"What would be your dream gig? 'The Ruthless Rap Assassins on the moon'".
- MARK E. SMITH (of The Fall, interviewed in NME).
"The Killer is like a toblerone - out on its own".
- JOHN McCREADY (THE FACE)
"We all make mistakes, right? My mistake - musically - was not listening
to the word of the RRA before. Check it, other southern hip hop snobs, we've
ignored what anybody north of Watford has had to say in the past, having listened
to this debut, continuously for almost a month, I can state we have, through
our ignorance, missed out. Thankfully it's not too late".
- SONIA POULTON (ECHOES)
"Six months into the decade, and already here is one of the most vital
albums... 'The Killer' will stay inside your head, stapled to your brain".
- PENNY ANDERSON (NME)
"This is an astonishing album, a collision between the gobsmart trios
hard-assed rap stylee and mixer man Greg Wilson's interwoven sample and guerilla
tape loop patterns".
- JOHN ROBB (SOUNDS)
"Undeniably a killer in every department: gorgeous beats, sharp samples,
daring deck work and compelling raps... A rich, exciting album".
- STU LAMBERT (MUSIC WEEK)
"They may have sneaked it in through a back door but RRA are now sure
of a warm welcome at EMI's entrance... There's no way of telling what you'll
hear from one of the 14 tracks to the next".
- PUSH (MELODY MAKER)
"So here it is, the first English rap LP that no one can sniff at; one
that can compare with it's US counterparts without an inferiority complex. The
Assassins' debut 'Killer Album' stands as this country's first all round rap
success.
- ALEX GERRY (NUMBER ONE)
"With their ass-kicking album, 'The Killer'... The Ruthless Rap Assassins
will quickly emerge as the major force in home grown rhyme - or I'll eat my
British Knights".
- RICHIE BLACKMORE (RECORD MIRROR)
"The Killer Album is a many-faceted LP, delivered with assurance and maturity,
which paradoxically gains cohesion through it's very diversity. It's not so
much a collection of 14 tracks as a single entity".
- SIMON TRASK (HIP HOP CONNECTION)
"Manchester media overkill has already extended to the dance and rap scenes,
but to consider the Ruthless Rap Assassins in terms of a user-friendly Manc
overview would ignore the sheer brilliance of 'Killer Album'... Kaleidoscope
stuff".
- NICK TERRY (SELECT)
"The other side of Manchester - crunching beats, sharp attitude and inventive
cheek from the North".
- RECOMMENDED RELEASES (i-D)
"This is a poet's dream... This album is only the beginning. British hip
hop is now ready to stand up and be counted".
- MARK ZED (RAVE)
"Manchester's been the real British capital of black music for years now...
isn't it time that people really started checking it out, starting with the
Ruthless Rap Assassins - taking no mess and taking no prisoners. You'd better
believe it".
- VIE MARSHALL (BLUES & SOUL)
"It's no exaggeration to say that the 'Killer Album' redefines British
hip-hop".
- ANDY COWAN (HIP HOP CONNECTION)
"Swinging on a linchpin of reasoned anger, it includes manic, absurd samples
that flesh out the beat and give it a depth and texture that recalls '3 Feet
High...' or 'Nation of Millions...'. But it's much, much more: bold as brass,
unashamed, unreconstructed Northern cheek in your face".
- MARCUS PREECE (SOUL UNDERGROUND)
"This album is the hip hop experience of the last decade as lived and
breathed through British eyes and ears. Influences from all the rap greats abound
but never dominate on a set where old skool and new skool collide head on...
Tonka Sized".
- NICK GORDON-BROWN (MIXMAG)
"The Killer wins on all fronts: the samples are appropriate, witty and
fresh; the lyrics are hard and conscious, funny and entertaining, and they have
more mood shifts in one album than most bands manage in one lifetime".
- PENNY ANDERSON (NME)
"Brit hop sampling as a patchwork sculpture, the 'Killer' album is an
on the spot report from 1990".
- JOHN ROBB (SOUNDS)
"To call your album 'Killer Album' is certanly a sign of self-confidence
and the borderline between self-confidence and ego is a thin one. The Ruthless
Rap Assassins do not cross it".
- NICK TERRY (SELECT)
"The Assassins make music with a disarming directness and honesty, and
in doing so they've created what must be the best hip hop album to come out
of the UK to date. Killer Album? You bet. Kill the bullshit: speak the (home)
truth".
- SIMON TRASK (HIP HOP CONNECTION)
"If I had the space, I would print out all the lyrics, because, quite
simply, whether in a party or a mission mood, the Ruthless Rap Assassins know
their stuff".
- SONIA POULTON (ECHOES)
"This album is a rich vein of heart-felt street
poetry, the label hip hop or dance diminishes it. Musically it's adventurous
and hard, lyrically it goes where few will dare follow... A milestone in black
music in this country".
- TERRY CHRISTIAN (MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS)
"It's an hour long slow exposure snapshot of a life
in the day of an attitude. A continuous 14 track album of bragging, slagging,
brawling, chilling, serious, frivolous (but never superfluous) rap scenarios
that sample from a scrap-book of sources, a poetry of emotions and psychescape
of originality... The Killer Album pushes the hip hop art to new dimensions".
- STEPHEN KINGSTON (UPTOWN)
"Listening to the album for the first time, you
are surprised by the width of musical styles that have been pinched on the rewind...
It's an album crammed with sound, bursting with musical ideas which occasionally
spill open into raw noise. This record will not get on Radio 2".
- DEAN (CITY LIFE)
"It's been a long time coming, but tracks of this
quality and social commentary make the package more mouth-watering than a Rowntrees
Pastille".
- JOHN SLATER (CITY LIFE)
"Writing about a band or musician that you totally
adore is pretty tough. Apologising for the piece is even worse but it's tough
shit, because when it comes to the Ruthless Rap Assassins there is just no escape".
- GINA MORRIS (BOP CITY)
"KILLER ALBUM was a milestone in Manchester music...Locally it ranks with STONE
ROSES, Joy Division's UNKNOWN PLEASURES, The Smiths' THE QUEEN IS DEAD, Happy
Mondays' BUMMED...Simply, the best British rap album ever".
- SARAH CHAMPION (from her book, 'AND GOD CREATED MANCHESTER')
"The Assassins were more than a mere stab at fame, and their small body of
work was hugely influential in Manchester at the time...For a while, if only
in this locality, they seemed to be the hippest thing in the world".
- MICK MIDDLES (from his book 'SHAUN RYDER: HAPPY MONDAYS, BLACK GRAPE, AND OTHER TRAUMAS')