LADY LESHURR = UK NICKI MINAJ?
Lady Leshurr – The Unleshurr.
We love that I’m brutally honest right? So in my review we shall trust.
Now if you haven’t heard “Unleshurr” – the new long awaited and heavily Twitter promoed (as Leshurr had been mentioning it via her Twitter for months!) mixtape from the 22 year old female self confessed “diva”, then you’re missing out. The mixtape was released last night and contains 11 tracks and a Westwood skit. Most interestingly, out of those 11 tracks, 8 of them are cover versions of Drake songs.
This could have gone both ways as expectations were very high.
Recent conversation has sparked within the UK industry regarding UK being as strong lyrically as America and Leshurr has been dubbed by MistaJam as “equally as good, if not better than Young Money’s Nikki Minaj” – Drake’s label mate. Was this Leshurr’s way of proving that to both scenes?
Now as I’ve mentioned before in my OMA’s review, I’m unsure as to where the Rap/Grime barrier is raised nowadays, but I’d call Drake rap, and Leshurr is (as she says herself) a Grime artist; so her spitting over American rap beats had me completely confused – and before you all get your knickers in a twist, yes there is a difference between being an ‘artist’ and a ‘Grime artist’!
The UK is full up with talented Grime producers: Royal T, Silencer, Terror Danjah and Rude Kid to name a few; not to mention disgustingly good Dubstep producers such as Sukh Knight, The Others and Doctor P so why were none of them on UnLeshurr? I asked her – are you trying to be the UK Nicki Minaj?
“The reason I did a Drake CD is because every beat he’s vocalled I have always liked to do myself. I was going to call it Drake VS Leshurr but settled with UnLeshurr, [but] I am going to do a CD each month which will be a different genre just to show people I am versatile and experimenting with my voice/style and technique”.
To be honest that could have been a fail as far as I’m concerned, but fortunately in terms of flows and in terms of concepts the covers on the mixtape are all good so I see no reason why she shouldn’t now receive props for it. Leshurr – that could have gotten messy for you though. Which again, shows me her confidence in herself not being just a Grime artist, but an artist. Her lyrical content is hot and the way she mixes up her flow is pure talent. While the Birmingham born & raised female emcee hasn’t mastered her flow just yet, this mixtape proves she’s putting in the work and developing as an artist.
The track I’d tell people to wheel-uppppp would be ’09 – Last Hope’, it’s very deep, an insight to Leshurr’s feelings about music and contains a good use of metaphors.
I’d like to hear some hard core Dubstep beats and Grime beats on your next mixtape Leesh but this will definitely be transferred onto my iPhone for long TFL journeys and general listening. “Money To Grow” (track 12) is also a wicked track. On it, she talks about Twitter and sings on the track “Minaj style” I’m hoping for more of these tunes in the future and we here at MistaJam.com wish her all the best!
Toodles…
Sian x
