REVIEW | D-TAIL (@DTailspits) RELEASES 'HAPPY ACCIDENT'

The least we can say is that D.Tail has been productive for the last 2 years. After “Message in a Bottle”, “U Can’t Say That” and “U Can’t Do That”, the east London emcee is launching a new project : Happy Accident.

In a couple of years, the rapper became an important figure of the Underground Hip Hop scene. Always with his producer, Turkish Dcypha, D.Tail offers an EP in line with his previous one : punchy, smart and positive.

The whole album is like a journey. First let’s wake up with “Wow”, a kicking song produced by Marley D (who is present on 4 songs on the album). A nice way to get into the swing of things.

We stay on the same idea with the next 2 tracks. We could see them as the D.Tail’s childhood and influences. “9000” refers to the manga Dragon Ball Z while the emcee starts “Mahogany” by speaking in Japanese. The prods are light and melodic to enforce it. An interesting way to feel in confidence right from the beginning.

But as always in life, here come the troubles. It’s now time to face the world with “Misunderstood”. Here the rapper tries to dialogue with a stubborn and aggressive man who can be interpreted as our society. The emcee comes up to serious and inherent issues like racism or feminism.

That’s how the Happy Accident comes out of it. Here the struggle is not anymore with the environment but with himself. It’s a profound and introspective track where the artist is referring to mix feelings and how he is trying to deal with it. Instead of being destructor, this moment of doubt reveals to be positive for him. It’s this deep positivity that the artist is bringing in his album.

It is like a regeneration. From this point, the tracks are more ego-oriented and based on punchlines with for instance the freestyle “Is Anyone There”, “I Got Bars” or “Natural Selection”.

The rest of the journey is well balanced between boom bap and jazzy beats with D.Tail striking flow.

Worth noting the only one but efficient sang chorus on “He Say She Say” with Jayde.

We can really feel that D.Tail is completely free in his music. He doesn’t hesitate to vary his flow following the beats. He is also well helped by the great prods from Turkish, Marley D and Herna Vim. It’s interesting to notice how different is the D.Tail music from the rest of the UK scene. We could sometimes get really confused with the New York scene. Some of the prods reminds hugely the Harry Fraud ones. Thus, we are quite far from the current hyped Grime scene.

This overview is confirmed by the last and excellent track of the album, “The Cypha”, where US emcees like Joell Ortiz and Ras Kass are collaborating with Awate and Leaf Dog from the UK.

A very nice way to close the project and to reinforce this influence.

With this project, D.Tail confirms all our expectations about him. We can feel the artist is more confident in his art and the direction he wants to take. This album is as unexpected as enjoyable. Like a Happy Accident.

Have listen to Happy Accident yourself on November 2^nd 2018.

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Timothée Chataux

Coming from Paris and interested in French & US Hip Hop topics. I’m writting about any relevant subjects for I am Hip Hop magazine. You only know MC Solaar ? My mission is to show you many more.