Hoodies All Summer is the album that grime has been crying out for, an audacious state-of-the-nation address from one of its most articulate lyricists.

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100

Highsnobiety

Kano may seem as introverted as he was when Ghetts first met him, but he truly shines as an observer, letting his music do the talking. As a result, it’s his most mature, deafening, and profound album yet.

100

Funky and heart-wrenching, furious and funny, often all in the same verse, this easily his best yet and deserves huge success.

Hoodies All Summer is an exceptional achievement, proving once again that Kano is one of the UK’s most versatile, thoughtful and talented voices.

Hoodies All Summer wants you to be angry, because if anything’s going to change we all need to be.

Each track is strikingly vivid, and several are accompanied with snippets of speech, as if they are intended to be experienced as intimate documentaries. Kano has taken the central themes from his last musical outing – joy and trauma, the clash of solidarity and claustrophobia of living in a close-knit community – and delved yet deeper.

Is the best rap/rap-adjacent album of the year? It's definitely a contender. Is it the most important album of the year? Probably. Should you be listening to it right now? Without question.

Whilst the lyrics are direct and, in your face, the production is just as precise and thought out. It flows with Kano’s quick pace and ability to turn on the heat so quickly. The album offers 10 tracks of quality and meaning over the meaningless repackaged corporate sound that is found more often than not in this day and age.

It’s not as if Kano’s position as one of the Top Boys of an energised UK grime and rap scene needed any further cementing, though ‘Hoodies All Summer’ has done exactly that.

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.

Thoroughly inspired as well as creative, Hoodies All Summer is arguably the best work of Kano's career.

The true powers of this album shine through as he examines our current splintered society; Kano holds the rhyme and reason to encapsulate it and possesses the angst to make it hit home.

This is one of Kano’s strongest albums yet that has seen him take a more extrinsic outlook than on previous record Made In The Manor.

He is yet ... to enjoy a mainstream moment like those had recently by Stormzy and Skepta. The reflective, ambitious Hoodies All Summer isn’t likely to change that, but it will cement his reputation as one of grime’s wisest truth-tellers.

The lack of personal revelations that brought nuance and light to 2016's Made In The Manor often makes these vivid, grim depictions of inner city strife uncomfortable listening.

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Birdal

What's up with critics getting erect by every grime record

jordymusic

Kano certainly seems focused on flaunting his rapping ability more than his songwriting skill on this one, and that rapping ability is present for sure. There's just a lot of annoying pop tendencies on this that drag it down a little. Skepta, Giggs and Kano have all been shown up by Slowthai and Little Simz this year in grime. The oldheads are lagging behind!

I suppose Dave evens things out though, sorry Dave.

LAZ

Shoot I was excited about this after first listen but the more I listen the less I like this. It's a pretty choppy, stale experience with only a couple actually good tracks.

Yaysuz

If you are making a "woke rap" record, you either fail spectacularly, or you make an AOTY contender. Kano manages to do neither on this album.

Hoodies All Summer is a great concept for a record, but when it comes to execution, it is critical to nail it perfectly. Kano does not accomplish this, but neither does he fall flat on his head. The lyricism is good, but I feel like beats often weigh the beat down, and I am not a fan of Kano's flow some of the time. Case and point - Class of ... read more