From the first track and title track you just know that this album is something for real hip-hop heads. Based in Wolverhampton City in the Midlands, Pact Prolific is one half of Lost Alliance who you may remember from their album ‘Life Cycle’ and mixtape ‘Dare 2 Win’. Their style is straight-up head-nodding boom bap with an ode to the golden era of rap, and this solo from Pact continues with that vision.
What I like about this emcee is how clear his delivery is. He also raps in his native local tongue unlike most UK rappers from outside the smoke who seem to adopt a London accent for some mad reason. I guess that comes down to realism, something else I adore about this album. It’s amazingly honest and very humble, but also it’s entertaining and isn’t just the same track over and over again like some albums. This is Hip-Hop from the heart and really is impressive.
The production throughout is top notch too, beats coming varied from the sample based ‘Be Forever’ which reminds me of Apollo Brown, and more live instrumentation with ‘Sorry’ which sounds like something Ghostface Killah would rap over. All the songs hit the mark and without a doubt it’s really got me hooked. Good albums that you can ‘play from start to finish without skipping a track’ are rare, but ‘A Closer Look’ is one of those long players. Well recommended, so make sure when it drops you grab your copy.
Review by Alex Dunlow
Talking All That Rap 