Uk Drill has come a long way. From being an offshoot of Chicago Drill, with UK crews even adapting Blood and Crip sets in the UK to influencing New York Drill, led by the likes of Pop Smoke And Fivio Foreign. The later has helped push UK Drill more to the global mainstream and who else would be more fitting to take the throne than Headie One. Of all the Drill acts, Headie is one of the few primed for a constant mainstream presence. A close second would be Russ but his reliance on gimmicks like dance trends and starting beefs with everyone in the scene prevent longevity. Headie has climbed up the music ladder with little to no gimmicks. Just off the strength of lyrics about his rough life. So how does he fit in the mainstream pop arena?
Quite well, every time Headie does a pop tune it more interested that when he does drill. Even though the substance resides only in the drill songs but after hearing him talk about his life of crime of the years the narrative has worn thin for me. At 23 tracks the album overstays its welcome and suffers from the problems of trying to please everyone. Pleasing the UK Pop scene with features from Pop Rap Wunderkind Aitch and recreating the magic Young T and Bugsey had with the Billboard charting hit ‘Don’t Rush’. Pleasing the American audience with the Drake and Future features. Pleasing the Drill crowd with the first few tracks that start of the album which are introspective but a hampered by the production sounding the same. Which brings me to another issue.
Headie is a very monotonous rapper. Reminiscent of Giggs, he raps the same way over every song which is why it sound refreshing to hear him over different types of beat because that creates variation. But his cadence and rhythm is the same over every beat. This creates a need for the lyricism to hold too much of the weight and while he is not a bad rapper, he is not amazing. It’s nothing you haven’t heard before but in the drill arena, he is one of the best. I can’t fault him for rapping about the same thing for over an hour as it’s too expected in Rap releases. The problem is naming his album after his mother, Edna, and only addressing her on one song, Breathing. He does address his relationship with his father but this is axillary and not front and centre. This album sounds like a victory lap for Headier and its well deserved. He has been in and out of jail since a kid. He had to manoeuvre through a lot of beef and succeed in a genre that the government has tried to suppress, by blocking drill videos on YouTube and not allowing drill artists to perform live. The problem is that the album is presented as more introspective that what it is. The drill songs go over familiar territory for the most part. The pop cuts are limited in scope.
The features keep the monotony from fully settling in. His song with Future sounds like a Future song but he holds his one. Drake steals the show one the Only You Freestyle but again Headie holds his own. This song doubles as UK Drill crowing moment, globally. Skepta comes in with a great verse on Try Me even though the beat leaves something to be desired. Ivorian Doll is great on F U Pay Me. AJ Tracey and Stormzy give great performances although their verses are way too short. As good as these features are it muddies up the prospect of getting to know Headie a bit better. There are tons of songs that could have been left on the cutting room floor.
In the end, it is a beautiful moment for UK Drill. A testament to the commercial viability of the genre in the UK where songs about selling drugs and killing people have only recently become accepted on the charts. The please everybody approach will work well monetarily but does not artistically. Although, we have to ask ourselves is what does Headie what? I don’t think he cares too much about making a cohesive project as much as making money and that is nothing to look down on. Coming from a life of crime and poverty, it’s makes sense that he is trying to make as much clean money as possible.
6/10
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