Yorkshire Terrierz, for those that don’t know (shame, shame!) are a hip-hop crew out of Chapeltown, Leeds (CPT) consisting of producer Menza and MCs Low-Key, Dogge and Dirty. Since the release of this album, vocalist Rachel (Rae-Rae) has also become an official part of the crew.
Blended In West Yorkshire is their debut album, available right here or on iTunes for dirt-cheap-pounds-stirling. Shit, I paid for my review copy and everything and you know how tight I am like that 
The Leeds underground scene seems to have a lot of love for the Terrierz crew and having heard “What’s Ya Life Like?”, the lead single from their forthcoming second album, I was keen to go back and see what all the fuss was about.
This isn’t an instantly accessible collection of tunes – it’s rough-edged, hardcore LS7 hip-hop all the way. Darkness, anger and agression are to the fore from the start and over the course of the first half of the album these tendencies threaten to become overwhelming. The sound, both in terms of Menza’s beats and the MCs’ flows, often invites close and favourable comparison with the Wu-Tang, but where the first Wu album lightened the mood almost immediately with the horn-driven “Shame on A N***a”, it is not until the 10th track “The Truth” that the mood lifts.
From this point on, the true range and creativity of the Terrierz becomes apparent. As a crew, they are astonishing when at their best. All the tracks on the album (bar the Depps effort “No Tears”) are produced by Menza and yet the production style through the second half of the album is consistently varied. Equally, despite several cameos by Weeksie, Kockee K and other stars of the CPT rap circuit, the album belongs firmly to Lowkey, Dogge and Dirty.
The time-honoured themes of street-rap are all trotted out here – struggle, conflict, loyalty and betrayal, sexual conquests and boasts, depression and heartbreak – but each MC manages to turn in verses which stamp their identity on familiar subject matter. Lowkey in particular oozes charm and personality over everything he touches, even when talking about nothing more than getting pissed and rowdy, fighting and shagging ugly birds.
There’s still work to be done here but this is a more-than-decent slice of UK hip-hop and I’d say “Nowt Taken Out” has the potential to be very good indeed. You can see the video for “What’s Ya Life Like” at myspace.com/yorkshireterrierz and below is some footage of the Terrierz performing at Urban Mondays.
Analogue
Some Other Posts You May Enjoy:
