Lethal Bizzle - Go Hard: Review

Riding a wave of indie acceptance comes the third album from Walthamstow's Lethal Bizzle. Since his last record dropped, Bizzle has enjoyed a high ranking on the NME cool list and acquired a host of mainstream rock buddies, some of whom contribute here. One may forgive him for feeling like he's at the top of his game, but on this evidence, all the swagger is misplaced.


The problem with this album is that it's derivative, both musically and lyrically. From start to finish 'Go Hard' sounds content merely to go where others have led. The opening salvo of 'Money Power Respect Fame' and lead-single/title track 'Go Hard' are anthems to the kind of mafioso gangsta lifestyle usually associated with American hip-hop. The messages, however authentic or not, are all-too familiar. When later in the record, Biz claims that "living in London is like living in the Middle East", there's not the sense that anyone, least of all Bizzle, really believes it. Conventions of the genre, maybe- ego and swagger. But when he famously called out David Cameron out last year for making similar remarks without the authenticity of lived experience to back it up, Bizzle took upon himself a certain responsibility.

Musically too, it's a slow start to a record which by it's very name should be entitled to open with a bang. Beats are initially tempered and sonically thin throughout, as is much of the production. A study published recently found that teenagers prefer the sound quality of their mp3 players to vinyl, and 'Go Hard' sounds very much like it was produced with this demographic in mind. 'Crazy Nightmare' was recorded with Fruity Loops, the retro beats software. The vocal mixing isn't much better either, sloppy multitracking of takes giving some verses a lack of clarity. Elsewhere, 'Push it' appropriates Salt'n Pepa's standard for what must be it's millionth reuse, slamming it against a sub-Calvin Harris chorus. The electro-octaving of 'Going out tonight' provides ample foil for Lethal B to tell us that he's, yes, going out tonight. It's a euphoric message for a partisan crowd of ravers, or it's meant to be. Rockstar, a Gallows-powered literal foray into the attractive hedonism of guitar rock merely evokes painful memories of the nu-metal era.

Perhaps this is all a reflection of where Lethal Bizzle is at. Clearly aiming to for the 'crossover' market, the album calls in favours from celebrity superproducer de jour Mark Ronson on 'Lost my mind'. Thankfully, there isn't a horn section anywhere to be heard on the track. Ronson instead evokes the kind of harmonica riff reminiscent of so much American hip-hop history. It's one of 'Go Hard's strong points, and is quite telling of the record itself. A sprawling array of derivative music and forgettable lyrics, it's the sound of an artist who has looked back on his MOBO awards, Never Mind the Buzzcocks guest appearances, controversy-baiting newspaper headlines and thought he could rest on his laurels, let the music 'happen' and watch the money roll in.

First published in Sound Screen.