I had never heard of namesbliss before, but I was pretty much sold thirty seconds into this video. Unlike most of my few remaining peers here at the heights of music journalism, I am acutely allergic to rap with British accents. I do make exceptions for exceptional voices like D Double E or Roots Manuva or Jehst, and buddy, I celebrate their entire catalogs. I’m no hater, but you could call me inherently dubious.
This beat, courtesy of his lowercase sibling-in-law, t.o., is exemplary grime: a banger that should not work, but thanks to a clever arrangement, everything clicks into place. If we Yank producers can take anything from current London beat culture, it’s the discerning, experienced DJ’s emphasis they place on their drops. A lot of my favorite grime joints sounded wrong when I first pressed play, like an MPC glitching out. Then, somehow, that same pile of broken parts suddenly takes flight.
Having spent an evening cracking cans and perusing his work, I found namesbliss to be a consistent-ass rapper with an outsize personality and an unpredictable flow. These are all very good things. He veers between class clown and jaded veteran, but it’s controlled chaos, puns & entedres bleeding into each other. He is a smart, funny writer who elevates his verses with an actor’s calculated stage performance. We used to call that “being a rapper,” so it’s nice to see in the wild.
This all represents an increasingly rare win for Team Anglo. Most of the Next Big Things™ that have been marketed stateside over the past few years have been little short of embarrassing, most especially Central Cee, one of the emptiest vessels I’ve seen since Aubrey first started biting like Beyonce. This is just a genuine dude cracking jokes, and better still, loving the fact most of his audience won’t get half of them. Fuck the dumb.
That said, “you know what” is too breezy to clock a heavyweight score. The video is clean work, props to the improbably named Dave Lunt for making a handful of location shoots and some urban ecosystem b-roll and chopping it into a compelling watch. But the song itself leans entirely on the easy-going charm of namesbliss, and the closing hook is an afterthought at best. That’s enough to keep to me listening but it’s only decent. Three Dickies.
