Guilty / Live by the Gun

Give him all his flowers now. With the EP ‘Guilty’, East London rapper Morrisson deserves all his praises and more with his first ever official project released last summer.

The 7 track EP showed everyone why he’s one of the most authentic voices now occupying the UK Rap scene and that he really lives what he raps. The project paints a vivid picture of the internal struggle the rapper is facing from attempting to put distance in-between him and the environment that shapes him and paying homage to it at the same time.

We’re introduced to the EP with ‘Bottom of the Bottle’, which sets the tone for the next 22 minutes of our lives. He explores the flimsiness of friendships when you get to a certain level of fame and his materialistic spending habits. ‘Gangsters’ is repeated throughout the in-your-face ‘Eastender’ and with the declaration on the track that ‘I’ve been a real East London top boy before Dushane or Ashley Waters’, referring to the TV show TopBoy

Salford born rapper Jordan joins him on ‘Brothers’, a song where Morrisson shows his loyalty and the lengths he would go to for the people who have that loyalty. Jordan holds his own with aggressive punch lines transporting us from Newham to Salford. The namesake of the EP ‘Guilty’, has independent artist Kelly Kaira on the chorus of the song, her voice is at a slow and leisured pace, enticing us. Morrisson comes in hard spiting about the block and the consequences of shotting, committing, crimes and we’re hooked. He speaks on family members addicted to crack and dusting off shot guns.

In ‘Lifestyle’, produced by Steel Banglez Morrisson reflects on an ordinary day in his life. The glass half empty attitude of when someone rings it’s bad news. The change of going legit instead of doing road all on a loud beat that slaps. The east Londoner accepts that people are going to perceive him as public enemy number one because of his past, so in ‘Bad Guy’ South London links up with East. Loski goes back-to-back with Morrisson trading bars using his smooth flow. ‘House and Garage’, produced by Harry James, shows Morrisson’s versatility with Aitch, the tune shows a more laid-back Morrisson and proves that he can rap on the more commercial type of songs. The visuals for this was a throwback to the Garage era of basement and rooftop parties full of good vibes.

Pushing on from the EP, we watch him grow even more with his latest single ‘Live by the Gun’.