NEWS
EVENTS
Mr Mini keeps it real on Street Smart Book Smart
RnB/Hip Hop | Thursday 2nd July 2015 | Christina
Clash Magazine have called Mr Mini “One of British hip-hop’s brightest hopes” and rightly so. He started writing his own music aged 13 and now at the ripe old age of 20, the Peckham rapper has already worked with DJ Cameo, Kano and Tinie Tempah, and produced for the likes of Maxsta, Krept & Konan, Manga and Stylo G. Now he’s put his unique stamp on the game with his new EP Street Smart Book Smart.
The title perfectly encapsulates what Mr Mini is about - he elevates the street subject matter with clever wordplay, he deftly mixes highbrow and lowbrow humour, satire and seriousness. The opener ‘Hi, I’m Mr Mini’ is a Slim Shady-esque introduction over a bouncing electro-funk beat, which manages to be both funny and serious. His humour shines through in the video, take a look:
The funky beats run throughout the seven tracks, making the EP super listenable, but Mr Mini shows he’s not afraid to go harder on the bars with tracks like ‘Stone Age’. The way he walks the line between humour and seriousness is highlighted best on ‘Sick Life’ and ‘BAF’ – on the former he’s satirising life on the grind and flashing the cash before taking it back to reality on the latter. Only Mr Mini would rap, “if you’re BAF sitting down in your home/you’re stressed out because your student loan/all day every day beans on toast/argh argh argh”.
Witty wordplay is definitely Mr Mini’s greatest asset and this is what makes the EP stand out. He raps about real experiences, whether that be gold-digging girls on ‘Can’t Trust No Beanies’ or the government ignoring inner city youth on ‘PMQs’, in a way that is authentic and relatable. No one is quite doing like Mr Mini.
