• Band / Artist : Rayko/KRB – mySpace
• Genre : Pop / Rock / Hip Hop
• Sample Track Download : N/A
• Buy CD : Binary Star Music
• Buy Digital Download : iTunes
• Rating : 9 out of 10

I have to admit, even though I really liked the previous Rayko/KRB EP release, I came to this album with some reservations. I’d heard several of the tracks from the album, via a few podcasts and wasn’t really struck by them. It’s funny then, that I heard the album in it’s entirety for the first time and was blown away. This is one of those album, that has a constant theme running throughout. The other album that comes to mind, and aptly so, is The Streets, “A Grand Don’t Come for Free” the tale of a guy who loses a grand and begins to blame his friends. Thrown into the mix is a combination of drugs, sex and the odd punch up. Here the album deals with a guy who wants to be a rock star, while also getting in to trouble with his bookie, owing him 10 grand and the odd dalliance with the ladies.

The 13 track album is definitely for a more mature market, with more bad and lewed language than you can shake a stick at, but instead of being nasty and vile it works, however you may want to think first and consider who is around, before putting in on your stereo. The album opens with “The Devil and Rayko Pipes”, a real slap upside the head, that gives you the sense of hitting the ground running. Indeed it’s not long into the track that the hook grabs you and doesn’t let go. The title track follows and again that infectious beat flows on. I don’t know why I wasn’t into this track first time around, but I think it’s the fact that I’ve seen it in it’s natural surroundings or some crap along those lines.

A few of the tracks act as a kind of narrative, allowing the story to progress between tracks. “Identity” is a great track that an interesting chorus. It sounds like kids providing the backing, almost like the Jay-Z track “Hard Knock Life”. It’s in the track “Simple Love Song” that we see a different side of Rayko, a side that hasn’t surfaced before. Yes it maybe a slow ballad, but it’s done in the inimitable Rayko style.

I love the track “(She Said) My Name”, but maybe not for the reasons that Rayko intended. I listen to that track and I’m taken back to the club scene in the 80’s and 90’s . Not that I was an ardent clubber, but hey a man has to drink after hours. It’s just got that style of music that goes straight through your bones.

There’s such a great vibe about this album, that when I got to the final track “…Creepin’ Up” and it ended I was like “Is that it? Surely not.”. And so the album had ended and it was more an experience than a simple collection of music. Amazing.

Conclusion : Emminently funky, with beats that you’d be hard pushed not to move to, this is an album that has all the Rayko hallmarks, but here there is a stronger sense of bravado. Actually, maybe bravado isn’t the right term, I think maybe he’s just grown a bigger set of balls. God help us if they get any bigger.