Tag: Booda French

Booda French – “Allotment Freestyles” review

This is the 3rd extended play from Ipswich, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom emcee Booda French. Aside from being a member of the Old Children, he would go on to drop 3 full-lengths & a couple EPs throughout the span of a decade plus including the 2016 debut Awesome is Everyday or the sophomore effort 6am Coffee Club a year later & The Loser’s Victory Lap. I should also mention Ventolin & Club 27 Reservations respectively preceding it all, hitting us with some Allotment Freestyles.

The November 2023 session track opens with an angelic boom bap instrumental talking about getting better with the lessons learned through aging whereas the December 2023 session track produced by King Kashmere gets in his hardcore vibe over a funky beat. The March 2024 session track hooks up a lo-fi sample courtesy of Cuth trying increase his revenue until the November 2024 session track sends it off floating over a jazzy Alecs DeLarge beat.

With all respect to both of Allotment Freestyles’ predecessors that came out during my adolescence, Booda French has come a long way since & this 10 minute collection of ideas stemming across an entire 12 months delivered off-top validates those claims. Debatably his strongest EP yet makes me hope we get an entire LP of production at this level of consistency & outside the context of the year-long concept, the right guest appearances rippin’ microphones with him wouldn’t hurt.

Score: 4/5

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Old Children – “Push Start” review

The Old Children are a trio from London, England, United Kingdom consisting of emcees Booda French & HPBLK alongside producer King Kashmere. The latter of whom has become amongst the most recognizable names in the entire UK hip hop scene with a career spanning decades while the other 2 have emerged between 2015 & 2016 respectively. So to have The Iguana Man unite both of them & get behind the boards for the group’s debut extended play had me excited of what they were gonna do.

After the intro, “1Up” hops over a lo-fi boom bap beat refusing to celebrate wack rappers when they shouldn’t be whereas “Metron’s Chair” gives off an intergalactically dusty vibe instrumentally dismantling any competitor who isn’t on the same wave they are. “Abin Sur” reaches the midway point of the EP talking about this being do or die for both performers leading into “Louder” featuring Ramson Badbonez nostalgically kicks off the 2nd half on some old school shit.

“Long Road” winds down Push Start’s remaining minutes talking about over a beat reminiscent to the late, great J Dilla at points talking about finally making it to their own destinations after choosing to take the more difficult path while the final song “Double Dragon” preceding the outro makes a dope reference to WWE Hall of Famer, former 3-time WWE Champion, 11-time WWE tag team champion, the inaugural WWE Hardcore Champion, CWA World Tag Team Champion & TNA World Champion Mick Foley.

Regardless of whether or not the Old Children plan to continue making music together going forward, it doesn’t take away from the fact Push Start still gives the world a look at what these guys can accomplish when combining forces. Booda French & HPBLK give us some of the hungriest performances of their careers whether it be depicting out of this world imagery or making left field references & unpacking forward thinking streams of thought over King Kashmere’s cosmic production.

Score: 3.5/5