Pound Sterling: Money Before Music
Pound Sterling: Money Before Music
Tuesday, 09, Feb 2010 04:07
By Louise McCudden
Out February 8th 2010.
In a nutshell
UK urban act stumbles about in the dark trying to decide who he wants to be.
What's it all about?
A rather unlikely candidate for re-release, Pound Sterling's Money Before Music from 2007 didn't exactly grab massive amounts of attention at the time, and today it sounds, for the most part, painfully dated. Given the length - it goes on for 17 tracks - the novelty of hearing a UK rapper talk about boroughs and black cabs isn't quite enough to hold the listener's interest and the whole thing grows repetitive fairly fast.
Who's it by?
Pound Sterling set up his own studio in 2004, frustrated with what he perceived as hypocrisy and pretentiousness in the industry. By the end of the year he'd brought out his first three mix tapes, Beat Robbery Volumes I, II, and III. Money Before Music was originally released in 2007 and made a reasonable impact on the underground scene. Will people be more interested this time around in the collection as a precursor to his new album London Hustle?
As an example.
"I'm no fake thug/I don't make love/but I got strong arms, Miss, I give great hugs. I know when we're out I don't hold your hand/but I'll take you shopping, you can hold a grand." - All About Us
"Cos I'm her first son/some day the worst one/but I've got to move forwards, I can't go in reverse, son." - So Real.
"When you've got ice on your t-shirt/girls want to give you h*** until their knees hurt." - All Around The World
"I'm trying to get ahead like I'm dandruff/the man's rough like sandpaper." - Guts & Glory.
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys?
We dread to think what kind of interruption it would prompt from Kanye.
What the others say?
"Although it was made two or three years ago, it still sounds fresh. and it's probably the 'hustle to survive' attitude which makes it sound current." - BeatzBase
So is it any good?
It's so exciting to witness the potential rise of any new UK urban talent, especially when there is such a glaring hole in marketplace for a decent heavyweight UK rapper. But, despite his best efforts (although are these really his best efforts anyway? Isn't this really just a re-released collection of songs that didn't do too well the first time around and not fit to be on the new album?), this isn't going to be Pound Sterling.
It's not necessarily the quality of the rhyming (which swings from decent to not awful to absolutely embarrassing) which is a problem, although the better lyrics might have more chance of making an impact if it wasn't for the limping, scared-of-the-beats delivery. And the aged beats themselves are not consistently weak - minor underground hit All Around the World and pumping garage track Heavy are perfectly adequate in this area. And even the constant dodging of opportunities to talk with any particular honesty or complexity about anything personal (despite random boasts that this is what he's great at) wouldn't matter - after all, for all the talk about 'realness' (an abstract term at the best of times), this is obviously an album about bravado and swagger, where any hint of vulnerability or even self-awareness would be to defeat the point.
The real problem with this album is that all of the above flaws become enormous stumbling blocks to success when they all appear together in one record. The distinctly "this was made years ago by someone who didn't give a toss" sound might be endearing if it was coupled with breath-snatching rhymes; likewise, the lukewarm rhyming about tedious sexual stories and images (OK, so there are a lot of girls in your life who like to do naughty things to you. It's so boring I'm not even offended) might storm clubs if they were stuttered out over heart-stopping edgy beats (in fact this has surely proved an endlessly winning formula for endless chart-topping acts). But when you hear him telling us he's the greatest and we should all be scared of him over a backing track that sounds like it was made three years ago (oh, wait, it was.) by an unsigned amateur (oh, wait.), well, it's a little hard to believe him. His one serious attempt at talking about himself with any kind of depth or self-awareness, So Real, falls just short of the mark by skating around the actual bits of interest and telling us he left home, sold drugs, got rich, and now has a new wife who isn't a "shady lady." (Are rappers allowed to use clichés as rhymes now?)
If his attempts at open-hearted self-revelation are bad, his attempts at talking to women are just depressing. Songs like All About Us are doubly strange choices for the record given that he is being pitched to us as someone in touch with his female fans. Making the man who wrote the words (I'm afraid there are no lyrics suitable to include) an example of rappers who can appeal to a women's audience seems to be the equivalent of pitching Pete Doherty as president of the Temperance Society. But again, it wouldn't matter in itself (there are plenty of sexist rappers who are undeniably fabulous) - but if he's going to disrespect women, he should at least find a fresh way to communicate such an old-fashioned sentiment. (Remember the excitement about Eminem's fantastic song Kim? Now that is how you make an anti-feminist record.)
The brightest moment on the album is the garage track Heavy which smells thoroughly of UK underground, and sees Pound Sterling skipping wonderfully over the beat with something like actual dexterity. Perhaps if he did a bit less of the dissing 50 Cent (a brave man if he truly believes his albums are ever likely to make it across the Atlantic to the ears of 50 - don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to pick a fight with Mr Sterling mself, but I don't like his odds again G-Unit somehow.), and remember that perhaps there's a reason the UK rap scene is going nowhere fast. Perhaps we should leave slower beats and sprawling rap verses to the Yanks, and get on with churning out some awesome, earthy, underground UK garage tunes.
If Pound Sterling truly wants to bring UK urban music forward into the mainstream music scene, his best bet would be to embrace his UK roots (how many of his American competitors could make an even half-decent garage beat?), ditch the irrelevant banter, stop making teen movie level jokes about looking up women's skirts, and - most importantly - show us some evidence of individuality. Otherwise he will never be anything more than a pale imitation of a shadow of a shadow of a stereotype.
5/10