Salient

Ethical - Ages Turn

By Christopher Gilbert | 15 Sep, 2008

Ethical has produced an impressive debut album. He is a talented rapper who has confidence in his artistic credibility, and it shows. Ages Turn is a polished, well produced album which portrays Ethical as a rapper who takes himself and his music seriously, in an age after rap has been thoroughly raped by the major music industry.

The real key to this album, apart from the fact that his lyrics are brilliant, is that you can believe he is a real musician. Each song is unique and different from the last, and each bar seems to have undergone a painful amount of attention to detail. He uses samples, synthesisers and string arrangements which harmoniously thread through each other to create a different, originally composed backing track on each song.

This is a rapper I’m proud is from New Zealand, and hell he has some shit to say. He – thank god – ventures away from the New Zealand flagpoint lyrics about the South Auckland ghetto and shootings in Manakau and advances to constructive reflections of a New Zealand that sheltered muppets like John Key could never dream of.

There is not much you can pick out and criticise with Ages Turn. It appears to be a complete hip hop package - while I wasn’t entirely blown away, each aspect of the album delivers beyond expectation.

This is hip-hop all young New Zealanders should be able to enjoy. It is innovative, intelligent, and comes straight from the blood and background of the artist. Hopefully Ethical continues the standard Ages Turn has set and continues to advance his talent and stick to his own thing.