Nines: Crop Circle 2 album review — hard-boiled road rap with a complex sound

Frequent in blues and jazz, work songs have withered from today’s pop music. Despite being a major preoccupation in people’s lives, the topic of employment is mostly absent from the charts. But a rogue version of the work song survives in one genre: rap music.

Making money is a core topic in hip-hop. The wider context is racial prejudice, as it was for the grinding world of labour in jazz and blues songs. Except in the case of rap, the employment opportunities have diminished even further. In place of blues hollers about working on the railroad or the cotton field, the profession described most regularly is the drug trade.

The new record from UK rapper Nines is a case in point. Crop Circle 2 is the Londoner’s fourth album. It follows 2020’s Crabs in a Bucket, a number one hit, and pitches itself as a sequel to 2018’s Crop Circle. “I ain’t got no regular salary,” he tells us at one point. His twin sources of income are depicted as drug-dealing and rapping, with the latter offering a way out of the former. In that respect, Crop Circle 2 resembles The Godfather Part II, a tale of trying to go straight.

It’s a well-worn story, mapped through familiar references. “Tony Soprano 2” refers to the fictional Mafia boss from The Sopranos, while Jay-Z’s path from street hustler to record mogul is cited in “Outro”. But Nines, real name Courtney Freckleton, also brings personal experience to bear. He has a chequered legal history, including a spell behind bars following a cannabis-importing conviction in 2021.

“Quitting while you’re ahead ain’t the same as quitting, wish I’d realised that before I came to prison,” he raps. The expression of regret isn’t to be confused with remorse. Nines, 33, presents himself as getting too old for the criminal life rather than atoning for it. His style is understated and unhurried, framed by the accompanying voices of numerous guest rappers and singers. The songs’ beats broker an atmospheric compromise between hard-boiled road rap and a more textured, complex sound. Nines and his producers have done an impressive job here.

★★★★☆

‘Crop Circle 2’ is released by Zino Records/Warner Records