JME – BLAM (REVIEW)

JME has finally released his second  album today under the absurd title of “Blam”. If, for some ridiculous reason,  you don’t know about JME, then you’ll probably know one of the best grime tracks of all time: “Serious”. It’s been a trending topic on twitter and the amount of people tweeting about it has been ridiculous.

I remember when I bought his debut album, ‘Famous?’, at HMV in Wood Green on my birthday July 14th (about 2 years ago).  After all the hype about the album, I realised I was £2 short when I got to the record shop. I had to skate board all  the way home  to Tottenham  and then  go back to HMV so I could finally hold that anticipated record in my hands. It was an amazing album and  I had it on repeat for countless days. It still features high up on my playlist.

‘CD Is Dead’ featuring Tempa T, ‘Pick Up The Mic’,  ’Sidetracked’ featuring Wiley and ‘Over Me’ are some of the most popular tracks on the album.

TRACK LISTING

01 – Darker Ft Trigger
02 – Famalam
03 – Over Me
04 – JME
05 – CD IS Dead Ft Tempa T
06 – Hospital Ft Shorty, Frisco, Skepta, Jammer
07 – Pick Up The Mic
08 – It’s Not A LOng Ting Ft Tempa T
09 – Money On My Brain
10 – Blam!
11 – I Love Music
12 – Oh Ft Special K & Jewels
13 – Sidetracked Ft Wiley
14 – Im The Best
15 – Music Ting

Bonus track -16 – Mario’s flag

After all of  these years, first having heard it on a old  Tim Westwood freestyle, ‘Mario’s Flag’ instrumental has finally been officially released.

I decided to play it on The the NME stereo. It was a bit of a par… I don’t think the NME staff  really got it… let alone even grime. After all, grime is what JME does best.

JME, in my opinion, has never really been seen as a “sell out grime Artist”.

The album plays an integral role in proving grime is still alive and that artists  like JME  can stay independent, making a living out of it, and  still  have a massive following. It show the Grime scene to be something that takes care of itself and isn’t going to conform to the fucked up commercially-driven music industry simply to follow orders and make a profit.

My favourite track on Blam is probably ‘It’s not a long ting’ featuring Tempa T.  It’s the collaboration of both of my favourite grime artists that makes it so special.  It’s made into an instant classic through Tempa T’s hype bars perfectly contrasting  JME’s more mellow flow – the track it self is mad with its Dubstep vibe.

What makes ‘Blam’ stand from among his previous albums such as ‘Famous’ and his Boy better know  mixtapes,  is that it’s a more of a  jammed/chilled out album.  ’Blam’ is a more mature  album and something that JME has basically made to sound very different, yet it’s still easily recognisable as a JME album.

The album shows how the Nigerian from Tottenham (Meridian) has come a long way  from previously doing pirate radio sets to doing sets with his brother Skepta at Glastonbury. Now he’s performing all around the world, has made 4 mixtapes, a few singles and EPs. He’s also the man behind the biggest grime collective “Boy better know”.

JME  has done a competition  for ‘Blam’ to win a Ipad.

Artist’s like JME have kept my passion for grime.Everyone has their favourite MC and mine is Probably JME.

People know me as ‘that guy who talks about grime 24/7′. These people don’t get  why I like grime so much. If you buy this album you will understand.

Grime is getting bigger  by the day and soon maybe some of these journalists  may wake up and  catch up with the times.  At the moment they are  out dated and should be more up to date with modern Uk music…If only that was to happen, then grime might get more of chance and in turn get the recognition it deserves.

Grime is not dead, it has been The best thing that has ever happened to me. I have to thank JME for giving me a million catch phrases  like “Serious”, “you’re not serious because you got your name on your nike air dunks ? blud ill beat you up” and  “So you think your hench ? true say you got a new weight bench” .

Watch out for another interview with JME on my new site DROP THE LABEL out this week. JME will also be featuring on my new dvd “Grime and Grind” (coming soon).

BOY BETTER KNOW ARE KILLING IT !

I GIVE THIS ALBUM 9 OUT OF 10

SERIOUS ! SERIOUS ! SERIOUS !

MR.T REMIX