I can’t admit to digging a lot of the Smashproof shit but Young Sid has always been the one that stuck out for me on all their shit. I’ve been calmly anticipating Sid’s debut joint since hearing Hood Like Me and the odd joints that Kirk has been upping on the MTC blog over the past few months, I was impressed by what I heard but in all honesty I wasn’t sure that Sid could hold down a whole album. Last night I went to the Young Sid release party with David Dallas, he was invited, I wasn’t, but yeah whatever haha, I just wanted to hear the album and hustle up a copy for myself - successful on both counts, holla!

Young Sid’s ‘The Truth’ is exactly that, the honest truth from the perspective of a polynesian youth growing up in a culture in South Auckland that the average kiwi doesn’t want to believe exists in New Zealand. I’ve heard Young Sid refer to himself before as a voice for his neighborhood, I honestly thought that it was some contrived shit that he was trained to say for media, but again he is exactly that, it’s evident when you listen to the album that Sid is an ambassador for the hood. ‘The Truth’ sheds light on the culture of South Auckland youth that you don’t often see or hear about in mainstream media, and for that reason I think that this album will prove to be one of the most important albums in New Zealand hip hop’s history. It’s not that the issues that Sid touches on have not been spoken about before in local hip hop but the way in which he does it - for starters he is a proficient MC, second, he neither glorifies or criticises the hood issues that he speaks on, he justs presents the unbiased facts, and most importantly he makes good music that is accessible to all rap fans and to some degree the general public.

Basically what I’m trying to say is that this album is the shit, I don’t wanna speak about individual tracks too much ‘cos that shit is gay, good music doesn’t need to to be spoken for (just listen to it for fucks sake), but my favourite joint on this album without a shadow of a doubt is Take You to The Streets! I’m feeling the majority of the album and my other faves at the moment are Redzone, The Truth (featuring Tyree & Mr. Sicc), Explosive (featuring David Dallas) and My Letter (featuring Brad Marquis). I don’t like giving music ratings, again I think that shit is gay as fuck, but just to demonstrate how strongly I feel about this album I’m giving it a 4 out of 5, and that’s not a Back2Basics mixtape review 4/5 that’s an XXL 4/5! ‘The Truth’ is a solid and cohesive listen from start to finish and gets shot then’s highest stamp of approval, Young Sid has proved himself beyond reasonable doubt and has turned me from a casual fan to a stan, go out and get this shit by any means neccesary!

Young Sid… good cunt

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 at 1:26 pm and is filed under ...shizzle thizzle, Te News, Waiata (Music). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.