The Resurrection - Bugzy Malone

The Guardian 0

(B Somebody)
After two brushes with death last year, the Manchester rapper has a lot to process on his starkly honest second album

Hip-hop has no shortage of redemption narratives. Bugzy Malone’s is ongoing. As recently as last year, the Manchester MC was charged with two counts of wounding – this, after many years spent boxing, rapping, then acting in Guy Ritchie movies in a largely successful effort to put a difficult past behind him. The 30-year-old still carries sufficient ferocity to have guested on the recent remix of Tion Wayne and Russ Millions’ Body, the first UK No 1 for the drill subgenre.

To this stuttering redemption song Malone adds two more hooks. In the UK, grime and hip-hop have long been London-centric. The “King of the North” was the first to put Manchester in contention back in 2015 with a landmark Fire in the Booth radio freestyle. Manchester’s latest wunderkind, Aitch, has ridden the slipstream of Malone’s hard-hitting, dextrous flows.