A-Stout - Drinks [Single]

Achupen

This is a one-song single release, meant as a snippet of what A-Stout’s forthcoming debut album has in store, so it’s a fair assumption to say that this is the track that A-Stout feel represents the best of what they do as artists. With this in mind, and as a new group proclaiming themselves to be “Hip-Hop’s Resurrection” (I wasn’t aware that it had died), 'Drinks' is more than a little bit disappointing.

Upon perusing their website biography, they sound like quite a promising bunch of chaps (meaning men, that wasn’t meant as a bitchy comparison to cowboys’ hole-riddled keks). Having met in Switzerland, and with varied backgrounds, they apparently united over a desire to “bring hip-hop back to its roots and elevate people through meaningful lyrics and unusual references that inspire thought and contemplation.” Riiiiight. So they release a track called ‘Drinks,’ from which all I can glean in the way of lyrical content is the token ‘Fiddy Cent’ twaddle about shorties in clubs and, you guessed it, drinks. They do attempt to add a bit of humour with lyrics like "She said 'ease back pal, your breath stinks…'" / "What you think hun? You know I came to the spot to drink" / "And not to chew on a packet of breath mints." Hasn’t Kanye West already made something funny out of embarrassing breath / topical situations with such lyrical gems as "Ooh girl, your breath is harsh / Cover your mouth up like you got S.A.R.S.?........" I think A-Stout will find he has. Never mind, eh fellas?

As is traditional in the world of hip-hop, the group aren’t shy about bigging themselves up, although having also had a peek at their record label’s homepage, it may be more the label’s doing than the band themselves. vThe rest of their insanely overly-inflated biography continues to plug them as a musically credible hip-hop outfit, and an alternative to the saturated mainstream urban market full of twerps like Jay Sean, but ‘Drinks’ sounds like usual mainstream hip-hop in substance, sound and subject. The production is bad (and that’s meant in the derogatory sense, not in the street sense), as it plods along with its old-fashioned cheesy noises and a tackier than Blu-Tack beat. What’s frustrating is that the rapping doesn’t sound entirely terrible, there’s something going on that tells me they could come out with a half-decent track if they put their minds to it. But then a band claiming to be “Hip-Hop’s Resurrection” clearly aren’t very versed in the scores of intelligent, funny and musically interesting hip-hop acts there are out there. Someone should sit them down with Giant Panda, The Roots or Mos Def and have them get a little lesson in what intelligent hip-hop is all about.