Review do’s and review don’ts

 

Knowing I would come to the double page spread soon I started thinking of ideas for a captivating article. I chose to do an album review and I really wanted to contain  anecdote’s from the rapper and an In depth analysis of the track-list- All assisting my first double page spread in a magazine to be highly personal.

My articles structure & plan:

Rough first DPS draft:

“THE REVIEW- H20 SliCKY’S Lif£ is Pre$hiou$”

Written by Henry Gray

Esteemed review of H2O SLiCKY’S 3rd studio album that is rocketing up the global charts. 

The album, diverse in it’s melodies, has great potential to go gold and maybe even platinum. The rapper- H20 SliCKY spent 7 months in the alps perfecting his 3rd studio album- Lif£ is Pre$hiou$. The album itself has its fair share of catchy money grabbing hits and its fair share of expertly produced songs that will be played 50+ years to come. Bringing in producers such as Pierre Bourne and Tay Keith, Slicky has set himself up to be on stage at this year’s The Grammys. When listening to the album it felt as if I was taken to an alternate dimension. My mind became lost in the melodious low tempo pace of voice but high temp pace of beat on my favourite track on the album- WAITING WANTIN. The flowy beat switches and bumpy rhythms bringing in instruments like the french horn I feel SLiCKY has put his own twist on the rap genre which is exactly what the genre was after. My reasoning for 4 mic ratings out of 5 is that although the album has it’s hits it has some (1 or 2) songs that he clearly just dropped in to fill the track list. But interestingly some that I personally feel should have been released as singles instead of being on an album tracklist because of their ripe and alternate  exuberant dexterity and pitch. For example the song WORTH it WITHOUT it feels to me like more of a breakup in his feelings song which shoulnt of gained a place on the album. 

In summary SLiCKY has got his unique flow on lockdown but is lacking in the narrative department as albums should convey a narrative and not just contain random songs such as WORTH it WITHOUT it. 

When reading up on SLiCKY, an artist of recent times, I found his backstory a story worth telling. H20 SLiCKY- originally Harvey Ogier or Combine was a troubled youth who battled addiction to drugs and gang violence actually being a member of park lane a london gang before he got his big break. SLiCKY served 20 months in prison back in 2014 for snorting a line of cocaine off his finger in front of a police officer stating coming out recently with his statement that- “it was being homeless or being in prison, I only saw positives of being in prison and negatives of being homeless. Free food, bed and a chance to make friends. I snorted that line of cocaine to get arrested on purpose. Those events kind of marked the end of an era for me and I started writing meaningful songs in prison detailing my dark past of addiction and homelessness.”

 

MP3  Amended first draft:

Self targets for audio:

• To be more rhetorical in my language to spark interest and interaction.
• Add who wrote the article (myself).
• Use enticing adjectives which make the album stand out further.
• More quotes.
• Go further in depth with the rappers struggled past.

Written amended draft article for DPS:

“THE REVIEW- H20 SliCKY’S Lif£ is Pre$hiou$”

Written by Henry Gray

Exclusive review of H2O SLiCKY’S 3rd studio album that is rocketing up the global charts. 

The album, diverse in its melodies, has great potential to go gold and maybe even platinum. The rapper – H20 SliCKY spent 7 months in the Alps perfecting his 3rd studio album – ‘Lif£ is Pre$hiou$’. The album itself has its fair share of catchy money grabbing hits and its fair share of expertly produced songs that will be played 50+ years to come. Bringing in producers such as Pierre Bourne and Tay Keith, Slicky has set himself up to be on stage at this year’s The Grammys. When listening to the album it felt as if I was taken to an alternate dimension. My mind became lost in the melodious low tempo pace of voice but high temp pace of beat on my favourite track on the album – WAITING WANTIN. The flowy beat switches and bumpy rhythms bringing in instruments like the French horn, I feel SLiCKY has put his own twist on the rap genre which is exactly what the genre was after. My reasoning for 4 mic ratings out of 5 is that although the album has its hits, it has some (1 or 2) songs that he clearly just dropped in to fill the track list. And interestingly, some that I personally feel should have been released as singles instead of being on an album tracklist because of their ripe and alternate  exuberant dexterity and pitch. For example, the song ‘WORTH it WITHOUT it’, feels to me like more of a breakup in his feelings song which shouldn’t have gained a place on the album. 

In summary, SLiCKY has got his unique flow on lockdown but is lacking in the narrative department as albums should convey a narrative and not just contain random songs such as ‘WORTH it WITHOUT it’. 

When reading up on SLiCKY, an artist of recent times, I found his backstory – and it’s a story worth telling. H20 SLiCKY – originally Harvey Ogier or Combine, was a troubled youth who battled addiction to drugs and gang violence and was actually a member of Park Lane,  a London gang before he got his big break. SLiCKY served 20 months in prison back in 2014 for snorting a line of cocaine off his finger in front of a police officer.  He recently revealed, “It was being homeless or being in prison, I only saw positives of being in prison and negatives of being homeless. Free food, bed and a chance to make friends. I snorted that line of cocaine to get arrested on purpose. Those events kind of marked the end of an era for me and I started writing meaningful songs in prison detailing my dark past of addiction and homelessness.”