Devil In The Distance- Marvin The Martian's Blog: 2008

You may have heard, we're not big on The Police at the best of times, but I have just witnessed the most shocking act of violence I've ever seen in my life and it came at the hands of the Police on Brixton high-street.

Brixton is about as depressing as a place can be this Christmas. Woolworths is haunted. The two high street clothing shops have become a Poundland and a 99p shop respectively. FADS has been replaced by a Pawn shop with a sexy poster on the door that reads "Jewelery? Pawn it!". The local DIY shop of 20 something years 4orce Homecare is now a gutted rug shop until the lease runs its course. H.Samuel has been replaced with a shop that has no doors but the keys to the shutters so sells recession clothing at £1 an item. The legendary sports shop Frank Johnson and neighbouring Jimmy's Cafe have been abandoned next to the new similarly vacant penthouses across the road. Brixton Express hasn't been touched since it burned down in the summer and if the reports are to be believed than I would assume three of our remaining chain shops at least will suffer bankruptcy in the new year. Christmas 2008 in Brixton is a very, very depressing place.

On my way through this afternoon I saw what appeared to be the aftermath of a car crash of some kind. A black Range Rover was pulled over the left of the street opposite the Job Centre Plus behind which were an ambulance and a Police van. As I passed the motorcade I saw what was causing minimal fuss on the high street, a black man in his early to late 30s talking to a Policeman with a woman in her early to late 30s holding crutches watching on. I naturally assumed this had something to do with the incident a couple of yards up the street. I kept my eye on the situation because I've always been fascinated with how people react to the Police and how the Police react to people, especially black people, especially in Brixton. Not much was happening as the young white officer in all blue with a blue Bullet Proof vest talked quietly with the man. I should stress at this point that I do not know why the man had been pulled over or why he was talking to the officer at all. It could have been for any number of reasons. Reasonable deduction would tell you that a traffic violation or a crash of some kind would make the most sense though (it's a very tight street that the Police couldn't be stupid enough to pull somebody over on and it was just beyond a traffic light). With that said, out of nowhere (and I really mean nowhere, no voices were raised, on arms raised, no threatening language was used) the Policeman raised both his palms and exerted a mighty, full-pressure shove to the man's chest (this was not a disabling push, this was a full impact shove). The man took a step back and responded by shouting "Why the fuck did you just push me?" at which point the officer proceeded to repeat the action "What the fuck? Don't touch me" the man shouts, this time with his arms raised above his head in a gesture which could only be interpreted as one of confusion. But with this man's protestation came a (failed) attempt at a grapple, which of course led to the officer kicking the man's shins twice, which again failed to bring the man down, naturally the officer then moved onto the man's groin, which he proceeded to punt as hard as he could; as he kicked, two other officers revealed themselves from inside the parked van to support. By the time they reached the incident the accused man had been pushed twice, kicked in the shins at least twice, kicked in the groin at least twice and had finally had his coat pulled over his head rendering him defenseless. During the three to four second gap in which it becomes apparent to me, those three officers and everybody else who saw (naturally at this point there are 40-50 onlookers all increasingly worried) that this man is now completely harmless (that is to assume he was at any point capable of harm) the original officer wields a small hand held plastic object aloft and charges the man, a loud rattle and a large blue flash shock the man into a crumpled heap on the floor, the two back-up officers cuff and surround the man's body. The original officer then raises up and turns to face his audience, a look of terror strikes his face as he sees what has now become a road full of people upset, outraged and terrified by this incident. Every impulse in my body screamed for me to attack that officer, I had three shopping bags in my hand and put them down twice as I attempted to control my emotions. As the audience increased, the tempers grew (this is Brixton after all, we know what Police brutality looks like), for the good of all those people but mainly for the good of that officer (the other two didn't partake in as much offense as the original Policeman) three Panda cars sped around the corner (this incident literally took place 30 seconds from the Police Station and disbursement commenced). Knowing my own mind and my own frustration at that time I decided it would be best to leave the situation as was.

I'll keep a look out for any mention of the incident in the South London Press, The Evening Standard, The Voice or The Nation because I can't imagine that was a regular incident. It's certainly not something I've ever witnessed, especially not on a high street at Christmas.

I've seen some violence in my time, I think we all have, so for me to say that what I saw today was as disturbing and violent as anything I've ever seen actually does mean something. For those of you who think the Police should not be held accountable by public vote for their actions I say you haven't felt the full force of the law's long arm in Brown's Britain. We were on tour last year with Bizzle when we were told a friend of the group had been savagely attacked in Brixton for filming an over the top arrest, we dedicated our shows in Brighton and Islington to him.

We have to have a Police force we can trust, a Police force we can rely on, not this politicised gang of wide boy career thugs. I am about to make a formal complaint, whatever good that will do.

- Tego

You won't beat this video for Youtube comments.

No more needs said. Kill...your...selves...

I wanted to drop this last week but I'm pretty much following Akira's lead with it. This is 'On The Roads' an Akira The Don song featuring Littles and myself produced by the talented Joey2Tits. You can download it below by right-clicking and saving as. You can then play it at your Christmas parties and such as the like, you can also email all of your favourite radio shows and say "Have you got 'On The Roads' by Akira, Littles and Marvin? Because that's what I want to hear!". You should do that.

On The Roads w/ Akira The Don & Littles Produced by Joey2Tits [Right Click and Save as]

Artrocker.TV have the first review of Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. Man I love me some Franz Ferdinand.

This is hilarious. He runs around talking about leading the way here and there and how everybody in the world is following him, not Germany. Why was he allowed to run around like the Christ of economics so long when it's clear he's absolutely flapping in the wind with his bullshit policies? Expect 7 days of liberal media discrediting Peer Steinbrück and his criticism. Luckily Gordon's got Alistair Darling and Peter Mandelson by his side so mud doesn't get much stickier.

I'm going to Woolworths.

So we've got Gordon Brown claiming credit for saving the world...genius. Now we've got "Government figures" claiming that tougher measures have reduced the number of knives on the streets by half. Over which period did this miraculous change take place I hear you ask? Why 4 months. Damn that's amazing. Which 4 months? January through May? February through June? Well...no. June through October. Does it take a rocket scientist to figure out that the height of summer will naturally see the amount of knives on the street rise? The number of people on the street rise, the number of pretty much everything rises. Ho hum. Without dealing in specifics, GUNS get realer as the days go on, last night for instance...like I said, no specifics.

Knife carrying down in 'hotspots' BBC.co.uk

So the story goes, I spent a long weekend in Monaco getting my head straight. On the Sunday Richard Branson invited me onto his yacht, his yacht almost dinged Jay-Z's yacht, on which Young Jeezy was a guest. Me and Jeezy got to talking and we decided to remix 'Vacation' from his latest album. He really wanted me on it, Jay's yacht has a studio downstairs so we hooked it up*. As a christmas present I thought I'd give it to you. I've got another couple of presents lined-up for December but this will get the ball rolling.**

Marvin The Martian Feat. Young Jeezy- Vacation Remix [zShare]

*Story may not be completely accurate.
**Check the top of the page, they still can't ban the Snowman.

I think darts just moved to a whole new level. How darts star hit health bullseye [BBC.co.uk].

This game has been in development for years now. It looks like it was worth the wait.

Spotted on Semtex's blog where he's also got a new Bizzle Freestyle

Michael Martin says there was no warrant for the search of Damian Green's office at Westminster and actually he's a complete fuck-up that got completely fucked up by the useless fuck-ups in the Police. I've never made any secret at my lack of love for the Police. Fuck the Police. But this is absolutely disgusting. Watch Michael Martin's pathetic apology on BBC.co.uk.

Check it here. The Rowdy Road Running Remix of Bladed is crazy. You'll notice I'm on there a couple of times.

Not many can do what these two can do.

Memphis Bleek gets a hard time these days, he kinda doesn't deserve it.

God damn. I know nothing but what I've just seen.

I like D.O.E. Ever since he bodied Scott Storch last year.

I wouldn't normally go for an EPMD reunion but I thought I'd give it a go in the name of fairness and the shit is nice. Listen to it. Maybe more of a summer record but it's clean.

Eddie Argos' new band Glam Chops were going to guarantee themselves Christmas Number 1 this year but with Top Of The Pops still warm in it's grave they didn't see the point. So instead they've released their double-A side 'Countdown To Christmas' and 'Baby Jesus Was The First Glam Rocker' for free! Yey! I have them both! They're available to download below. Enjoy genius. ENJOY.
Glam Chops- Countdown To Christmas [zShare]
Glam Chops- Baby Jesus Was The First Glam Rocker [zShare]

Check Glam Chops out on ReverbNation

This is pretty cool. Those Nike boots are always on the shelf at Foot Locker but nobody ever buys them. I guess they do in DC.

This shit is nice. I've thought about doing a "Month of madness" type thing before but I don't think the end result is worth it. I'm almost gonna have my own month of madness type thing this month though.

Jay-Z Feat. Santogold- Brooklyn (Go Hard) Does Kanye sample hipsters as a rule now?

Okay the next post will be happy posts I promise...I hope.

These are a few choice cuts from the BBC website this morning [Monday mornings are always pretty fantastic].

Straw 'surprised' by Green Arrest: This is a great article for a few reasons. The main reason would be Jacqui Smith. She is awesome. I can't wait to read her book, what a complete waste of flesh, oxygen and organs, can we give her body to Stephen Hawing or something? This Greengate story will not go away, there's way more to it than she's leading on. The fact that the Labour Party considered the arrest of Damian Green a PR coup on Thursday evening is incredible. Now Jacqui Smith wants to "Be sure that, whilst MPs are not above the law, that actually they are able to get on with their job without unwarranted interference by the law," which sounds to me like "If one of my rivals does something legal ever again I want to know that I'm not going to get in trouble for sending the police in". Do you know why nobody has dubbed this event "Greengate" yet by the way? It's because like Watergate, it is expected that illegal surveillance was used by the government. My favourite aspect to this story has to be that a Civil Servant turned on the government and this is how Labour acted. Genius.

Offenders to wear community vests: Wow. I want one. I think...they're really going to work.

UK 'closer' to adopting the Euro: The UK is "closer than ever before" to joining the euro, according to the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso. Really? Because as this article mentions, the Euro hasn't been an issue in this country for a minute. Fuck the Euro, that shit is a joke. Don't get me wrong, so is the Pound right now but that's by choice pretty much. I love this "I know that the majority in Britain are still opposed, but there is a period of consideration under way and the people who matter in Britain are currently thinking about it" doesn't that sum up Europe in a way that no book or war ever could? "The people who matter in Britain are currently thinking about it". Incredible.

Ray Winstone says he can't stand the thought of living in the UK anymore. I expect quite a few high profile wealthy Brits to leave over the next 12 months because Alistair Darling has pretty much got his eye on their pockets. Is he forcing out the rich so the Conservatives have no Private industry with which to rebuild the country after the next election? A cynical man would say maybe. While I could argue with all of Ray Winstone's points [raised here] there wouldn't be much point would there? It's easy to look at your situation and say "I am in the persecuted class" but under this government, who isn't in the persecuted class? Apart from civil servants and members of the Labour Party? I've never known morale to be this low in Britain, never. Who is happy right now? I actually asked this yesterday. Who is happy? It's not just the economy either, it's everything. We're trapped, we're going around in circles, every day it seems our life gets smaller, I'm not depressed, but I can see why some people would be.

Happy December everybody! Woop!

Next up...happy posts!

Oh damn that's funny. Rick Astley is a pimp.

I just watched a load of first album Wu Tang videos back to back. It was the best 15 minutes of Youtubing I think I've ever done. I decided I'd post the 'C.R.E.A.M' video because it's probably my favourite song from the album.

So you can be arrested and detained for 9 hours with counter-terrorism officers in your home for making public, information that's in the public's interest before the government get the "Chance" to tell us? Is that what's going on here? Interesting because I didn't know that. I heard Gordon Brown on the radio this morning saying he knew nothing about it, which seems strange. This isn't the first time this Autumn that Brown has used the police to make a point though is it? Didn't he say that George Osbourne's meeting with the Russian Oligarch was a matter for the police? Despite there having been no crime committed? But it made headlines didn't it? Whether through threat or promise it appears that the police are very much being used as a tool for government oppression. Nice.

Read about Damian Green being arrested on BBC.co.uk/ Plus watch an interview with David Cameron on the arrest

The way this guy changed the game. All you can do is admire. There's not a bone of pretention in him, not all of his videos are classics but he can make the simplest shoot look very hot. I think every artist in tune with the internet within hip-hop today is inspired by Rik Cordero in some way. I know I am.

Yes. This shit is nice. Cory Gunz is the shit.

Cory Gunz Feat. T-Pain- Gamble On Me [zShare]

The man makes a point. He could just be mad because he hasn't got Swaggerlitus though.

I'm feeling this record a lot.

I mentioned that Asher-D went to school with Jack. This is a newly liberated picture from Facebook with Asher looking 90s to the core rehearsing his performance for the Pimlico School NRA...we think.

I think it was worth interrupting UK Day on DITD for this video. You may remember T-Baby from my post in September. It's like magic. She's a magician.

I did not know it was going to be so UK on the site today I swear. I just found out Blak Twang has a blog. I met Twang a couple of times, once when I was wearing my traffic warden uniform outside Deal Real. I was at his last album launch too. That was a good night. Estelle was there, she didn't quite light up the stage. She's a lot better now. Sway was there that night too actually.

Speaking of Killer P. This record he did with The Bug and Flowdan goes so very hard. It has to be played at top volume preferably in a car with the windows down but it's cold outside so it may not be the best idea. Shock out in your house though.

I have a love/hate relationship with Roll Deep. Maybe that's harsh...on both sides. I fuck with them though, they're pioneers and they very reactive, I don't like when they deal with Trident, I personally really don't like Trident and I really don't like the Police. But Killer-P is down from day and he fucking murks this record. I like what they did with the BNP list too. That's definitely one of the things I like about Roll Deep, they'll flip any situation.

It's UK day pretty much. This is a little teaser video for the new Newham Generals single 'Violence' this shit is extra. When is Dizzee gonna pull them off the shelf? Does he still have Klass-A over there? They were hot for a minute, that 'Milly' track went hard. I need to find that actually.

Spotted on LXEnts

You might recognise that pitch from the 'That One Time' video, that's because it's the endz. I had no idea this was being filmed. Shout outs to Asher-D who I was in 'Storm Damage' with and who Jack went to school with. We actually caught up at the 'Boom (Smash Stuff)' launch a while back.

Spotten on DJ MK's World

Keeping the UK theme going. I just got given the new single from Tinchy Stryder. His first [?] on Island Records. You can hear a snippet above, it features Taio Cruz. I don't know why but I'm much happier for Tinchy Stryder to be the guy who can make a Taio Cruz record work than I am about a few other Grime MCs trying to "Crossover". I think I believe Tinchy. Without trying to patronise him, I think he's genuine, most of the other guys have been soured by industry politics and Tinchy seems to brush it off. Plus his ratio of good verses is way higher than most in the scene. The single is out in January, be on the look out for the video and the remix which features Sway and Chipmunk. Sway's the other dude I think can carry the "Pop" edge in his music well.

I first heard this on Semtex's site. I went on Youtube to find a stream and they didn't have one, but I found this link on Way More Fresher. It's not the best link but you get the idea. This song is uber-extra. Ghetts will keep grime on his back while everybody else gets fruity with it.

These are pictures from the Dirty Awards (mentioned here). Alfamega will pretty much eat your kids. He's the rap Mike Tyson but without the rape...I hope.

I've yet to comment on this story and I don't think I will. But this is the only thing that really sums it up.

So after about 11 years of confusion a line has finally been drawn. It turns out that the recession has made Labour transmorph into...get this...Labour! I know right? I couldn't believe it either! They bought some banks and taxed the rich! They played the fence on most major issues over the last 11 years while they implemented totally socialist policy locally and in the civil service. Now, when they had to go left or right they went all the way left. Could they have gone more left with it? I don't think so. I guess they could have included the word "Union" somewhere in the budget but beyond that...It's now Britain's choice, more than ever it is Britain's choice, it's Left Vs. Right, for the first time in about 20 years, Cameron can't sit in the centre anymore. He's been edging away from it the last few months anyway but now they've got a George Osbourne finding his voice (I weedy little fruit of a voice but a voice nonetheless) and a back bench starting to make names for themselves it's going to be an interesting 2009.

So Alfamega put the hurt on some people at some awards ceremony in the US yesterday. I may have mentioned on this site before that I fucks with Alfamega. He goes extra-extra, that's kinda my shit right now, just extra-extra. As much as T.I sucks these days he's pretty untouchable with Alfamega and Maino backing him up. I wish I liked Maino but he's yet to impress me, I try to enjoy his music as well, I truly do.

Apparently Young Jeezy's crew were made to hurt by La The Darkman's crew at the same event. I had a feeling Drama and Jeezy weren't getting on anymore but I guess this confirms it. No more 'Trap Or Die'? Fuck a Dip Set reunion we need a Drama and Jeezy reunion!

One thing's for sure, hip-hop awards ceremonies can not continue! They are a plague! They're like their own gang that account for a large percentage of the black on black crime rate across the globe!

With Wayne doing as well as he did, maybe nonsense raps with god like flows will do it for Busta all over again? This is a hot song and I can imagine it slaughtering a club even if it is just kinda 'A Millie Part 2'.

Are you keeping up with these? You really should be. Raw spit. It's crazy.

Man this song is something else. I need to seek out some Brother Ali.

The only place you can buy a new album in Brixton is Woolworths. We need to save Woolworths. I just bought this, I need to go record now, then I will listen. I can't believe my boy Mr Hudson is on a track! I did a couple of shows with Mr Hudson and The Library when we first got deals at the same time. The first show we did together was a gig we did for GoodBooks. Those Deal Real boys must be proud. Shout outs to them man.

I was checking out Eddie Argos's blog today and decided I would finally find an hour in my day to listen to his favourite podcast from Andrew Collins and Richard Herring and it's pretty excellent. Get involved here.

HNIC2 and Product of the 80s pretty much make Prodigy the best underground rapper in the world today.

01. Powerful Music
02. Shoot The Gun
03. Don’t Be Actin Like
04. New York Is Mine
05. New Jack City Bitch (feat. Lil Kim)
06. Come Here Baby
07. I’m So High (feat. Tony Yayo)
08. Brooklyn Tale
09. He Asked For It (feat. Jay-Z)
10. On The Real
11. A Good Man Is Gone
12. War
13. Gucci Sneakers
14. My Way
15. Too Much Pussy
16. Sex, Money And Murda (feat. Knick Guns)
17. Grand Finale

This tape has a lot less Murda weed carriers than his last tape. Although it does have two of the biggest weed carriers in history on it. Woo! New Murda!

Uncle Murda- Back On My Bullshit [Sharebee] (Courtesy of OnSMASH)

Sway has a blog it's here.

Free and Beans. What a team.

That's pretty funny. I hate that song though. Ron Brownz' autotune sounds so cheap. I like 'Arab Money' though I can't lie.

Check this new game on the XBox360. I would make rap videos using this game. Watch a video about it here

As mentioned here. How do you win a fight after that?

That is pretty much a classic rap video. The imagery around this Jeezy album has been perfect.

Jeres (aka Jeremy Allen) and Akira The Don (aka Obama Won*) have combined to write a tidy little comic strip for a music paper that has never, to my knowledge shown me any love. I could be wrong, but I rarely am...as you know. This is part 1 of A Serge Of Life which you can read in the latest issue of Stool Pigeon. Which as I mentioned before, doesn't seem to register my existence, as far as I know, I haven't actually read one in a while, but then it's been a recession and I haven't really been in the kind of place you'd pick one up. I plan to phone Jeres to see if he can arrange me a little cameo in the next strip so I can officially say I've been in Stool Pigeon. I don't mind people that don't write about me, I read an article on The Guardian website about a week in the NME office and they mention how important Alex Miller is these days, he showed me love back in the '06, so much so that my label panicked and thought I was about to sign a deal with Warner Brothers where I would be able to keep my original name (which I am pretty much bringing back next year), so they cock-blocked me and offered me an album deal which ended up taking so long that a lot of people forgot about me. Ho hum. They will remember though...I'm very off topic. This comic is great. I wish I had comic drawing/writing skills. Girls love guys with skills. My comics would probably be about weed or rap music or zombies, or all three. Actually, how kick shit awesome would that comic strip be? Why am I almost 99% sure it already exists?

*I'm currently calling Akira "Obama Won" (although he does not know this) because the night Obama won, or should I say morning, I got a call, I woke up, reached for my phone, saw it was Akira, turned to my girl and said "Obama won", turned off my phone and went back to sleep with Curb Your Enthusiasm timing, as I put the phone down the theme tune should have started. Wait. I'll find it on Youtube.

...started today on my new top secret project. So of course I am busy. My lack of posting will be justified. For now, check out Perfspot.

The kid David Haye stepped up last night against Monte Barrett. It was a really enjoyable fight, I'd say Haye is absolutely what the heavyweight division needs right now and it was good to see Vitali Klitchko in attendance hyping a title fight but I don't think we learned too much about David. He took a few shots and I admire the fact that he could probably have put Barrett down in the 3rd or 4th, by the time the 5th came along it seemed like the Monte Barrett desperation levels could have put Haye down for the count, which is dangerous. Could he go 12 with Rahman? I'd like to think so but I don't know so. Can he put Vitali or Vladimir down? I'd like to think so but I don't know. Hopefully he'll get another top 10 in the Spring and fight a Klitchko, at The Emirates Stadium in the summer. I just pitched it, there you go Haye, make it happen. I heard they're talking about boxing events at The Emirates, now's the time, this is as big as a UK fight is going to be for a while. You know Britain loves a heavyweight that can put a guy down.

Psychologically, the way Monte Barrett entered the ring must have had an effect.

Stabbings caused chaos at the Urban Music Awards last night. So fucking corny.

LINK: News

This is pretty exciting. Check the video Here or read about it Here.

This video is awesome for so many reasons. Can you count them? I mean...seriously? Why did I only see this for the first time tonight? Has it been on "Urban" Music channels? I don't watch those. This is excellent.

Okay so I've decided to list the reasons this video is great...in order...

1. Back to the Future motif.
2. It's very 80s.
3. The production is nice.
4. Greg Nice is on it! Rapping!
5. Is that the other member of Neptunes? Chad?
6. This song is pretty nice.
7. Russell Simmons just checked his coat.
8. DJ Enuff's got the moves.
9. Back to the Future car!
10. Back to the Future lightning effect!
11. The real Doc Brown Christopher Lloyd is getting out of that Delorian!
12. Is that Swizz Beats?
13. Other famous people I don't recognise!
14. Music stopped. Christopher Lloyd is talking to O'Neal.
15. He wants to go back to the future! Yey!
16. Lloyd is killing it! He wants to go to 2088.
17. The car drove off, the street is on fire and bang, the lightning is back.
18. O'Neal now has a shiney future suit. Like Puffy.
19. Greg Nice is back. He really works in this context.
20. Christopher Lloyd is DJ'ing in the future. GENIUS.
21. This song gets better the longer it goes on.
22. Ha! A list of credits!
23. That was Swizz Beats.
24. Ralf McDaniels is a name I hear in rap songs a lot but I don't know who that is.

Bad news sports fans. That band they made on Hollyoaks are releasing a single...I know, I know...Dirty Diegos will release their single 'Play' this month and will perform the song live on the soap. You can watch the video HERE. The fact that I was not able to encode it will tell you which label it's being released on.

Youtube Comment of the day "I wish Michaela had died in that church."

That's that Brixton Skreet shit. Swagger splashed from AkiraTheDon.com. Be on the look out for my boy Narstie's album An Exceedingly Good Cake coming in the '09. I'm hearing it's crazy.

I got very sick of the phrase "Boom and Bust" a few weeks back but when you look at the posters New Labour ran over the last 11 years it's pretty incredible the way they fucked it all up. Today we have the announcement that unemployment reaches 11 year high. I wonder what happened 11 years ago? The economy they inherited, all they needed to do was safeguard it and they'd be in power forever, voters in this country will vote based on their house price and perceived quality of life. What do New Labour offer at this point? The Bank of England say Britain has been in a recession since the middle of 2008. I thought it was a "Credit Crunch" and then a "Global Economic Downturn"? What nice phrases they are to keep people from saying my current catchphrase "Recession". I'm hearing that the next quarter's readings on the subjects of unemployment and interest rates will be even more alarming. Yey. Merry Christmas everybody!

This is an old video but I stumbled across it again this morning. With the internet the way it is, people forget about great media 6 months after the fact, I want to give people's mixtapes, freestyles and videos a little bit more credit than that. This is an epic song. Absolutely epic.

A lady by the name of Sam Mason was fired from the BBC today for alleged racist statements towards an Asian cab driver. Read the news story here. She's a prick and deserved to lose her job. She needs to educate her daughter. But what really offends me is the fact that they mention she's from Clifton. I lived in Clifton for 6 weeks last summer recording my album. I didn't encounter any racism...I don't think...naw. I don't think so. Maybe behind my back? I doubt it. Sean wouldn't stand for that. Sean will fight you for that. That's how me and Sean roll. Bob, Tim and Andy don't get involved with other people's business but if Sean heard you being racist he'd spit in your eye. And rightly so. So if you're ever in Clifton, mainly Princess Victoria Street or anywhere around The Village. Tell them you know Marvin. Whatever race you are they'll sow you love. Ask for Sean. You buy him a drink!

Take a couple of minutes today to think about the cost of war. Think about the people who go and fight for their country, for you, for the other side, for what they believe in. Don't just think about today, you can hate every war there has ever been but you can appreciate what it takes to go out there and actually do it. There have been times in history when the sending of men and women to die was absolutely necessary to preserve what little balance we had on the planet and to prevent the further senseless murders of innocent people around the globe. We are still losing lives abroad in service to us. We will always be in debt to the military men and women who are ready to fight on our behalf for our freedoms.

God damn the energy. I think Jay goes in on Part 3.

I've been on the fence but to be honest, is Kanye singing really that different to Kanye rapping? He can do way more with less syllables than most rappers can do period. I'm feeling this 'Robocop' record. The beat is bizzonkers and the song is catchy as hell. 'Love Lockdown' didn't do it for me straight away but it was definitely a grower. I'm really excited to hear the album now, I'm hoping for something like Pet Shop Boys meets Gnarls Barklay.

His 'Coldest Winter' cover is insane too.

Paul Rudd, Sean William Scott, McLovin' and the woman from Best In Show/ 40 Year Old Virgin? That looks funny!

Buzzcocks is one of my favourite shows on television. I am a huge Mark Lamarr fan and never dreamed they'd be able to replace him, I remember talk of him leaving the show for about 3 years before he finally did it do. But when Simon Amstell took the job it seemed that the show may have actually gotten better. I'm not T4's biggest fan on the whole. It shows The Simpsons and Hollyoaks so I put up with it occasionally but frankly I think it's absolutely lost touch with the audience it once commanded (it's the 10 year anniversary this year!), so I didn't get to see too much of Amstell on Popworld where he made his name. What I saw I found funny but I was never sure how much of his shtick was manufactured by clever editing. I remember him on Nickelodeon when he was younger though, not many people will. The last couple of series of Buzzcocks have made it an absolute favourite of mine because of his fearless bear baiting of B and sometimes C-List celebrities. Having the relief of a genuinely funny Bill Bailey was without doubt a great leveler for Amstell who seems to enjoy Bailey's brand of traditional comedy as much as we do. Phil Jupitus is a generally great guy, he knows a lot about music, I don't mean a lot like a lot, I mean, Phil Jupitus really knows music. He's pretty funny when he wants to be but that's not really his role.

This series has been something of a damp squib though. Bill Bailey's obviously making thousands and thousands of pounds touring and voicing things for people so it's understandable that he's decided to call his time on Buzzcocks but he really should have been replaced. Switching captains every week isn't working. As James Wignall pointed out in The Guardian over the weekend. Jack Dee, Bob Mortimer and Johnny Vegas plugged the hole to an extent but they never got comfortable enough to extend beyond their relative comfort zones while James Cordon was just awful, I mean, really shocking.

In the last series when Bailey was away for a few episodes they replaced him with Noel Fielding who did the job adequately. He's probably not available to take the job on a full time basis (he's busy over promoting The Mighty Boosh). They've got to come up with something though, the chemistry isn't there at the moment, the guests are getting away with being shit (Amstell let that Glasvegas guy slide completely) and you know how ready the BBC are to take a potentially brilliant show and put it's stars in regular light entertainment broadcasting over at BBCThree. We don't want an Amstell clip show, or an Amstell sit-com. We really don't.

I couldn't stay up for the fight last night. I thought about it but I had a tough day and it would have killed me. I caught the replay this morning though and it was incredible by all rights. I watched some of the build-up where they showed some of the defining rounds of Calzaghe and Jones' careers. They are two of the most important boxers of my lifetime without a doubt. Hopkins too, but Calzaghe took them both this year and has absolutely nothing left to prove. He really did a job last night, Jones was a god damned soldier though. That cut could have done some serious damage and you could see the exhaustion but he didn't stop for 12 rounds. Classic boxing. Amazing. I will watch the replay a few times over the next couple of days.

Shout outs to the Brixton Bomber Danny Williams too. He went down at York Hall pretty much ending his career. Which is sad, but it's worth remembering some of his great fights, Tyson, Harrison, Skelton, Sam, Klitchko. He's a legend.

Everybody knows Nas lost!

Some people were complaining that the Artrocker.TV server was loading too slowly.

So I heard Dizzee smacked it before I heard there were some angry people on Facebook. I watched the video and agreed that Dizzee smacked it. He didn't pretend to want to enter into a debate, he wanted to express an opinion and he didn't want to make it look like he was speaking for anybody other than himself. Beautiful. How many rappers/actors/singers attempt to speak for their "Generation" and end up sounding like twats? Dizzee did manage to speak for his generation but that wasn't his intention. So I've since read the Facebook "Rant" about how negative a role model Dizzee Rascal is and how in America they get great role models like Jay-Z to talk about politics. I don't even know where to begin with that one. Then the person suggested couple of British examples who could have gone on Newsnight including Lewis Hamilton -that dude, hero, no question, lives in Switzerland, goes out with a Pussycat Doll and drives a car 150MPH for a living, just saying. Then they mention that maybe Bashy should have gone on the show...no fucking comment.

UPDATE: Shout outs to DJ Semtex and Bashy. I love how this blogging thing works. It's not even 3PM. Politics being debated in a hip-hop context, across blogs can only be a good thing. I'm reading the comments though and I'm alarmed by the word "Educated". Did Dizzee not go to school? I think he did. A product of the British Education system like me, I don't know how well he did, but I don't know how well Lewis Hamilton did either? I know I didn't do very well. Does that make my opinion less valid than the next man's? I'd really like to know.

Seal's doing a whole album of classic Soul covers. 'A Change Is Gonna Come' is killing everything out at the moment.

Wow. That's...piercing.

God damn Beanie Sigel went in.

Hologram? Will.i.am got to be the first hologram? That is incredible. Thank Obama for holograms!

Example phoned me yesterday to ask if I wanted to support him on a couple of dates this week. I couldn't do Southampton on Friday, even though I love Southampton, last time I was there was with Lethal and Skinnyman and it pretty much went down. Although my boy Steven lost the microphone to his camera that day and I'm pretty sure Jack lost his digital camera (the early part of any tour is quite discombobulating). Anyway, I did say I'd help Example out in Brighton on Sunday at Audio, which is a +16 gig. They're always great. If you're in the Brighton area there are a few tickets on the door I'm told.

09/11/08
Audio
10 Marine Parade
Brighton
BN2 1TL

Should I like this song? Because I kindof do.

That Lambo's blue!

Well he's half and half. Like Lewis. Is that the future of the world? Chocolately skinded mixed people? It definitely looked that way in the 90s. Light skinned is back in style!

Over there in Mamericar. To celebrate watch this video of Political Gaffes On LiquidGeneration. Question is, Biden with a mussel or Palin without?

Hipsters are stepping on toes now. Deal with the situation Cons.

So since opening the Marvin [The Martian] Shop... I've had emails, Facebook messages and MySpace messages asking if you can buy a Devil In The Distance album promo. I have very few of them. Very, very few, but I did find a bag on Friday filled with envelopes which had been stuffed with album promos and 'That One Time' Promos set to go out to press, radio and promoters in the summer. So I technically have more than I thought I did when I set up the shop. Does that mean I'm going to sell them? Maybe. I'm technically not allowed but having attempted to arrange a physical release of my album for the last few weeks I'm on the back foot somewhat. You guys want the album, I want to give it you, you guys don't trust iTunes, and so you shouldn't. I'm not going to say how many copies I have but it's a seriously low amount. Like I doubt I could have it up for sale for anything longer than 24 hours.

I'm thinking about it. Maybe a package deal, you can get 'That One Time EP', 'I Hate My Job' and 'Devil In The Distance' for £14 or something. That way I can definitely shift this excess stock [which has been moving nicely by the way. Thanks to everybody whose bought].

Freeway is the shit. America is so close to a Black President right now? It's so hard to believe. What could it mean?

I'm currently being featured as an artist and a blogger on the hot new website Perfspot.com. Check out what they say about my mixtape and listen to the tracks individually if you so wish.

Truly unbelievable. Formula 1 was a privilege to watch today. Incredible. Hamilton is that dude.

I moved a couple of months back. I have a load of stock lying around and haven't got any immediate plans to gig (I'm sorry). I'm really trying to spend the winter in the studio getting ready to unleash a couple of new projects in the new year, so I figured I'd let you guys get first dibs on what it is I gots...

The first thing is something I should have had on the site for a while. It's a limited edition "12 vinyl we did last December for 'Get By'. It's got really nice artwork, it's got 'Devil In The Distance' as a B-Side and it was never commercially released! This was pressed up for select DJs and press, I've seen it do decent business on eBay over the last year and I don't have a JPEG. So I've made this one. It makes it look like a white label which it's not, in many ways it's rarer, no shop had this record.

'Get By'/ 'Devil In The Distance' Limited Edition "12 £7 + £1 P&P

Tracklisting.

A Side: Get By (Be Good)
B Side: Devil In The Distance

The next piece of stock is my first official single 'I Hate My Job'. This did come out in your HMVs and whatnots but that was 2006 (2006? Crazy!). The B-Side to the single was 'Music Man' which was actually meant to be my first single but it had sample clearance issues. I love this CD single. If my USP for 'Get By'/'Devil In The Distance' was that it was rare then I guess my USP for 'I Hate My Job'/'Music Man' is that it's classic. So unspoiled by expectation of the business, so innocent, so natural.

'I Hate My Job' CD Single £3 + £0.70 P&P

Tracklisting.

1. I Hate My Job
2. Music Man

The third piece of stock is extremely rare. So rare in fact that I only have about 15 left myself. But 15 aren't doing me much good sitting in a box so I figured I'd put them here. I'm not really sentimental like that. 'That One Time EP' was originally a single, 'That One Time' obviously, but we kept stocking up the remixes, 'That One Time Aidan Lavelle Remix', 'That One Time Lillica Libertine Remix', 'Boyspot', the extremely rare 'Formerly...' (once the title track to a "Best of" album thing we were doing that we never did) and one of my favourite album tracks 'Fight Or Flee'. This CD was never released in shops so I have promos with nice fully designed artwork complete with hand designed back cover (oh yes).

'That One Time EP' CD £5 + £0.70 P&P

Tracklisting.

1. That One Time
2. Boyspot
3. Fight Or Flee
4. Formerly...
5. That One Time (Lillica Libertine Remix)
6. That One Time (Aidan Lavelle's Lizard Mix)

I may have a few other bits and pieces lying around. Not sure. I will endeavour to enclose a classic flyer and badge in each package.

Monday, 22 December 2008

Thursday, 18 December 2008

Wednesday, 17 December 2008

Tuesday, 16 December 2008

Friday, 12 December 2008

Thursday, 11 December 2008

Monday, 8 December 2008

Friday, 5 December 2008

Thursday, 4 December 2008

Wednesday, 3 December 2008

Tuesday, 2 December 2008

Monday, 1 December 2008

Friday, 28 November 2008

Thursday, 27 November 2008

Wednesday, 26 November 2008

Tuesday, 25 November 2008

Monday, 24 November 2008

Sunday, 23 November 2008

Friday, 21 November 2008

Thursday, 20 November 2008

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

Tuesday, 18 November 2008

Monday, 17 November 2008

Sunday, 16 November 2008

Thursday, 13 November 2008

Wednesday, 12 November 2008

Tuesday, 11 November 2008

Monday, 10 November 2008

Sunday, 9 November 2008

Friday, 7 November 2008

Thursday, 6 November 2008

Wednesday, 5 November 2008

Tuesday, 4 November 2008

Monday, 3 November 2008

Sunday, 2 November 2008

Saturday, 1 November 2008

Devil In The Distance

Subscribe To

Devil In The Distance L.P

Somebody's Watching Me Mixtape

The Blogspot Mixtape

Politically Incorrect Part 2

Politically Incorrect Part 3

I Hate My Job

Hoods & Badges EP

That One Time E.P

Superhero

Get By (Be Good)

Hoods and Badges Mixtape

Thieving