Rival - Party Rings [Review]

Rival is currently one of the most consistent Grime artists in the scene right now; hailing from east London - he’s dropped about ten releases since arriving in the scene in 2010 with fellow Grime MC Marger.

As one of the Grime scenes ‘new wave artists‘, Rival was involved in the most recent instalment of the legendary Lord of the Mic’s where he faced the well seasoned OG;z member Desperado.

‘Party Rings’ is an 11 track free download consisting of 5 features including fellow Lord of the Mic’s 3 representative and former Fire Camp member Clipson, Grime veteran Sharky Major, Doller Da Dustman and a few others. All of the songs on the EP are original apart from the ‘I’m On One Freestyle.’

Late 2011 Rival dropped ‘Lord Rivz’ of which can be downloaded on iTunes - it was well received and had some of the Grime MC’s best work including ‘Just A Dream’ featuring Dot Rotten, ‘Save Me’ featuring Ghetts and ‘Plan A’ featuring Lioness. ‘Lord Rivz’ contained a healthy spread of established artists featured on it, expanding the east London artist’s fan base rapidly.

‘Party Rings’ begins with a song called ‘Charlie Sheen’ where Rival talks about the music scene at the present and his ‘winning’ mind state. The second track is a Grime banger produced by G Tank and featuring Clipson where both ‘spitter’ dismantle the track with heavyweight lyricism and flows.

The EP is very well rounded - with a mix of UK Hiphop tracks as well as Grime and Dubstep songs also. To add to that ’Party Rings’ is also well balanced with both hype/up tempo songs and more mellow/chill out music to appeal to all types of moods.

Rival displays his versatility and musical abilities as he sings and or raps most of the choruses on his EP and changes up his flows and style for each individual track.

Tracks to look out for are as follows:

Grime Killers Feat. Clipson

Light Work

Music Is My Life

Different Breed Feat. Sharky Major

Enemies                       

Make Sure You’re Ready Feat. Doller Da Dustman

When Will This All End

Overall the only negative criticism I can remotely think of after listening to this release 3 or 4 times already - is that Rival doesn’t seem to change his tone of voice or the way he says words within verses enough, which isn’t really a major issue and one He will develop on with time,Other than that Rival once again shows why He is a Leader of the New School.

9/10

Click here to download - Rival - Party Rings EP

Be sure to look out for more reviews from Tevyn J and be sure to follow @TheRealTevynJ on Twitter.