Ten years ago Jamie T released his debut album ‘Panic Prevention’ to a small cacophony of critical praise and disaffected youth fandom. Fast-forward to Rat Boy’s debut album ‘SCUM’. Across 25 tracks (and skits), 21-year-old Jordan Cardy from Essex draws on clanky guitars, breaks, dub reggae snares and G-funk basslines to rail against gentrification, Donald Trump and getting robbed by kids in North Face jackets, and sounds a lot like Jamie T while doing so.
There’s a meaty texture to the album, with rugged, hooky, gang-chant choruses deployed throughout. ‘REVOLUTION’ will bounce around your head for days after a single listen – it’s infectious to the point that the clunky rhymes and suburban-dad rap flows barely matter (“We’re not so far from World War III / I think most of the people here might be crazy” doesn’t make for much of a call to arms).
‘SCUM’, then, is more revolt than revolution. But there’s undoubtedly talent here – and there’s every chance Cardy, not T, will be the touchpoint 10 years from now.
Words by: Will Pritchard
