Posts tagged charlie sloth

Mixtape Name: It’s Hard Being Good
Created By: Charlie Sloth [Click for Artist Site]
Overall Rating: 8 out of 10
Reviewed by: Raj Lovesoul

Download it now here whilst you read the review

Charlie Sloth has issues. Way too many than his brilliant mixtape ‘It’s Hard Being Good’ can pack in. But as all good mixtapes should do, it serves as an exciting prequel to an inevitable career as a signed artist.

Camden raised Sloth is a versatile MC, a strength that he exploits when he sounds like he’s rapping in the rain during the thunder-clad counselling session in ‘My Shrink’, to the fairground fairytale killer ‘Mr Rapman’ (I dare you to not say ‘you f—king mug’ within 24hrs of hearing that record). The fact that he chooses so many different sounds and beats shows a certain level of confidence in his own ability as a writer, rapper and rebel. With piercing lines like ‘you’re not you when you rap, you’re your favourite rapper in disguise, oh my God look at this guy, all he ever does is lie’, the vendetta theme of this mixtape is exposing what is wrong with hip-hop, society and himself, all interwoven and presented thoughtfully and brutally honest. Further props to him for the record ‘Can’t forget about UK’ as he breaks down all of his UK hip-hop influences over Nas’s ‘Can’t Forget About You’ beat. Listen to it a few times, then hit Wikipedia, you owe it to UK hip-hop.

In my opinion, without a shadow of a doubt, the best record on the album is ‘Think Positive’. The slow hook, creeping keys and stabbing verses challenge you to hit the forward button, and you just can’t. It’s as if Charlie sit’s you in the car that is his life and then drives you into a wall, as he talks about his son thinning due to lack of food and feeling like he has no spirit (‘where the f—k is God?!?!’). Half way through the record, it switches to the positives that reflect his life now, rolling with The Jump Off team, London’s leading Hip-Hop and sports entertainment collective. The beat changes into up-tempo reggae, and Sloth pieces his life back together in front of you brick by brick.

The fact of the matter is, it was probably harder for me to avoid writing ‘the UK’s answer to Eminem’, than it was for Charlie to put his album together. His flow is effortless, his voice lands right into the beat, deep enough to mix in, but sharp enough to be heard and the content is bang on point. You get the bragging mixed with the truth, the sound effects mixed with quick verbal skits and an on-going sense that your life isn’t that f—ked up compared to this guy. This mixtape is a benchmark of change for Charlie, and as an artist he exists as a metaphor for society as it is today, and how it could be. Hopefully society will be as good as Charlie’s life when he inevitably gets a Brit Award.