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Tinie Demonstrating his talent on his 2nd album
Written by oliviawallwork
As a follow up to this post, I thought I’d give a bit more of a run down on Tinie Tempah’s new album – as it is literally being played on repeat in my car at the moment – which dropped on November 4th.
It is very much an album of two halves to me and, although there is a noticeable difference between the tracks he recorded in the US and the tracks he recorded in London, that is not where the dividing line lies. Musically, Tinie can have two very different sounds; he can sound very light and commercial, or darker and hearkening back to his grime days or perhaps having a more hip hop sound.
I’ve already talked about my dislike for Children of the Sun which I would say is on a similar level to Lover Not a Fighter. It’s not Tinie’s raps on these tracks that let them down – he is always honest and definitely a wordsmith – but the hooks sung by his featuring artists really do not do him any justice.
When the focus of the track is Tinie – and not his guests, which he has on basically EVERY SINGLE track – the result is something much cooler. My two favourites are…
It samples a Tamli song called Kalasala… which sounds unbelievably good. At Abubilla, we always love a good fusion of musical cultures…
To hear more about each of the tracks, listen to his track-by-track explanation of Demonstration… He is very eloquent and is very much representing his hometown London.
Sadly he’s had to postpone his tour because he’s not had enough time to prepare with the making of his album. Although a few of the songs I feel do not really live up to his possible potential, he has taken his time to represent the UK urban music industry – even adding extra British production to songs produced in America to add to the “authenticity” of the track – and it has been well worth the wait.