Section Boyz - Soundcheck

Pitchfork 66

There’s an energy bursting out the UK rap scene that demands recognition; a swarm of underground producers and hungry MCs spitting furious anger on mixtape after mixtape, propped up without radio play, major label support, or even much recognition from the old guard of grime—just millions and millions of YouTube views.

Now that Stormzy is an (unsigned) household name in the UK and making records with Ed Sheeran, he’s proven that the road to success from the underground doesn’t run through a record label. And the (also unsigned) Section Boyz, his mates from Croydon, have emerged from the same YouTube Coliseum that elevated him to stardom, riding high off their Don’t Panic mixtape and its hit single “Lock Arff” and a high-profile collaboration with Skepta (“#Worst”). And earlier this year, they were blessed with the career Miracle-Gro that is a Drake co-sign, sharing the stage with the World’s #1 Rap Singer at both clubs and arenas in London. So now that they’ve got the mic (and our attention), what do they have to say? Despite the depth of their six-man crew on their latest mixtape, Soundcheck, the answer is surprisingly little.

Of course a seasoned culture vulture like Drake would be attracted to some real-life Top Boys; Section Boyz’s gangsta posture certainly feels authentic, their hood tales of trapping, shooting, and smashing believable enough. But you won’t find a single coherent narrative among the record’s bloated 19-song tracklist, just a string of posse cuts loosely connected by a general theme of thuggishness. As a format, the posse cut generally rewards wordsmiths, eschewing pop structures in favor of a raw platform from which to demonstrate lyrical prowess. But for these lyrical lightweights and their rudimentary rhyme schemes, it’s like skydiving without a chute—their banality laid bare for all to see.

The vocals on Soundcheck, filled with English slang and Caribbean patois colored by thick accents, are distinctively British. But much of the production—pulled from more than a dozen mostly unknown up-and-comers—has more in common with Chicago drill (“Me Too”) or Atlanta trap (“OMDs”) than anything from the UK. And lyrically, Section Boyz are at least as talented as some of those scenes’ more popular mediocre rappers—such as Chief Keef or Lil Yachty—though the cultural divide of the Atlantic ocean may prove too large for them to achieve similar success stateside. That being said, the tape is filled with beats that knock, serving as a showcase for some of the underground's more promising young producers, such as London teen Mikabeats (“Loading”), the production trio HeavyTrackerz (“I Like” and “Mee Too”), and Australia’s Keanu Beats (“Good Stuff”), who just landed a track on the new Migos record Culture.

Soundcheck is at its strongest when the group works within the traditional 140 bpm grime structure, like the rousing “Army,” built from ominous strings laced with automatic gunfire. When considered in the context from which it sprung—the online rap battles between scores of hungry MCs—the mixtape is a respectable capitalization on a rabid fanbase that propped the Section Boyz up as their chosen champions. On its own, it’s considerably less impressive, a hollow tone poem that evokes the spirit of a South London housing estate without stating anything particularly urgent or interesting. It sounds best from the middle of a mosh pit at a club, or blasted through open car windows from a fiberglass-rattling system—any situation in which the beats trump the bars, where getting hyped is paramount.