MC DUKE - Organised Rhyme (Music Of Life 1989)

MC Duke was one of those UK rap artists that was hard to pigeonhole into a typical sound and style. He was not as blatantly commercial as Monie Love, not as hardcore and fast paced as Gunshot and not as militantly political as Black Radical – although listening to his “Organised Rhyme” album (produced by Mr Music of Life, Simon Harris) makes me think somewhat of all the aforementioned artists as there’s a little bit of everything on it.

My favourite Duke persona on this album is the afrocentric one who comes through on tracks like the funky and rough opener “Organised Rhyme”, the James Brown “Black and Proud” sample laced “Free” and one my favourite album tracks “I’m Riffin” drops some knowledge within also. In fact “I’m Riffin” is close to my top Duke track ever with Duke really sounding fresh and lively on the mic and he does “riff s**t up” on the track and his flow combined with an upper tempo rhythm track with solid drums and drumrolls plus a nice dose of DJ cuts (courtesy of DJ Leader One) makes it a sure fire winner.

Then there’s the more commercial leanings, for example “Miracles” which is Duke's take on the Jackson Sisters song 'I Believe In Miracles'. It’s not a bad song actually and Duke sounds pretty raw on the mic with some nice cuts sampling Chuck D and others throughout the track but I just can’t help thinking of a similarity between this and that damn annoying S-Express track when hearing this song. Keeping things pretty lightweight are “For The Girls” and “Throw Your Hands in the Air” which both have New Jack Swing touches to them and sound like they could’ve been Teddy Riley tracks produced for Heavy D (with Guy samples thrown in) and haven’t aged too well at all but are pretty typical of what was popular then. They are certainly far more tolerable than the Blingy's and Chingy's of today.

There's a few of middle of the road tracks here too that aren't particularly memorable such as "We Go to Work" (with some BAD singing in the break), "Gotta Get Your Own" and "The Alternative Argument". None of which are wack or terrible but just don't have much replay value.

On a more positive note, he brings us a couple true old school styles towards the end of the album (in the form of bonus tracks on the CD version of the album). “I Don’t Care Anymore” uses the Spoonie G “You Ain’t a Fool …” beat and funky, funky, funky bassline to great effect and presents us with a nice, simple stripped back track which is really addictive. Totally different yet also sounding like it’s from the mid 80's (well coz it is) is “Jus Dis” which is full of programmed 808 style beats and UTFO style DJ stabs. It was originally released in 1987 and Duke suits that style pretty well. “There ain’t no law there’s only just dis”.

As i mentioned earlier there's quite a variety of styles within the tracks here but nothing too extreme in one direction or the other and they do all sound like Duke tracks (maybe that's only coz i've owned this album for close enough to 18 years and know it too well). If i was going to compare him to anyone from the same era it would be Derek B but there are some differences between them. Vocally and lyrically he probably wouldn't make many people's all time greats list but in my books he had the voice and skills to simply get the job done well which was more than enough with musical accompaniment like "I'm Riffin" and "Free". Not a wonderful album overall but it's been in my collection for some time so it is nonetheless significant in my little collection of UK hip hop history.