London, England, United Kingdom emcee Mr. Key enlisting local producer Illinformed to handle the beats all over the latter’s sophomore effort. A member of Contact Play, he would eventually sign to High Focus Records as a solo act & drop his solo debut Yesterday’s Futures in the summer of 2015 using the sounds of wonky & glitch hop with the help of Greenwood Sharps to back his abstract pen. Both of them reunited near the end of 2019 for an EP called Green & Gold, returning after nearly 5 whole years for the more conceptual Kez.
“Escape from Bene” sets the tone with a piano-driven boom bap instrumental advising to trust them since there’s more to discover going forward whereas “Wakey Wakey” featuring Smellington Piff finds the 2 over a funkier beat talking about them both being on a high platter killing swarm. “All Right Ok” takes a mellower yet dusty approach to the beat talking about him doing well since Green & Gold leading into “He Say She Say” featuring Dirty Dike after the “What’s this Place?” skit addressing detractors.
As for “John Connor High Lyf”, we have Mr. Key over this jazzy boom bap beat talking about his life not always being the best & him not having it any other way just before “Bury Me in Bene” featuring Leaf Dog carries over the same vibes of the previous cut asking for their wishes to be buried when the time of demise comes. “Why is It?” featuring BVA comes together to ask for the reason there cornballs haven’t done a charitable act while the piano-driven “I Dunno” uses it’s title to answer various questions for 5 minutes.
“No Time” starts Kez’s final moments blending a jazzy woodwind with some kicks & snares talking about himself for 2 & a half minutes living more pleasantly than he was in his previous situation but once “Yellow Tops” hooks up a prominent vibraphone to assure fans it isn’t their fault that he can be a bit of a dickhead, the outro “Isabell Allende” featuring Jam Baxter & Ronnie Bosh wraps things up with the Contact Play brethren soulfully repping their squads.
As much as I’ve enjoyed Greenwood Sharps’ contributions to Yesterday’s Futures and Green & Gold, hearing that Illinformed was handling all of Kez’s production gave me the impression it would surpass both of it’s predecessors. Lo & behold, Mr. Key has done it. He kaleidoscopically describes the rise of a plucky kestrel through an off-grid anarchist commune called Bene comprised of misfits, lost souls, drug dealers, new age healers & would be cult leaders after spending 5 years in Spain.
Score: 4/5
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