M1llionz - Provisional License Music Album Reviews

M1llionz - Provisional License Music Album Reviews
Shaped around a loose narrative, the Birmingham drill rapper’s debut album paints an immersive picture of everyday brutality with gripping beats and detailed imagery. 

M1llionz knows to listen to his mother. “Mum said” forms a recurring refrain throughout Provisional License, the Birmingham drill rapper’s debut album, as he repeats his mother’s advice on everything from commitment and settling down (“Mum said bitches ain’t going anywhere,” on “Hometown”) to feeding your ambition (“Mum said surround yourself with winners,” on the title track). These interjections represent an appeal to the one authority M1llionz recognizes. They also form a bridge between domestic comfort and a brutal outside world that most will never witness. It’s a world that M1llionz conjures with greater skill and precision than any other rapper working out of the UK today.

Provisional License is shaped around a loose narrative. M1llionz assumes the protagonist’s role on a risky trip up the motorway with a suspicious package in the footwell and a female partner in the passenger seat. They’re pulled over by police, but M1llionz—driving without a full license—speeds off rather than stepping out of the car for a search. The near-miss gives him flashbacks to time spent imprisoned, where his thoughts consume him.

M1llionz uses small brushstrokes to paint expansive, immersive pictures. Apparently banal observations scale up to striking vistas: He scrapes toothpaste remnants from a flattened Colgate tube (“Intro”), and he hides a SIM card under his foreskin to avoid detection on “Jail Brain.” A groan at the prospect of having to find a drill to replace the phony registration plates on a stolen car (“the sticky plates falling off of the dinger”) upends clichés of glamorized gangsterism on “Pedestrian.” On “Bando Spot,” he playfully interpolates 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop”; but where 50 thrives on lyrical euphemism, M1llionz only trades in the most acute details: ANPR cameras, delivery charges, and crumbs of cocaine scraped from the sides of a crack pot. These dashes of color elevate his songs from an otherwise familiar drill canvas of skippy hi-hats and sliding 808s. (That being said, M1llionz also has a knack for picking gripping beats: The stuttering kicks on “Badnis” and the moody mid-point switch-up on “Intro” are two examples of this facility.)

Elsewhere, he grounds his street occupation in the language of the boardroom—to sometimes comic effect. “The last yute resigned, now I’ve got no staff,” he bemoans on “Badnis”; last year, with his blockbuster call-to-arms “Lagga,” he became the first rapper to slip the phrase “statutory sick pay” into a song about slinging crack. His testimony merges worlds, highlighting the invisible lines that separate communities in the UK’s modern cities, where million-pound mortgaged homes tower alongside terraces, and the down and out shelter in the doorways of steel-and-glass monuments to global capital.

Inventive flows and the disarming lilt of his West Midlands accent give M1llionz further distinction. He raps like a veteran racing driver: calm and completely in tune with his vehicle. His multi-syllables create rushing run-ons, his hard consonants stamp full stops, and sometimes, like on “Regular Bag,” he flows for so long you wonder whether he’ll pass out for lack of oxygen. It amps up the stakes, making his stories more immediate. And on an increasingly busy starting grid, it’s this mastery of his tools that sets M1llionz apart. An open road awaits.
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About Wanni Arachchige Udara Madusanka Perera

Hey, I'm Perera! I will try to give you technology reviews(mobile,gadgets,smart watch & other technology things), Automobiles, News and entertainment for built up your knowledge.
M1llionz - Provisional License Music Album Reviews M1llionz - Provisional License Music Album Reviews Reviewed by Wanni Arachchige Udara Madusanka Perera on October 05, 2021 Rating: 5

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