Early last year, Ghetts, the UK lyrical legend, celebrated the 10-year anniversary of his seminal Ghetto Gospel project, with a sold-out show at London's Roundhouse. It was at this point that Ghetts began to entertain the idea of following up the most important release of his career to date, and, by year's end, lead single "Slumdog Millionaire" had arrived, with the announcement that Ghetto Gospel: The New Testament was on its way.
Finally here, the 17-track LP is much in the same vein as its predecessor, as Ghetts continues to fuse introspective rap efforts ("Spiritual Warfare", "No Love") with high-octane grime anthems ("Caution", "Shellington Crescent"); a formula that's seen the vet add a growing number of rave-ready smashes to his catalogue in recent years.
Now more aware of his strengths both as musician and emcee, Justin Clarke succeeds in improving on the initial template he set out for himself a decade ago. Trimming out filler and refining his message, the album closes with the Kojey Radical-assisted "Black Rose", a pensive footnote on the growing process for one of the early grime gen's most prominent voices.
Listen to Ghetto Gospel: The New Testament in full below.
