LETHAL BIZZLE
Against All Oddz
Observer Music Monthly, July 17, 2005
by Simon Reynolds
Lethal
Bizzle has the distinction of scoring grime’s two biggest hits. Last
Christmas, his solo debut “Pow” peaked just outside the Top 10, but two
years earlier Bizzle and his group More Fire did even better with the
number eight smash “Oi!”. In between these highs, though, came an
ego-crushing career crash: More Fire’s album totally flopped. Bizzle’s
response was impressive: he gradually clawed his way back, rebuilding
his street rep with implacable determination and hard graft.
Hardly
surprising, then, that keynotes of defiance and vindication are sounded
repeatedly on this album, over adrenalin-pumping carousel-like grooves
modeled on “Pow”, such as the mad-catchy “Uh Oh (I’m Back)!”. You can
forgive Bizzle for gloating just a bit, as he does on “Hitman” and “The
Truth,” the latter jousting with rival crew Roll Deep, pointing to the
poor sales of Wiley’s own solo album and advising Riko that “there’s
plenty of nine-to-fives out there”. But by far the best thing here stems
from the Bizzle’s long dark night of the soul after More Fire were
dropped by their label. Closer to spoken word than rap, the title track
has the MC describing feeling like he was “finished, no one” over a
haunting mid-tempo synth-strumental (originally titled “Funeral Vibez”
and built by guest producer Plasticman).
What’s unsettling about “Against All Oddz” is how Bizzle seems just as
headfucked
by his career resurrection, by the phone that won’t stop ringing and
the “Beyonce look-alikes” looking to bed him. “When you’re hype everyone
cares,” he intones mournfully. “But leave me alone… This world is so
strange.”
Ice T once declared “don’t hate the player, hate the game.” On “Against All Oddz” Bizzle almost sees right through the game,
apprehending the hollowness of triumph within a system (hip hop, a/k/a
capitalism) where winners take all, but most will be losers.
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