The Bastard Sunz - Le Discotheque Martyrdom Review
First and foremost, Le Discotheque Martyrdom may not be to every hip hop fans cup of tea, but what is nowadays, however this cannot take away the abundance of talent portrayed throughout this 13 track onslaught of: Beats that will blow you away, and lyrical content that you would never want to play to your parents. The title of the album has a kind of circus feel to it, reminds me of an old book that came in a FHM magazine years ago called 'The Carnival of Grotesque' but just like a circus, it doesn’t fail to entertain you.
Mylo and B’Tilla are quite polished emcees, and from the get go the album has shades of Method Man & Redman’s ‘Blackout & Blackout 2’ the production on this is nothing short of outstanding, a few beats that stand out are: ‘White Spots’ produced by Rola, ‘Murder Factory’ produced by Krazy, and ‘The Scaboore Generals’ produced by Cutterz, however all production on the album is to a very good standard. The production on this CD is critical to the finished article, both Mylo and Tilla compliment each other on all 11 tracks they feature in together - you can tell they have a healthy rivalry on this album, which seems to have paid dividends, as it makes the album a lot more focused, with both artists bringing their A game and showing their hunger. The collaborations on this CD are quite a who’s who of UK music in general – Eva Lazarus blesses two tracks with some breathtaking vocals, Chattabox of ‘Dialect’ drops a verse, along with Junior Disprol, Turroe, Central Spillz, Joe Murphy of ‘Koopa’ & Kev Yates from ‘Forever Never’ All these guest spots just give the album that little more depth and diversity with regards to contrasting styles. They obviously put alot of thought into who would feature on this, and they have done it perfectly.
The standout tracks on the album are:
‘White Spots’ ft Chattabox - produced by Rola, the beat to this track is outstanding, Rola did such a good job on this, it really doesn’t sound like much else out at the minute, and all 3 emcees closed the album out nicely on this, however what stands out most about this track is the hook, it compliments the beat so well, not many emcees can write a good hook nowadays, but these two have created an absolute banger here for sure. I can honestly say, it will be on rotation in the car, and various CD players.
‘Crescendo’ ft Eva Lazarus – produced by Flipz, again production value is on another level on this, Flipz definitely delivered the goods. This is Mylo’s only solo track on the album, and he has shown how he can switch it up on this track, quite a personal track to the man himself, which I can’t really critique, but all the basic elements for a good song are there, and it gets a shove into an outstanding song with the pipes of Eva Lazarus, both did an immaculate job on this song. It is such an overwhelming song, Eva really does put the cherry on top of the cake with some breathtaking vocals, that will send shivers down your spine.
‘The Shades’ ft Joe Murphy of Koopa & Kev Yates of Forever Never – produced by Rola, this track is something we don’t see in hip hop much anymore, back in the days of Slick Rick with ‘The art of Storytelling’ it has seemed to have disappeared from the culture of hip hop somewhat, but never fear, B’Tilla the Cunt has brought it back with ‘The Shades’ which is a very good storytelling track. A good storytelling song should have good imagery, plot and it should paint a vivid picture of what’s going on, B’Tilla delivered all the above with this one – the guitar work over the beat was a excellent touch, Mr Yates and Murphy did a fantastic job.
In closing with a rap scene that has been diluted and watered down with the ‘Pop Culture’ the UK hip hop scene needs something a little bit different as a focal point - Le Discotheque Martyrdom brings two of the most talented emcees from the South West together, and they display what real raw talent is all about, something for the underground scene to bob it’s head too, but at the same time even with the content of some of the tracks, it has crossover/commercial appeal to it. It reminds me a of when ‘The Marshal Mather’s LP’ was released, which was one of the most rugged, yet critically acclaimed rap albums of our generation - and after a few listens, this has the same crossover/commercial appeal. The Bastard Sunz may not pander to the masses, or the teeny boppers following the X Factor, but unlike the X Factor these guys have talent!! When you hear B’Tilla’s verse in ‘White Spots’ you wouldn’t think that he would be capable of writing such a nostalgic and radio friendly track like ‘Chasing Clouds’ the same can be said for Mylo, when you hear him on a track like ‘Top Rank’ and then hear his track ‘Crescendo’ featuring Eve Lazarus, you start to realize how diverse these two really are.
I hope this is just the start of things to come for the Bastard Sunz, each track on this album just gets better and better with each listen, even though it is quite hardcore lyrically, the way it is delivered is actually quite subtle. The only drawback on the whole album is... I would have liked it to be a couple of tracks longer, it’s not much of a drawback, because you are getting a lot for your money with this album and I would recommend this to any serious hip hop fan, get out and purchase this gem of a CD – I don’t need to give this album a rating, it is just that damn good.
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