We feel in oddly retro territory talking of rock/hip-hop cross-over, which should be a contradiction in terms in today’s eclectic musical climate, it should be something we take for granted, and perhaps on its fringes it is. But listening to the introductory portion of Akala’s intense, hook and bruise-laden debut we’re taken back to a time when Public Enemy were breaking boundaries hooking up with Anthrax, and of course lest we forget Aerosmith with Run DMC. And if that seems like high praise, indeed it is. Like the London MC didn’t already have enough piston-popping force in his bang-on vocal, and really he does, he chooses to ram his tracks up to the hilt with enough imported power to blow the floor out.
Opening track ‘Stand Up’, serving as a guttural rallying call to every corner of the UK he has time to namecheck, appears in pincer movement, with a glut of filthy metal riffage watching its back and blocking out any incoming light. It’s a devastating choice of partner, finishing the job off good ‘n’ proper. This is carried on through the low swung looping rhythms of ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ and the rough funk grooves of ‘The Edge’. It ain’t all pretty, but then is it supposed to be? This is only the beginning of this multi-genre exploration, but it sure as hell leaves an impression. If British hip-hop is still searching for a mainstream identity, then perhaps we’ve just found one of its hard hitters.
He is not awash with colloquialisms like Roots Manuva or self-interested DIY storytelling like The Streets – he goes straight for the bull’s-eye with a fizzing personality already infused with character and destiny. In other words he’s not dragged down by his Britishness, though he is still enhanced and defined by it. He is not a cliché, he knows his place: “I am not bullet-proof, I could get my melon splattered”. He radiates acerbic political and social wit (see especially the awesome 3-minute unwinding stream of frustration ‘Bullshit’ and the angry, pointed anti-war ‘Carried Away’). He has technique; step out of the way of his torrent of quick fire lyrical shrapnel on the churning synth grind ‘Shakespeare’. He steals Sway’s crown merely by being a whole load more quick-witted, individual and courageous.