Haha! My boy Skinnyman knew he needed to put visuals to 'Smoking Ban'. I'm telling you every night on the 'Back To Bizznezz' tour Skinny could have gone out, done 'Smoking Ban', left and still won fans, that bassline rattles clubs. Glasgow in particular went NUTS for 'Smoking Ban'. Now we need that second album Skinny. Shouts to my boy Nasser in the video too. God damn we had some good nights on that tour...Skinnyman more than me but still.
Online theme mixtape day continues with Cipha Sounds and his new artist Daytona's new mixtape 'A Tribe Called Fresh' which if I'm not mistaken, is a collection of Tribe Called Quest covers done by Daytona and a few of his friends. I heard that 'Lyrics To Go' track with Joell Ortiz and Kardinal Official (underrated) a few weeks back and I liked it a lot plus as I've mentioned on this site before; Cipha Sounds is a legend over here.
This is the new online exclusive mixtape by American Washington D.C artist Wale (I believe it's pronounced "Wha-Lay"). I'm still not sure about the guy but he's signed to Mark Ronson so his production game is going to be on point and he's got a little British edge. He's also got co-signs from the likes of Jay-Z and Bun-B. Any rapper who's pictured with Lindsay Lohan before their mixtape drops is going to seem a little suspect to me though. Maybe this tape can make me a fan, he did okay on The Roots album, not amazing, but decent enough.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks back I'm passing by the legendary DJ Excalibah's Pyro Radio show tonight. I'm going to be handing over some new records, I'm going to be debuting some new material and I'm generally going to tear it down. I'm taking Pixel down to the station to help me out, it's going to be a large amount.
I just got off the phone with Ex, Pyro are doing studio work today so we've pushed back the session to next week. You now have fair warning, make sure you tune in.
Check out the show live from 8PM Next Monday (03.05.08) only on PyroRadio.com
You may have seen blogs covering 'Tha Carter III Snippets' this weekend but a lot of them are one file and they don't have much info. Semtex has got everything in there in Zshare files with details. Hmmmm. In 2004 I was banging 'Tha Carter' very hard...no moho. He was just starting to change opinions among the hardcore, Tego was into the South on another level at the time so he was bringing a load of crazy shit around us that didn't stick, Wayne pretty much became all of our favourite rappers (Jay-Z was retired) by the time 'Tha Carter II' came out though. The beats weren't as dark as they were on the first album but it had genuine hits. 'Tha Carter II' stayed on my phone for like a year. He killed the remixes and the freestyles for a solid year or so before I started to get worried, in my opinion, save for 'Gossip' and a few freestyles here and there Wayne has sucked for over a year now. I know 'Lollipop' wasn't for me and I know it's number 1 in the States but that's not the same Wayne as 'I Miss My Dawgs', that's somebody else. He was basically worthless on 'Barry Bonds' and 'Hello Brooklyn', he flopped when he came over here, made himself look pretty silly and honestly these snippets aren't filling me with much excitement. It seems like Jay-Z and Lil Wayne are going to do a Jay-Z and Biggie by only ever collaborating on slightly subpar production. Saying that; Jay's track on the last T.I album had a dodgy beat as did his track on the last Beanie Sigel album.
What do you think? Can Wayne pull it out of the fire?
I just found out that Camu Tao died. He was battling cancer apparently. I honestly didn't know. You find out about my secret underground side now; Camu Tao used to do a lot of work with my second favourite white rapper Cage. They made the above album together 'Nighthawks' he was really nice. I did wonder why it was that he'd fallen off the face of the earth after beating the shit out of Copywrite (not one of my favourite white rappers) a couple of years back and I guess now we know.
I was just sent this mix on French blog Vepl.fr. It's heat. I'm on it which is why I listened to it to begin with but I advise you do too. Something about French music, it always sounds like they're having fun. Perhaps not so much for this stink weather.
Traklisting...
1.Raw Man - Wargame 2.MSTRKRFT - Vuvuvu 3.Crookers - Magic Bus 4.Marvin - That One Time (Lillica Libertine Remix) 5.Dusty Kid - The Cat (Crookers Remix) 6.Nrotb - Take me upp! 7.Ocelot - Lo sforzo (Sirhan Texas Trash Remix) 8.Switches - Every Second Counts (Ocelot Remix) 9.Turntablerocker - No Melody (Malente Remix) 10.The Loose Cannons - Whyd4ml (Stupid Fresh Remix) 11.Giko - Asshole (Facteur Remix) 12.Barney - Oh Please 13.Alex Gopher - Belmondo (The Subs Remix) 14.Dragonette - Take It Like A Man (Felix Cartal Remix) 15.Harvard Bass - Stitches 16.Crookers - Lollypop 17.Young MC - Bust A Move (Don Rimini Remix) 18.Nixon - Ass 19.Goose - Nike Original Run 20.Mika - Lollipop (Yuksek extended Remix) 21.Moby - I Love To Move In Here (Crookers Bass In Here Remix)
Mike Skinner has just announced on his blog that his 4th album is officially complete which is a great look. It's a pretty interesting blog because he talks about something I've been dealing with the last few weeks. I finished 'Devil In The Distance' in September 2007. It was fully mixed and completed in February and it's coming out July 28th. Ever since the day I went back to Brixton from Bristol in September last year I have been planning my next album. I couldn't imagine my first album going any better, all live synths, no samples, a 100% honest account of my life thus far, I consider my album to be perfect. But it was made at that time and since then I've been experimenting with some shit in my head that is so far removed from 'Devil In The Distance' that I sometimes confuse myself (see 'Boyspot'). In March I started to act on these thoughts. Me and Jack have been in the studio whenever we've had a spare minute recording, mixing and writing. Just today I recorded a song called 'Step 2 Skank' which is for all intents and purposes; a Dancehall record. At three of my gigs this year I've played a record me and Jack made with a third party called 'Charge Me (She's Bad)' which is about a prostitute (it's a story. It goes deep). I have a lot of faith in both of these records but they could never have been on 'DITD'. With my first album I spent a lifetime planning, I spent two months writing, I spent six weeks recording and there wasn't much room to say "Fuck it" which I like. But I've only this week started to think "Am I working on my second album?" I think I might be. I'd told myself it was an E.P so I didn't have to commit to it all the way, but the songs are clocking up and they've got a pretty consistent sound (dark, electronic, conceptual). Mike Skinner says his next album is already in his head and that it's way darker than the record he's just finished. I thought it was an interesting parallel, also when he says that he has to live 12 months ahead of his fans, it's weird, when we did Hartlepool a couple of weeks back I didn't do any of the songs from my album and I hardly noticed. Of course that was bad of me because I instantly regretted not adding 'Superhero', 'Get By (Be Good)' and 'That One Time' to the set but it's strange how what I might consider an old record is not an old record and what I consider a new record I recorded the week I debut.
Also, 'That Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living' is a fucking great album.
While I'm on the subject of my weekend in the studio, I put together two new freestyles for my mixtape (sooner than you think) and an exclusive freestyle for Excalibah's next mixtape in the already classic line 'UK Dubstate'.
Last night I checked out Public Enemy at Brixton Academy. I can't claim to have ever been a proper P.E fan, I am entirely too young, but I am a scholar in many respects so I know my hip-hop history. Public Enemy performing 'It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back' at Brixton Academy is an amazing thing to be happening. You see when Public Enemy first played Brixton Academy back in the 1980s they were supported by The Beastie Boys who were shocking the shit out of British press at the time with talk of penises and naughty things of that nature (these days they don't swear and make jazz fusion records...the British press win) and the gig absolutely went down in hip-hop history the crowd noise was actually used in the interludes during 'It Takes a Nation...'. We know a guy who was at that gig and he talks about it a lot.
So last night was the first time that Public Enemy would be performing 'It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back' from front to back anywhere in the world so Brixton is pretty excited (plus it's a Friday so Public Enemy fans can probably stay up past midnight or something similarly shocking). I live literally two minutes from the Academy because I'm Brixton like that. So of course I miss the first two support acts; Edan (who I probably would have been interested in seeing) and Anti-Pop Consortium (who I could live without forever I think), I got into the venue after being sent to two windows only to find out I had a V.I.P pass waiting for me at the stage door just in time to catch some guy in a fruity scarf freestyling badly over what appears to be a Canadian DJ in a wrestling mask (how do I know he's Canadian? I just do). After the tedious freestyle session is over Mr Fruity Scarf gets into a song I know. The guy on stage it turns out is hip-hop legend Kool Keith and he's now performing Dr Octagon songs, I'm pretty excited at this point, I'd written him off as a lame just minutes prior, he's not, he's Kool Keith and 'Blue Flowers' kicked the shit. The scarf is still fruity though. Keith throws some magazines into the crowd (I think) and exits stage left.
Next up we have a DJ performance from The Bomb Squad Hank and T Shocklee. The Bomb Squad of course produced the majority of P.E's classic material including 'It Takes a Nation...' so it's an honour to have them on stage. They start with a remix of T-Pain's 'I'm So Hood' and I'm pretty much the only person in the venue who knows what it is, not to worry as for the next hour or so there will be no more choruses, just hard industrial house music and dub-step (I think The Bomb Squad live over here now) "We be at the underground clubs with yall". They outstay there welcome to an extent, some people refuse to accept that the same song appears to have been playing for about 25 minutes out of respect and I respect that. T Shocklee dances around the stage for a few minutes before finally promising us Public Enemy and the Bomb Squad are done.
A giant Public Enemy banner is lowered down the back of the stage that excites glee in the packed arena (it was sold out well in advance). A terrible British accent asks the crowd if they're ready "Then I've got one thing to say to you....YEEEAAAAAHH BBOOOOYYYEEEEE" man that was as exciting as a man's voice can get. Flava Flav and Chuck-D take the stage with the S1Ws who look a little old but they get the job done. For the first time I consider that perhaps Flav looks younger than Chuck? It's possible. The fitness, energy and general rehearsedness of their show is unbelievable. They really don't stop. Professor Griff wasn't allowed out of America for the show and Chuck's pretty pissed. He says something about Minister Farakhan like this is 1994 or there were more than 2% black people in the audience. It's worth mentioning again at this point that I don't know P.E material like that so they're doing songs I've heard but I really don't know them, they're definitely doing them well though. I was disappointed that when doing 'Don't Believe The Hype' there was no effort to perform the horse noise. The hardcore fans wearing tight 'Fight The Power' hats weren't even making that great horse noise. Very poor. Chuck and Flav manage to look as enthusiastic about performing as I think I could possibly have imagined. They dedicate 'Terminator X' to Terminator X of course who retired in 1998 to run an Ostrich farm in North Carolina (does he still run an Ostrich farm?).
What was truly notable about the show was the amount of times I heard samples, lines and hooks that have been reused in contemporary rap records absolutely in reference to Public Enemy that I'd never picked up on before. I feel privileged to have seen the gig last night, Public Enemy are the best stadium rap performers I've ever seen live...they're probably the only stadium rap performers I've seen live but still, they rocked like Metalica who I saw at Leeds Festival a few years back or Iggy Pop who I saw at Reading the year after. That's a good thing.
Don't believe the rumours! South-London ran tings last night on D:U:M Radio. Me and Goldielocks spit some nasty, nasty bars, Black Cherry were on some biased ting because true Defury's their boy from way back and true his bars made sense they were like "Nah they won!" but you know how South-London does; me and Goldie robbed them all, took Example's Red Bull and everything.
Good times though. They should give more amateurs radio shows, I say "They" I don't know "They" are all I know is me and Goldielocks repped.
As I've said before. I am on Diesel U-Music Radio tonight on Black Cherry's show with Example and Goldielocks. I just found out there's a live webcam where you can watch the show unfold. Right now I'm watching Hot Chip, they're playing bangers actually, I don't know what this reggae/funky/grime thing is but it's nice.
Man look at that! You remember 'Boy Meets World' right? Tapanga was that chick in 'Boy Meets World' now she's lezzing up for the intranets! Woo! God bless you intranets!
Saigon just said it so I guess I'm gonna have to go see P.E at Brixton Academy tomorrow night. I'm too young to completely "Get" Public Enemy but I'm willing to learn.
I'm going to party tonight. Diesel U-Music Radio 87.7 to all my South London people ONLINE PEOPLE CLICK HERE from 10PM tonight. There's parties going on downstairs before and after the show so I'm gonna get loose.
I just found out that Saigon and Just Blaze worked out a release from Atlantic Records. I don't think it's an ego thing when I say that I always saw a parallel between mine and Saigon's careers. The time lines matched and everything. I really hoped that 'Devil In The Distance' would come out the same year as 'The Greatest Story Never Told' it was one of things I was looking forward to saying this year, I hope them getting their release from Atlantic means that they can press ahead with the album which Just Blaze says he kept the masters to. I am a genuine Saigon fan as you may have been able to tell from my 'C'mon Baby Freestyle' and I'm obviously a Just Blaze fan. For all the people disappointed that 'The Greatest Story Never Told' is looking like a 2009 release I promise 'Devil In The Distance' will bridge the gap. For the time being Just Blaze just leaked this new Saigon banger. That's that soulful shit we need.
Me and Jack were watching Pimp My Ride UK yesterday, which we tend to do as it's way better than Pimp My Ride US due to Westwood's hilarity; but yesterday the young Iranian lady who was getting her car pimped (a VW Beetle) spent the entire show constantly trying to cock block Westwood's jokes. It started irritating us as Westwood is hilarious on PMRUK, he once had us in hysterics when he ordered a hot dog from that weird Pink Haired chick with the lines "Extra Mustard, hold the onions AND MAKE SURE YOUR BUNS ARE FRESH!!!" I still laugh at that line. He's a genius. I know some are offended by Westwood, they don't get it, that's fine, but for Westwood to be pimping your gaffer-taped rust bucket at no cost and then for you to disrespect him like that; it's simply not on. "What? F*ck off back to Iran if you don't like Tim Westwood" Jack announced in a totally non-racist kind of way. Westwood is an institution, he really is, you hear how the best DJs in the world talk about Westwood and it's with nothing but respect.
But why blog such randomness I hear you ask? Well because the incident popped back into my head this morning when I stumbled upon DJ MK's blog where he has just thrown up classic 1989 Westwood and DJ Marley Marl on air MP3 goodness. Listen to it, download it and remember why Westwood is often considered the greatest hip-hop DJ of all time.
On a related note, I once met DJ MK, I was DJ'ing for Marvin at Cargo in 2006, the sound was shocking and Marvin just had a full page in the Metro that day so the venue was rammed; I was stood next to MK, me knowing who he was but him obviously not knowing who I was and noticing that I had no idea what I was doing helped me get some more boom out of the system, it made an impact but it still wasn't a great show. MK's C.V currently reads "Regular DJ for Roots Manuva, sometimes DJ for Dizzee Rascal and have my own show on Kiss FM" that's pretty impressive. He rocked the party that night too.
I once met Tim Westwood too. We were on a billing together at Islington Academy with Lethal Bizzle, Ghetto, Skinnyman and N-Dubz. It was only last year November but it feels like longer, Westwood was so safe, he was DJ'ing from the same station as me, he was using Serato like a real pimp, I was using CDs. He said he "Loved [our] hit single" I'm not sure which single that was but it was great to hear. I bowed to him like he was the king, I'd do it again! Story time is fun.
I am not in this much. You'll see why in the short time I actually do feature. Funny stuff though. Also featured live performances of 'C'Mon Baby Freestyle' and the debut of 'Boyspot. Enjoy.
First thing's first. I'm very happy and very privileged to have been able to see Ghostface and Raekwon performing 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx' in London last night and I'm sure I'm not the only person who felt that way. But with Wu Tang it's never over until it's over so on the journey up I was absolutely resigned to the fact that not only was Ghostface not going to be there but that Raekwon probably wouldn't be there either. The fact that I got in with no fuss and didn't have to stand through poorly received support acts (people came for Wu Tang, unless you've got Method Man back there don't bother) made me more hopeful. When Raekwon came out I was more excited by the fact that J-Love was DJ'ing, don't ask me why, he's just one of the few DJ's I've followed in the last few years, god knows I don't follow Alan Matthewmatics. My initial fears appeared to be founded when Rae was tailed by a very nondescript weed carrier who may or may not have been in that awful group Ice Water. Rae jumped into a few '36 Chambers' classics including his verse from 'C.R.E.A.M' where he says he smoked crack, a line that Shyheim ended up making a whole diss song about not too long ago. One of my other fears about tonight was that Raekwon might want to try some 'Immobilarity' and 'Lexx Diamond' material. He did, although I shouted "No new shit!" I was drowned out by some people who I guess are bigger Wu Tang fans than me who seemed to know every word.
Rae's warm-up dragged a bit before he introduced Ghostface. Now let's get this straight, Ghostface could well be the greatest who ever did it, no gas, the guy has consistently released great albums (although that last one was a bit...) and has the charisma of Big Daddy Kane in his prime, he's tailed tonight by his own set of weed carriers, I recognise one of them, he's Shawn Wiggs from Theodore Unit, he's white, it's kinda obvious who he is, the other one? Not so much. Ghost runs through 'Fishscale' classics, 'Ironman' classics and a couple of numbers from 'Supreme Clientele' before starting his ritualistic controlling of the light man's evening "We want the red light. Just the red light. Turn off all these other shits" they didn't do the whole of the 'OB4CL' intro which was honestly a disappointment to me "You know we had the baddest motherfucking unit back in the days kid".
It's worth noting at this point that some of those instrumentals were really not designed to be performed live in such a big venue, in a few instances I found myself waiting for the first 4-8 bars of a song before I could actually pinpoint what the fluck it was and believe me I know 'OB4CL' inside out. On principal I refused to throw my "W" up, I might have been the only person in the venue who didn't but it's whatever. I saw one guy running around before the show eating a Fruesli Breakfast Bar, at a fucking Wu Tang show. Times have changed. I did shout ODB during the staple Rest In Peace section though. Half way through the album as if it was an old purple tape Ghostface ordered the lights up and invited 5 or so young rappers to the stage to do 40 seconds of rap and see how the crowd reacted, of course they were all pretty shocking but the guy who did win I would say was probably the best, if only for the fact that he sort of looked like Skinnyman. A pleasant surprise during this half time interval Ghost & Rae were joined on stage by De La Soul who were in London that night because they have a show the next night at The Forum, they got a good reaction but I kinda felt bad when Ghost said that everybody who's at tonight's show has to go to the De La Show, the response was sorta muted, to be fair though they'd just paid £18 which is like $400 or some shit, god knows how much one of De La's monthly London shows cost, we're in a credit crunch after all. Ghost and Rae pass on their condolences to Corrine Baily Rae after her husband died of a drug overdose, while I believe that Ghost is friends with Corrine (I've read that somewhere too) Raekwon's claim that "That's my homegirl. What's her name? Corrine? Correen? Yo that's my homegirl" seemed forced.
Back into the album and Ghost wants the blue lights, Raekwon is looking a bit tired at this point and starts missing lines in his own verses forcing Ghostface to up his overlay game to a ridiculous extent to compensate. Raekwon goes accapella on his verse from 'Rainy Days' (video above) before everything simmers a bit, to finish off the night J-Love throws on little parts of a bunch of random Wu Tang tracks, the majority of which were from 'Forever' which sucked. Ghost and Rae perform 'Triumph' for some reason and get down to U-God's verse before stopping, I think everybody in the venue was confused by that. We wanted to hear U-God damn it! While J-Love packs up his gear Raekwon throws that new turd burger that has been listed online as 'Necro' but is apparently called 'The G-Hide' and is produced by Necro, he tells us it's from 'OB4CL2' and it's proof that the album really is coming, Rae raps along to it for the first however many bars before getting as bored as the rest of us, Ghostface drinks Marks & Spencers Juice on stage and does not pretend to know his lyrics, which I appreciated.
If you're into 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx' like I am then you should definitely try to catch the show when it passes by your town, hopefully Raekwon will have shaken off the rustiness a little bit and maybe J-Love will leave his fog horn sound affect at home. If so you're in for a great night.
BONUS VIDEO: That Shyheim record I was talking about. I wonder where Shy would be if he got on Jay-Z's first album like he was supposed to?
This is Hunchbakk. He's a producer/ remixer/ DJ, he sent me through this remix he did of The Enemy; I'm not a huge Enemy fan but I like Coventry and I think this remix is pretty hot so I said I'd put it up. Dark dub-steppy shit.
This is a kind of repost. My SK Vibemakers/ UK Street Sounds Podcast is up and available for downloading by (right) clicking this sentence but it has been since last week. The reason for the repost is two fold, the first being the pleasant artwork I just came across above and the second being that I have just updated this fancy little thing over on your right...yes. I have a list of FREE MP3s and FREE Podcasts involving myself Marvin. They will stay updated from now on so if you think you missed anything, you can check.
Who's coming? I never count my chickens when it comes to Wu Tang (they've let me down too many times before) but if all the 100% confirmed listings are true then Raekwon and Ghostface will be in Camden tonight performing the whole of what could be the greatest album of all times 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx'. Man this is going to be the best night of Karaoke ever. I'm expecting to see some people there too, Example said he was trying to get tickets and I know for a fact that Lethal ranks 'OB4CL' as one of his all time favourites. I could be wrong here because I regularly am but I think I will be the first blog to cover the event, have they done this anywhere else yet? I know they're doing it at 'Rock The Bells' this summer but have they done it anywhere else? I don't think they have. I expect The Guardian to have a review up in the morning that will be way better than mine but still. I hear that Public Enemy are doing 'It Takes a Nation of Millions' front to back at Brixton Academy this month too, I'm too young to completely get Public Enemy but it's in Brixton and Chuck-D's one of the smarter guys to ever do it so I'll try and reach that too.
I just picked up yesterday's Sun newspaper and came across a perfect description of what 'Boyspot' means. That is a BOYSPOT! That is a BOYZONE! That is a WESTLIFE!
It debuted on Music Liberation at the end of last month. And now you can download it a fresh funky MP3. Yes that's right, "Fresh" and "Funky". It's a preview of two mixtapes we're dropping this summer; one from me, one from Pixel.
I just holla'd at my boy DJ Excalibah, I'm taking my crew up to his show on May 27th to tear it down. I'm going hard for the next single and it starts on Ex's show. I'll bring you more details next week.
Stopping the 70 teenage murders in 18 months must begin at home you say? How convenient. Knives are in the kitchen draw? No way! Are they in the kitchen draw in Kent? Newcastle? Swansea?
"But the proportion of young people (killed) has risen," he said. "That's why we're doing something about it."
Very funny video of a Policeman flooring a Rangers fan last night in Manchester HERE. Did he need to do that? Of course not, but he is a Policeman, he'll do as he pleases. Doesn't stop it being funny though.
Tego, what does "Whayabargingfa?" mean? We'll it's an abbreviation, it means "What are you barging for?" once, my head teacher Mr Barnard barged a pupil in the corridor, the pupil then turned around and shouted "Whayabargingfa?". This was in the first year at Pimlico and that piece of slang carried with us until the end of days and beyond. That One Time indeed.
Awesome article in The Guardian (spotted via SpineMagazine.com) about a couple of kids from Dundee who put on fake American accents, got a huge record deal and a superstar lifestyle for a couple of years before it all went wrong. Check it out.
This story has been depressing me in levels you wouldn't understand this week. This kid (16) Jimmy Mizen was stabbed to death at a bakery on Saturday morning. They say he died trying to defuse a stupid situation, apparently the kid was a real pragmatist and a genuinely good guy; he was 6ft 4inches so you know he could have handled the situation in a different way but as cowards do they draw for the weapon and they take a life. I'm so messed up over this, I would teach my child to act the way he acted, I would have acted the way he acted. London is in big trouble right now, I hate to sound like a moaning old man but seriously if these kids aren't brought in a bit (a lot) you're going to have the good guys walking around with knives and guns, I can see adults carrying weapons to protect themselves because the way people see it right now, teenagers in London can not be touched, the teenagers think it (I thought it), the adults know it (I know it) and the Police are a waste of space at the best of times (everybody knows it). You can "Solve" this crime, you can lock the kid who did this up (or not, apparently he's fled to North Cyprus already) but you can't go back in time and save Jimmy Mizel's life, how many more children have to die before you figure it out? I hate to say it, but I hope a well raised, well behaved white kid with prospects dieing on the streets will do something to ignite something proactive. If this is the straw that breaks the camel's back then I hope we can end these senseless killings, but at the same time, if it turns out to be the case I will be right there to dissect the nonchalance that has surrounded the killings of (what are we up to now?) 30 teenagers in 2 years in London is it? I can't do that now though, kids are still dieing, this isn't the 3rd world, kids should not be dieing in a major capital city at this rate.
Man this is an image I never thought I'd see. For those that don't know; Suge Knight is not dead, he is on the floor though, in pain, after getting knocked out. Unless he was knocked out by KRS1 or Slick Rick or something then this is definitely a bad day for hip-hop.
Usher called out Manchester on stage in Kent. I feel for you Usher, I did that one time, it was slightly different though, I was in Leicester and there were some people from Mancester in the front row so I shouted out my Manchester crew, I got a boo, I'm not going to lie. It was all in jest though.
I got no boos in Hartlepool. I did a weird set, Jack got sick in the morning so I had to use a stand-in live set-up which consisted of Tego DJ'ing (old school) and Ben Official hyping and doing backing vocals, we ran through the set, with 'Boyspot' getting a wheel up (it was about to go crazy in there), I'll try and get that live footage up on the Youtube this week. Shout outs to Hartlepool though, we had fun, we had a Megadrive backstage but the pads didn't work so well, I wanted to play Streets of Rage. Example killed though, he wanted me to go up for 'Turn Me Up' but I was so fucked from jumping around I didn't have the energy and I probably would have flopped.
While looking over Westwood's shoulder at a gig last year, I first saw Serato at work. I'd heard Jazzy Jeff going on about it for a while (knowing he's somewhat of a purist, I thought it was worth having a look at). If the slightly vague video above didn't help explain how it works, here is my take:
- A filter box is attached to the mixer which converts the unique tone produced by the control record/ CD (bare with me) into code which the computer relates to its music library (i.e i-Tunes).
- You play the the control record/ CD on your turntable as usual, but every movement you make relates to the computers music library in real time, reacting exactly as it would if it were pressed onto the vinyl/ CD (still with me?) - Your entire music collection is stored on your PC. You just turn up at the club, plug in your filter and PC, and your entire music collection is available to you. No more carrying record boxes! - It's awseome.
Well... it should be. I've read lots of criticism of the sound quality, and my limited field research has backed up some of these claims. Sometimes it can be a bit tinny, but that could be down to bad audio conversion by the user.
Having said that as a 17 year old trying to scratch on an old belt-drive piece of shit, this is the stuff of dreams.
Murda and Lantern might be the new Guru and Premier. This is an exclusive they recorded together for the new Grand Theft soundtrack.
If you're soft and are scared of hardcore rap music then I advise you don't click this link. If you remember why rap music took over the world you'll click this link, send it to all your friends and start feeling the correct way about Policemen again. You dislike them? No. You hate them? No. Let me walk you through it...you can't stand the Po-Po, that's why you're always talking about blamming the Po-Po!
Podcast interview Marvin did a few weeks ago with FX from the SK Vibemakers for UrbanWorld.co.uk. You can listen to the podcast online by clicking Here, you can download the podcast by "Right" clicking Here and you can get the Podcast straight from iTunes by clicking Here. We're stepping up our podcast game up at the moment. Podcasts are like mixtapes. We want to get the best podcasters the new exclusives.
Photos taken by my boy David R. Gray. I wanted to post his MySpace but I can't find it. I'll link it when I have it.
Last night went off. I had a great time. Sun was shining all day, the sandwiches were out, we had a new live travel crew (Ben and Tiago) and we were on our way to Norwich (beautiful Norwich). I can't stress enough that the sun was out. I think the weather may be fucking with us and this is actually the summer right here. It's gonna rain next month, the month after that and the month after that, don't trust it, get out there now and enjoy the sun while it's here. Norwich Arts Centre is a great venue, we were treated well, Example and the gang were in fine spirits (Rum), we played the "Guess that 90s Number 1 Game" all was excellent. The performance went off. We didn't actually get to rehearse that set at all, you may have noticed actually, we had a debut track in the set too. We wanted two but in soundcheck it really looked like that wasn't going to happen. I'm sorry we didn't have Stay off The Kane for the people that requested it. We haven't done that song in like 2 years, maybe we should bring it back? Maybe...everybody that was there will know what I'm talking about when I say "Boyspot" good lord. 'Boyspot' went nuts. Tego started singing "Don't love me for fun girl..." at the end. Not sure how many people caught that. You were all skanking and moshing like nutters, the good kind.
Norwich I will be back soon. Hartlepool. You are next.
A new feature in the legendary Hip-Hop Connection. Written by Adam Anonymous. This was a really fun interview. I'm going to buy the new issue now. Make sure you do the same.
This is a cover of Maximo Park's already classic 'Apply Some Pressure' done by Mark Ronson. Except it's not. It's a Baby J remix of the cover featuring Skibadee & Shameless. I think this has worked hard enough to not be Grindie. I'm feeling it. I like any song that mentions Acre Lane granted and I think Maximo Park are the sh!t. I loved that Baby J song from a couple of years ago 'Let It Pass' I think it was called. Skibadee and Shameless always come correct too.
My name is Marvin [The Martian]. I am a rapper, my debut album 'Devil In The Distance' came out Summer 2008 through NoCarbon/Universal. This is my blog. I run it with help from Tego and my producer Jack Nimble. If you want to get at me, hit me on my email whylout(at)hotmail.com.
Awesome article in The Guardian (spotted via SpineMagazine.com) about a couple of kids from Dundee who put on fake American accents, got a huge record deal and a superstar lifestyle for a couple of years before it all went wrong. Check it out.
This story has been depressing me in levels you wouldn't understand this week. This kid (16) Jimmy Mizen was stabbed to death at a bakery on Saturday morning. They say he died trying to defuse a stupid situation, apparently the kid was a real pragmatist and a genuinely good guy; he was 6ft 4inches so you know he could have handled the situation in a different way but as cowards do they draw for the weapon and they take a life. I'm so messed up over this, I would teach my child to act the way he acted, I would have acted the way he acted. London is in big trouble right now, I hate to sound like a moaning old man but seriously if these kids aren't brought in a bit (a lot) you're going to have the good guys walking around with knives and guns, I can see adults carrying weapons to protect themselves because the way people see it right now, teenagers in London can not be touched, the teenagers think it (I thought it), the adults know it (I know it) and the Police are a waste of space at the best of times (everybody knows it). You can "Solve" this crime, you can lock the kid who did this up (or not, apparently he's fled to North Cyprus already) but you can't go back in time and save Jimmy Mizel's life, how many more children have to die before you figure it out? I hate to say it, but I hope a well raised, well behaved white kid with prospects dieing on the streets will do something to ignite something proactive. If this is the straw that breaks the camel's back then I hope we can end these senseless killings, but at the same time, if it turns out to be the case I will be right there to dissect the nonchalance that has surrounded the killings of (what are we up to now?) 30 teenagers in 2 years in London is it? I can't do that now though, kids are still dieing, this isn't the 3rd world, kids should not be dieing in a major capital city at this rate.
Podcast interview Marvin did a few weeks ago with FX from the SK Vibemakers for UrbanWorld.co.uk. You can listen to the podcast online by clicking Here, you can download the podcast by "Right" clicking Here and you can get the Podcast straight from iTunes by clicking Here. We're stepping up our podcast game up at the moment. Podcasts are like mixtapes. We want to get the best podcasters the new exclusives.
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