Description

1LP Vinyl – BD010R (Limited Edition, Reissue, 25th Anniversary, Smokey Clear Vinyl)

Now 25 years old and making us feel the cold in our bones, ‘Brand New Second Hand’ was the one that placed the elder statesman of UK hip hop on the map, giving a distinctly Black British voice to the sound at a time when US hip hop absolutely dominated. On a mix of brooding, dubwise downbeats and more rambunctious bashment mostly produced by the man himself, but also featuring co-productions by Lotek and IG Culture, it followed pioneering aces by Saul Williams and Part 2 aka New Flesh For Old to establish the Big Dada label as a major force in UK underground music, and transcended its London base to the UK regions and beyond, partly due a killer El-P remix of highlight ‘Juggle Tings Proper’ at a time when his Company Flow were at a zenith. 

For many, it’s probably hard to separate this album from the stench of tack and teenage bedrooms or bedsits littered with copies of Hip Hop Connection and UKHH. But with a bit of distance and (supposed) wisdom of age – forgive me lord, for i hath not heard it in long over a decade, maybe two – it still kills on account of its sinuous, rugged, atmospheric minimalism and of course Rodney Smith’s preternatural ease of wordplay, delivered in a gruff but crisply enunciated Jamaican-British London accent that arguably paved the way for some grime MCs such as Trim who were more into wordplay than ramping a club. 

Whilst certainly overshadowed by the success of the follow-up ‘Run Come Save Me’ and its anthem ‘Witness (1 Hope)’, we’ve no doubt this is the one in Roots’ oeuvre: from the deep UK blooz of ‘Movements’, and the bashment levity of ‘Dem Phonies’ or neck snap of ‘Juggle Tings Proper’ at the front, to a proper dank ‘Sinking Sands’ and his frankly weird stamp of production style on ‘Oh Yeah…’ at the back, it’s a fucking doozy ripe for another rip.