Leaf Dog - Dyslexic Disciple - OLS review

Leaf Dog returns with another album bringing words of wisdom over raw underground sounds from the South West, in his latest album; Dyslexic Disciple! The songs take you through the highs and lows of everyday life in the UK's run down streets. While delivering his bars with power and projection that could be heard from the world's distant corners, Leaf Dog maintains an earnest, honest, and real philosophy that we all ought to take heed of. Speaking from experience, he reminds you that regardless of the good or bad around you, maintaining positivity and creativity is on you, and leaves you feeling that you have a duty to make the most of what you have every minute. As one could expect; there's not a single bar lacking wisdom in this album, giving the listener a lot to take away from it with each play through!

The songs together overall carry a feel of overcoming challenges and learning to appreciate life as it comes. Starting with 'The Rain' after the intro, the story begins down in the dumps, followed by the stories of the many things ruined by an oversized ego, and how one struggles to understand that part of the self. From 'Today', to 'All in One' we see Leaf stand up, dust himself off and face the troubles with an intention to rise above them. From there, the Sun starts to rise as the vibe becomes one of celebration and appreciation. Your head will be bobbing from the start, but this is the point where you really start to move whether you intend it or not! Finishing with 'The Legacy' - a huge posse cut of all the UK's heavyweights, it all comes together as a power-potion to quench any remaining thirst for that real Hip Hop, leaving you ready to take this experience and use it to drive you on to master your ambitions... Or just play the album again, no one would blame you! Production is the classic RLD collection of old-school samples of strings, brass, and choirs, rolled into a very organic feeling track set. The drums and rythms vary between stomping, rolling, and light depending on the feel of the tune they're on. All the sounds, mixed with the lyrics, come together beautifully, and they all maintain a similar style with Leaf Dog producing most, Illinformed on three, and one more each from Naive and Joe Corfield - having so many involved in production makes it all the more impressive that the whole album compliments itself.

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Despite the similarities between them, every song is incredibly unique - among its neighbours on the album AND the rest in the UK underground! There is something to appreciate and relate to in every bar. Not more than a few seconds passes at the begining of a song and you are already teleported to the scene it's set in. Be it the feeling of waiting for an eternal rain to finally finish and let the clouds part, the frustration of over-inflated egos damaging an otherwise ideal scenario, or the un-scathed ideal scenario found in 'Good times', it's never a struggle to feel the tune's message and story with a depth that'll have you carrying the vibes of this album through your day to day life, fuelling you to approach it with a focus and drive showcased in this cache of creative thoughts over beats. Cop yourself a copy of this ground-breaking banger of an album from a Legend of UK Hip Hop on the 14th of April 2017 from High Focus Records!

- Fire@Will - OneLion Sound

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