Ms Dynamite - A Little Deeper

Urban Britain finally has a female voice that can represent their hopes and fears and speak out to a sector of the population who have previously had to look to the US for their voice and more often or not look to the male of the species to, in some small way, represent them. There have been so many opportunities for the likes of Ms Dynamite to come through, yet over the past two decades we've been force fed a diet of slushy soul ala Mica Paris or Beverley Knight - a diet which tells tales of unrealistic love affairs - while the likes of So Solid Crew have been allowed to flourish and giving the male perfect icons to get them out of the ghetto's.

From the outset Ms Dynamite pushes the politics of Urban Britain to the fore while singing with such beauty that the likes of Lauryn Hill or Mary J Blige just seem like a pale imitation in comparison, despite the obvious irony of it all. "The Shit that U promote fightin' and fuckin'. Like U don't want 2 grow. You're talking so much sex, but you're telling us about Aids and not tell em bout consequence" on the outset like the anti-thesis to the ghetto fabulous lifestyle of the So Solid Crew, but its all coming from the same district and with the braggadocios male ego not being a deciding factor it makes for an more interesting take on the same subjects. Where the garage crews will put down the haters, Dynamite expresses eloquently on "Now U Want My Love" the problems of stepping out of the area and stepping onto the stage where all the people who once put you down and disrespected you suddenly want to hang out and get with you.

By taking the Americanized R&B production rather than simply releasing a straight-forward garage album Dynamite has reached out to an audience that wouldn't necessarily get to hear conscious lyrics straight from the heart of the British heartland's. There's no denying that "Krazy Krush" and "Sick N Tired" are simply great tunes, but used as bait to reel people into "Watch Over Them" and there's a real revolution going on over the coffee tables of Britain. And here lies the genius of Ms Dynamite - her ability to cross-over to middle england while still voicing the problems on the streets and hence creating a better understanding in these times of the media white-wash. Pure Genius!!!

Alex McCann

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