Kano: Hoodies All Summer review – grime elder statesman back with force

Anyone doubting grime’s assurance as an art form needs to watch the engrossing short film that accompanies two tracks from Kano’s comeback album, three years on from his Mercury-nominated, Mobo-winning Made in the Manor. Trouble is a deceptively nostalgic tune about living in an everyday war zone that samples the late campaigner Darcus Howe, while Class of Deja finds Kano going head-to-head with veteran MCs D Double E and Ghetts in a furious old-skool back-and-forth that is testament to how thrilling a lyricist this 34-year-old can still be.

You might argue that grime’s tinny immediacy is blunted by maturity and high production values, but Kano’s state-of-the-nation address is both lush and desolate. That such a subtle operator should occasionally reach for the pianos during emotional interludes is slightly regrettable. But overall this excellent album’s clarion-clear narratives about knife crime and the importance of good times – exemplified on Can’t Hold We Down – are delivered not just with anger and pathos, but humour. SYM is a killer closer that finds a gospel choir intoning “Suck your mum” as Kano tenderly croons “Suck your mother if you think these niggas love these cuffs and riots.”