Teej And Cuth Seven Ages Album Review
We're proud to support diversity here at Underground HH. From the hard to the heartfelt, from gritty to ditty, there is an abundance of angles and feelings displaying nearly all walks of life right there in UK hip hop. I Guess it only makes sense given that hip hop at its best gives a voice to the voiceless, and is unprejudiced and open armed. Today we look at a work by two of the UK's proudest hip hop advocates, the brand new album by Teej and Cuth.
Cuth, a man made notorious with fresh UK hip hop beats through his recent work with Adam The Rapper. And Teej, someone who has graced stages with many guises and crews over the years, including super crew 'The Menagerie' and Brighton's very own freestyle collective 'The Spoken Herd'. Together they have been working hard to bring us a new album 'Seven Ages', so let's get these speakers warmed up, and see what the world of Teej and Cuth has to offer.
The premise is both simple and seductive, 12 tracks all with different tales to tell. Cuth comments - "Its Seven Ages like the seven ages of man. Birth, childhood, boy meets world, settling down, responsibility, aging and death!" As I start the journey I quickly realise Cuth has been crate digging again, and he must of been delving deep because the quality and variety of the beats here is more than impressive. Some jazz-laced, smokey-club-infused and highly melodic beauties, as well as some more uplifting and hard edged bangers to please the more energetic hip hop heads. Kicking off after the intro with their debut single 'Born Alone', accompanied by a music video filmed by David Clark. The track sets the scene and straight away shows how warm and welcoming T&C can be.
Teej's lyricism is both open minded and brave. He uses his pen to touch home with the listeners and bring them along on the journey through modern hip hop life. To Teej sentiment is as important as syllable placement and his rhymes are delivered with scenery, emotion and skill. For me, the best rappers not only know how to hammer letters, but how to bare their heart on their sleeve and Teej must champion this ethos too. He speaks with juxtapose beautiful and brutal honesty, and it makes for an album that the listener can quickly warm to.
There are many highlights on the album, but worth a mention are the single 'Born Alone', the absolute stomper 'Find Me', and the feature track with star MCs Adam The Rapper and (Professor) Elemental 'Grown Man Raps'. All three tracks are blooming wild flowers in an already beautifully scenic view of hip hop. I'd also like to mention the heart string pluckers 'Stepping Stones' and outro track 'Someone Waits For Me' featuring the beautiful and talented vocals of Kiran Harrison. Both tugged me from the get go, and both left me feeling at one with the MC conversing with me.
As the title of the feature track suggests, this is grown man hip hop. Head on honestly, feet firmly fixed, heart bloody and bare for us to see hip hop. The album, available on CD or as digital download with artwork by Cuth is an intelligent and brave collection of tracks and hip hop like this should be relished and revered. I'm sure it'll become a firm favorite in my blooming collection.
Invokal - Verbalist Journalist
