Whenever a group divides opinion and offends as many as it excites, you can bet your bottom dollar something interesting is afoot. So Solid are one such marmite group, seeing as for every hungry fan there's another who's nauseous. By this reasoning So Solid are the most exciting act in British pop. But then that's obvious from just looking at them.
The emergence of UK garage as a viable pop commodity was thanks in no small part to two singles: the oft overlooked Shanks & Bigfoot's 'Sweet Like Chocolate' and Artful Dodger's 'Re-rewind'. But as anyone who saw the jammy Dodgers firing rubber chickens on a hilarious but ill-conceived Big Breakfast caper knows, Mark and Dave were only going run with the pop baton so far.
It was So Solid's second single '21 Seconds' that ran the race right out of the stadium. This was no longer a new fad, is was a fully viable pop phenomenon, with all that entails. On one hand you had the best video in ages, which had usually staid rudeboys baying at its premiere. On the other, the track itself was laughable, most of all in the production stakes.
Sure there are far better production maestro's in the garage fold - El-B, Jameson, Horsepower, Zed Bias and MJ Cole - to name five, but that's completely missing the point. So Solid aren't exciting because they twiddle knobs well, although 'They Don't Know' does make a mockery of genres and tempos. In fact their rough production reflects their whole rhetoric.
So Solid excite because they're the voice of an unheard generation. Rough, urban, young and disenchanted - this could be US hip-hop at any time in the last 20 years - until they open their mouths. So Solid have made it cool to be British. Kids don't look to the States now for inspiration, their heroes are chatting on the local pirate stations.
Not that So Solid don't owe a massive debt to US rappers. Their rhymes might be more parts UK street talk and Jamaican ragga-patois, but stylistically So Solid are up to their ears in US cultural debt. They trade in the dangerous street currency that rap set the exchange rate for. So when someone gets shot outside Romeo's birthday bash, it's simply more headlines for the crew.
Most of all they play well the exclusion as inclusion card - particularly on the third single 'They Don't Know' - which allowed rap to become a the voice of the disillusioned, regardless of colour.
America's racial segregation doesn't apply here. So Solid themselves are a multi-racial crew, reflecting the make up of both garage's audience and urban Britain. It's not where you're from it's where you're at, to twist Rakim. And by those rules you should judge this album on its merits alone. The haters would love to put the boot in, but they'll be disappointed. 'They Don't Know' is heavy like Romeo's Audi TT.
