Krept & Konan

With over 550,000 YouTube hits in less than 24 hours for their recent single 'My Story' and with last year's critically acclaimed mix tape 'Tsunami' under their belt, London duo Krept & Konan - commonly known as 'Play Dirty' - have joined forces again with a combined energy that is magnetic. Together they have created a masterpiece...

The new mix tape 'Young Kingz' features a slew of the UK's finest rappers and lyricists including Tinie Tempah, G FrSH, Giggs, Chip, Yungen, Fekky and George the Poet.

Mastermind George the Poet blesses the tape with a climatic intro and outro. His powerful oeuvre is voiced over a cinematic backdrop creating a feeling of suspense and excitement for the listener.

The album has a track to suit every mood and evokes plenty of emotions. Carefree tracks include 'Young n' Reckless' featuring Chip and 'Too Young' featuring Yungen - both have catchy sing-a-long choruses and candid lyrics that may not be too pleasing for the ladies listening!

More gritty tracks include 'M.D.M.A' featuring G FrSH as well as 'Lord Forgive Me'. The latter includes the clever line 'Drinking from the bottle... woke up in my Calvin's', in conjunction with repeated 'Yeaaaah' ad-libs- which was no surprise as we could almost smell Tinie on the track. He eventually exploded with his cheeky and braggadocios lyrics. The big, brassy sounding tune has a real pounding and bass-heavy backdrop and is definitely one that you can get amped-up to. Like many of the other tracks, it is littered with clever puns and nice punch lines. Yeaaaah!

Hot and steamy songs on the mix tape include 'My Name' featuring budding south London singer Yana Toma; her honeyed vocals layered over sweet melodies make it a great sexy-time tune. The smooth lyrics and even some singing from the fellas themselves was a nice surprise.

I loathe to come across as anal but the idea of 'My Name' being back-to-back with the track 'Number 13' (which was also a slow zone tune featuring the same singer) didn't really tick the box for me as it was two similar concepts arranged too closely together.

Sentimental and autobiographical tracks such as 'Brothers' highlight Krept & Konan's camaraderie and depicts how they have evolved together. If this one doesn't manage to leave tears trickling down your face then heart-wrenching track 'My Story' will have you going through a range of emotions from rage to sadness. The track takes us back to the vivid memory of Konan's stepfather's murder and will leave you feeling sombre. You start to see how resilient these guys are as they've been able to persevere with their music even though there have been hurdles aplenty.

On the lighter side, 'Other Side' is a nice track adorned with with Ari's rather lovely vocals. The wonder boys continuously impress us with clever puns and references to much-loved rappers like J. Cole and Jay Z in 'Don't Waste My Time' with lyrics like 'In a Cole world I'm a born sinner, you come over its all Jigga'. The single was released last month along with a black and white video which looked like your cliche hood-rap video with motorbikes, police cars and lots of young fellas....average.

With no backing from a major label whatsoever, this masterpiece of a mix tape has been dancing around in the top 10 division of the charts for the last couple of days since it was officially released. The mix tape is certainly proof that everything they touch recently is turning to gold... they are 'Young Kingz' after all... All hail Krept and Konan!

Get your copy today from iTunes.

Krept & Konan 'Don't Waste My Time':