Kurupt FM bring both the laughs and the hits with their latest outing.
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8.0
Released as a tie-in record with the recently released to cinemas People Just Do Nothing: Big in Japan, The Greatest Hits (Part 1) is a collection of new songs from the comedy rap group Kurupt FM, a collection of mostly nostalgic and very funny, but also genuinely very good, ear-worms and hilarious skits (the one at the start of ‘Your Mum Loves Garage’ with Lady Miche especially got me).
The quality of the comedy was frankly unsurprising, as the show and film are both brilliantly funny, but the enjoyability of the music itself was a welcome surprise. The Kurupt FM Lost Mixtape, released back in 2017, was adequate, but a lot of the tracks on this new album are actually fantastic, with intricate and catchy beats, MC Grindah’s charismatic and unique delivery and an impossible-to-replicate sense of camaraderie behind the scenes coming through in the skits added to the tracks.
The features are great, too. Jaykae delivers a phenomenal verse on ‘Dreaming’, Big Narstie’s verse on ‘Blaze It’ works wonders and Craig David on the leading single for the album, ‘Summertime’, is also great. The production across the board is light and fun – most surprising is the sample on ‘Blaze It’ which is shared from Madlib’s production for Freddie Gibbs’ ‘High’ from 2016.
The biggest surprise of the record as a whole though is definitely ‘Letter to Grindah’, a track from DJ Beats that gives a hint of a backstory to these characters and further develops the relationship between Beats and Grindah, something that has always been apparent but never really explored beyond that. It’s a genuinely touching track that seems to come out of nowhere with its subtle emotional gut-punch.
Also featured is a remix of the Kurupt classic ‘Heart Monitor Riddim’, undoubtedly one of the funniest rap tracks ever recorded with hilarious lyrics and delivery, but now featuring a roster of popular grime artists and a much heavier, bass-heavy beat that really kicks. For those in on the jokes (of which there are thousands, even down to the album cover blatantly ripping off the Queen II album cover), this is a record of non-stop joy, and for those who don’t know the characters or the show, it’s still a very strong album, if a little overlong. It’s a great tie-in record, and is definitely worth a listen.
(Also… for those astute, stay tuned for the not-so-hidden hidden track by The Mayor of Hounslow, Chabuddy G!)
The Greatest Hits (Part 1) is out now via Polydor / Universal Music. Listen to the lead single, ‘Summertime’, featuring Craig David on YouTube below:
