damn.

a week after i dropped those words re daghas fine new album, the divorce, and already i’m loving several other new hip hop albums.

which given that i haven’t had any urge to listen to verbals and loops for a long time means that either there must be something in the water @ ireallylovemusic hq, or, there is an ongoing subtle shift in hip hop in 2008.

todays head nodding love is flowing in the direction of son records latest full length by dpf (aka joe viggers) who has managed to make a solid set of well produced, easy flowing joints that easily demand several spins to pick up on the old school mc’ing skills, and warm humour.

the clean simple open sounding, but hook filled productions, are held down by either mr laws, or tommy temper, and are matched nicely against joes precise lyrical flow, with little in the way of obvious uk hip hop cliches.

several of the productions head for ska’d up heavy dubby basslines, maintaining a minimal in sonic fuss and detail, making it natural for the listener to focus on the non violent bravado, girl-centric, self deprecation vocal style that has definite shades of one missing in action hip hop anti-hero, eminem, albeit with a east of england slant.

of course the lack of record label budget, east anglia location, (ie this guy is no london hipster scene shaker/maker), all means that the album has a slim chance of getting its just rewards.

however, it currently looks like hip hop connection have picked up on this fine album, and so the people behind this could be in with a money shot.

too many quotable quotes are scattered across the 15 tracks (a rare welcome treat!) make it pointless to zoom in on any one stanza in particular, so all i gotta say is, joe may not have one of those faces that goes places, but he sure has made an excellent album that a lot of people are going to be listening closely to for many a month.

and quite right too.

 

more detail : here