Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 06/02/06
Label: Dcypha/All City

Despite the loud hosannas that greeted grime when it emerged from the UK's urban underground via Wiley, Kano, The Mitchell Brothers and - more recently - Lady Sovereign (whose repeatedly delayed debut album still shows no signs of surfacing any time soon), credibility and style mag enthusiasm have comprehensively failed to translate into mainstream, commercial success.

Hopes are thus currently being pinned on 23-year-old MC and producer Derek Safo who, as Sway, swanned in as if from nowhere to swipe the gongs for both Best Hip Hop Artist at the recent MOBO awards (beating 50 Cent, no less) and Best Newcomer at the Urban Music awards. He has, of course, already earned his stripes outside the range of the industry's radar and was a major player on London's thriving mix-tape scene, having out-sold all other contenders with his two "This Is My Promo" efforts. Now, "This Is My Demo".

Released on his own Dcypha imprint, Sway's wryly titled debut album is a sharp-witted, acutely observed trip through his own young life to date and is conceptually watertight. There's very little flab in this 12-track autobiography, which intersperses skits (e.g. an imagined conversation between his Ghanaian self and a young Kofi Annan, an embarrassing teenaged attempt to talk his girl into sleeping with him) with more serious chat about subjects ranging from credit card debt ("Flo Fashion") to domestic violence ("Pretty Ugly Husband").

There's no denying Sway's dazzling verbal chops and it's not just the speed and flow of his delivery that impresses. His wordplay is sharp enough to prick up even the most jaded of ears and often laugh-out-loud funny, with Camilla Parker-Bowles, Peter Andre and Jamiroquai all cheekily name-checked. His musical backdrops, however, are very much less adventurous and anyone looking to "This Is My Demo" for grime's trademark, darkly paranoid, tacheometric beats will be disappointed.

In that regard, Sway's is not a grime album at all, but, as it lacks the rhythmic punch of hip hop, too, the accolades awarded him are slightly off-centre. There are elements of both genres here, but many of the MC's gritty, witty rhymes rest on an unsympathetically smooth and formulaic, American-styled R&B/pop foundation, suggesting that he's set his controls for the heart of mainstream success. Certainly, no one can blame Sway for that and "Little Derek" is, by his own reckoning, still at the start of his creative journey, but to proclaim him the saviour - of any scene - is somewhat premature.

    by Sharon O'Connell