A Little Deeper Review

A Little Deeper
Artist: Ms. Dynamite
Genre: R&B
Publisher: Polydor
Released: 2002

I Wanna Be Like Ms. Dynamite When I Grow Up
A Review by Daniel Reifferscheid
03/12/2003

Authoritative R&B chanteuses preaching messages of respect and understanding are dime-a-dozen these days, so why does Ms. Dynamite sound so much bolder, so much more interesting than India.Aire and company? It can't just be this reviewers' rampant (and self-confessed) Anglophilia, even though I'll easily admit that the starry eyed, we're-finaly-comin'-through spirit of the UK's emerging Urban scene, especially when compared to the rather jaded state of current American R&B (which, lest I be misunderstood, produces an extraordinary amount of great music these days, but there's no real spirit uniting it all), may have something to do with why A Little Deeper sounds so new and exciting.

No, there is no need for cultural tokenism here, because Ms. Dynamite stands mighty fine on her own. Her voice alone works wonders—as much as she may preach on “It Takes More” or “Seeds Will Grow,” she never sounds smug or pompous, because the drama and the melancholy in her voice show a keen awareness that, in order to be able to preach the message, one must first work on oneself, every minute of every hour of every day. While other singers would deliver the message of “Put Him Out” in a cold and distant manner, preaching down to the poor co-dependent woman from the mighty altar of their own emancipated self-importance, Ms. Dynamite shouts, screams and toasts to make it perfectly clear that she understands exactly how the woman that the song is addressed to feels, and that this makes it even more important to get her out of this mess.

There isn't a hint of self-importance on the entire record, and that's some achievement when you consider that it includes an autobiographical track called “Dy-Na-Mi-Tee” which, with lines like “that was enough to succeed...for dy-na-mi-tee-tee!”, paints the singer as some sort of urban super heroine. It works though, because in her art, Dynamite has everything that defines heroism: a strong moral compass, a profound sense of sacrifice, unending emotional strength, an almost exaggerated tendency to criticize herself and a mysterious, profound sadness. Hell, even her constant insistence on the responsibility that artists have towards “de youts” echoes a certain web-crawler's “with great power comes great responsibility.” She has an hero's weakness, too: the refusal to let anyone come too near. Witness “Krazy Krushin',” which if you merely looked at the lyrics sheet would seem like the happiest song on the album: Dynamite sounds downright angry, as if she weren't allowed to fall in love. It goes without saying that all the characteristics that I attribute to her I attribute to her persona on her music, not the person herself—in this last case, I'm glad that that is so.

When she's preaching about an issue, Dynamite gives her all and works a sweat like no tomorrow; on her more introspective moments, she channels the bossanova sadness of an Astrud Gilberto. And yes, the fact that she's British is relevant in some way, too (it always is); when Dynamite scolds her opponents on A Little Deeper, she commands a sense of poison and dry wit that could belong to Morrisey, no matter how far apart the two may be as far as choices of subject matter may go.

Of course, the music is a big part of what makes A Little Deeper great, too: while most of her competition is content with making dull-ass boring sticky half-acoustic R&B-Folk, Ms. Dynamite's producers turn the music backing her righteous messages dense, deep, dark, urban and yet frequently uplifting. It's full of ultra-modern hooks & effects (“Krazy Krushin'” basically lives from them, and it ain't no bad life neither), but the hooks that ultimately catch you the most are the ones that contrast the righteous modernism of the production work with indisiocratic tricks: the scorching guitar on “Put Him Out,” the accordion on “It Takes More,” the harp on “Afraid 2 Fly.” And as you listen to the deep, round sound of A Little Deeper, a thought hits you: while fellow urban superstar Mike Skinner (who got a shout out from Dynamite when she won a Mercury award) frequently gets hailed as the modern equivalent of The Specials, on a purely musical basis Ms. Dynamite comes much nearer.

The hit singles—the anthemic “Dy-Na-Mi-Tee”; the ultra-agressive cry against co-dependency “Put Him Out”; the sardonic condemnation of gangsta culture “It Takes More”—hit you like hit singles should; they feel like they should be part of the collective consciousness (in the UK, they already are!) The album rarely loses steam after the hit-filled first half; and when a track does seem to fall a little too much into the maudlin (“Brother,” her tribute to same, is the worst offender), you don't really mind all that much. Hey, she's a hero, she should be allowed to get a bit mushy every once in a while.