- Mon, 2011-04-04 12:06
East London hip hop emcee Cyclonious has established himself as a well-respected player on the UK underground over the past couple of years with a series of guest verses, a handful of mixtapes and his debut album The Revival, which spawned the street hit What’s In A Postcode? He looks to be stepping things up in 2011, one mixtape already out – Escape To Reality – and the new nine track EP The Warrior & The Blacksmith, produced by French beat-maker Shaolin 42nd Chamber, following fast on its heels.
The EP’s title track finds Cyclonious shelf his characteristic conscientious lyricism in favour of a more bellicose flow, calling out his contemporaries, though avoiding dropping specific names: “fuck your unit, your clan your click or your team, fuck your props; you’re bwop, you’re all bitches to me. I stand tall like the pyramids, your foundation’s weak; you’ll crumble from the titan lines that the Cyc speaks.”
As his name might suggest, 42nd Chamber’s production takes its prompts from the Wu-Tang playbook. A soft but insistent beat loops throughout as minimal, jazz-blues piano chords alternate with tension-building snatches of cellos and horns that themselves sound like they were sampled straight from an old-school kung fu b-movie.
Unlikely to launch Cyclonious into the bigger leagues, The Warrior And The Blacksmith will nonetheless confirm him as one of the UKs most talented and hard-working hip hop emcees. Download the EP for free from here.
