Peckham… home of the African Caribbean community in London. Filled with culture, good vibes – and now gentrification. But before the Costas and Prets; there was the likes of rapper Giggs, his crew SN1 and his gang OPB. They set the foundation for future artists. Like rising drill artist, Kwengface, part of the Young Peckham Boys. Today he releases the third of the trilogy of his mixtape series, The Memoir. With the first two tapes in the series, Kwengface sounded much more raw, but with this latest project, there is much more of a refined sound – with definite attention paid towards the mainstream.
He starts of the tape perfectly, bringing in the OG of his ends, Giggs. They ended up shooting the video under the famous bridge where the latter’s single ‘Talkin Da Hardest’ was shot.
Even though Kwengface is from the “hard drill” world, The Memoir features a wide variety of artists, including trap star Lancey Foux, who brings a much more experimental vibe to the mixtape with his shrill, auto-tuned sonics; R&B singer Sha Simone, adding a sultry note on her appearance, plus Croydon superstar SL who actually grew up on the same road as Kwengface and is known for his laidback rap style, along with the rest of his Zone 2 crew. This wide-ranging feature list reflects Kwengface’s ambitious video shoots, which sees him shooting a clean-cut visual in the infamous Icelandic hot springs for first single ‘Ben10’ (a track which makes reference to the legendary Cartoon Network show).
In terms of the sound, the cold mountains of Iceland reflect the sonics well. Kwengface draws on chilly melodies, hard-hitting 808s and luscious mids on the majority of tracks, all backed by heavy afro drum patterns.
Overall, the tape serves the title well as a memoir into Kwengface’s life – showing us the good, the bad and the ugly. From the streets of Peckham, to holidays in his home country of Ghana, Kwengface lives a wild life. But the great thing here is that he takes us on a birds eye view of this rollercoaster journey throughout the project. I feel like with this effort, he’s put the perfect full stop to his Peckham Young Boy trilogy.
