D-Block Europe: Rolling Stone review – melodic, codeine-paced palliatives | Rap

Prada, a gimmicky but effective dance remix of D-Block Europe’s Ferrari Horses, has bounced around the Top 10 since last summer. It’s a show of the south London duo’s confidence in their status as the most successful UK rap group ever (nine Top 20 albums or mixtapes and 28 Top 40 singles in just five years) that Prada is neither copied nor included on Rolling Stone. Instead, tracks such as Eagle, Lady in Hermes and I Need It Now reassert their predilection for spare, almost soporific numbness, with more gleaming melodies a minute than many rappers manage in a lifetime.

But the pair’s lyrics are often uninspiring. Young Adz and Dirtbike LB have spoken and rapped eloquently in the past about the horrors of trap life, their unstable mental health and therapy’s consolations, yet interventions here rarely extend beyond sex and shopping (for weed or Louis V bags, usually both). Sometimes Adz’s ever-present AutoTune makes his rapping (“vibrator at home, it’s been a long day”, he encourages tremulously on Bando Aiko) sound like being importuned by a dying robot. Still, once you’re addicted to their codeine-paced palliatives, Rolling Stone offers its own therapy via an unexpectedly comforting listen.

Prada, a gimmicky but effective dance remix of D-Block Europe’s Ferrari Horses, has bounced around the Top 10 since last summer. It’s a show of the south London duo’s confidence in their status as the most successful UK rap group ever (nine Top 20 albums or mixtapes and 28 Top 40 singles in just five years) that Prada is neither copied nor included on Rolling Stone. Instead, tracks such as Eagle, Lady in Hermes and I Need It Now reassert their predilection for spare, almost soporific numbness, with more gleaming melodies a minute than many rappers manage in a lifetime.

But the pair’s lyrics are often uninspiring. Young Adz and Dirtbike LB have spoken and rapped eloquently in the past about the horrors of trap life, their unstable mental health and therapy’s consolations, yet interventions here rarely extend beyond sex and shopping (for weed or Louis V bags, usually both). Sometimes Adz’s ever-present AutoTune makes his rapping (“vibrator at home, it’s been a long day”, he encourages tremulously on Bando Aiko) sound like being importuned by a dying robot. Still, once you’re addicted to their codeine-paced palliatives, Rolling Stone offers its own therapy via an unexpectedly comforting listen.