"Up to date / state of the art / take part, get taken apart as I make my mark"
Welcome to the South Easy
Mumdance ft/ Novelist – Take Time
Novelist
Novelist is a 17 year old grime emcee from Lewisham. He does the vocal on ‘Take Time‘, the lead track from Mumdance’s new EP of the same name on Rinse. I was going to apologise for not knowing his background then I searched and figured out that’s cos right now there isn’t a whole lot of it. What do you need to know? His voice sounds great over rat-a-tat-tat gunfire and the sound of explosions. Skepta is a fan but first line that jump out to me here was one that reminded me of Skepta’s brother JME, ‘don’t roll zoots but I might have a drink‘. What was it JME used to say? ‘Have a drink but I don’t blaze‘. Novelist exudes the same kind of sensible cool. There’s a really interesting interview with him over at RBMA where he pays tribute to JME (‘he spoke sense’) as well as veterans P Money, Dizzee and Jammer. It’s the tribute to Jammer which makes me most optimistic about Novelist’s future in the entertainment business, though: ‘Forget what he’s actually saying. I just like his hat and his character.’ Not that Novelist is someone who doesn’t care about lyrical content, the rest of the interview makes it pretty clear that’s a priority for him too, but that he’s broadminded enough to realise that’s only one part of the whole package.
"Up to date / state of the art / take part, get taken apart as I make my mark" 