Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Album Review: David Dallas - The Rose Tint



When I started this blog I certainly didn't think I'd ever end up reviewing a David Dallas album, but with his new album The Rose Tint being released for free I thought why not give it a try, well was I surprised with what was produced. Before this goes any further I don't care for NZ Hip/Hop because most of it blows, at times its just a sad American copy, when they should be putting a New Zealand spin on what is being produced. After downloading I didn't think to read up about Mr Dallas, just assumed he was still situated in NZ and for some reason wanted to release this for free. To my surprise I see a track featuring Freddie Gibbs someone whose making moves in the rap game since his EP Str8 Killa was released (great EP by the way!).

A further surprise was that he had signed for an American label Duck Down Records, so really the potential is there, but has he shown up on this album? well the short of this is yes (please don't stop reading) well sort of anyway, its a solid album at the very least and pushes himself away from the boring shit New Zealand is accustomed to. First point I'll make about this album is the production is top notch, no problems with it for me anyway, the last thing he needed was a breakthrough album with shitty production quality, thankfully it past this test.

This album isn't mindblowing or anything, there isn't something that will be talked about in 10 years as a classic, but it is a strong restart to David Dallas' career (yeah, I'm not going to count his earlier start as being any good) his flow isn't outrageous but he puts everything together really well and the raps are pretty cool. The beats and samples are tight (Ricki Gervais sampled) while he might be living in America now he does keep some references to New Zealand which is nice and not too many so to not sound like a faggot. This album also includes a few guest artists including PNC and Che Fu both prominent New Zealand artists, that definitely hold their own in the whole scheme of things.

Caught In A Daze is my pick of the bunch, sure this might have something to do with Freddie Gibbs also being on the track but the track on the whole is baller. The message throughout out is nice, much more empowering and motivational compared to your average album, not that there's anything wrong with the Odd Future like rapping this is just a nice change. The Life Is (Interlude) does such a great job of slowing things down before he looks to burst back into the album with Til Tomorrow which is up there as a top track, while Postcard has my favourite beat of the album.

Overall this has the potential to lift David Dallas to new heights, while this isn't a classic, its strong enough for people to at least take notice, combined with the it being freely available over the internet, surely he can go places that most of New Zealand Hip/Hop can only dream about. The production is strong, the beats are strong and David Dallas himself does a good at putting it all together lyrically.

Overall Rating: 8/10

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