Speech Debelle vs Brisbane

 

This music sounds so foreign to my situation right now.

It's still raining. People are still regularly visiting this blog to check on news on the demise of Plan B. It's still raining but the streets are wide. There's little claustrophobia here. My wife is due to give birth any series of hours now (her due date was yesterday). The only song I want to hear playing is this, obviously. The music that is actually playing is the debut album from London rapper Speech Debelle, and sure it's raining over there as well but the rain is spiteful, cold, mean. It isn't Brisbane rain. It's the rain that mirrors the isolation and late night neon of Soho backstreets, the rain that pelts down after you've been stopped and searched by yr fifth policeman on a New Cross Gate street corner.

The music doesn't reflect the rain, mind. It's all breathiness and hope. It's all truncated bass notes and body-warming jazz breaks. It's PM Dawn. It's Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy. Only it's female and existing within another era, and concerned with change and escaping the past, and self-motivation. It's music to listen to as you relax. It's music to listen to as you prepare.  It's music that swirls and seduces, and makes you feel glad labels like Ninja Tune and Geographic are still going strong. I have no idea how this music interacts with its audience, because I have no idea of what its audience is aside from myself...there's a flow to Speech Debelle's rap, an easy-going flow that soothes me, while gently prickling.

My wife is expecting our second child within the next few whenever. You expect coherency?