Fleshing out his Judge Dredd hip-hop/breakbeat – StormTrooper basslines,
grime’s version of the G-funk synth whine, crushingly unhurried drum tremors
with touches such as sax riffs, battle royale samples, wailing divas and
Asian strings, Mark One owes an extreme-measured debt to bashment thrashers
Gamma (‘Major List MCs’ is The Prodigy doing ‘Killer Apps’ with boasts of
‘more flavours than a McFlurry’), Nika D, JSD & Goldfinger’s above-the-law,
phlegm-flying machine gun rhymes inevitably brag ‘til the cows come home,
extending to girl problems, getting smashed and the thrill of the
paper-chase to pull the flat brim over crews pulling lyrical sickies.
4 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Matt Oliver