Birmingham born TrueMendous has been building quite a following over the last few years, whether that’s from throwing down in a wrap battle with MysDiggi or captivating the crowd at a certain 20th anniversary event, she definitely seems to be creating a storm wherever she goes and has been described as the “one to watch out for” by Akil from Jurassic 5. In February 2020 she triumphantly joined the High Focus family and became the first female rapper acquired by the label, ‘HUH?’ is her seven track debut EP off the back of this signing.
Five years ago TrueMendous left a retail job to pursue her dream of Hip Hop music. Busking her way from Birmingham to London and performing in different cities along the way, five days a week, seven hours a day, she eventually turned what started out as a passionate pastime into a fully fledged career.
Her notable performances include Glastonbury, Lovebox, Reading as well as Leeds and she continues to pick up accolades from the likes of Ghetts, DJ Target, Trevor Nelson and SBTV. She cites her main influences as being Andre 3000, Frank Ocean and Lauryn Hill, among others.
She clearly has an impressive skill set, an ever building fan base and boasts shrewd artist acumen that will thrive within the High Focus camp but what did we actually think of her premier release, since the signing… we took it out for a spin.
Although this is a featureless release in terms of guest vocals it is packed with sounds from a fine selection of producers; namely Chemo, Pitch 92, Illinformed, Winchester and Marcus Jakes, all who deliver solid structures for True to decimate with a relentless wordsmithery that needs no one to back any of her verses.
“…you have the face of someone I wouldn’t wanna be my extort, everybody wants to go protect the King, when it’s the Queen that takes out everybody on the chessboard...”
‘Meerkatz’ is a sinister sounding piece by Pitch 92, a strong bass line and gentle building piano blend with her confident delivery, rolling words and snappy punch lines, a great track. The other stand out song on the EP is ‘Sweetheart’, produced by Chemo, a twisting bass heavy trip where True splices nice double times with rhythmic whispers, turn this one all the way up. The singles, ‘That Don’t Mean’ and ‘OTYL Part 2’ both have great videos and add layers to this testimonial piece of work, resulting in a highly polished final product.
This is an exciting first outing for TrueMendous on the High Focus wagon, with cherry-picked produced magic on an unaccompanied journey, we can only imagine what her album will be like, we wait with anticipation.
‘HUH?’ is out now on High Focus Records, available on CD, digital download and limited edition tape and vinyl, this will make a great addition to your collection, especially with the fantastic album cover artwork by Cesar Ngabo Desire, get yours now!
Words by Theo Specone
