London, England, United Kingdom emcee Renelle 893 making his full-length studio debut. Introducing himself a year & a half earlier off the previous extended play Black Currents, he would eventually catch the attention of High Focus Records not too long afterwards & signed to the label. The historic Hove, East Sussex imprint however has decided for Renelle to end their 2022 having King Kashmere fully produce Cocoa Butter, coming Off the Grid alongside Bay29 to tell the story of an Art Thief.
“Escape Route” starts us off with a mellow boom bap instrumental & a brief verse describing a group of burglars prior to the 2nd half containing a spoken word outro whereas “Gentleman” works in some kicks, snares & pianos so he can caution that this shit isn’t a game to him by any means. “The Stairs” embraces a chipmunk soul vibe reminding those listening that none of us are perfect leading into “Quiet Time” talking about time flying whenever he’s writing songs.
We have Bay29 instrumentally pulling inspiration from lo-fi hip hop additionally blending elements of boom bap on “Spilling My Feels” & Renelle taking a confessional approach lyrically just before “Play Your Role” featuring CLBRKS finds the pair joining forces so they can advise everyone to fulfill their expected duties. The dustily spacious “Hitting L’s” talks about smoking weed in his sleep without any resistance while “Don’t Call Me” begins off the 3rd quarter looking to take no shit from anyone & hoping to have no setbacks.
The title track comes across as this potently cinematic 3 & a half minute heist film on wax including a reference to the Warner Bro.-owned Mortal Kombat franchise after “Slow Down” featuring Illiterate unites both artists jazzily talking about them being antsy as of late praying for demons to get their hands off them, Nelson Dialect saves my personal favorite guest appearance for “The Seed” suggesting they can’t be harmed if they’re already deceased & asking what’ll be left when they escape Hell.
“When the World Don’t Like You” carries over the lo-fi boom bap atmosphere from earlier talking about the difficulty of maintaining the strength needed in order to keep fighting through our struggles due to people in our corner being against seeing us win while “Epi Pen” hooks up an uncanny piano flip shrugging off those dismissing his authenticity, claiming the only reason for that being because they haven’t met him yet & getting injected with epinephrine. “Hunger Kills” somberly finishes the LP tackling the relatable feeling of being burdens to others & continuing to fuck up.
Aspiring to transcend the UK hip hop movement, Art Thief makes Renelle 893’s best attempt at achieving that goal so far with an album I’d say surpasses Off the Grid in becoming my new 2nd favorite entry of his discography displaying artistic potential I have no doubts will becoming fully realized sooner rather than later. Bay29’s jazzy boom bap production pretty much takes the role of the glue binding the deeply personal themes around love, family, addiction, loyalty, pleasure & pain with a flurry of samples & signature breaks.
Score: 3.5/5
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