Freedom of Speech (Speech Debelle album)

Last updated
Freedom of Speech
Freedomspeechalbum.jpg
Studio album by
Released13 Feb 2012
Recorded London, UK
Genre Hip Hop
Length53:02
Label Big Dada
BD193
Producer Kwes.
Speech Debelle chronology
Speech Therapy
(2009)
Freedom of Speech
(2012)
Singles from Freedom of Speech
  1. "Studio Backpack Rap"
    Released: 9 November 2011
  2. "I'm With It"
    Released: 20 February 2012
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 62/100 [1]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]
MTV Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [3]

Freedom of Speech is the second album by British rapper Speech Debelle. The record was recorded in London, United Kingdom and produced entirely by Kwes. [4] It was her second album release on Big Dada Recordings.

Speech Debelle British rapper

Corynne Elliot, better known as Speech Debelle, is a British rapper signed to the Big Dada record label. She was the winner of the 2009 Mercury Prize for her debut album Speech Therapy. She released her second album, Freedom of Speech in 2012 and her third album, tantil before i breathe in 2017.

Contents

Reception

At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Freedom of Speech received an average score of 62% based on 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [1]

Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games, and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged. Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts in 1999. The site provides an excerpt from each review and hyperlinks to its source. A color of green, yellow or red summarizes the critics' recommendations. It is regarded as the foremost online review aggregation site for the video game industry.

The album prompted Trebuchet Magazine to describe Debelle as 'a fiery, if naïve, seeker of justice and truth', and said "she has a cracked lusciousness to her voice that strongly recalls Martina Topley-Bird's most meltingly sexy moments on Tricky's Maxinquaye ." [5]

Martina Topley-Bird English vocalist and songwriter

Martina Gillian Topley-Bird is an English vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who first gained fame as the featured female vocalist on trip hop pioneer Tricky's debut album, Maxinquaye (1995). She also worked with him on his subsequent albums Nearly God and Pre-Millennium Tension. In 2003, Topley-Bird released her debut solo album, Quixotic, which was critically praised and earned her a Mercury Prize nomination.

Tricky (musician) British rapper and record producer

Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws, better known by his stage name Tricky, is an English record producer, rapper and actor. Born and raised in Bristol, he began his career as an early collaborator of Massive Attack before embarking on a solo career with his debut album, Maxinquaye, in 1995. The release won Tricky popular acclaim and marked the beginning of a lengthy collaborative partnership with vocalist Martina Topley-Bird. He released four more studio albums before the end of the decade, including Pre-Millennium Tension and the pseudonymous Nearly God, both in 1996. He has gone on to release eight studio albums since 2000, most recently Ununiform (2017).

<i>Maxinquaye</i> 1995 studio album by Tricky

Maxinquaye is the debut album by English rapper and producer Tricky. It was released on 20 February 1995 by 4th & B'way Records.

MTV gave the album 5/5 stars, and said, "What makes this a truly great hip hop album is that her words, piling up on one another, take on the quality of incantations — and that those incantations take on a life of their own." [6] According to AllMusic in a review, "Speech Debelle is now the most interesting and possibly the most exciting British MC on the scene." [7]

MTV American pay television channel

MTV is an American pay television channel launched on August 1, 1981 based in New York City that serves as the flagship property of the Viacom Media Networks division of Viacom headquartered in New York City.

AllMusic Online music database

AllMusic is an online music database. It catalogs more than 3 million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musical artists and bands. It launched in 1991, predating the World Wide Web. As of 2015, AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne.

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Studio Backpack Rap"Elliot, C; Sey, KwesiKwes.4:01
2."Live for the Message"Elliot, C; Sey. K; McKoy, JKwes.3:51
3."Blaze Up a Fire" (featuring Roots Manuva and Realism)Elliot, C; Richards, D; Sey, K; Smith, RKwes.4:19
4."Elephant in the Living Room"Elliot, C; Ryan, L; Sey, KKwes.4:02
5."X Marks The Spot"Elliot, C; O' Fathaigh, CKwes.3:49
6."Angel Wings"Elliot, C; O' Fathaigh, CKwes.3:29
7."Shawshank Redemption"Elliot, C; Sey, KKwes.4:23
8."I'm With It"Elliot, C; White, F Kwes.3:43
9."The Problem"Elliot, C; Sey, K; Wynter, LKwes.4:15
10."Collapse"Elliot, C; Sey, KKwes.5:04
11."Eagle Eye" (featuring Realism)Elliot, C; Richards, D; Sey, KKwes.4:53
12."Sun Dog"Elliot, C; Sey, KKwes.7:13

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References

  1. 1 2 "Freedom of Speech by Speech Debelle". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved 22 January 2017.
  2. AllMusic
  3. MTV