Kulez Reviews - UK Hip Hop News, Reviews and Interviews .

In 2008, with the UK hip hop scene burgeoning, Kulez was riding the same school from Norwich to London along with fellow rap hopefuls Arkaic and Eurgh, climaxing in his minor underground hit, "Welcome To Africa". This Zimbabwean-born MC was making his name heard round the fight scene, competing overseas in Scribble Jam as good as supporting major artists such as R.A. The Ruggedman, Jehst, and even dubstep pioneer Rusko.

However, in 2009, he seemed to come off the case of the map, not releasing much more than a few myspace freestyles and losing a major-profile battle against American artist Madness by a great margin. However, now it is 2011, and he is second with two new tracks, Fight For The Mic and Memories.

Kulez - Fight For The Mic This begins with Kulez reminding the manufacturer to take "no intro", over a brooding guitar loop. Then, the drum kicks in and Kulez begins hungrily, with complex syllable structures that sound like he has had some time to remember about life, and now he is second to say everyone else around it. The baffle is refreshingly simple (if slightly underdeveloped), with just guitar, drums, and a babble of keyboards in between, focusing the care on the rapper himself. His substance is delivered early and repeatedly, spitting at the beginning of the song: "As I stroll, what fate shows me/ To try and reach where the sky meets/ The high peaks/ And you want to inhale slowly". Kulez really delivers his substance with cool and his metaphors are well developed as is his account in which he creates images of himself pondering but inevitably coming to the end that he and his gang are the better at rap. One arena where Kulez really excels is syllable placement, seemingly putting emphasis every time the important chords roll around, or tied in between them, which gives a bit of an offsetting effect. There are a lot of good things coming from this track, however, it`s apparent lack of closing in price of production lets its overall impact dissipate somewhat. Still, this is one of the best songs I've heard from Kulez in a while and it's a real mark of hope from the young emcee. Score: 8/10

Kulez - Memories Although, Fight For The Mic was not perfect, it showed genuine promise and as the following track, Memories, came on, I eagerly readied myself for what Kulez would do. Again, it's a nice start with a stirring, if a little repetitive DJ Premier-sounding piano loop providing a strong backbone to his vocal work. Vocally, Kulez completely changes his way both in terms of flux and content; he speaks about growing up in the slums, grinding inner-city poverty and also proves himself as an able storyteller whilst a brutally honest narrative to give to his listeners. Kulez begins this track talking about an Andy and a Chiniqua and how she has 6 babies now, and you only like that the Kulez from the final track would assure himself to end with the silly intro bars. Still, the lyricism that follows makes up for this and I particularly liked Kulez's laid back, off-kilter style which is truly unique and unlike anything I've heard from a UK emcee. It may appear as though Kulez has a sugar deficiency problem, because he sounds a little sleepy here but this is definitely deliberate and it works amazingly well as a means of unabashed storytelling. However, the choir is as half-hearted as you can get, with him just repeating (a usual theme, isn`t it) "Bring back/ Bring back the memories". Sadly, there are also certain production flaws such as the ridiculous cartoon sound ad lib effects throughout his verses that don`t fit the ease of the product and detract from the overall content of the song, acting as the quasi-punchlines that aren`t there and don't want to be such is the nature of the song. One of the main redeeming features of this song's production however, is the nice electric guitar that accentuates his bars from sentence to time, even if it does sound suspiciously like something I lately heard it on Kanye West`s album. All in all, this is a full effort marred by unnescessarily sloppy blemishes in its production. Score: 6/10Kulez`s Myspace Facebook