Handles TDNB’s latest EP ‘Pressure on the Curb’ is gritty and hard-hitting, but polished. It’s a snapshot of life on the real side of West London over some big, sparse beats. Handles TDNB’s bars are uncut and unfiltered and this is his 5th consecutive charting project. You can hear why the streets support Handles TDNB with this EP — it’s real and clean and heavy. The track “The Style of Life” opens hard and with a lot of confidence. He’s crisp in his delivery and the production has bounce to it. The song is catchy but, more than that, it’s powerful. He’s talking about the sense of style that comes from more than what you wear. Style is how you keep walking when everything is hard, how you make it through the struggle and the street life. It’s setting a loud tone for the EP.
“Handles Flow 2” switches up the tempo a little, but maintains a sense of intention and just being present. His flow is sharp and timely with every switch and a little more calculated and mature than his earlier projects. This song flows like it’s easy, but you know he worked hard to make it sound that way. The production is clean and open for his bars to land as hard as he wants them to. He’s not just rapping over the beat, he’s making sure the beat lets you hear what he’s saying. Then the track “1s & 0s” comes in and the sound shifts more into the digital spectrum. The concept is clever, life as a binary code, simple to understand but complex in the choices. Production gets a little darker and there is pressure in the lyrics, the kind he’s named the EP after. It’s punchy, hard, and the sound of someone who knows the stakes and the game.
“Tokyo Drift” is the outro that sticks. It’s slick and fast and cuts like a razor. There’s an international element to the energy and it’s refreshing. He pulls from the Caribbean influence in the UK, a fast Caribbean rhythm mixed with UK edginess, and the hook has a clear impact without trying too hard. Handles TDNB isn’t just telling his story on this EP, he’s making a sound for a lifestyle that is so often either overlooked or misunderstood. ‘Pressure on the Curb’ is more than a project title, it’s a sound, and the EP delivers it with style, hunger, and precision.
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English