Speech Debelle made a splash in her native England in 2009 when she won the Mercury Prize for her debut album, Speech Therapy. Despite the critical acclaim, her album sales where still low compared to other Mercury Prize winners, and she actually left Big Dada over a dispute involving this discrepancy. However, both sides were able to resolve their issues in time for her sophomore effort. Hopefully the fan base will come around this time, because Speech is a unique talent that deserves recognition on both sides of the Atlantic, and Freedom of Speech shows us why.

For her sophomore album, Debelle teamed up with producer Kwels, best known for his work with her labelmate DELS. Their chemistry is fantastic, and his work does a nice job of expanding her sound while also mixing in more traditional hip hop tracks that are right in her wheelhouse. The result is an album that builds on what was the really strong foundation of her first album. While Speech Therapy spent most of it’s subject matter working through a tough period of her young adult life, Freedom of Speech is more extroverted in it’s subject matter. This time she takes on more political and social issues and the music industry, but still leaves room for discussion of some personal issues as well. The album starts strong with “Studio Back Pack Rap,” challenging peoples preconceived notions of what hip hop should sound like and the need to put artists into categories. The song does contain a slightly questionable line in which she says, “He rocking hard/neck breaking to the beat/head phones/head down like a lesbian.” It’s not necessarily offensive, more of just an odd line than anything, and Debelle has gone on record claiming she didn’t mean to offend anyone with the line. It doesn’t completely derail the song, but does keep me from fully enjoying what is otherwise a really great track. “Live for the Message” does a nice job of mixing post rock guitar with a warm down tempo beat to give Debelle a place to drop some rhymes about trying to find deeper meaning in life besides chasing paper. “I’m With It” has the greatest potential for a crossover hit, with a European dance/pop sensibility to it with lyrics about romance. Personally, it might be my least favorite track, only because while the rest of the album is challenging to listeners, this song seems a little spoon fed and generic. I do appreciate that that song is followed up by “The Problem,” a tense and confrontational song using strings and distorted guitar to compliment Debelle’s politically charged lyrics. The urgency and passion in her voice on this track in particular is really moving and exciting. This continues into “Collapse,” and “Eagle Eye,” making it my favorite stretch of the record. I also have to give props to Debelle for making the bold choice to close the album with the long, epic ballad of “Sun Dog,” an extremely atypical choice for a hip hop album. In someone else’s hands it could have turned into a hot mess, but with Kwels and Debelle, it’s a well built and gains momentum as the song progresses. It ends the album on a very high note.

With Freedom of Speech, Debelle demonstrates an incredible amount of growth since her debut. I understand her frustrations that she didn’t get the dues she expected from her first record, but hopefully this album will pay off for her. She might have slipped up in a few spots on the record, but only from pushing herself and experimenting with styles and lyrics, not from playing it safe. It’s only a matter of time before a larger audience finds her.