The Allergies enter full late nineties/ early noughties hip-hop mode with new one No Flash featuring veteran NYC emcee Ohmega Watts – their third single on the way to a rumoured new LP. The beat is as gritty as boom-bap gets – all crashing drums, ominous guitar fuzz and skeletal keys and rising out of this like some sort of mic kaiju from the rubble of Brooklyn is Ohmega Watts. ‘No Flash’ though – has our man been banned from taking photos with an artificial light source? Of course not – he’s calling out those who do it for ‘the flash’ – i.e. those who chase fame rather than excellence. Shall we let Watts have the last word? Go on then, “No artificial intellect or rhymes crafted by software to cut a cheque/ Nah these rhymes were written fresh in indigo ink or black you can fact check it for the record to find a stat/ Peep the method and the repertoire, benchmarks above the bar – cuz everywhere you go – there you are”
(Out now on Jalapeno Records)
