LEIGH STEPHEN KENNY'S recent "Outlaw" album will undoubtedly be in the running as one of the finest dance-based releases of 2003, deliciously fusing reggae, old-skool rap, ska and soul.
The album's trailer 12" single "The Takeover" remains perhaps its' jewel in the crown, with Leigh's Mike Skinner-style Radio One spoof hostage story a considerable feat of lyrical dexterity that will take some equalling.
So following it up was never gonna be easy, but "Rap Starr"is an inspired choice, jettisoning the roots reggae feel for a strident, '80s Hip-hop accent that spews references to Leigh's mix'n'match musical heroes from The Clash and Bob Dylan to EPMD and Run DMC en route, over a loping beat with scubbed acoustic guitar and a slightly unwieldy, but still cool chorus that finishes with Leigh describing himself as "a walking identity crisis like Steve Martin in that film 'The Jerk'."
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Your reviewer hasn't see it as he scribbles here, but apparently the promo film for the single is a further spoof: this time of cult movie "La Haine", but set in Leeds with a further pastiche of Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" lobbed in for good measure. Sounds like a riot, actually, and a typical by-product of the chameleonic LSK braincells. A starr is born and no mistake.
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