Malarchi – Forgotten World (1999-2001) (CD) (FLAC + 320 kbps)

2Hip@ukhh.com in 2001: ”Malarchi has been getting his name round a bit hasn’t he? I mean if you haven’t turned on the radio and heard a tune by him, or seen one of his vids on MTV I’d be surprised. The fact is Malarchi is working damn hard to get his name out there, and it seems to be paying off. Much of my respect has been gained for the way he’s approached this fucked up industry, getting quality video’s and one of the biggest US names (Canibus) I’ve seen do a UK/US collaboration. So it wasn’t a great surprise to hear that Malarchi had an album coming out, it was only a matter of time.

The album starts with a poem by a man named ‘Phanzwaan’, quite a clever way to kick into the first track and first single Malarchi released ‘No Question’. I use to love it when this video came onto MTV, nice quality and showed the UK in a good light. Sadly that must have been the remix, as the version on the album is not as high standard. Others may like it, but I preferred the more aggressive version.

There’s plenty of previous singles on this album, with ‘U4days’, ‘Da Shock’ and a few others that were on B-sides. The singles in my opinion are not Malarchi’s best work, but they are obviously aimed at the heads who haven’t got used to hearing a UK rapper. Fact is, Malarchi’s very good at letting his music reach an audience that would normally turn their noses up. A great example of this is ‘UK Ground Zero’ which will go down well with your average hiphop fan, and for that Malarchi must be commended. Malarchi hasn’t left the underground though, with viscous tracks like ‘Politics’. Superb beat by Dark Joint, with Malarchi getting angry at the music industry etc… great stuff.

I’ve got to say, that although it’s the first half of the album I’m most familiar with because of his 12’’ releases, the tail end of the long player is the better. ‘No Survival’ ‘Breeze Speakers’ are both some of the highlights, with a mixture of both dark production and great emceeing by the man himself. ‘Death stroke’s production is dark as fuck, really sets up an environment for Malarchi to belt out a story of an encounter with a rather sticky situation. I’m not going to speculate as to if Malarchi has been in this situation, or even if he’s knows anyone that its happened to, because I rest my hopes on the fact Malarchi is being true to himself. The fact is, the story telling and production are marvellous, so I don’t care basically.

As the LP winds down to an end you’ve got ‘Life Retribution’ which is a track that has a lot of emotion put into it in both MPC and Pen, definitely some good stuff. The final track is ‘Re-Awakening’ which is sole production, not great really, but god damn it don’t turn off now! Its dies out for a minute or so, then a kind of hidden track kicks in. For me this is one of the best bits of music on the album, I really love Malarchi when he lets loose on the mic, and that’s what he does. Darkjoint out does himself by one of his best beats on the album, it’s the fact that Malarchi spits fire like a dragon on this track that makes it though, brilliant way to end the album.

An album like this provides a weight on the other end of the balance of UK hiphop. I feel often the artists I like (Taskforce, Blak Twang etc.) are great, but I can’t see them making chart moves the way pop is at the moment. But Malarchi gives you that other option, of being able to listen to some great tunes and also feeling ‘Yeah this guy could make it’. This LP does have tracks that not everyone will like, but it has enough balance to keep a huge cross section happy. I await to see how well this does, and what Malarchi gets up to in the future, because on the basis of this album with the right backing and promotion he could be in the forefront of hiphop in the UK. ”

1 Awakening
2 No Question
3 UK Ground Zero
4 Natural Substance
5 Politics
6 Da Shock Featuring – Canibus
7 Urban Tales
8 Mind In Stimulation
9 Ram Raid At Random
10 U 4 Days
11 Forgotten One
12 Forgotten World
13 Deathstroke
14 Break In Proceedings
15 No Survival
16 Breezespeakers
17 Life Retribution
18 Reawakening

FLAC
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MP3 320
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