Last night I visited these two friends of mine at the rehearsals with their live band. There I shot a lot of good fotoage for my upcomming documentary, but it would be a crime to not at least share a bit with you already.
www.secludedmusic.com
www.jere-me.com
If there’s one record hyped for the coming month it’s the full length from the World and TWO-time UK EOW Champion, Stig Of The Dump. After waiting for what seems like an eternity the brand new single is released on Monday.
The lead single from the album ‘Mood Swings’, ‘I Got Game’ is a Street-Fighter sampling, attitude laden anthem and exactly what fans would’ve been expecting.
Both lyrically and musically the song stands strong, with a Pete Cannon produced beat becoming a perfect backdrop for Stig’s ‘don’t-give-a-fuck’ mentality.
Guess who forgot to review the one thing I’ve been rinsing on my I-pod all summer so far!? If you’re not already in-the-loop, we’re here to inform you that Jon Phonics has returned for round two of the Half Past Calm mixtape series! With Phonics beats as fresh as ever, a combination of the countries most formidable rapping talents joining up for what has to be the best UK hip hop album so far this year and one that has been on constant rotation at Style43 HQ.
This is a round-up of perfectly appointed MCs coming together in a big hip hop hot pot, mixed up with an already established classic Jon Phonics sound. Each track holds its own in originality, beefy head-nodding beats and perfect flows. Bringing forward the archetypal YNR heads such as Jehst, Kashmere & Micall Parknsun, the album also features tracks featuring other Style43 favourites Sonnyjim, Fliptrix, Cyrus Malachi, Masikah and M9.
bit of freestyle from Jammer
The Doctors Orders is surely one of the best nights we have in the UK and so it goes without saying that their birthday parties are already the stuff of legends. Well this is their fifth birthday do and so, as you’d expect, they have prescribed an overdose of musical medication for us lowly laymen.
The top billing sees history repeat itself as Guilty Simpson returns with another dose of grimy rhyming and intriguing beats, which will be sure to get shit moving if last year’s performance was anything to go by.
So who’s next? Yep, that’s right, everybody’s favourite son-of-a-bishop: Tim Westwood. My namesake will be bringing his matchless style to the party, bashing out a set that’s brimming over with golden era classics from the 80’s and 90’s.
And as if that is not enough, three of the Extended Playerz – Shortee Blitz, DJ MK & Harry Love - will also be dropping by to do what they do best: a six deck monster of a set! Plus Foreign Beggars’ DJ Nonames and new blood, Chris P Cuts will be making sure the place stays jumping throughout.
All of this is taking place on Friday 23 July at Fabric and advance tickets are available for £15. Get on it quick though cos it is going to get rammed.
Production by V.Don, new music video of MrProbz, made by Teemong. Rawness.
In the midst of disintegrating Anglo-American relations, Brother Ali is bolstering the friendship by playing yet another run of shows in the UK. I swear the guy never stops touring! When we interviewed him back in April, he was in the midst of the European leg of the “Us” tour and then he was heading back to the States to do a few more dates. The definitive relentless work ethic.
Australia’s premier Hip Hopper’s are back with their fifth album ‘State Of The Art’ through their label Golden Era Records. The album follows on from their 2006 success ‘The Hard Road’. Alongside the album release the crew are performing live across the UK this summer, with dates at T In The Park in Scotland, Oxygen & London’s Koko.
Watch this space for a review of the album which is release on August 23rd.
10th July: T In The Park Festival tinthepark.com
11th July: Oxygen Festival, Ireland 2010.oxegen.ie
13th July: Koko, London koko.uk.com
There are few promoters that stand the test of time in club-world. The Doctors Orders has kept the number one spot for everything Hip Hop across the UK and succeeded in bringing the very best of international and home grown talent to the stage, all playing alongside the driving force behind the party’s success, Spin Doctor. There are very few Hip Hop fans across the South that hasn’t attended one of the regular or one-off events over the past five years.
To mark their fifth anniversary, The Doctors Orders are raising the bar once again to provide their faithful with some unforgettable events this summer.
Brother Ali is hitting these shores again for a set at Glastonbury [Saturday 26th, 11.45am, West Holts Stage] before playing three headline shows in July – London, Bristol and Brighton.
To celebrate coming back over, he’s put out a free mp3 of a brand new track called “Don’t Look At Me, Look Around”, which was made with a beat by Medium Zach after Ali asked for beats:
“A few weeks ago I put out a call on Facebook and Twitter for producers to send me beats for Streets’ Mixtape and received over 900 beats in the first 24 hours. I ended up choosing this track from Medium Zach and did the song the next day. Peep game.”
Albums produced in their entirety by Madlib are always going to be hotly received and, just as often, bombarded with criticism, both constructive and destructive. What we have here should keep the critics happy for a while. For me, this is one of the strongest albums of the year so far; well worth the hype that it’s been getting, since rumours started circulating a couple of years ago about a possible collaboration between Messrs. Simpson and Jackson.
Guilty is yet another emcee who owes a lot to J Dilla. He was one of the late producer’s favourites on the mic and Dilla helped to produce his debut album, “Ode to the Ghetto”. Testament to their friendship is shown on the track “Cali Hills”, where we get to hear Guilty’s recollections on how instrumental Dilla was in helping him make it as a rapper. Madlib’s guitar laced beat is a perfect accompaniment to the sentimentality on display here and this track has been getting heavy rotation on my stereo.
I remember when I first heard the “Countryman” LP, I was blown away by both the diversity of Skitz’s beats and the list of collaborating emcees. This was at a time when Rodney P and Roots Manuva could not put a foot wrong, as far as I was concerned, so that album was a perfect match.
Now Skitz is back with the “Sticksman” album, which could just as easily be called “Countryman 2”, but that’s not said with any negative connotations. The beat diversity is as strong as ever and the list of collaborators perhaps even more so, and they all come together to form one of the most hyped and anticipated “comeback” albums of the past few years.
One of the best lyricists this country has to offer, hands down, coming correct with colourful wordplay & killer beats to match, each and every time, Jehst shouldn’t really need any introduction! The YNR head honcho in charge will be performing classics and forthcoming material from his soon to be released ‘Dragon Of An Ordinary Family’ album, with extra fuel from Micall Parknsun & Jazz T holding down the decks, don’t forget to check for the ‘First Second Time Around’ & ‘All City Kings’ albums too.
Residents DISORDA & DJ LoK will dropping Hip Hop, Reggae & Dubstep pressure…
Read more…
Best track this month, maybe even this season.
When you were young and your birthday was coming up, there was this insane feeling, this hunger for revealing secrets but keeping to the code and waiting for the justified time to take a peak and then rip it all open only for your heart to be conquered by the beauty that hides inside. That’s what I have with some artists and their albums. Joe Kickass is one of them and I have the pleasure of listening to his debut album tonight; let me take you on my journey:
What’s up my friends? Just over a year ago I mentionned an upcomming interview with mrProbz, at that point we already did the interview, it just had to be written. But it was such a long interview with important info in each single word that it became a stand-by project because it was just too much work. In the interview he told me that in a year from then there would be a lot of nice tracks released worldwide. And guess what? The man wasn’t fronting. The interview is still on the low but I did collect some good videos from youtube for you all to listen to mrProbz, Traumashop, the Netherlands (but worldwide).
more real hard tracks in the ‘read more’ section
Not going to say a lot about this cos the trailer will give you a better taste than my words ever could. Suffice it to say that it will be dope, serious dope. This is the second trailer by the way, in case you think we’re repeating ourselves! Now lets play spot the UK emcee…
The homegrown pioneer and purveyor of the Original Fever is back in our ears again, with an astounding new album and this, the first single, “Struggla“. Featuring top emcees from both sides of the Atlantic, this is sure to be one of the biggest hip hop anthems of 2010.
Frequent Skitz collaborator and legend of UK music, Rodney P returns with more fire in his voice than ever before, trading verses with Skibadee and Kardinal Offishall. The chopped soul hook lends itself to a plethora of rewinds, with Kardinal’s infectious singing style making sure it sticks in your head long after the tune is done. Many years since release of the “Countryman” LP, you can really hear the new kick in the step of Skitz’s superb production.
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