New Resident At 140 Grime Street?

Last night on Logan Sama's grime show he had special guests Kano and Random Impulse in the studio. A weezy sounding Kano who had been struck with a bad case of hayfever was in the building for a chat and they played three exclusive tracks from his new album '140 Grime Street'. This is the controversial next album from Kano which he proclaims is his return to grime after his time at 679 Recordings and London Town not doing as well as he had hoped. The much anticipated album features guest appearances from the likes of Wiley, Ghetto and Skepta. The tired sounding Kano managed to spit a few bars in the studio for roughly 5 minutes before dashing on. It's obvious he is trying to go back to his old style and I'm sure it will please long time fans of the emcee. His skills still sound a bit rusty and I think he was slightly nervous at jumping on the grime beats straight away, 'Accapella, No Beat!', but he still held is own and I'm sure he'll be back to his best soon. I've managed to rip the three exclusive tracks, so you can listen to them here.

Kano - Hustler


I'm still not sure about 'Hustler', the chorus doesn't sound far off his London Town sound which he said he was moving away from. Not the greatest of beats and his flow is slightly better than usual, but the chorus lets the song down for me.

Kano featuring Wiley - Anywhere We Go


It's great to hear Kano back to spitting over Wiley beats! Anywhere We Go isn't the strongest of instrumentals, but still sounds refreshing with Kano over it. I was very pleased to hear Wiley's verse at the end as I was worrying whether he'd just feature on the chorus, but nope the eskiboy jumps on and delivers a solid performance. I wouldn't call this tune amazing, but it's a better direction than 'Hustler' in my opinion. It's a lot more grime orientated and shows Kano is not stuck in the 'bait hip hop' 'MC No.1' wastelands any more.

Kano - I Like It


Hmm I would say Kano has went strength to strength on each track. This would certainly be my favourite of the three. The DaVinChe produced beat is crazy, Kano murks his verses and it sounds very nice. The chipmunk sounding chorus is slightly annoying but I can see it growing on me with more listenings. This is more like the sound I wanted to hear from Kano and hopefully the rest of 140 Grime Street follows on from this track.

With many fans doubting Kano's ability after his recent mixtape 'MC No.1' failed to impress, the question of straight copping 140 Grime Street was an issue. Personally he has just about convinced me it'll be worth the purchase and I'll be in my local HMV/Zavvi this September when it drops.