In 2016, the long-awaited and introspective UK Hip Hop album ‘Made In The Manor’ was released. The album sent ripples into the UK Hip Hop scene, with Kano, establishing himself as a long-lasting Hip Hop icon. Kano emerged in a group called the ‘Nasty Crew’, yet soon became an individual artist, in his own right. His 2005 album ‘Home Sweet Home’, was well respected among the grime and UK Garage scene, with the popular song ‘Ps & Qs’, containing rapid-fire bars. Although he already had an established, important role in music, it was ‘Made in The Manor’ that earned him the title of one-of a kind lyricism, and an ability to be reflective and emotional through storytelling.
My favourite song on the album is ‘Little Sis’, a melodic rap tune that explores his relationship with his estranged half-sister who he hasn’t seen since childhood. The song starts with powerful, and slightly desperate lyrics like ‘ I don’t know where to start with this’ and ‘still got a tick on my feet, mother’s a hustler’ to connote the idea that his childhood was difficult and his mother worked hard to provide for him. The subject matter of the song isn’t implicit and he makes the narrative clear from the start with lines directed to his sister such as ‘remember the day you was introduced to me and Lee, you wont remember it you was only to or three’. A feature that is used incredibly successfully in this album is his ability to force the viewer to visualise with his detailed lyrics, he describes his sister having her ‘hair in twists’ and uses nurturing tones when calling her ‘pretty little sunshine’ giving the listener an immediate sense of this caring nostalgia he feels when rapping about his sister. As a listener we are exposed to his memories.
Some of my favourite moments in the song are the lyrics of playfulness that Kano also accentuates in his tone of voice. Lyrics like ‘was it the choc ice?’ have an interesting impact where the listener is both bombarded with wistful emotion and playful, funny lyricism.
This is explored later when he goes on to talk about what could have been if he did keep in touch with his sister. He makes references to her wedding saying he could have given a speech before making an intertextual link to the film Deer hunter : ‘the DeNiro speech, you know where the groom goes in the headlock in the hotel suite’. These clever and visual lines further emphasise Kano’s grasp on UK rap and his ability to evoke such turbulent feelings in a song about his own experiences. For me, one of the most impactful lyrics is when he says ‘For all I know you have got a kid that Uncle Kane cant gift’ which he follows with ‘tiny baby stan smiths, now they match my creps’. He hits a listener with a powerful, emotional and shocking line and his ability to light heartedly comment on it makes this moment seem even more moving. He shows that he is both pitiful and accepting of what he has done and how their relationship has been.
The chorus feels slightly heart-breaking as he repeats the line ‘this one’s for my little sis’. Although he shows the dissonance between him and his sister’s relationship, the song reflects him reaching an arm out and trying to rekindle his connection with her. It sums up the album’s self-reflective and self-recognition symptoms. Kano shows his mistakes and puts himself in a vulnerable position. As a listener we don’t know Kano’s sister, we don’t know if she rejected his attempt at reconnection or if they have made up, but we can see Kano isolate himself in this song , and show the faults in his life in a way that was unfamiliar in rap before this album. This is refreshing, and something so unique about British rap. It doesn’t always align with American, westernised views of Hip Hop where the rapper is a protagonist in a rich life of women and wealth. These barriers are broken in UK rap.
Kano has created a new space for rap. As a listener he continues to evoke waves of emotion in his music. As an artist, in all fields, he is inspiring.