Ugly Duckling – Audacity

Smooth and creamy.

I’ve heard so many good things about this group, but have not heard them before, so I was fizzing with excitement as I pressed the play button, and as I proceeded through the album, I understand why they’ve had so much acclaim.

They’re a perfect media pleaser, they’re talented, slick, intelligent and generally unoffencive. They’re like the Outcasts but with clean clothes on.

Generally described as old school, they do present the very basic structures that were evident in the origins of hip-hop, but Ugly Duckling present a more polished version of old school hip-hop, learning from the mistakes of their forefathers and smoothing over all the cracks that were left as rap advanced. The main difference between this album and the music it emulates is that the originals were ground breaking, which is why there were all those cracks and Ugly Duckling have smoothed over those cracks and failed to create anything earth-shattering.

If you like your rap political, angry, menacing or exciting then this album is not for you. If you like your rap with clean edges, soft beats and a sine wave of scratching, then you will get a lot of pleasure from this album.

I personally really enjoy this album, but feel that it would take some work on my part to get this into my regular listening routine.

Listen to this album: On a boombox.

Rating: 71%

“I won’t let it die”