Blak Twang – Before N After 12″ [Rotton Productions / Soul Culture]

Blak Twang, also known as Taipanic and Tony Rotton, is back with his new track, ‘Before N After’. A catchy and down- to-earth song set to be on his new album, ‘Elevation’. The song begins with a quote from Charles Darwin, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change”.

Here he sets the tone for the song that is about technological advances and how they have changed the UK grime home-grown scene. The song also samples quotes from Bruce Lee’s ‘Enter the Dragon’ a film about philosophical insight and betrayal.

The lyrics are mainly on the topic of change and its affect on hip hop. Twang claims that in the past, for example before social networks were used to promote songs, the hip hop scene was more creative in its establishment. Twang suggests that the hip hop scene used to be about, ‘who had the best flows and spit the best’ but now it is about who gets paid the most and ‘holds’ the best ‘tools’. He also references back to how he helped young rappers and received no thanks.

With a catchy hook and skilful wordplay and intertextuality, this track has been getting a lot of respect from DJ’s such as 1Extra’s Semtex, as well as YouTube surfers. The track is lyrically to the point with a good pace and rhythm. If you like tracks that are more about the words and their meaning than the music then this is for you.

By: Astrid Ferguson

• http://www.myspace.com/blaktwang