King Salieu Delivers Once Again

Pa Salieu is a British born rapper, raised in Gambia who has released his debut album ‘Send Them To Coventry’, the album is a reflection of what a lot of young black men face in the streets of England, touching on a number of themes from family, police brutality and the unnecessary killing black people.

COV (City of Violence), is how Pa refers to his home city several times in the album, the city has been named one of the most dangerous cities in the U.K so it was only right for his first song to be aptly titled ‘Block Boy’.

As we listen further in the song, we hear ‘Frontline’ his break out single which was voted BBC’s most played song of 2020 , this song is a morbid reflection of life in the slums , it’s a war every day and he talks about how he is on the forefront of it all, the next song Flip Repeat is a great transition and this song sees Pa reflect on daily life, the feeling of everyone wanting to see him fail and how the police want to put him jail and that to him its more or less a normal day for him and he has to do it everyday.

The second half of the Album touches on different subjects, talking about the work ethic he’s embraced to take strides in the music world, tracks like ‘More Paper’ explore how strives to work hard and make more of himself. Moving on to some of the more widely received songs one of them being My Family ft BackRoad Gee and this song talks about making it with people you have been from day one and in this song, he flexes a bit more lyrically and the visuals of the song makes the song even better. B**K is another song that was visually appealing and this is him embracing his West African and Black heritage and brings a nice afro beat vibe that is done subtly throughout the album but is more proficient in this song and is a great political stance especially in the climate of the world and what black people are facing.

This album for me is an 8 out of 10 for me because it is ever green, it tells a story that many British rappers fail to do in their albums, the album is also a great blend of afro beats and grimes that makes it very appealing not only to the black community but every other person that has been through or going through what he talks about in his album. There was a lot of speculation on how Pa Salieu’s album would be because he has been compared to the like of J Hus and them being from the same country, I am glad he is completely different and is exploring his own lane of music.