Just when it looked like So Solid Crew’s sole remaining purpose was to provide competitors for Channel 4’s 'The Games', Asher D sprints from the back with an album that comes close to saving the collectives once inescapable name.
If his first attempt at a solo career, 2002’s double B-side “Back In The Day” / “Why Me?” didn’t suggest he was the talented one, “The Street Sibling” puts him way out in front. And he’s got Her Majesty’s Young Offenders Institution Rugby to thank for it.
Being banged up for possession of a firearm after an altercation with, of all people, a traffic warden certainly didn’t do the former 'Grange Hill' star’s gangsta cred any good. Critically though, it gave him the chance to learn an important lesson: how not to launch a solo career. While he was doing porridge, Lisa Mafia, gold medallist Harvey and bronze winner Romeo went the R&B route and got buried.
With UK garage’s chart strangle hold having similarly vanished, he’s wisely opted to make good So Solid’s original boast to be the saviours of UK hip hop. “The Comeback” bounds with the same elastic energy and boot lid rattling bass that reverberated through So Solid’s album and made it the definitive sound of south London. “The Message” has him hyperactively firing off couplets over monotone synth menace. Meanwhile, Roc-A-Fella troopers Beenie Sigel and Memphis Bleek ensure that “Solid Roc”’s stateside roll is the real thing.
And when he does dial down the attitude to R&B levels for “Over You” and surprisingly touching ode to his three children, “There For You”, it’s with a shrewd hip pop sensibility that suggests The Neptunes and Murder Inc’s greatest hits were favourites on D-Wing.
For all that, “The Street Sibling” isn’t the greatest rap album ever made. It certainly won’t have 50 Cent crying into his millions. But it’s not a gutless cop out either. Asher’s lyrical ability is obvious; his musical nous promising. And with that to go on, he may yet be saved the indignity of racing c-list celebrities in the 100 metres.
