With 299 million streams and a viral documentary under their belt, Bad Boy Chiller Crew are having a better 2020 than most – and the TikTok-famous Yorkshire trio aren’t slowing down. On a mission to put Bradford on the musical and comedic map, their unexpectedly-layered debut mixtape ‘Full Wack No Brakes’ unleashes a barrage of 100mph bassline rap bangers as MC Kane, DJ/rapper GK and mulleted funnyman Sam wheel out witty bars about not paying fines, risking red lights, dodging cops, counterfeit goods and driving sideways on roundabouts. It’s not big or clever… but it’s a shitload of fun.
Anthemic opener ‘450’ insists you bop along to its earworm beat while attempting to keep up with tongue-in-cheek bars about “PC Plonker”. ‘Guns Up’ is similarly addictive and amusing, while ‘German Engineering’ and ‘New Machine’ form amped-up love letters to living life at high speed (“show no fear and the feds can’t catch ya”) and splashing their newly-earned cash on designer clothes.
Aware that this braggadocio could quickly feel repetitive, the lads show they can work US trap equally well (‘Organ’) before challenging perceptions of merely being a joke-act by demonstrating a semblance of sincerity and vulnerability. ‘Active’ is a typically-fast-paced mission statement and peels back the bravado, revealing a reflective side to their storytelling. It’s brutally honest about the environment the boys grew up in – “Bradford town’s what raised me/Few boys locked up in the pen” – and their aspiration to dodge that path. “Not going back jail/I wanna see my life unveil”.
On the darker ‘Loco’, which sounds deceptively upbeat thanks to pumping house production, they explain “how we do it up North,” citing daylight robberies (“do a lot of time for the finer things”) before recognising what success has afforded them: “More money than ya dad, that’s mad/Come a long way from them council flats”.
Admittedly, their sex, alcohol and drug fuelled bars (“I’ma bad boy out and out/ Lines of the cocaine, four by four”) – aren’t for everyone, but while the ‘parody’ scepticism continues (they conducted their NME interview from their local McDonald’s’ carpark), what can’t be denied is that BBCC know how to craft real bassline bangers with instantly infectious hooks. Already making waves in the US, a worldwide Bad Boy Chiller Crew takeover looks increasingly likely for these Bradford lads done good.
