A Little Deeper

I wanted to love this album. Hell, I wanted to *like* this album. But it was a total and utter flop for me. First, her vocals are SO nasally that every word she says is like nails on a chalkboard. But what about the samples and beats? Surely there must be redeeming qualities there? Nope. Samples are awkward and fit poorly (see the DY-NO-MITE sample on "Dy-Na-Mi-Tee"), and the beats are paper thin (see "Put Him Out"). On top of that the run time was over an hour, making this a truly miserable experience. The lyrical content can be very good l, and have important themes about feminism, racism and systemic injustice, but the package that they're wrapped in is so painfully mediocre there is no impact because I can only focus on how poor the music sounds. 1.4/5 -> 1/5

Dollar store Mary J. Blige. The lyrics are corny and oftentimes preachy. I don't know why it's listed under electronica on this site when the only thing this has in common with electronica is that it's terrible.

Dated production and aesthetic, with some eyeball roll-worthy lyrics. And the instrumental on "Afraid 2 Fly" is one of the worst I've ever heard. Feels like listening to a P!nk album, but without the hooks that made her worth listening to, so essentially, I'm saying she's just a poor man's P!nk. Yep.

I’m just not a rap / R&B guy… not my jam at all.

Guess you call it street music. Her vocals and songs , not bad. Leave the rap crap out.

This is so dated.

I listened to enough of this. No need to hear any more or any of this ever again. I'm failing to see what made this any different or better than all the other rap albums on this list. 1/5

Bland

Best part of listening to this is realising that the hidden track is buried so deep you’ll need a map, compass and dynamite to find it. Along with a strong desire to justify your life choices. 1/5 21/9/25

Yawn.

While music as a whole is so rich, it feels a bit pathetic to see so many albums on this list whose only distinction is simply being on it. I really liked the single Dy-na-mi-tee when it first came out and hoped for an alternative Brit rap album, but I quickly got disappointed. It sounds like overproduced Aaliyah with a heavy dose of Alicia Keys, in fine a well packaged product. Unpretentious R&B pop, not necessarily unpleasant (though sometimes it is), but in my view it doesn’t belong here.

Not really my thing

I think I'm better off listening to Yoko Ono than this. 0/5

This was competently performed but left absolutely no impression on me. Not my bag. I really wanted to give up during Watch Over Them. There are some fun instrumentals on here to focus on to get you through the album. Perhaps its my loathing of everything from the early 00s that prevented me from listening to this. But I would rather listen to some dogshit experimental 'masterpiece' than sit through this boring Frutiger Aero, pre-GFC schlock.

I thought this was boring. All the talk of her potentially being bigger had she stuck around isn’t substantiated here. Reeks of Michelle Gayle levels of notoriety. Front loaded with some very cringeworthy lyrics and overall, ideas above its station. No idea why it is on the list. Musically it’s ok. Good for what it is, but no real substance.

dripping with pitch correction... and totally bereft of any redeeming value... "borrowed" melodies... loops... and... when it says she wrote every song... um... with three or more co-writers... each song... making me doubt she wrote anything more than the lyrics and the weak "melodies"... when you snap back and tell me it's danceable... it is... but it's like calling a collage a Dutch Masterpiece... it's pieced together from uncredited musicians... so, basically this record should have the PRODUCER'S name on it... not the "singer/rapper"... but... there are SIX PRODUCERS... and none of them are the so called, "artist"... one star for not being total noise... don't bother, is my advice...

no se como esta wea está en esta lista 1/5

Should not be in this list. Awful and unremarkable music.

Dumb

A bit of a relic of its time. I wasn't into then and I'm not into it now.

No thank you.

This was bad. The broadest possible socially conscious pop/hip hop. Any message rings hollow due to a cravenly boring commercial sound.

Who? I am hoping and maybe even pleading with whichever deity is on shift right now that this isn’t R & B. I beg of you. Please be anything else. Spoken word. Chamber music. Unauthorized recordings of secretive monks. Anything. I’ll listen to a silent movie on tape over early 2000s Mary J. Blige music. Natural High (Interlude) - Great. This is going to suck. Hand me some meth. Better late than never. Dy-Na-Mi-Tee - Holy hell that beat is actually sick. Cue the bomb whistling noise aaaand there’s the explosion. Ugh. Get a good verse on this beat. This a Christian 11th grader’s creative writing project done over a rhythm that should be given to Nas or something. Anyway U Want It - Errm how about “off.” Thanks everyone. That joke was brought to you by the mind that brought you about 70 1 star reviews through 238 albums. I smell 71!! This song reeks. Put Him Out - Oh yeah buddy. Let’s get “guy learning a Santana lick from a book he got at guitar centre” on the track. We needed that intro. Oh it continues. Dump him girl. Fuck, can I go outside too? Brother - Let’s get another cliché in here. If we get a full fledged mom tribute song later on, I win a very lucrative bet. I kid the dear reader. I don’t gamble on generic early 2000s music. The dynamite family continues to build up to what I’m anticipating is a fully rancid album. It Takes More (Bloodshy Main Mix) - I’m kind of at a loss for words. I believe you can mark the deterioration of my brain in real time by the dwindling quality of these reviews. I don’t have anything to work with here either. The lyric, “cause baby, personally, I like to be challenged mentally” hit me in the worst context it could’ve. Not sure if anybody else hears that. Sick ‘n’ Tired - Listen buddy, did you think you could mess around on a bad rapper and NOT hear a lacklustre diss track about it? Yeah I didn’t think so. Strap in for such insults as “you kissy kiss it kiss it bye ooh nice try.”Good luck recovering from that one, pal. Be careful before you okay with dynamite. I literally think that line was missed on this track. Afraid 2 Fly - Yo, I gotta take Ativan if I fly, but if I sit in the aisle some of the anxiety is alleviated, yo yo uh. I find it hard to sleep on planes uh. It’s not the fear of crashing, but the enclosed space. I must go 2 the pharmacist a ha ha. Watch Over Them - Are you incapable of feeling embarrassment? Do you lack any discernible talent whatsoever? Can you do a forced Patois? Polydor records has an opening for a generic 2002 female rapper to sing platitudes about general strife but NOTHING SPECIFIC. If you meet this rigorous standards, please stop by the warehouse next to King’s wharf for your puffy hat and record deal. Sees Will Grow - Hey guys, listen up. The kids? Yeah, they’re our FUTURE. I’ve brought rap impresario, Ky-Mani Marley to tell you that the “yutes” are not to be messed with. Words to live by if you’ve suffered some sort of cranial damage. Krazy Krush - Excuse me Ms.? Hi, long time listener (it’s been two hours at this point right) first time medical questioner. If your blood won’t stop rushing, I would ask that you get off the stage and seek medical attention. If you do not seek medical attention, that is your choice, but the request to leave the stage must stand. Now U Want My Love - Ahh maybe this isn’t getting through because I’m not speaking in the “Little Deeper Lingo”. Yo Ms Di-Na-My-Tee pl3453 stop doing bad r3gga3. Wagwan, I’m g0ing 2 bl0w me brains out gurl. Gotta Let U Know - I am pulling my hair out. As you can probably tell from how I write, I can’t afford to lose anymore hair. The pain is the only reprieve. An island of sensation in this bleak ocean of desolation. Hey, look at me rapping! Sorry. There is no place for creative rhymes during the playing of “A Little Deeper.” All I Ever - Maybe the alternating breakup and love songs are about the same person. Who’s the lucky individual??? Love in the schizophrenia wing is always so beautiful. A Lil Deeper / Get Up Stand Up - Memo from Polydor: Hi Ms. we need an album closer. Try to include lyrics that are relatable. Include everything. Like, have you ever been in a relationship, maybe you haven’t? Have you done something bad? Maybe you’ve done a good deed? Really cover all the bases here. Uhh sorry that’s an American reference. Make it impossible to NOT relate to somehow. For the music, we’ll send in the Santana wannabe guy. He’s had a few lessons and he’s gotten a little better. Not much, but he’s cheap. Just make sure that people who rarely think, feel something on this one. We’re counting on you. Oh and there will be a secret track after the initial pap err I mean “deep emotional writing.” We’ll get you to sing a chorus for a rapper who is more talented than you but still sounds like a song they would write for a rap star character on an episode of CSI: Miami. Then, we’ll call up the folks at the mercury prize. I have a feeling it’ll be your year! This was awful. 2 many 2’s right from the year to the song titles. This is so very millennial and so overdone. I despise this type of music at its best, and this was some of the worst I’ve heard. This should be playing quietly over the end credits of a Rush Hour movie while the viewers at a sparsely attended showing shuffle out of the theatre. This may have meant something to the artist, but I doubt it, as it was all so surface level. Every lyric could’ve been written by anybody who hasn’t experienced anything negative ever. Endless platitudes about quasi-relatable issues over a Destiny’s Child instrumental. The rap beats became stale as they were entirely sterile and the fake reggae hurt my soul. U should b ashamed. Not 4 me 4 ever. 0 HIGHLIGHTS: No merciful god would endorse this

Incredibly of its time. Every once in a while I'd get into the rhythm of a song and then a lyric like "crack is bad for you, why are we letting kids do crack" (okay, some slight liberties taken) would cross my ears.

Didn't hate it, but not my cup of tea at all. I'm not totally dismissive of hip-hop but apart from her one big hit, she didn't seem to have much else to offer. Not very original.

Hip-Hop, 37eme album => 1/5 Album trop long. Morceaux longs et par conception répétitifs donc inintéressants. J'ai eu un peu d'espoir au début, les premiers morceaux étant chantés au lieu d'être rappés. Mais j'ai vite déchanté et ne suis pas allé au bout.

1.5 - Bad

First album I only listened to once - not my style.

Was ready to defend Ms Dynamite after reading some of the public reviews, but not sure I can after listening. She was definitely pretty big for a short time in the UK. I'm sure she had a song on a FIFA game, think it was Dy-na-mi-tee. I also recognised "it takes more". Generally though, it's way more RnB then I was expecting and was pretty disappointed. Thought it would be more hip hop :( 1

Three songs in, I was thinking, “Hey, this isn’t so bad.” But then it just kept going…and going…and going. It honestly felt like it was never going to end, and I could feel what little intellect I had slowly draining out of me.

Garbage. Didn't like her voice. The lyrics were generic. The production was basic. Seemed like they were following a template.

I don't like this type of music, and I didn't like anything about this album.

There's a few good beats on here, like It Takes More and Sick n Tired, but I'm largely bored by this mix of early aughts R&B and smooth hip hop. A lot of it is actively bad too. A full hour long and some of the worst stuff is at the end, including the "hidden" track. Or maybe I'm just losing patience...

Typical early 2000s hit. There's a reason she never made more music

Hmm. I don't like this at all.

1.5 generic and uninteresting

No va

More hip hop shit.

Som ett gymnasiedisco i Tensta 2003

Dog shit

I just don't care for this Will I listen to again: 0%

This is another album that I have no idea why it's in this list. Felt very generic.

Not for me

Another flash in the pan UK artist from the early 2000s. Nothing special here. Maybe I would enjoy it more if I had nostalgia on my side.

So boring.

Instead of paraphrasing, I'm going to directly quote a review from the cranky but sharp witted music critic Robert Christgau of The Village Voice. Dated October 21st 2003: "If all beats are created equal, then Niomi Daley's [Ms. Dynamite] spare garage is as strong as Kimberley Jones's [Li'l Kim] thick hip-hop. If flow is as flow does, then her earned plasticity is as fresh as Lauryn Hill's easy liquidity. If singing is basically a matter of sincerity, then her straitened cadences express as complexly as Erykah Badu's high-flying scats. If conscious is enough, then "Tell me how many Africans died for the baguettes on your Rolex" will educate as deep as "Black like the perception of who on welfare." But good music isn't the same thing as a catchy feature story, and this Mercury Prize winner has less flavor than a plate of mashed. She's biracial and the eldest of 10 children and manifestly good-hearted, and when she goes ragga on the way out I wish she hadn't been groomed for something bigger and blander. But she made her choice. C+" Ouch. Going in only hearing Dy-Na-Mi-Tee on the radio in 2002, I thought "the rest of the album could be a promising British twist on the hip hop lyrics we know from elsewhere with a touch of soul". My hopes were too high. Overall: 2/10

Silly

Boy oh boy this has not aged well. Limp R and B stylings, and it joins that sad list of Mercury music prize (non-UK readers go google) winners such as Speech Debelle, Gomez and Klaxons for whom winning the Mercury would be the alpha and omega of their career.

Just not for me. I am not a fan of this type of music. I listened to things a couple of time, but couldn't get into it.

Not for me

pure evil

👎🏻

Are there worse albums on this list? Definitely. Should this be on the list? No. It's so middle of the road it sounds like she is bored halfway through this album. So repetitive and and dull jumping around genres because it feels like she can't get anything to stick. Is there a 35 minute good album in this? Maybe but I'll never listen through 80+ minute snooze fest again to find it.

Yikes. Getting annoyed just saying the same stuff but this really did nothing for me. The back made me not be able to tell when one song begins and another ends and that bothers me. There was nothing GOOD.

Crap then, crap now

# Playlist track - It Takes More - Bloodshy Main Mix # Notes - A couple of good tracks, but mostly an uninspired, boring album. - I was kinda listening to the whole thing in the background but when "Watch Over Them" played, I needed to stop doing whatever I was doing to wrap up this review. One of the worst, flattest, poorest interludes I've ever heard. - By this time this album was gunning for 3 stars, but this track alone should take one off. - A 10 minute ending track? C'mon, just end already. - 1/5 not recommend.

Nope.

Rubbish. I'd heard Dy-Na-Mi-Tee before. Didn't like it then. Don't like it now.

Don't be fooled: at its' core, A Little Deeper is just another turn-of-the-century overproduced pop record. This is social commentary for people who don't understand subtext and want ALL TEXT.

The authors must have predicted an entirely different course for Ms. Dynamite when they opted to include this totally unnecessary record on the list. The best thing about it is Kymani Marley who appears for a minute or so - the rest is irrelevant beyond belief.

Generic early 2000s pop. Enjoyable to listen to for a short while, but gets boring quickly.

I dont do r n B and rap. Peeps seem confused as to how this made it to the list. THere is too much shite on the list

Well this was very very boring. Not a single song stood out. I have no clue why this is on the list or why I should care.

generic r&b

I couldn't finish this album. There is something about her voice that really hits my ear in the absolute worst way. I don't actually know how to describe it. I'm a fan of the sound of early 2000's hip hop so it's not the style of music that's doing... just something about her voice. Sorry Ms. Dynamite!

Hip-Hop, bane of my existence. 1/5

Album doesn't exist

What a cringey intro song. "Dy-Na-Mi-Tee" is the big seller here. It feels like whoever put this list together just happened to like this song so much that they added the whole album because of it. The beat/music is cool but that's more a compliment to whoever made the sample? I do like the vocals and the biggest compliment I can give is that she sounds very slightly like Amy Winehouse in the verses here. The lyrics are so straightforward and bland. It also really hits on a frustratingly simple lyrical idea that is so overdone in rap/hiphop; the cliche "I'm great, I'm the best", "I'm Ms. Dy-na-mi-tee I stay blowin' up you're stereo everybody gotta hear me though I'm just Ms. Dy-na-mi-tee Hear me bussin' on da radio Now feel my flow you get me though I'm Ms. Dy-na-mi-tee" Boring, substance-less chorus. "At 13 I thought I was in love with this guy Anytime I caught his eye I thought that I'd just die Remember playin' class clown I was just a disruptive fool And the beatin' I got first time suspended from school Remember Sunday School and after go to granmas for lunch Macaroni, rice and peas, chicken and pineapple punch Never had much my mum brother sister and me But love was enough to succeed To grow" It's like some teenager writing a poem for English class and being told "write what's around you.". There's times where I want to sit back and bop to this album but each time my brain turns off for a second, I remind myself that this is 1001 albums to hear in your lifetime. The standards are higher than that. If an album is on here and the lyrics aren't great, well maybe the performances should be evocative and full of emotion? If they don't hit that mark, maybe the production should be doing something new and inventive? If it doesn't then.. does it deserve to be on this list?

I feel a bit bad about giving this just 1 star, but it's a big step down from the 2 star albums for me. Honestly, though, this was uninspired and uninspiring, dull, flat, tuneless, a wait for it to be over. Others have commented that its inclusion on this list is baffling and I agree. Both bad and unimpactful.

I have no reason why this album made the list. I do not feel more musically educated or that my life has been enhanced by listening to it. There are many soul singers in the world. This one is average. The song production isn’t lush, this album doesn’t have much soul. Not only isn’t it a great album overall, it’s not a great album for its genre. Wasted spot on this list which should go to somebody more deserving. She probably deserves more than one star. I would give her 1.5 if possible. But I have given 2 stars to artists whom I feel are more deserving but I just don’t enjoy their music. I don’t feel she is on the level of some of my 2 star picks. Rating is hard y’all!

Ms Dynamite-ee-eeee.... And some other songs

Nope

Not for me 1/5

nope

some good beats but overall bland 2000s Hip Pop ?

I honestly tried. But I couldn't get through more than half of this album. The content of it was just so completely irrelevant to my life or experiences and it didn't do anything for me

A little deeper? If I knew what I was getting into, I would've stayed on the surface.

I don't care about this at all. I couldn't make it through two songs.

Blind album and artist. I wanted to skip songs many tracks and rip my earbuds out cause this sounds so dumb and annoying.

Just what I didn't need 1

This one was an uphill battle all the way through, not because it's a terrible album in any sense, but simply because it is so plain and unremarkable as to be boring. The beats sound like default Ableton presets, what little melody there is barely changes track to track, and Ms. Dynamite sounds like she can't be half-assed to show an ounce of excitement on her own LP. This is the album that inspires me to force my way onto the 1001 editorial board and see what madness is going on there, because nobody needs to hear this one before they die.

Nah.

It's alright, seems kind of generic and forgettable. I probably won't listen to this again. There are better choices for this genre.

not for me

Thanks, but no thanks. It has some nice beats, and it's not loud in-your-face, but it's just not for me.

For a name like "Ms. Dynamite" and "A Little Deeper." I'd expect some TNT through a mountain, not firecrackers on playdoh. That's too harsh. It's all fine but nothing about it stands out to me for an R&B record really.

Die kann ja nicht mal ordentlich singen

This is top 1000 of the world?

I have no access in Germany to the album on apple

No interest in finger-in-the-air / rap / hip-hop / mass market stuff. A definite 1 star

nope

I'm sorry, Ms. Dynamite, I see you won the Mercury Music Prize for this album, but alas, this style of music is simply not compatible with my eardrums

Impressions: Decent RnB/Hip-hop album but I don’t think it belongs a spot in the 1001 albums, sounds to mainstream. Favorite tracks: Anyway U Want, Sick ‘n’ Tired, Rating: 1/5

Nic dle mýho vkusu

Unoriginal, uninspired. No idea how this album is one you must listen to before you die.

Boring UK rap? Nothing I needed to hear

Just super lame R&B...was hoping for more grime sound. 1/5

Una altra mostra a la llista d'r&b barrejat amb hip hop i drum and bass, el que a UK a començaments de mil.leni s'anomenava 'garage' (una altra aberració). Diria que el problema és que ha quedat molt desfassat, però és que al seu moment sonava igual d'ensopit i innecessari

Never really understood the hype over this. Not unpleasant, but not particularly innovative or interesting either.

not gonna go back to this type of stuff

Seriously?

Annoying vocal style, boring music, weak lyrics, what more do you want?

this was Not Good, which stinks cause it sounds like ms dynamite can do much better than this, but this is some miserable songwriting with such a bland sound that i couldn't make it very far into the album before i decided i had better things to listen to