Album: Chipmunk, Transition (Jive)

Andy Gill
Friday 15 April 2011 00:00 BST
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The title belies the contents of Chipmunk's follow-up to his debut album: it's not so much a case of transition as stasis, with the young rapper apparently struggling to move beyond the formulaic aspirational blather and paranoid complaints about haters and gold-diggers.

Even though he's barely into his twenties, he's constantly looking back in tracks like "Then and Now" and "White Lies", which doesn't bode well for the future. There are a few wry lines scattered here and there – "All the girls like me, including the dykies"; "I got a Rolex, but no time on my hands" – and an infectious groove or two, like the lolloping "Follow My Lead" and dancehall-slanted "Every Gyal"; but Chipmunk's anxiety about criticisms of selling out might ring truer if he didn't have more American collaborators than Brits.

DOWNLOAD THIS Follow My Lead; Flying High; Every Gyal

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