The debut album from rapper and graffiti artist Kid Acne is a short, sharp shock to the lug-holes: 11 tracks laced with influences from punk, various eras of hip hop, OI! and old-school British rave with beats programmed by Req and pumped up by Ross Orton (producer of M.I.A.’s hit single, Galang) mastered by acid-house and bass music legend Rob Gordon.
Romance Ain’t Dead is the realization of South Yorkshire Tourist Board’s worst nightmare and one the funniest, yet slickest albums on Lex.
Singles include remixes from Gescom and Toddla T / Jehst.
Review:
Repping Northern England with his singsongy delivery and self-deprecating
rhymes, Kid Acne, aka Eddy Fresh, brings a refreshing face to British hip-hop.
Neither grime – though there are certain electronic percussive elements that
recall the genre – nor with straight-up American beats, Ackers talk-raps his
way through the 11 tracks on Romance Ain't Dead with a kind of geniality that
makes his short, simple hooks almost always seem fun and fitting. While not the
most talented MC ever, Kid Acne has an amiability that transcends the spaces his
rhymes can't quite fill. “Oh wait, SMS the ex/Says I'd like some place to dump
me mess/That went down well as you might expect/And then I copped off with her
mate instead/…Nice one Ed, no one's impressed” he says in “Worst Luck”
before the near-hyphy hook of “I got two phones like a drug dealer, two
phones like a drug dealer” comes in, the whole thing strangely catchy and
enjoyable. The same thing cannot be said, unfortunately, of the times the record
delves into “punk,” like in “2,3 Break It” and “Oh No You Didn't”
where the cheapish, mechanized beats and synthesized instruments that had fit
the sparse hip-hop styled production so well just sound, well, cheap and
mechanized, forgetting that the scraped-and-bloody-finger sound, the crackle of
bad amps and crappy strings, are so essential to punk, and anything else just
comes off as a cheap exploitation. Better is when he sticks to what he knows,
like on his tribute to his home “South Yorks,” the slow '50s-jingle-inspired
“Fcuk All Lately,” or the tongue in cheek “Don't Pity Me,” the echo of
the drums a perfect fit to his lazy, can't-quite-get-these-words-off-my-lips
style. Is Romance Ain't Dead a brilliant rap album? No. But is it still a lot of
fun? Absolutely.
All Music Guide – Marisa Brown