Album Review: Tinie Tempah – Demonstration

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Anoosh Djavaheri reviews as Tinie Tempah attempts to replicate his début success, perhaps too closely

Monday 11 November 2013

Since before 2012, Tinie Tempah has asserted himself as one of, if not the most radio-friendly hip-hop slash grime artist in the UK. So when he announced his second album Demonstration, what were we to expect? After the commercial success of his début album Disc-Overy, which reached 2x Platinum in the UK, he was more than universally known name within the UK scene, beginning to intrude on America. Mainly known for his phenomenally popular singles ‘Miami 2 Ibiza’, ‘Pass Out’, and ‘Frisky’, Tinie Tempah is undeniably a household name to most mediocre clubs. However, as a grime artist, is this really an appealing quality? Sure, one could argue that success is a major factor, but does this longing for radio acceptability belittle Tinie’s musical integrity and roots?

Announced as early as December 2010, Demonstration seemingly suffered from numerous delays. However, in August 2013, Tinie’s first single was released – ‘Trampoline’ featuring Atlanta-born Rapper 2 Chainz, which peaked at number 3 in the UK Singles Chart. With production by American producer Diplo, this record was the epitome of trap music, clearly aimed at the EDM scene. Although the lyrical qualities in this song rather lack intensity, much like the majority of Tinie’s songs, this doesn’t really matter. Tinie was never known for being a super-lyrical rapper, moreover a humorous one, full of puns and jokes.

The second single was ‘Children of the Sun’ featuring Swedish singer-songwriter John Martin. Premiered in September 2013 on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show, the song was a clearly geared towards getting maximum radio time, immediatly reaching number 6 in the UK Singles Chart. With a catchy chorus, the powerful synth provides a suitable counter-part for Martin’s melodic voice. Tinie’s verses are accompanied by a simplistic beat, with a soft synth undertone.

Tinie clearly opted for a wide array of sounds in this release, ranging from trap to rock to dance. Often lacking in enjoyable production, Tinie does make up for this with a strong delivery on every song, and a consistent flow – no one doubts his rapping ability, simply the choice of instrumental. The song ‘Mosh Pit’ http://nouse.co.uk/2013/11/11/album-review-tinie-tempah-demonstration Archived 11 Dec 2018 06:54:30 Nouse Web Archives Album Review: Tinie Tempah – Demonstration Page 2 of 3 features fellow London-born rapper and veteran in the grime scene Dizzee Rascal. The track revolves around a hard beat, infused with dubstep undertones, in addition to an overdone, ‘heavy drop’ – although this is probably a given when Chase and Status are producing it. Although the lyrics are, once again, not worth paying attention to, the song as a whole is catchy and enjoyable. With a more of that trap influence, the song ‘Shape’ featuring Big Sean provides a slow-paced, very ‘Americanised’ beat, accompanied by, once again, questionable lyrics. In a complete change to tempo, the song ‘Lost Ones’ featuring Paloma Faith gives the listener a very calmed, more emotional version of Tinie. With very Paloma Faith-style production, Tinie raps about a previous relationship gone wrong.

Although Tinie was never known for being a lyrical rapper, some of the sentences he spews out are just embarrassing – “Life threw me lemons, now Celebrity Juice on my sofa, and a sexy female chauffeur, and a girl that make a racket, I call her Anna Kournikova”. Forgiving this lack of lyrical ability, Tinie’s songs on this album often sound too similar, with the odd song having a completely different style all together. Overall, not a bad effort from Tinie, and nothing that we wouldn’t have expected beforehand. Both musically and lyrically it’s a natural follow on from his first album, but in no way has he progressed.

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2 comments

A douche 11 Nov ’13 at 5:23 pm

First the Eminem album and now this. Why have you gotten someone to review hip-hop albums who clearly hates hip-hop. WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME NOUSE!!!!!

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No name 13 Nov ’13 at 10:02 pm

Tinie Tempah’ lyrics suck that’s why. I agree with him. He has crap lyrics over decent beats.

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