Part 2 - 'Live From The Breadline' (Big Dada)Released 29/08/05

Urban. Grime. UK Garage. It seems these days that to succeed in the underground dance scene, at least in this country you need a tagline. It usually works for about ooooooh fifteen minutes and then you have some other plucky youngster with a style not too disimilar but with it’s own flashy label knock you off the block. Anyone remember the So Solid Crew? Thought not. Luckily for Kevin Hopewell AKA Part 2 he has avoided this creative Cul De Sac and has produced an engaging mish mash of hip hop, garage, style and substance… 

Opening salvo ‘Will It Ever’ clicks and snatches beautifully with skillful dancehall vocals from Sandra Melody. Melody appears on five tracks including ‘Inna Crisis’ the excellent bonus choon that somehow manages to sound like the missing link between Wacko Jacko’s 'Smooth Criminal' and roots Manuva’s ‘Witness: One Hope’. The other vocalists Part 2 has hired to bolster his frantic squelching grooves work to varying degrees of success. Brixton boy and sometimes MJ Cole collaborator Fallacy appears twice, on the exemplary ‘One Of Them Days’ and the ruff as twenty ninjas garage assault ‘Get Square’.

Yorkshire tyke ‘LSK’ rocks the M-I-C with a brilliant melodic stoner lilt, the best of which being ‘Rose Tinted Glasses’. You may recognise his silky tones from his work with Faithless and against the intergalactic bounce of Part 2’s breathtaking arsenal of glitches and snatches he sounds terrific. Juice Aleem though, who guests on ‘Chasin’, ‘How It Feels’ and ‘Take Ur Time’ isn’t anything like as good. This is surprising considering that Part 2 has worked with him previously under the ‘New Flesh’ brand. His accent is British but with an ever so slight yank twinge that makes his lyrics about 'tomato sauce sandwiches' seem laughable.

Overall though the choons are engaging, the collaborations are nearly all tight and the beats are lethal. You will (should you feel the inclination) be shaking yo’ booty all night lawng to this and will make in a nest in the space beside your stereo reserved for the albums you can’t help but get overdose on. It’s far from the chart humping, world conquering glamour of American rap but even further away from the Breadline. Fans of the scene will be falling over themselves for this but people expecting a crossover will be ever so slightly disappointed.