Next up in a stellar year for London-based label Potent Funk is the not-from-concentrate debut LP from incendiary producer Baileys Brown.
Riding high on the UK-wide trend of producer-led releases the Bristol based beatmaker keeps things free-range on Still Fresh, a powerful 13 tracker which sees Brown on sparkling form, taking a pair of bolt cutters to hip hop and stitching it back together with the aid of a host of top drawer MCs.
The mic gets passed round a circle which includes Stinkin Slumrok, Datkid, Anbu, Jinxsta JX, Juga-Naut, Hozay, Bil Next, Jay0117, Dabbla, Lee Scott, Bogues, Jordan Nathaniel, LY, Wish Master, Vard and Baileys’ partner in crime, Bew Bonik, while Brown’s rapping alter ego Axel Holy also pops more than once.
Still Fresh has already generated highly-rated singles “Horse’s Mouth”, “Reeboks” and “Gimme” and it’s no mistake that each track sounds totally different – Brown masters all aspects of hip-hop touching grime, boom bap and beyond, not to mention getting down low on “More Than Ruff” and “Something Else Entirely” and soulfully dusty on “Lost in Space’” and “Bouwtchu”.
Hip hop isn’t just about the mic it’s about the man behind the controls, and if Still Fresh is anything to go by there’s nobody bigger than Baileys Brown laying down beats right now.
