Bleep

While it’s worth your money for the cover alone, the first Jon Phonics record to come out on Astral Black since 2013’s Rugers proves to be much more than a gimmick. Beats To Talk Crud To is a typically potent collection from a beatsmith who always manages to balance glitz and grime. The twelve entries here synthesise various strands of hip-hop beatwork - most prominently the G-Funk, post-Dilla and Dirty South styles - with great class and panache. Thick low-ends never get in the way of the samples, which are generally pretty things culled from old soul records. When Jay Z was at the peak of his powers he would have absolutely destroyed these beats.