Miss Cheek is an independent artist in the true sense of the word. She has been on her grind in the studio, writing all of, producing a few, and even supplying scratches, all for her debut LP ‘Lip Service’. The fact she is an attractive female, who in the past has posed in a semi-racy manner, has caused quite a stir in the hip-hop community. It doesn’t make a difference to the music though; as they say – any publicity is good publicity. Miss Cheek is out of my home town Adelaide, yet I was only very vaguely aware of her identity. Her gigs have been those of an up and comer, working the smaller shows, while building a name and hitting the studio. There is no doubting her talents and there is no greater testament to that than guest spots by Hunter and Bias B, as well as a beat mixdown courtesy of Hospice front man Ciecmate.

None of the above would matter if the music was weak. It’s not, by any stretch of the imagination. It’s also not as awful as those offended by her looks would have you believe. That said, it is also not groundbreaking or unique. It seems to drag a little at times even, but the end result is good solid enjoyable hip-hop, and I’m yet to become jaded enough not to enjoy that. Most of the beats are handled by Devize, another up and comer (though this time hailing from QLD). He does solid work throughout, you could argue a case for more layers to the production or perhaps heavier use of samples, but to do so you would risk losing the lyrical content. There should be no doubt to the talents of Devize behind the boards, it’s not reinventing the wheel but there is definite potential for a long career in production.

Lyrically it’s largely about female empowerment. Not annoying ‘my sex is better than your sex’ type lines, just positive vibes about standing up for yourself in life. Her flow is aggressive – in your face even – and there is some definite venom behind her lines, although she isn’t attempting to wrestle the pissed of emcee baton from the likes of Layla. If there was one slightly disappointing area, lyrically, it was at times a lack of technicality. The rhymes can be single syllable in nature, and the depth of her sentiment at times a little shallow, but this can definitely be improved with more experience. I guess I have sounded a little critical and I don’t mean to be, this is a solid enjoyable release, I’m just trying to point out the few areas holding this back. Standout tracks for mine were Favourite Things, featuring Bias B, Misunderstood, with some dope DJ Snair cuts, and Shades Of Grey, featuring another Adelaide emcee on the rise Pohetikut.

A really solid introduction for an up and coming emcee, there is a lot to like about Lip Service, so much that Miss Cheek has even been able to secure a couple of launch dates for Japan. Definitely worth checking out and also a name to mark down in your emcees of the future book.