Kannon - Reflections

Hear The Track Here

Apparently I reviewed this artist last month, but under the Da Luck Ent name which - obviously, Duhhh - the name of the production team he belongs to. Hey, that's the way it goes. I reviewed and liked (enough to keep it anyway) Changes and considering that I bin a great deal of SC hip hop almost from the first few bars, that's saying a great deal. Fact is I found the structure and delivery of the track to be of a high standard considering the usual wooly mammoths that postures for hip hop that we get hear in the general course of the day. That's not to say that there aren't any good hip hop artists on Soundclick - there are plenty - but there is a lot more which is derivative, messily conceived or just plain nasty. So when you come across artists with some creative juices flowing in their veins, you tend to keep your eye on them.

Can't put me hand on me heart and say that I like the softer, R&B side to rap - of which Reflections is a great example - but when used with the right approach it's often very listenable. The thing that struck me about Changes was that musically it really stretched itself out, no false reliance on the beats to make it happen - a modern day curse IMHO. See the thing that makes great rap for me is a) a story I can relate to and b) a sense of what makes a song a song musically and Kannon and Da Luck Ent strike that target every time so far. Even though I don't particularly like the style I can certainly feel the weight of the musical chops being applied.

Slick production and arranging are the hallmarks of both these tracks, with a surprisingly low-key feel to this particular track; although its obviously very much a backdrop to the main event: the rap. It takes a good long while for rap to really register with me, mostly because of its parochial nature. After all, being a crusty old white fart I'm not likely to attract some good looking ho's (at least not the free kind), I don't live in any kind of ghetto (unless I can count the UK as being one) and my editor tells me I am not allowed to use the N word AT ALL - unlike the liberal uses of the word Kannon employs. I have, however, had a long running love/hate affair with rap from its earliest beginnings and I know what I like and Kannon and the crew provide that in great measure. A good story with a moral, and some class music to help it all slip down your ear canals...

Recommended class hip hop.