Kano

I’m from 140 Grime Street. I’m still about if u wanna find me. This is where I’m living for the time being… Until a label wants to sign me.

The smooth criminal of grime has just moved house, has he finally found home sweet home? A million miles away now from the major-led CD that made him a mainstream hero, its back to basics for the wonder boy from Bow. Kate Nash is now but a distant memory and Kane Robinson now has another chance, the scorecards are back in the hands of the fans, not The Guardian. If Kano’s return to grime is just another pit stop whilst he races for another major record deal then this lacklustre effort would be explained very well. Delivered in the same vein as Emcee Number 1, this release is uninspiring and disappointing.

As an eternal lover of Beats n Bars, I think the hunger and passion Kane once felt for grime has since evaporated, replaced instead with a desire to be Number 1, the UK chart as opposed to Number 140, Grime Street. It seems even in 2008 Kano has no desire to branch out from his inner circle, Mikey J provides the majority of the beats on this 16 track heavy CD. Old favourites resurface such as Davinche on Don’t Come Around Here and I like It which adhere to Kane’s promises that he still ‘balls like a boss’ and Davinche provides a perfect platform for his general ego preening. Wiley pops up here too to provide some nice strings on Aim For The Sky and also on Anywhere We Go which has gained some brownie points from other sources for a well-timed collab (compared to She Glows ft. Kano, Wiley and Ghetto… it’s nothing much at all).

It’s a shame that Kano had decided not to include some of the newest and best producers in the scene at the moment, I imagine it would’ve updated his and Mikey J’s collaborative effort. The tracks as a package still sound more Lil Wayne than original grime MC, particularly Paper and Solider which are awkward and clunky. Hustler was probably a good choice for the first single, but it’s a direct counterfeit of every other track on the CD.

Ghetto provides some much needed, well Ghetto, for as much as Kano threatens on Hunting We Will Go, it doesn’t particularly resonate. His delivery and the tracks themselves do not have the power of, say, Threats or Buss 1 so GH hissing and fizzing rounds of fire is certainly welcome. Kano has always consistently pitched himself amongst the street fighters of the world but is also quick to either play down his role in violent situations or for us to assume he is at the top of the chain: ‘You don’t wanna feel bullet… It won’t be me, but a n**** will pull it’. I’d imagine the former is most likely. He seems so desperate to reposition himself as a grime artist (something he’s being working to shake off for 3 years) that he allows this to overtake the entire theme of the CD.

Kano used have a lot scope for his lyrical content but the admiration and recognition has moved on since then to new bods such as Devlin and old friends such as Ghetto whose ability to bring club bangers and grime ‘ballads’ out by the dozen has resigned Kano slightly to the second division. On the upside, Too Advanced and Stand By It reminds us in acapella that Kano still has an original, captivating and leading flow in the grime scene, if he could only bring some hotter lyrical content and a splatter of other names on the buttons he might still have the weight to jostle back in where he belongs.