B-NASTY – The End Of The Beginning (Album Review), 11/07/07

Hip Hop in WA has a varied flavour with a solid base, and rapper B-Nasty has announced his arrival with his debut album, The End Of The Beginning. Sure, Perth’s musical bloodlines may have indie, and psych-rock pumping through its veins but that the doesn’t mean that other genres aren’t back in the lab building on their own sound.

It’s a hefty offering coming in at 17 tracks which seems intent on showing who is B-Nasty is but in actuality reveals more about his influences. From opening trap inspired Stunt Like Me, Ambition to Top Floor you clearly hear the bravado of a young man who is not only proud of where he has come from but also quite assured where he’s going – straight to the top.

The beats on this album are fresh in that DJ Khaled way, yet maybe too fresh as at times it came off verging on the clinical. Fresh and No Time, are the intended party jams and prove to be solid joints with B-Nasty delivering a flow that harks back to his freestyler days, and with him deep in the track, his style calls would have benefited from a rougher sound, perhaps with bassier drum patterns.

Collabs are also ever present almost on every track from Breezy, Universal, Gerald Walker, and Dave Wave. There are also a number of producers lending their flavour adding to that sense of the fam without being overbearing which other hip hop artists fall victim to.

Whilst there are lot of usual themes of; being better than anyone in the game and partying up in the clubs, it’s the last third of the album that gives the most interest as B-Nasty drops the bragging to reveal a man who can be contemplative and who has something real to say. This is where hip hop will always shines its truth, and How Long and On One works because it stays after the last beat plays out.

You get the sense it’s been a long road for B-Nasty but the journey isn’t over just yet. He’s offered up an album that he should be proud of because it shows that he’s on his way. Whilst it could been much tighter with less tracks, overall The End Of The Beginning’s slick production and clear flow creates flashes of fire on an purposeful album.