Singles

Speech Debelle - Go Then, Bye

Richard Wink 31/05/2009

Rating: 2/5

Taken from the hotly tipped debut album Speech Therapy, 'Go then, Bye' is a turgid break-up song from London based hip-hop artist Speech Debelle. At first it takes you in, Debelle acts out the role of the jilted yet defiant lady, you can hear a hint of pain in her delivery, but quickly the song descends into farce “I can't see your face on Facebook / because we're not friends on Facebook”. I don't know this song isn't aimed at me; this is aimed at teenage girls who get dumped at school discos. Maybe 'Go Then, Bye' will mend thousands of broken hearts.

In comparison to other female rappers from the UK Debelle lacks the warmth and energy of early Estelle, the fire of Shystie or even the subtleties in delivery of Ms. Dynamite circa A Little Deeper. This is more Grange Hill then Lauryn Hill. The Esser remix of 'Go Then, Bye' holds a hell of lot more appeal, mainly because it liberally cuts out most of the shockingly awful rhymes.

Singles are crucial in hip hop, you can get away with featuring for a few bars on someone else's duff track but when it comes to your own singles, you really have to bring it. Debelle just doesn't. Coming after 'The Key' which was a pretty decent single there is a nagging sense of disappointment around this single, either Debelle is a 50/50 artist (half good, half diabolical) or the person responsible for green lighting the release of 'Go Then, Bye' has made a silly mistake, stick this filler on the album.

http://www.myspace.com/speechdebellemusic