Here at AMF, we first covered Louis the Hippie back in May. Since then we’ve kept a keen eye on things, and a few months of exposure to his social media output has created an interesting perception. Deep, playful, sometimes a little grandiose, he can wear many hats, both literally and figuratively.
The new video kicks off with footage which we didn’t recognise, but that could easily have taken place in 2005; an era of Happy Slaps, battered Nokias and the grime boogeyman himself, Crazy Titch. The raw, DIY nature of the clip epitomises the era; just a young guy in a car spitting bars over a bloodcurdling production. Polished it isn’t, yet many wouldn’t have grime any other way.
Genres evolve, and rather than mimicking them, Louis is here to pay homage to his forefathers. While the footage he incorporates is very Lord of the Mics era grime, this particular track is a hip-hop offering, complete with a really-quite-funky bassline. The tribute is more lyrical, and to uproarious effect.
The wordplay is, at times, staggering. Lines like ‘Too many buff tings, had about 33 10s’ show that he is one step ahead of the listener, with such rich lyricism not just warranting repeat listens, but demanding it. In fact, one suspects that the video may be subtitled just to give the listener a chance of keeping up.
He has undoubtedly grown up through this era, and seemingly done so armed with a photographic memory. Even if suburban East London circa the mid-noughties means nothing to you, over the 2-3 minute runtime he will transport you there. From Romford Ice Rink to Time and Envy via Avirex jackets, the rat-a-tat references are too perfect for this to be a mere exercise in nostalgia. This is a two-minute time portal, written in retrospect. It’s seriously impressive.
The video ends by abandoning Louis’ glossy realm and reverting back to the original in-car clip, the back seat freestyle if you will. Kinetic and unruly, it’s quite a departure from the mellow couple of minutes that precede it. And that’s just fine. If he was bothered about his perceived rawness, Louis could have probably barked some venom over an eski-beat, and it wouldn’t have been real. He wears his influences on his sleeve, but thankfully doesn’t let them define him.
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