Lately, there has been a lot of discourse around the idea of how rappers should age gracefully. André 3000’s answer to this was to make a flute album, something far removed from the rhythm and poetry that earned him the best selling rap album of all time, Outkast’s ‘Speakerboxxx/The Love Below’. As the UK rap and grime scenes move towards their middle ages, this question is now being levelled at many of the foundational MCs who plied their trade during the much less profitable, formative years.
Ghetts, who remembers those fallow years all too well and turns 40 this year, appears to be defying the natural order of things; the music he’s been releasing has surpassed everything he’s done before. Following up his 2021 major label debut ‘Conflict Of Interest’ – which hit Number Two in the UK charts – was always going to be difficult, but ‘On Purpose With Purpose’ proves that he is evolving with age. No longer just a humble MC, Ghetts in 2024 is an artist who now understands the importance of imbuing his work with important social commentary.
On ‘Double Standards’, Ghetts eloquently picks apart many of life’s contradictions that we’re forced to live with: “I was on the phone with a pal of mine / They asked me why they’re helping Ukraine and not Palestine / And I replied, ‘Brown skin.’” Ghetts’ intricate storytelling not just on this track, but across the whole album, gives it real replay value, as every listen will inevitably unearth another gem that he’s buried.
‘On Purpose With Purpose’ is much more than just a well-written, socially-conscious rap album, Ghetts goes further to prove that he really is a tempo specialist, as he deftly travels through the sonic universes of gqom – an electronic genre that originated in South Africa – and afrobeat on tracks like ‘Tumbi’ and ‘Gbedu’, introducing us to an entirely new dimension in the process. That doesn’t mean he abandons more familiar soundscapes entirely – the first half of the album is sure to sate the appetite of the purists who are keen to simply hear Ghetts at his most lyrically dextrous. Kano and Wretch 32 collab ‘Mount Rushmore’, meanwhile, will no doubt ignite debates online about who had the better verse.
This record is the perfect display of how to make grown rap music without soiling a legacy that has taken decades to build. If this evolution continues, Ghetts may finally produce the classic album that has escaped him thus far.
