Roll Deep In At The Deep End CD - Import

The debut album by U.K. pirate radio mainstays Roll Deep, IN AT THE DEEP END features the single "When I'm 'Ere" and 11 other examples of the collective's mixture of U.K. grime and American-style hip-hop.

RadioClit, a DJ duo based in Hackney, East London, remixed In at the Deep End in its entirety and posted it on their website. Most listeners will probably want to do the same thing. The rhymes have the energy and spirit of the high-energy London grime scene but are buried under pale and embarrassing R&B songs. Wiley adds two productions and his lyrical touch, but the street feel is lost. This record sounds like it forgot the roughness of pirate radio. "When I'm 'Ere" is by far the best track; it's stripped down and relies on pure production. There aren't any R&B samples or Kanye West chipmunk soul, and the track works. It sounds like a big grime tune and deserves to get versioned all over the radio dial in East London. Roll Deep has sandwiched one good grime track with too many lightweight R&B tracks that sound like extended rap interludes. To experience some of the energy of London's grime scene, it would be better to just buy Lethal B's "Pow" 12" -- at least it gets to the point and doesn't waste time with commercialized pop tunes. There are glimpses all through the album of good flowing lyrics that make stripped-down bass-heavy remixes entirely necessary. Dizzee Rascal was able to translate grime into an album format without losing the edge, while being commercially viable. The Roll Deep Crew still need to figure that out. ~ Matt Whalley

The album is already being heralded by the vast majority of the UK music media as the urban album of 2005.