Peckham born and UK rap legend, Giggs, is back with a brand new, out of the goddamn blue project in Now or Never. There was absolutely no lead up, promo, or suggestion that Giggs had a new project on the way, so to call it a surprise release is an understatement. It acts as the follow-up to last year’s Big Bad.
Stylistically, we see Giggs move away from the experimentation we saw on Big Bad, which mainly consisted of him decided to flex the vocals and sing a bit. Admittedly, I don’t think it worked too well, but expanding your range artistically is always admirable. So here, we get a full length project of Giggs at his Giggsiest. We get solid, thumping instrumentals that act as the perfect platform for Giggs’ unique brand of rapping. It’s deliberate, blunt, dark, violent, and humorous as hell all at the same time. It isn’t a lie to say nobody else that raps like Giggs, and it makes sense as to why he’s carved out such a well defined lane in the music game.
His voice has always been his greatest asset. His bass heavy, imposing, yet breathy inflection may take some getting used to, but I have always been a fan of it. This makes his blunt, straightforward wordplay all the more effective.
Over a skittering, piano laden beat, Giggs kicks the album off with a bang on the title track, “Now or Never.” Much of the track features a much less choppy and deliberate flow than many of his other tracks. His wordplay is sharp as he raps, “40 caliber, had that 40 cal in my hand/ 40 caliber, I’m the 40 caliber man/ Challengers, get your peanut butter and jam/ N***** eatin’ here, whatch how I’ma cut up the lamb.” It’s classic Giggs as he increases the intensity, emphasizing the last few words of the bar. His confidence and legitimate boss level status shine through in pretty much every track here, but it’s never more obvious than when he explains that he “trample[s] lions and kick[s] cobras.” Even the most dangerous members of the animal kingdom know not to try Giggs.
“All Spinach” continues that same line of thinking, as we see Giggs compare himself to big dog that keeps the pressure on puppies beneath him, and runs with a gang of leopards. “Buff Baddies,” at least based on it’s title, felt like it would be a track for the ladies. Yet we have Giggs sticking to his confrontation guns with, “You can diss Hollowman at your discretion/ He gon’ learn from that shit/ But that’s his lesson/ You can’t diss Peckham.” Yet, with all that tough talk, he gives a classic, hilarious Giggs line right after with, “In the hood, n***** ain’t growing up/ Neverland, bunch of Peter Pans. It’s lines like this that almost make you take Giggs’ status in the streets for granted, but that’s also the wonderful thing about his music.
“Debonair” features a downright luxurious sounding instrumental, which allows Giggs to calmly recount the ups and downs of his life to this point. “100 Reps” with Kyze has a beat that sounds like it’s being played through Windows Media Player circa 2005 on an awful wifi connection. And yet, it works, and stands out because of how it off kilter it is. “Changed Me” with A Boogie wit da Hoodie goes over much better than I would have expected. Giggs has a history of meshing well with American or North American artists like Young Thug and Drake, but A Boogie’s emotive, transcendent chorus acts as a great compliment to Giggs’ style. On paper it might not make sense, but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s also funny to hear Giggs’ compare his enemies to Mickey Mouse and little children playing in the ball pit. Only Giggs, man.
“Branch Out” has another standout instrumental. It has a distorted, electronic passage that sounds like a play on the typical flute beat, but from a different planet. There are some natural drum patterns popping up here and there, and the bassline feels like it was played on a stand-up bass that’s been modified to feature inhuman levels of sub-bass. Giggs yelling, “I’m 28 grams, bitch you half ounce,” pretty much sums up the level he knows he has been at for most of his career. “Everybody Dead” features a nice patios heavy performance from Demarco, complete with a slick bassline and hints of Jamaican inspired guitar riffs. The features Giggs employs on tracks like these constantly keep the sound and energy fresh and lively throughout.
“Don’t Be Shy” features singer Obgonjayar at his most club ready. This is one that just transports you to a packed, dark and sweaty UK club. Giggs talks about having so many women, that they literally hang off of the back of him. “Caroline, Carolynn/ Megan and meddling Madeleine/ Hattie got hit with that javelin,” he raps, finding the pocket of the beat with ease.
“I’m Workin'” with the immensely talented Jorja Smith sees Giggs at the most composed, yet emotionally low. He describes being alone, despite his understood GOAT status. Smith’s chorus reiterates this, addressing the shit talk that goes down online, with those people ignorant to the immense amount of work they put in. In addition to addressing those keyboard warriors, Jorja shines light that the hate can come within your own circle too. “The snakes giving out the biggest hugs are poisonous, too/ I choke you on your words and spin them on my next record, boo,” she sings, finishing the chorus of with more scathing words: “It’s eye for an eye, I swear to God, I thought that you knew/ This last supper had me hanging out with Judas and crew/ At least they said the thank yous when I paid for the bill.”
“Krash” is Giggs at this darkest and most deliberate in his delivery. The fuzzy banger of a beat fits his extremely breathy cadence to a tee. He does have a bit of a howler though, when he says “It’s broke, don’t try and fix it/ That’s right, this rap’s autistic.” Not exactly sure why he needed to imply that people with autism are “broken.” It just felt completely unnecessary to me and extremely tone deaf, in all honestly. People with autism are not lesser, and it’s kind of shocking that still needs to be said in 2020. COME ON, GIGGS.
Speaking of questionable lines and topics, a bar on the track “No Back Bone” with Aystar and Tiny Boost needs to be addressed as well. It’s a shame too, because the final verse of the track is one of Giggs’ tightest on the whole project, but gets tarnished with one awful, awful decision. Right near the end of the song, Giggs raps, “Who’s these little ——- that they like endorsing?” Now, Genius has it recorded that he was saying “fuckers,” but it was completely cut out. Keep in mind, Giggs says “fuck” quite often, and uses the word “pussy” just two lines later. It wouldn’t make any sense to censor out the word if it was “fuckers.” He’s never shied away from being vulgar in the past.
You can also clearly hear the begging of an “f,” and with how the syllables of the censored section would work out, that makes me believe it could only be one word; That being a disgusting homophobic slur that has no business being in anyone’s vocabulary. This reminds me of the idiotic choice Lil Yachty made on the 2018 track “We Outta Here,” when he decided to rap “Your man is a maggot/ Probably is a ****,” even including the “beep beep” to leave no doubt what he meant. Coming from a guy who has supported the LBGTQ+ community in the past, that was just fucking mind boggling.
In both Yachty’s and Giggs’ cases, why would you even include those lines? In some weird way, it’s almost worse than just saying the slur. Censoring it out brings even more attention to it, and makes it seem like the thought process was something like, “Well, I know people will get pissed if I say it, so I can’t, but I still want it in the track, so just censor it out.” It shows that you aren’t just ignorant, but you’re aware of how badly it would be received, and yet still didn’t feel the need to just avoid it all together. What the hell is the point of that? Is it that hard to re-write a line so it isn’t relying on a horrible slur?
Of course homophobia in rap isn’t anything knew. One of my favorite rappers of all time, Big L, was known to use “that” word time and time again. At the same time, that was in the 90s when people were even more insensitive to the struggles of anyone who doesn’t identify as a straight man or woman. That doesn’t serve as an excuse, and it’s something that all listeners, including myself, need to reckon with in some sense. But still, as a sentiment that should have always been unacceptable and frowned upon, it’s especially confounding in 2020.
“Man Are Outside” sees Giggs shy away from any questionable autism and homophobic bars, instead comparing his style to classic gaming systems SNES and Sega. This is fitting, since these days, people may think his style is a bit antiquated, as it hasn’t evolved a ton. But there’s nothing wrong with going back and enjoying something classic and familiar.
“Straight Murder” with the unfathomably talented MC Dave is a huge highlight in the track list. It is almost five and half minutes, with no chorus; Just bar after bar from Dave and Giggs. Dave is the most talented lyricist in the UK by a fucking mile, and would rap circles around most artists in the US too. Part of me wants to break down every single line, because it is so reference heavy, and full of multiple meanings, but we’d be here for ages. He mentions Liverpool’s surprise corner kick against Barcelona in last year’s Champion’s League Final, Dragonball Z and compares himself to Tom Hardy and his enemies to Mice, who he treats like George and Lennie from Of Mice and Men. That’s just in the first half of his long verse too.
All of this seemingly forces Giggs to step his game up a little bit, as he brings some more energy, upping the ante in terms of everything you normally get with a Giggs verse. References to Mickey Mouse, Yogi Bear, legendary footballer Alan Shearer, and a sexy girl named Muriel are all here. I laugh to myself every time I hear Giggs say, “Fuck bad news, quick, shoot the bearer,” as if that would make the bad news any less true. Giggs referring to Dave as “David” feels like a flex in itself, as well.
“Hoochies” fits into the mold of a lot of the mid-tempo bangers that came before. It has a dark and tense instrumental, that almost feels like a movie score, which makes it’s placement on the tape defendable. It’s another track where I expected Giggs to talk a little too much about sex, but it’s mostly full of the flexing and boasting we have come to expect.
Album closer “It’s Hard,” assisted by Emili Sande, finds Giggs back in a contemplative state. However, he isn’t just talking about how hard life has been for himself. This track addresses the Black experience in a racist, disgusting world. Giggs’ blunt, and straightforward style works great with this subject matter, since instead of seeming to lack nuance in the way of utilizing deep metaphors, he gets right to the point, not mincing any words.
The sweetly sung chorus asks the question that has been at the forefront of everyone’s mind: “Why is it such a crime being brownskin?” The Black community throughout the UK are no strangers to a similar strain of racism and brutality that plagues the US and much of the world at large.
As a Black person in the UK that means being pulled over and strip searched because police found Vaseline in your car, so that means you have to be hiding drugs in your rectum, ignoring the fact that such a search was strictly motivated by racial profiling. Or maybe that means you get stopped and asked to provide identification because you were DRIVING YOUR CAR ON THE ROAD. Ya know, the fucking thing you do with cars? And then the cops stand there and laugh when they get called out for profiling you. The examples are endless. This is a world-wide sickness, and the BLM movement has picked up greatly in the UK as well, not just as a sign of solidarity in a post-George Floyd America, but because that disease we call racism is alive and well across the pond.
Giggs mentions the constant suffering that he and his people have endured, and how in these dark days of Covid, he’s equally socially distant as he is emotionally distant. He shares his “fears that another black man’s gonna disappear,” and then shares a string of lines that get to the heart of how he’s feeling:
“Goldilocks just broke in, bet they kill a bear/ And that’s where we’re at/ Now that’s where we’ve been, that’s still the facts/ That’s why we’ll never wear your hat/ It’s weird because they’re scared of black/ Scared for the brothers/ Scared for the mothers/ Fears gettin’ smothered/ Tea’s in the kitchen/ Dreams in the rubbish/ Fears in the cubboard.”
This is a pain that he feels deep, and he also goes on to stress unity within the Black community as well. While there is bickering and arguing over the worth of various shades of Black skin, Giggs observes that they’re all still being subjected to levels of hate and prejudice that simply shouldn’t exist. He finishes this emotional verse of with another necessary, but bitter dose of reality by letting the world know, “It’s pitiful times and it’s critical/ Political guys turn invisible.” It’s the same people who make promise after promise to change things, and yet, when the time to act and make a difference comes, they tuck their tails and hide.
Ending on a somber and impactful note was a good way to tie the project up. It leaves you with meaningful, heavy thoughts, which is not what you would always expect after completing a Giggs album.
Giggs dropped a surprise album which included all of his best qualities. Barring two baffling, head spinning decisions, those being the autism bar and use of the slur on “No Back Bone,” much of this album was Giggs at his best. He continued to utilize features in a perfect manner, switching the styles up, but never letting the track slip away into another artists sound or territory. The production fits a theme, but there are enough subtle choices and differences that set each instrumental apart from the pack. This album is unabashedly Giggs, shining light on his wordplay, delivery, humor and in those unfortunate cases, his ignorance as well.