Bars as hypnotic as the melodiously cadenced verses of pure lyrical wit in what’s mine is yours by UK rapper tea with friends are tragically hard to come by, but this mischievous hit more than makes up for the shortfall.
Returning older, wiser and clearly still amused by the absurdity of it all, lyricist and producer T. Trueman brings his eponymous comeback LP into focus with a track that lets fans of frayed-at-the-edges, soulful-at-the-core hip-hop find a cornucopia of tongue-in-cheek mantras.
Following a hiatus that allowed his cerebral muscles to stretch further around even juicier metaphors, tea with friends sounds gloriously awake inside the architecture of sample-based production. Old-school soul vocals heighten the celestial vision of the arrangement, while the spoken-word verses lock you in, feeding you enough imagery to construct a whirling dervish of feverish charm.
There is jazz-infused warmth in the production, nodding to the past while blundering blindly into the future with the grin of someone watching a house of cards wobble in the breeze and deciding to enjoy the spectacle anyway. Having once moved through Edinburgh’s club scene, shared stages with Skitz, DJ Hype and Nicky Blackmarket, recorded for BBC Radio One and earned Channel 4 Talent recognition, Trueman carries history without sounding trapped by it.
what’s mine is yours is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast
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