British rappers have never had it easy, and while the Brit rap scene has been in existence for decades, it was only really when grime took hold that the industry decided to take a closer look. Rodney Smith is one of the survivors, and rather than attempt to jump on whatever bandwagon he can (clue: you won't hear a Dappy collaboration here) he's stayed not only true to his roots, but the roots of the genre itself. Reviewers have been quick to jump on the dubstep influences - but Smith has always been happy to indulge a more electronic bent, and his love of dub is pretty much set in stone at this point. The truth is, Smith is hard to describe because he's always made hip hop, it's just very British hip hop, and the kind of hip hop that people never really 'got' on either side of Atlantic. Through seventeen tracks and a variety of styles Smith has never sounded more vital and more incensed. His signature flow cuts through the slinky bass of single 'Watch Me Dance', the island skank of 'Wha' Mek?' and the delirious post punk of 'The Throes of It', but it's when he gets weird that the album falls into its own realm. Flick over to the skipping California doom of 'Takes Time' or Radiophonic shuffle of 'Crow Bars' and tell me there ain't such a thing as British hip hop. '4everevolution' is an important record for sure, but more importantly to us it's a really good one.
