‘OG Season’ has finally landed, and it has been well-received from what I hear. I’m yet to cop thanks to my lack of funds, but it will only be a matter of time. I’ve been impressed with OGs – they started out from something that broke down, making moves late last year, and featuring on pirate station Rinse FM with Boy Better Know and building up a hype that seems to now be justified with their debut release.
Despite being unable to avoid the delays that have affected Wiley’s ‘Umbrella’ and Bless Beats’ ‘Hard Day’s Graft’ to name a couple, the CD has been completed for a long time now. Melanin confirms that, in terms of the mixtape’s completion, ‘it didn’t take that long to be honest, it was done over summer and winter 2007’. The delays have partly contributed to the hype, and it is credit to the general consensus of the final product that ‘OG Season’ has gone down well with what can be a sometimes unforgiving grime community. According to Mela, ‘pre-orders and sales have gone quite well’ and, given the initial good reaction as well as things moving quickly in the scene, people are always looking ahead. ‘Tracks have been done for the new CD but we’ll wait later this year to see how the feedback is, because Part 2 will be more of a song-based CD, and not as hardcore…’
Such a view implies the movements of a ‘crew’ coming together and showing versatility and experimentation with the sound. The good songs, partly the result of the good bars of the individual members who are mostly see themselves as solo artists, raises the question of whether the OGs are a crew or a larger movement. A ‘movement’ is apparent in the origins of OGs, taking the majority of their members from the best of what South London has to offer and creating a new, exciting name for themselves in the aftermath of the breakdown of South London’s former premier grime crew ‘Essentials’. However, the way OGs have come together suggests they have the unity and shared ideas to be a successful collective in the long-term, despite having solo artists in their ranks. ‘Its a cross between both really’, says Mela, ‘but it is not just a crew. Its something that was built to push the individuals that bit more and create more exposure for the genre’. This wider ‘exposure’ can be seen from the GPP YouTube channel, as well as videos being planned for ‘More Money More Obstacles’ as well as for individual members such as Little Dee.
OGs are emerging from South London in a big way, and Melanin is confident that there’s more to come. From the content on OG Season, ‘if they liked that as songs, well they have a lot more quantity and quality coming’. Features for the second CD? ‘There will be on Part 2 possibly. You’ll have to wait and see’. Keep your eyes (and ears) peeled.
’OG Season’ is now available from Uptown Records , and members of the crew will be in store on Saturday 22 March for a live set and signing CDs. Go and cop.
Uptown Records
3 D`arblay St
Soho
London
Tel: 0207 434 3639
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