Speech Debelle “Finish This Album”
I generally have a hard time getting into British hip hop. Something about the accent has always thrown me a bit, and grime/dubstep generally just doesn’t do much for me. I’ve found an exception to that rule in this year’s surprise Mercury Prize winner however: Speech Debelle. Though she doesn’t have the tightest flow in the world, her rhymes have a loose rhythm that is very much in keeping with the MC’s self immolating lyrics and stories of hardship. I particularly dig “Finish This Album,” a heart rending track about overcoming adversity. It reminds me a lot of Talib Kweli’s masterpiece “Get By” in that it’s an epic depiction of the daily struggle of life that is all too human. Like “Get By,” “Finish” too utilizes a really terrific backing sample, in this case disconsolate violins in place of Nina Simone. Debelle (Corynne Elliot) does not currently have any U.S. tour dates listed, but after the Mercury Prize announcement you can bet that they will be coming soon.
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Never really gave Speech a chance because I thought it was pretty outrageous that she won the Mercury over Bats For Lashes, Florence, yada yada yada – but I’ll give it up, this is a solid track.
Agree with Chris, I didn’t want to like her simply because I felt she didn’t deserve the Mercury Prize over those other much more worthy (in my opinion) artists, but this is a good track.
And Jon, she did have some US dates scheduled in October (granted they were just in NYC and LA), but the tour had to be scrapped due to Visa issues. Hopefully she’ll get that sorted and do a proper tour of the States before she turns into Ms. Dynamite (oh snap!).