As most of the staff here will admit, bloggers are approached with a shitload of terrible music by amateur artists trying to spread their name. And 99% of it goes to our spam folders... but every once in a while, you will come upon a great group that is genuinely worthy of support. For me that group is Rhyme Asylum, these guys just came out with their first album "State Of Lunacy". And have been gaining credibility as both underground artists and as representatives of the new-school England hip-hop scene. What appealed to me about them was the lack of grime, there's a ton of talented UK artists, but I find a good portion of them hard to listen to because of their production. Dizzee Rascal, Akala, Lady Sovereign, Sway... and the list goes on. But Rhyme Asylum can accurately be labeled as the Wu Tang Clan of England... with dark, gritty production and intrinsic rhyme patterns and schemes. The only difference is the Asylum only consists of three members: MC’s Possessed, Skirmish & Psiklone.
The production on this album is nothing short of remarkable, Rhyme Asylum was almost fully produced by Leatherface, a producer you should definitely check out. But it's not the production that stands out as much as it is the dope lyrics... and it's not punchline rapping, but rather horrorcore bragging (think Big L with an English accent). I believe the true value of finding a CD like this, is not only being able to listen to some ill shit, but Rhyme Asylum has features from all sorts of great artists like Copywrite, Reain and Diabolic. So check them out too, here's a sampling of my favorites from this album:

Lost-



Poison Penmanship-




If you were feeling those tracks, go out and buy it, it's one of the best albums of '08 when it comes to lyricism... nah, it's one of the best albums of '08, period!


Shout out to my dude Aiden from Certified Banger, check this link for a second opinion on the album