the battle against disinformation.
Sometimes, in response to seismic events that leave many both gasping & grasping, some fucker has the clarity, resolution & speed to deliver a consummate critique or counter strike, expertly distilling or approximating the encounter.
Cutting a clean & fatal blow to the latest low is a London MC called D’Dan.
I don’t want to focus on any of his other work or history, only to concentrate on this lone, supremely deft & bold summarization.
In our shit-storm scoundrel shower of torrential turmoil, what’s the subject of outrage or line-of-attack this time then?
None-other than the bed-of-briars & thicket-of-thorns U.K. 2024 riots.
Not everybody would have the bollocks. Not everybody can unpack it. & not everybody can optimise & articulate it, as its such a heavily manipulated, massively misrepresented & complicated/ambiguous debacle, with a thousand-and-one actors trying to wrest a simplified account of actions & origins, contingent on a raft of auxiliary motives & interests.
Summing up the compulsion & reasoning for such a thorough & expedient retaliation, D’Dan has attributed the accompanying statement (lifted direct from the joint’s YT blurb) –
“In 2011 during the times of the BLM riots, I used my socials to warn my people to be wary of the mind-games being played on us after researching the actual organisation, and reading the original manifesto, something was off about it, and the deeper I dove into research the more I saw we were being toyed with. In 2024 the mind-games continue, this time with the powers that be focusing efforts on English white folk with fears amplified by 14 years of Tory spin, utilising racist extremist figureheads and shock-DJ style YouTubers to really whip up the frenzy we see now. The tragic murders of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar have been used to justify the violence against melanated minorities across the country in ways we haven’t seen since the 80’s. Those of us with eyes to see, ears to hear, and brains to think freely know exactly what is being done to us, the social engineering, the depopulation agendas, the divide and rule, and plans that are passed off as prophecies. Once again I gotta say something or my conscious would not be clear. This is what inspired this piece of work.”
so how does the track actually measure up then?
Well, its an absolute fucking howler.
A rigorous decimation of storming certitude.
Sounds like it was recorded on a console mic through 90s freeware, but Jesus! does the guy go off.
Shrewd, swift, conscious, sharp, concerted & shredding.
The content is also ultra-dynamic, which is required, as the problem/event has asymmetrical complexities that need ambivalent remedies or analysis.
Seriously, not everybody is up to that, especially on a rapid hair-trigger & through an artistic mechanism.
Its also dextrous, funny & wry, with a keenness to resolve & reason.
Amazing! Reminds me distinctly of another fearless & ferociously independent UK rapper, Life MC, who – amongst other controversies – set off that withering take-down of Tony Blair & George Bush over the flagrantly illegal & deceptive invasion of Iraq (dropped on the album Realities of Life in 2005 as the track Bush and Blair).
but there is something else even!
More brilliance?
The track was projected under an endeavour by D’Dan called The Sega Saga.
Its some bloated quirk of side-car geek culture that rips old Genesis/Mega Drive soundtracks.
Yeaaaaaaaah.
The crippling joy-spasm of 80s & 90s cart & coin-op is cult enough … of all the tracks & ditties available from the Streets of Rage series, which one was the vic?
Oh its the liquor lounge! …. you know! the second stage of the first level from the 2cnd game, where you’re mug-smashing through the brown bar, & you first meet the chick with the electric whip.
You fuckin’ wing-nut!
Endearing.
The tempo has been drastically cranked, so D’Dan can rush at speed.
The Streets of Rage pun/play is now adapted to the UK 2024 riots.
There’s even a lampoon of the classic game art with D’Dan’s head imposed on Axel.
Glorious.
So its like one of those double-cone ice-creams where you get two scoops of saccharine.
Daring, on-the-knuckle, & adroit shit from a wise man of the slab.
2024, digital release