From one of the UK’s most consistently high-quality MCs, Dubbledge, comes this skilfully-handled concept album, Dubbledge Vs The Boondocks…

Dubbledge Vs The Boondock’s is Dubbledge’s second album, following 2007’s The Richest Man In Babylon, 2009’s Smile EP. Interspersed with telling clips from The Boondocks, the album navigates sensitive issues with generous amounts of cynicism and humour.

After a light-hearted opening skit, the Watford native launches straight into the hard-hitting, How To Make A Slave AKA Willie Lynch. Parodying slave owner, William Lynch’s, 1712 speech on how to perpetrate the conditions of slavery, the rap gives a darkly ironic account of slavery’s origins and following social ramifications. “And that’ll carry on till the end of days,/ So I can sit back while the slaves make the slaves,” ‘Edge raps over a heavy, solid beat.

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Chess follows. There’s an N.W.A. reminiscent beat, and Dubbledge is on form, capturing the street experience with an extended chess metaphor that brings to mind The Wire’s D’Angelo Barksdale describing the drug game. Characteristic word and numerical play follows in EyeSeeYou, with a candid critique of ethnically-based police assumptions. On lyrically-rich posse cut, Oi, Dubbledge joins Willo Wispa, Verbal, and Dabbla. A slow beat allows time for slow rhymes, and the MCs show off their verbal innovations unashamedly. Ello Lady is a humorous take on the approaches to chatting up a girl, laid down over a bubbling funk beat.

And, as if we still weren’t assured of ‘Edge’s abilities, he follows this with This Track Don’t Need To Rhyme. The number departs from the conventional rhymed 16 bar template, relying on the metre to persuade us that Dubbledge is rhyming when he’s not. “I’m so heavy, I don’t need to rhyme,” he claims, a statement that could well be true.

Certainly, two heavy tracks finish off the album. Holy Cow sees a snare interject over distorted vocal cuts and a beat that sounds like a weighty water droplet landing in a well, as Dubbledge mesmerizingly rhymes and cross-rhymes. Cry fades out the album solemnly, with ‘Edge meditating on the lure of life’s excesses. Tony Montana samples punctuate the piece, asking if this is “what it’s all about, man?” as crackling beats and soulful vocals run in background.

The album’s concept is tight – it’s hard to fault it. Dubbledge underscores social concerns with dark humour, slipping Boondocks clips in with propriety. He maintains a delicate balance: the album means serious business, both in terms of subject matter and production, but humour stops it from slipping into sentimentality.

Out now.
Label: Hidden Agenda
Tracklist:

01.Intro
02.Making of a Slave aka Willie Lynch
03.Get Da F Up
04.Chase & Status
05.Eyeseeyou
06.Oi feat Willo Wispa, Verbal & Dabbla
07.Ello Lady feat TB
08.Huey Speaks feat – Copy
09.This Track Dont Need To Rhyme – Copy
10.RIley Speaks
11.Holy Cow
12.Cry

Follow Dubbledge on twitter here.

Words by Fiona Guest