My Blood Your Blood and Puppets Singles Reviews

Nadeem Shafi, British ex-pat and former member of Fun-Da-Mental, is Scalper. His solo and pseudonymous act is a known purveyor of underground Alternative Hip-Hop now here in New Zealand, and his previous two releases Flesh & Bones and Butchers Bakers garnered very favourable reviews here and abroad.

This year we’ve seen the release of Scalpers singles Puppets and My Blood Your Blood, a glimpse at the forth-coming album The Emperor’s Clothes, due out in October.

The videos are dark and gritty, his beats and lyrical prose the moody the sounds of late night. The soundtrack to a modern Film Noir.

It’s Trip-Hop like Tricky. Introspective and existential words are spoken, gritty like urban poet Saul Williams. Approachable like Massive Attack. Downbeat like Portishead. 

While the white middle class may find it hard to relate to Hip-Hop, which speaks of a hard life in the streets and slums the middle class try so hard to deny and ignore, Scalper’s music, from what I’ve heard, transcends race, religion and creed. Anyone with ears to hear, a heart that beats and mind that listens can lay back and appreciate. 

You can find the Puppet and My Blood Your Blood singles with the Scalper back catalogue on his Bandcamp (http://scalper.bandcamp.com/music) and check out the accompanying videos on the Scalper Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/user/MrScalper). Look out for the new album The Emperor’s Clothes later in the year.