Skepta, Chip and Young Adz - Insomnia

The Guardian 80

(SKCM29)
Two grime veterans and the drawling D-Block Europe member team up to create a slow-paced record that feels calibrated for the cultural moment

This surprise album from three leading UK MCs is a perfectly timed gift. Mercury prize-winning Skepta, Tottenham MC Chip – both longstanding grime veterans – and Young Adz, from UK trap group D-Block Europe, have presumably been cooking up this collaboration for a while. But everything about it feels calibrated for the current, strange cultural moment: it’s immediately available, rides low at a tempo that’s perfect for listening to while on lockdown in your house or car, and, with the title Insomnia, tackles paranoid themes with the light relief of dark humour.