parts of what make up grime, yet they have a problem when he does a hip hop track, when hip hop is a part of grime's makeup as well. i dont get it.
i know a lot of grime fans just dont want grime and uk/british hip hop to ever be seen as conflating (i dont really want them to either) but alot of this snobbery comes from people who seem to simply hate all british hip hop on principle. back in the more fire crew and so solid days, that might have made sense, as the music was totally unlike hip hop, the emceeing was a lot less hip-hop sounding as well in terms of voices and flows, but now many grime beats have quite a lot in common with 'normal' hip hop, despite the obvious idiosyncracies and differences. despite tracks like underground, murkle man and sidewinder, alot of grime stuff just doesnt feel that fast despite being at 130 bpm, it feels a lot closer to hip hop now the speed seems to have gone. obviously, you can still tell the difference between when kano does a grime track and a more clearly hip hop track, but a lot of whats on home sweet home is almost like in between the two, resting slightly more obviously on the hip hop side of things, not that unlike roll deep's let it out IMO. i think kode 9 called that track sinogrimehop!