MYSTRO “MYSTROGEN” ALBUM REVIEW BY DIALECTRIX

If you’re a self confessed fan of international Hip Hop or in particular Hip Hop artists from the UK you are in a lot of trouble if you haven’t heard of Mystro and even if you use the excuse that you don’t check for international stuff and that your tastes are more localised you once again must hang your head in shame.

Mysdiggi has been spoon feeding his motherloving fans with steady releases and a multitude of colabs spanning thickly beyond the last decade including the likes of pretty much anyone who was slightly buzzing here on his Australian ‘tourist’ like album “Diggi Down Unda” not to mention collaborating with two platinum selling Australian groups (Hilltop Hoods and Bliss N Eso) so it seems strange to a degree to call “Msytrogen” Mystro’s debut LP.

Mystro shouldn’t need an introduction and those who are familiar with his work will be aquainted with the cheeky, Cockney charisma that goes hand in hand with a Mystro release. I love how he has stuck rigidly, almost like a form of religion, to include humour and light heartedness in his music. It’s very rare that skits on an album work for me there are few artists who pull them off in a way that I’m not searching immediately for the skip button. Mys not only pulls them off, and really well on “Mystrogen” but he uses his skits and adlibs to shape and help the album flow.

As younger generations pay less attention to listening to whole albums and focus almost exclusively on singles its always good to hear a conscious effort of giving an album more of a linear sequence of songs as the artist intends them to be heard. Mys also shapes songs around concepts without making it blatantly obvious what each song is about theres a subtlety in that that I think is pretty important. Rap can seem at times like its meaningless-rappidy raps or conversely some one who is using the strength of relating to a topic to carry a listeners attention Mys does neither. Every track and rap on “Mystrogen” is topical to some degree yet seems ridiculously effortless and natural this is what gives Mys his strongest attribute. Every rap hook and track has been executed perfectly with a dense layer of things happening but your brain is never exhausted trying to break down all of these intricacies. It’s like when a Buddhist monk handstands his entire weight on two fingers and barely breaks a sweat in comparison to a weightlifter busting his poop shoot lifting a bar in the Olympics both are extraordinary but it’s far more graceful and easier on the mind to see someone tackle difficulty with ease and Mystro does this to the point that many might miss some of the depth to his artistry.

A large chuck of his content is devoted to songs about women highlighting the pros and cons of promiscuity. Most of them seem to be clustered together like a 3 part story in a series. The highlight of these being “Hooked” with its fast BPM sprouting rhymes patterns that at times remind me of Percee P or Organized Konfusion while admitting candidly how he wishes to have all three women that each verse is devoted too. Mys has an ability to sum up stories concisely and he often does so in a way that two of his lines could express something that would take some one else a whole verse like on “You Ain’t Right” “So those words you can’t seem to find better turn up soon I can’t read your mind” its lines like these that seem to hit the nail on the head without having to say too much.

Growing up in Australia and having a love of puns (and being a massive fan of Austen Tayshus’s “Australiana” stand up skit I was pretty impressed with “Mystentatious”. Telling a story of street antics laden with puns for British towns and cities. Its split amongst two tracks with Mr Thing providing the cuts to a creative and sly concept. (Damn you someone from here should have done that first! “Worry Dem” featuring Junior Reid is the stand out highlight of the album. The drums smack and Reid destroys the hook with Mys covering a broader more conscious range of themes all and all the track is straght fire!

As a whole “Mystrogen” is a meticulous effort by the man himself over a plethora of smacking beats and soothing sung chorus’s. Mys’s clever and rapid lyricism on “Mystrogen” at times hold the kinetic energy that Big Pun would evoke or bring a larikkin tongue and cheekiness akin to the likes of artists like Redman amongst vivid story lines which litter the entire release. “Mystrogen” is like a hearty staple for any Hip Hop diet buy and consume now in pill form.

Dialectrix is a revered and prolific Hip Hop lyricist hailing from Sydney who is signed to the legendary Hip Hop label Obese Records. Watch out for a new release from him early next year

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