WHAT THE MUSIC PAPERS SAID - A REFLECTIVE SELECTION

"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 Ruthless Rap Assassins appear to have something of an identity crisis. Hailing from Manchester, they seem to want to remove themselves as far as possible from what else is coming out of that city, but are a little confused as how to do it".
- LLOYD BRADLEY (Q)

"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)

"It's dismaying to find that one of the UK's most touted rap acts still rap in ersatz American and spout what can only be described as rubbish".
- PHIL CHEESEMAN (RECORD MIRROR)

"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)

WHAT THE MANCHESTER PAPERS SAID

"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)