Last year things were looking seriously good for Akira The Don; Interscope had picked him up for an album and were promising that Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and The Neptunes would by handling the production. Though this turned out not to be the case, the album was still recorded. However, when it came to the simple task of releasing the album the label got cold feet (mainly because one of the tracks was called Thanks For All The AIDS, I think) and pulled out.

The fact is, Akira The Don is an artist who should never have been picked up by a US major label in the first place. Instead of sticking with the “safe” lyrical topics of gun crime, violence, ho’s and jewellery, Akira (or Adam) raps about things that don’t go over well in the US at all, namely religion, politics and sex (plus the very English playground trick of putting your fingers in your mouth and saying “bankers”).

Anyway, back to the story. On his return to the UK, Adam found that people understood what he was doing a bit better at home and BMG quickly snapped up the album for release through their Something In Construction imprint.

And so, here it is. Finally. Akira The Don’s debut album. A hip hop album of varied and inventive styles with lyrics covering, amongst other things, shoplifting, running away to Liverpool, love, politics and a healthy amount of distain for those who refuse to question the status quo.

My opinion of the singles released ahead of this album has varied but when viewed as an album, all these songs suddenly make sense. When We Were Young has been a long time coming but I’m very glad it finally made it.

Label: Something In Construction
Website: www.akirathedon.com
Release date: 6th November 2006

Tracklist:

1. Intro
2. Liverpool
3. Clones
4. Oh! What A Glorious Thing
5. Love
6. Bankers
7. Thanks For All The AIDS
8. London
9. Back In The Day
10. 1234567
11. Dead Babies
12. Hypocrite
13. Outro