Style 43

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 ...

It was 10 years ago that the YNR label burst onto the UK scene with some of the freshest hip hop English ears had ever heard, in the form of Jehst's "Premonitions" EP. And they kept bringing the goods after that, again and again and again, with a roster that featured some of the finest emcees & producers in the country: Evil Ed, Tommy Evans, Lewis Parker, Cee Why... Now to celebrate their first decade, the Young n' Restless are descending on the Jazz Cafe to give us a showcase of the sort of hip hop that has made them a force to be reckoned with.

Ooooh, more YNR ish is it? More dopeness from the camp who have already brought us Jyager and "Feeding Time at the Zoo", this year alone, and hold down a residency at Jazz Cafe? Damn straight it is. This time it's the turn of everyone's favourite working class dad, Micall Parknsun, who brings with him his new single, "All 4 Hip Hop" (and some fresh Nikes). This will be the debut single from his sophomore album, "First Second Time Around", which is due to drop 'shortly' according to the PR blurb. The single features two tunes, the title track and another one called, "Still Here". There are also a couple of remixes thrown in as standard, but unlike some of the pointless rehashes you get these days, these ones actually give a whole different slant to the originals.

It was only in March that YNR brought us the massive debut album from Jyager, "Encrypted Scriptures", but apparently that wasn't enough. Now they have got all the whole camp together for a compilation to end all compilations. Exaggeration? Maybe. But this is the illest this year, most definitely. YNR Productions houses some of the best emcees this country has to offer and they all get to put their two pence worth in on this album - Mystro, Jehst, Kyza, Jack Flash, Verb T, Micall Parknsun... and they're all on point, all bringing new material which is gratefully received with open ears.

So we're only into the first few weeks of 2009 and already I have found a contender for album of the year. Jyager is the name and murdering verses is his game. The name might ring a bell in a few heads out there as he did a guest spot on Jehst's "Mengi Bus Mixtape", a couple of years back. Well once again it's the High Plains Drifter who is responsible for this formal introduction to Jyager, as YNR Productions are the label representing and from the moment the first beat drops you can tell why. We may be being slightly premature here because the album doesn't actually drop for another two months, but when I hit up Google for anything Jyager related, the results were scarce and there was fuck all for the album, so I thought "Oh snap! We got ourselves an exclusive!" And what an exclusive it is...

Fresh from touring Australia after the release of the Mengi Bus Mixtape, one of the UK's favourite rappers, Jehst, took some time out to chat to Style43 about his collaborations, production, and plans for the future..