Cold Feet
Clapton all-star, Rimzee, recently released his third official mixtape Cold Feet, an 18-track project 10 of which features some of the UK’s biggest names including multi-award winner Emeli Sandé, South London’s Rap Godfather Giggs and emerging fan-favourite K-Trap.
Rimzee has been active on the rap scene for over 12 years now, accumulating millions of YouTube views and growing a loyal fanbase. Rimzee released his debut mixtape The Upper Clapton Dream back in 2012 about his upbringing in his home borough. Then, in 2020 he released his follow-up mixtape Upper Dream 2, a continuation of ‘The Upper Clapton Dream’.
Intro opens the album with what sounds like a recorded phone call which switches into a narration-like freestyle. Similar to Rapman (most known for the creation of Blue Story) the way Rimzee has made ‘Intro’ literally feels like the opening to a book/film giving listeners a sense of anticipation on what to expect. Back 2 Back featuring LB and K-Trap opens with strong strings and the melodic rap of LB which drops straight into K-Trap’s verse. The Second half of the track is where you’ll hear Rimzee go off on the track.
Both the second and third feature tracks, Expensive Pain featuring Born Trappy and Thinking Out Loud featuring Young Adz, carry the signature story-telling flow of Rimzee. Although both are very different tracks there is something about the way Rimzee articulates his bars that makes listeners pay attention to his lyrics. Tiggs Da Author opens the next track Jugging with the afro-beats-style chorus before Rimzee’s first verse. The chorus is then repeated by Tiggs and then you hear the organic voice of Giggs which adds fantastic variation to the track. Giggs wordplay is effortless as always.
Unruly, Entrepreneur and Morals & Principles and the following 3 tracks on the project are all solo Rimzee. These are all the more aggressive rap tracks of the project. Bringing the hard bars. These are also 3 tracks that carry that authentic driller/trapper sound.
For Richer For Poorer follows the same themes as the last 3 tracks, however, this time opened with Skinz narrating to listeners who then goes on to rap their verse(s) making references to K-Trap’s new album The Last Whip II. With My Dawgs is another feature on the album, this time with Afro B. Again the feature Afro B opens the track with melodic vocals which appear to sandwich Rimzee’s verses. Switching up the sound with track 11 featuring female vocalist Emili Sandé, Tables Turn follows the more commercial side of rap with Emili adding her feminine RnB vocals onto Rimzee’s rap track.
The title track Cold Feet Freestyle is exactly 2m22s long so for listeners that believe in angel numbers that’s a little fun fact. As listeners can expect with it being a freestyle track, Rimzee holds his flow throughout the track spitting his bars about fatherhood, lack of father figures, life on road etc. Following this track is Dear Southworld Road featuring Maverick Sabre.
Soul To Da Streets is another solo drill track from Rimzee and is a personal favourite. Straight from the first verse, the adlibs on top of his bars stand out the most in this track which once they’re heard, can’t be unheard.
Headline featuring Nemzzz is a unique track on the project due to the fact it relays bars back and forth between Rimzee and Nemzzz which isn’t heard often on tracks. With both rappers having a unique sound you really can’t confuse the two together. Because of this, the track gives off the vibes of a conversation between boys. Additionally, ‘Headline’ feels like the first track on the album to sound like a completely different genre.
Irreplaceable featuring Zion Foster and Amun is another personal favourite track of the project, who doesn’t love a romantic track where a rapper expresses his appreciation to a significant other? It’s hard not to. Add black love on top of that too, with female and male vocals. It’s an instant winner.
Life On The Endz featuring Snap Capone is a good follow-up from Irreplaceable as leans on nicely with a phone call-esque introduction. Life on the Endz is a very strong track as a whole conveying the very raw emotions of the glamorised but not-so-glamorous lifestyle on road.
Closing the project, 5am in Clapton which features Frogzy and Raph Racks. The track starts with a quote “if it don’t chart bro, it charts in the streets serious” which is what the underground music scene is all about. Tracks that become popularises through word of mouth and Instagram shares instead of making radio hits or commercial charts. 5am in Clapton finishes the project off nicely.