IRS – Speaks Volumes LP [IRS]

Whilst scrolling through the endless hell of facebook the latest IRS album Speaking Volumes came into my field of vision and moments later through my headphones. As with all the great UK Hip Hop groups IRS is underrated and overlooked, meanwhile Idris Elba’s on TV trying to tell us that So Solid were one of the most significant things in Hip Hop’s history – as AC would say, ‘Dickheads!!’.

So what’s the album like? If you hadn’t slept on the 2007 album the world is theIRS then you would already know Ed Strong’s production is standardly dope and hard hitting while emcees King Kaiow and Superb are without doubt some of the heaviest we got. Features include Stig of the Dump (sick verse), Rewd Adams, (aka Scandal – recent free album was also fire) Cherry Suico and Edward Cawthorne. Guest producers Pete Cannon and Wizard step in for a track each bringing freshness.

The quality standard has not slipped for this album although there is more singing this time. The raps are just great – the usual sense of humour and intelligent rhyme patterns, a few tracks in double time. It’s gonna take quite a few listens to really absorb this album. This is proper lyricism not simple bragging and battle raps. The IRS are writers and they are writing something worth hearing about their lives and their views of the current world we are living in.

You may be thinking ‘but you haven’t actually described the music at all…’. True, but what’s the point when the album’s only a click away from this. If you read the review but you’re not interested enough to at least have a listen I cant help you, it’s your loss. Great piece of work here, tight production, superlative rhyming, nice scratching – the whole shebang basically. Catch the live show, these guys really got their shit down to a science.

By: Esh | IBMCs on Facebook

• http://theirs.bandcamp.com/album/speaks-volumes