The big "C"

Without intentionally setting out to depress the hell out of everybody today (it's going to be tough. I'm pissed off) I want to draw attention to a couple of things I've seen this morning. The big "C" has been on my mind since 'Believe It' on my last mixtape. I've had a few more brushes with it since, I won't go into details. Today, while I'm pissed off for a variety of reasons I read the news that Black men are three times as likely to get prostate cancer according to figures revealed today. Apparently it's been the case in America for a while now. Also I bring bad news of a fellow performer and an artist I know Jack was into when he started producing; DJ Vadim. I just read on DJ MK's site that Vadim has Ocular Melanoma / choroidal melanoma cancer. A very rare form of cancer. I'm sorry for this depressing post, but I really want to make sure it's on people's mind, not in a negative way, but in a sense that you need to keep checking yourself and make sure you stay alert. Also spread the word that you need to stay on top of it. Seriously.

It's So Cold In The D

It really is.

Interview In The Voice

I just got sent this. Thanks Nienke. I will return to proper blogging soon. This mixtape business. I will explain. I'm away from internet at the moment. Well not at the moment literally, but at the moment as in, generally.

State Property Reunion

I know my State Prop and while I'm happy to see Beans, Free, Chris, Peedi and Sparks I am of course bound to notice the lack of Neef and Oschino. Oschino was saying some pretty reckless things a few months back so I'm not surprised he's not there, but Neef was working with Chris last time I checked. He always had the craziest one liners on the State Prop albums "I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6". I hope they don't start a proper State Prop reunion with Beanie Sigel still on house arrest, that never works, he needs to be able to touch the major radio stations and be Beanie Sigel, he needs to hit the Summer Jams and cause problems. If they time this right, it could be perfect.

Notorious Trailer

I am concerned. But at the same time it's Biggie. I don't tend to watch rapper films but like I say, it's Biggie. Then again I never did listen to The Biggie Duets.

Sticky Note Pads

Yes I stole this from Kanye's blog. I liked it. So what? I'm not even linking Kanye's blog. It's in my links list. Go find it if you love Kanye so much.

Akira The Don- ATD16: The Don Featuring Me (OUT NOW)

There's me on the third track there with Littles and Akira. Pixel's on there as well. It's out now, you can buy it, you can buy the T-Shirt to go with it too. Akira gives a fan what he wants it has to be said. We can learn a lot from his work ethic.

BUY IT: Here

BONUS: Akira The Don Collaborates With Neon Neon's Gruff Rhys On New Album

Politricks: JK Rowling, Tax breaks and David Milliband

You may have read over the weekend that JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame has donated £1Million to Gordon Brown's Labour Party as a show of support in these dark times. Rowling claims the £1Million is for Labour's record on tackling child poverty. Which is interesting, since that £1Million really could have done a lot for some poverty stricken children around Britain and the UK. But realistically all it's actually going do is help Labour fight an election they have no hope of winning. Or have any hope of salvaging beyond the point of absolute humiliation. Doesn't that make it something of a moot point? New Labour definitely did a lot for child poverty in the late 90s (although a lot of that was put in place before they arrived, they could have easily fucked it up. Word to the economy) but handing over cash money in support of a policy that we all know is so far down the priority list at number 10 right now that it might as well be tax cuts for the poor seems a little worthless. I'm not talking in the sense that JK Rowling shouldn't hand over one of her millions in support of something she genuinely believes in, but knowing that she's a close personal friend of Gordon Brown's surely there could have been a slightly more convenient PR excuse other than Child Poverty? After all we can attribute those changes to a Blair government surely? Would giving £1Million straight to Save The Children not be a better idea?

JK also claims that David Cameron's proposed tax breaks for married couples were reminiscent of the Conservative government she remembered as a lone parent. The tax breaks for married couples is an interesting one to me, I've seen Cameron explain and defend the tax break a few times now and knowing as many unmarried fathers and mothers as I do, the change is of specific interest to me. I don't see how anything other than perception can lead somebody to condemn the plan. It doesn't affect single parents, there are actually more proposed supports for single parents in the plan, but David Cameron wants to "Fix our broken society" (whatever that means), and he thinks two parents are better than one, with exceptions he probably has a point. Will tax breaks encourage happy families? It's a ludicrous suggestion, but should married couples who look after children together be given the same support and encouragement a single parent gets? I'd say absolutely. But the flip side is that the welfare state encouraged under New Labour over the last 11 years probably lends itself to that support, without the regulations introduced under this government there wouldn't be enough support for anybody.

On the plus side for Gordon though, David Milliband says he's not plotting on the party's top seat. Which is good for Brown in a sense that the rebels now have no viable contender and good in a sense that he can avoid calling a general election for another 18 months (I don't think he will). It's probably not the best thing for The Conservatives though as they sit back and watch the government swallow itself whole, the 52% in the polls shockingly isn't about David Cameron's green policy but a total lack of faith in our ludicrous government which as we approach recession is bickering about whether their longest serving, most respected member should be Prime Minister. Don't get me wrong here. I'm no Brown fan, far from it, this is his economy and this is his legacy, reckless lending from the banks created a false economy that was bound to collapse and ruin a few thousand lives in the process. That was directly Brown policy. But there can be very little argument that he's the most adept at seeing Labour remain a force in some respect past the next general election. That is ultimately his job at this point, he just needs to steer the crumbling ship into the dock and leave the crew to rebuild in a hope that it doesn't take a decade to regain power (ala the Conservatives in 1997). The idea that there are people within the government who think they can hand over the top job for the second time in 2 years without a public vote is something that I think captures Labour's time in government perfectly. A total lack of awareness or respect for the voter was only tolerated as long as house prices were good and the Conservatives couldn't offer a viable alternative. What if Michael Howard had 4 years to campaign? Rather than the 2 he got after the ludicrously inept Iain Duncan Smith was binned. Who knows? Howard made some pretty incredible inroads as leader of the opposition. David Cameron has done little since since, he's sat around drinking tea, riding bikes and smiling but his poll lead extends and extends. Unfortunately Nick Clegg and Vince Cable are saying exactly what needs to be said, when it needs to said and are actually losing votes. It's okay though, they probably don't mean it. Cut backs in public spending? Tax cuts? Liberal Democrats? Are you sure?

In real Politricks this week, Obama's favourite colour is Orange and McCain's favourite film is Mary Poppins. I was leaning towards Obama but Orange? I'm not sure about Orange.

Tego

Killer Mike Feat. Charles Manson- Belly of the Beast

Killer Mike is incredible. His Sunday Morning Massacre series has been amazing so far. Last week he gold us the Devil Is a Lie, the week before he told us about Cain and Able, this week he's telling us about institutionalised prisoners in the belly of the beast.

Killer Mike Feat. Charles Manson- Belly of the Beast

Cage biopic?

Cage is dropping a greatest hits album on October 7th called The Best and Worst of Cage. We've been waiting for his third album for a couple of years now but there you go. He's one of the few rappers where you actually see the art before you see the image. If you're not yet a fan of Cage's music I advise you seek out his classic debut album Movies For The Blind, I truly can't recommend it enough. His second album works as a redemption for his first album as he'd given up all the crazy drugs he was doing on the first record. They really are special bodies of work. This new compilation looks like it could be a good introduction to Cage as an artist. The reason for this post though was that in the news story where I discovered that Cage was releasing this record there was a rumour that Shia LaBeouf was writing and directing a biopic of Cage's life. Cage's life is pretty incredible. He was born in Germany to American parents. His father's name was Bill Murray (really) and worked in the military police before being dishonourably discharged for selling heroine. They moved back to New York when Cage's father's drug dependency started taking control and Cage (Chris Palko) started to go off the rails. He began experimenting with drugs and getting into all sorts of situations. He explains a lot of it on Hell's Winter. I just love the idea that a rapper not a few thousand people rate as highly as I (and a few people I know) do, could have a film made about his life by the young Indiana Jones/Even Stevens. I'm thinking of pitching my biopic.

The Best And Worst Of Cage

1. Holding A Jar Too
2. Among The Sleep
3. Summer In Hell
4. Stargate
5. Underground Rapstar
6. Escape to 88
7. Suicidal Failure
8. Cop Hell
9. Stoney Lodge
10. Gimmesomedeath
11. Weather People
12. Dust Vs. Ecstacy
13. Agent Orange
14. 54
15. More In Outs
16. Ballad Of Worms
17. Keep The City
18. Too Much
19. Crowd Killer

Somebody's Watching Me Mixtape News

Yeah it's got it's own news yeah! What you gonna do about it?

Me and Jack set a deadline of 19/09/08 for all the recording on the tape. The eagle eye cherry amongst you will notice that 19/09/08 is in fact today. Well. It was always an optimistic target. Saying that, we are 95% done. I've rocked over some great instrumentals, some that actually mean a lot to me as an artist, some artists that you might not expect me to be into and be influenced by. I was thinking about leaking a track this week or maybe early next week but I'm now leaning against that idea. The tape to me is miles better than 'The Blogspot Mixtape' which I am still very proud of. This tape is a lot more focussed. Apart from 'Hero' which I recorded maybe 2 weeks after I put the first tape to bed, the whole tape has been recorded in a pretty tight space of time, which gives it a good consistency and very strong energy. Pixel came in and blessed the tape a couple of times on Wednesday. I'm hoping to get him in at the start of the week to bless it maybe twice more. His verses are incredible. One of the tracks he's on was actually set by a Jack verse and it's a track I'm not actually on at the moment, I will be by the end of the day though.

I'm on course to get the whole tape recorded by Monday, I need to finish one verse and two songs. Then Jack will mix everything down, put it all on a big white board and start beat matching tracks, it's a great way of doing it, you get to group your mixes and space your tracks well. It's not like an album, you really have to plan your mixtape so that it rides in a car or on headphones. I'm not going to put a time frame on Jack finishing the mixing of the tape because it's not my place, Wednesday or maybe Thursday though we should have an idea how long it's going to take, I'll ask Jack and pass on the message.

'Somebody's Watching Me' is different to 'The Blogspot Mixtape' in a lot of ways. This tape is not an introduction, it's not before or after anything, it's a sign of things to come in a lot of ways but it will stand alone. I'm not going to do too much talking on the tape, I've done that, I've got my blog to talk on, I've got an album in the can, if you want to know what I'm about then Devil In The Distance will tell you everything. I have a couple of tracks on the tape where I rock for a few minutes straight, just blacking out, no chorus, no middle, no end, I'm very excited to hear how it all fits together. There's no gimmick to this tape, it's all about a mindset, one I think we're all in or approaching at the moment, the economy is fucked, society appears to be in meltdown, we have the least popular Prime Minister and the least popular President maybe ever with winter just around the corner.

Having literally three songs remaining on the tape I suddenly felt like it was worth talking about. I wanted to make it clear before it arrived, this mixtape is not for the radio, it's not for the press, it's not for the label, this mixtape is for you.

LIVE@ Plan-B- October 3rd (supprting DJ Yoda)

Home again. It's going to be an alien reunion of sorts. Except...well except a lot of things. It's going to be a god damn party though! Talking about the recession the shit's depressing! I might rock with George Galloway but I aint no politician!... I don't rock with George Galloway. I wish I could have given the guy who threw a stress ball at him a high five or something similar in meaning though. That's funny stuff. But respect is due, he went to America and won...Where was I? Oh yeah. October 3rd, Plan-B, DJ Yoda and me!

Funkmaster Flex goes in on R.Kelly

Flex blames himself for R.Kelly being able to roam around the media saying stupid shit and blames himself for allowing R.Kelly to continue with his profile in music before his trial. I don't think it was directly Flex's fault (obviously he was using himself as a metaphor) but frankly people had the choice whether or not they played his music, people who shows directed at certain demographics and they carried on. Outside of "Urban music" you wouldn't find this to be the case. I know he beat the case, but like Flex says; the DVD is out there, the child pornography is out there, it's probably the most viewed child porn film of all time. How does that sound? I never understood why people at radio and TV ignored the issues surrounding R.Kelly when revelations were dropping almost monthly. Somebody should have said this sooner.

R.I.P Grange Hill by the way

I heard a lot of people talking about why it got canceled, saying it's harder to relate to kids lives these days, that you can't get away with real issues at 5:30, the kids are watching Nickelodeon etc. The reason Grange Hill got canceled is because everybody grew to hate it. The reason everybody grew to hate it is because it grew to suck. It sucked on whole new levels. To the point that they actually thought they'd burn the school down and relocate it to some imaginary place in the North so kids around the country wouldn't feel excluded from the show. Are you serious? I heard on the radio that in 1990 Grange Hill was pulling in 8million viewers. Coronation Street aside, nothing gets 8million viewers now. 1990 was about my era, through to maybe 1993-4, they were running stories about racism, gang violence, homelessness, teenage pregnancy, drugs, alcohol, drink driving, underage sex, all things I was faced with as a youth. I remember they did the same thing with Byker Grove, The Grove used to have some of the realest story lines on TV, everybody was going through something. PJ was blinded by a paintball, why are kids not allowed to see PJ get blinded by a paintball now? Are they that sissified? (word to Mr T) Or has the nanny state dictated what is and what isn't acceptable for kids to watch? The public service broadcaster that carried these two amazing shows destroyed realistic children's television from within, gentrified them to all hell and canceled them based on the ratings. It actually makes me angry to see the twee middle class bullshit they peddle (with a few exceptions) to kids in that slot now.

R.I.P kids with a grasp on reality.

I always wondered how you dance to Dub-Step!

Now I know. You want to see it in practice now though right?

Stargate and Jay-Z?

I remember when Stargate first left Europe for America. I was surprised. Since they've been over there though the hits haven't stopped. For those of you that don't know, Stargate are responsible for a lot of Atomic Kitten, Blue, Lemar, Mis-Teeq, S Club 7, Cleopatra and 5ive hits. Oh yes. Quality stuff I'm sure you'll agree. They're now responsible for hits by Ne Yo, Rihanna, Beyonce, Jessica Simpson, Nas, Chris Brown, Leona Lewis, Pussy Cat Dolls, Lindsay Lohan and Usher...a jump in quality? Perhaps not. But finance? Certainly. Well today they've announced a new label deal with Jay-Z called StarRoc. I assume this will be a deal through Live Nation? I don't know. What I do know is that I can probably live my entire life without a Stargate/ Jay-Z collaboration. I've been wrong before though.

LINK: Ballade.no

"Don't buy our music from iTunes"- The Cure

The Cure (meh) have told fans not to buy their new EP from iTunes as it will cost them a ludicrous £7.99 for 5 songs. I've commented before on the way iTunes has the industry by the balls and when it comes down to it, the label and the band stand more chance of making more money gouging £7.99 out of fans for a remix EP than they do out of a successful full length. The back end through the site is criminal. It's one of the few circumstances when the band suffer, the fans suffer and the label actually suffer too.

NME.com reports

Somebody's Watching Me Mixtape- Artwork

Almost done suckers.

The Worst Band In The World- 10CC

How amazing is this record? Seriously?

Shuffled

Yeah we kept it Shuffly on Saturday night. It was a few people's birthdays so the party went on pretty late. I've never performed in a Kebab restaurant before. This was certainly a first.

Rock The Bells in the UK?

I'm already there! GOOD LORD!

Shoreditch Shuffle tomorrow!

I've mentioned this a few times before and so I thought I would mention it again. And again. And again. I am performing at The Shish Bar tomorrow for the Shoreditch Shuffle which promises some great live music, some great fashion, some great DJs, some great Burlesque, some great art, some great comedy and some great film. I think it's going to be pretty great.

The Shish Bar and Restaurant in particular will attain legend status for featuring not only myself, performing live, new hits, old hits and special crap! But also it will feature one Akira The Don! Who you may know. We've done some songs together and some gigs. Also performing at The Shish Bar and Restaurant will be Leo The Lion who we did a Karaoke event with a couple of months back.

Details and tickets and stuff can be found HERE.

Matt Damon is scared of Palin's experience

Doesn't the same thing apply to Obama? Except he really would be president. No? Because he's a man? I wonder why?

Speaking of burning books though Prancehall drops bombs. Good old Nazi Germany. I mean...

Setanta doesn't owe you s***!

Editorial by Tego.

As a football fan (possibly the biggest and greatest football fan on the planet but that's neither here nor there) I feel I have a responsibility to stand up for Setanta Sports; the channel that (thanks to the EU) managed to break the stranglehold BSkyB had on British football for well over 10 years. When the EU announced that BSkyB had a monopoly over Premier League football it ruled that another network must be allowed to screen a percentage of yearly games. Setanta stood up and paid almost £400Million for the right to televise Premier League football over 10 years. Their charge for fans would be £10 a month on a non-contract basis. On top of Premier League football Setanta subscribers would receive live German League football, live Scottish League football, live French league football, coverage from all the other major European leagues (apart from Spain) and a host of other sports including Boxing, UFC, Cricket (they carried the controversial IPL), Rugby League, Golf and Aussie Rules football. After a steady period of declining interest in the English national team, Setanta forked out £5Million per game for England's away World Cup Qualifiers with Andorra and last night's amazing game with Croatia. BBC and ITV attempted to purchase highlight packages from Setanta to screen later in the evening. Baring in mind that England have been booed off the pitch in their last 3 games and that viewing figures have been on the wane for 5 years Setanta didn't feel they had to offer a cut price package for either terrestrial broadcaster as it would impact their own viewing figures (no offence BBC but they actually rely on those), Setanta actually ended up unlocking their subscription channel on Freeview for all Ditigal viewers to see the highlights for free later on in the evening.

"It is perhaps a little unfortunate that large numbers of people were not able to see the match live,"

Gormless Brown declared today "And that is something that I think a lot of supporters will want to have answers to." well you can talk to the courts Mr Brown. Setanta bought a product outright. They have the right to do with it what they wish. The people who may have wanted to watch the game and not visit a pub or subscribe themselves (1 million less viewers on Setanta than similar games on the BBC last season, a drop in the ocean to be frank) have a right to complain of course but that's where it stops. We're talking about a national team that failed to qualify for the European Championships over the summer, we're talking about a viewing package that was made available to every broadcaster and Setanta forked out the finance. The Evening Standard have a two page spread today announcing "The most loathed TV sports channel", the article itself does very little other than speculate as to the financial wellbeing of the company through rumours and conjecture. I think it's appalling that such an issue is being made of this. As a child I was unable to watch any live football. Any. Sky had a complete monopoly. My family couldn't commit to £35 a month for a minimum 12 months. Very few families could. Setanta offer a non-contract subscription service at an affordable price and goes out of its way to satisfy its customers by spending big on football. In an especially competitive industry such as football, to have the Prime Minister and a respected daily newspaper challenge the enterprise of a small broadcaster for perfectly legal and legitimate practice is despicable. It stinks of the Labour classist agenda to me.

Termanology Feat. Bun-B- This Is How We Rock [Video]

When Premo's on form who's better than him? When Bun-B's on form who's better than him? When Termanology's on a track who should have actually had the beat? Somebody else I agree.

Happy Blueprint day!

7 years ago today the world changed! Crack was anthrax back then. So September 11th marks the era forever of a revolution!

Cam'ron is ummm...well...yeah.

Cam'ron- Bottom Of Her Pussy Hole [zShare]

Do I have to put words here? It's not a rule is it?

Big Bang coming soon to a universe near you!

The Big Bang machine has had a successful start this morning. This thing is amazing, it looks exactly how you'd imagine it. I half expect Napoleon or Hitler to jump out of it while Tony Blair rubs his hands or strokes a cat watching. You can't fool me Blair!

BBC.co.uk reports

Trailer for Bernie Mac's last film Soul Men

With Samuel L Jackson and a cameo from Isaac Hayes RIP. This looks funny. What am I saying? Everything Bernie Mac did was funny.

Spotted on DJMKsWorld.com

Sandman- Anchor [VIDEO]

I'm blogging way too much hip-hop today. I had to post this though. Sandman is from Philly where my family in the States reside, he used to be in Re-Up Gang, which is The Clipse's crew. I never really got with Re-Up Gang, it just seemed like The Clipse on Wu Tang beats; but I gave Sandman a try this morning and this record is very, very serious. That's actually one of the best videos I've seen in a long time too. It's definitely one of the best low budget videos I've seen.

Maino Feat. A lot of people- Hi Hater Remix [VIDEO]

This beat will haunt me in my dreams. I'll get it one day.

M.O.P- Monster [NEW]

He's a monster boy! He's a monster! Only fake's and communists don't like M.O.P. This song goes extra-extra-extra-Warriorz.

M.O.P- Monster [Mediafire]

Vincent- Tim Burton ft. Vincent Price (1982)

Wow. Thats me that is. Tim Burton is consistently brilliant.

Star Wars Robot Chicken

Robot Chicken is a big generation X comedy/ animation thing in the US as I'm sure most internet people are aware. Seth Green from Family Guy and Austin Powers among other things is one of the producers and voices. This new Star Wars spoof is out now and it's hilarious.

Robot Chicken uses action figures and very well crafted stages to animate and create a very bizarre spoof of the greatest Sci-Fi journey of all time. Family Guy released a similar DVD movie 'The Blue Harvest' last year but it wasn't very good. It kind of just recreated original Star Wars scenes and added Family Guy jokes. Robot Chicken works in a mixtape form, with the comedy coming from the more absurd visuals you'd find in the Star Wars trilogy. All the characters are here, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, George Bush (indeed). Ranging from the absolutely ludicrous (Storm Trooper dance routines) to standard pastiche (Darth Vader phones Emperor Palpatine to tell him the Death Star has been destroyed "What the hell is an aluminum falcon?"). Star Wars Robot Chicken gains strength from its fundamentals, great dialogue, brilliant visuals and smart editing. The in-film character development and reoccurring jokes are complimented of course by the source material's undeniable brilliance so maybe if you're one of the very few people in the world that don't feel at least some connection to Star Wars episodes VII through IV you may find yourself at a loss with this DVD.

Having re-written a series of jokes from the film in this review only to delete them I'm finding it hard to translate the pace and wit of the film. Luckily it's 2008 and I have Youtube at my disposal. Watch the Trailer below. Then Buy from Amazon. You won't regret it.

Bridgwater this weekend was Qualita Garantita

So it was me, Tego, Jack, Ben and Pixel. We got on the motorway at about 3PM Saturday. Pulled into a service station at about 5PM. This was the first Coffee Primo stop of Pixel's career! So of course he was introduced to Qualita Garantita. Don't know what I'm talking about? Watch the video below...

I invented the video tour diary game by the way. I didn't, but in 2006 I was way ahead of the game. We have many, many more photos and plenty of stories from our trip. The gig itself was pretty great. We didn't have a set list, me and Tego let Jack hit us with surprises to keep us on our toes. We debuted some stuff, we jumped around, we did all sorts. I will blog it properly in the week when I have the video footage and the photos. Rest assured though that much Silent Scope, Burger King, smelly hotel, funny car stories and loads more went down. Pixel was a great addition to the touring party it has to be said.

Touring party left to right. Ben, Pixel, Me (at the back with my hood up), Jack, Tego.

Young Chris Blog

Young Chris from the Young Gunz has a blog. He's been dropping internet mixtapes for a few months now, it was just a matter of time.

If you don't know about Young Chris I guess this is the place to learn.

LINK: YoungCBlog.com

BONUS: Young Chris- Never Die (Video)

Heltah Skeltah- Everything Is Heltah Skeltah [Video]

I can't believe the way these guys came back after all that time and took over again. They work so hard.

Bridgwater on Saturday.

Read what the papers have to say about the event this weekend...

Bridgwater Mercury

Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News

I'm not sure how to communicate directly with the people of Bridgwater. But I'm looking forward to the gig so everybody should come down...or up.

Round 2

I just read confirmation on Semtex's blog that Kanye West will be dropping his fourth album in December. He's the last in line to announce a big 4th quarter album after 50 Cent's 'Here I Am' freestyle earlier in the week and Jay-Z's 'Jocking Jay-Z' leak at the end of last month. Jay-Z has been reluctant to put a date on 'Blueprint 3' so far but Jay-Z is the 4th quarter king and it wouldn't feel correct him coming out in the 1st. 50 Cent says he's got a film, an album called 'Before I Self Destruct' and a computer game dropping in the 4th quarter. This could be the biggest sales period in the whole industry recession. 2008 could go down as a record breaking year, everything considered.

Murs Tour Diary

I would love to do a proper tour like that, load a bus with some talented people and take a real show to the people.

Children won't leave school until 17

Children entering secondary school this year will be the first to stay in school until 17 years old by law. Now, my problems with the education system in Britain not withstanding, I think this is a positive move. I don't think many kids have a clear idea of what they want to do in life at 16 and I think it's been an unnecessary pressure for years (I also think it's a growing pressure in the bigger Cities where life moves a lot faster). It's also a good move because the final year will in some cases involve off site training and diplomas in subjects such as engineering and construction. Which will develop genuine skills for work environments. While the many will tell you that all children deserve the same chance (and I agree) it has to be accepted that some are suited to classroom education and some are suited to practical training, both can set a child on his or her way in life. While we box all children into the same expectations and the same system of progression we have a lot left behind and a lot frustrated at the glass ceiling created by the lesser achievers. It's a similar concept to the old Grammar Schools in purpose but it has less divide.

LINK: BBC.co.uk

Charles Hamilton- Death Of The Mixtape Rapper [Free Mixtape]

Hamilton's dropping a mixtape a week for the next 7 weeks. I think I read that somewhere. I could be wrong. Anyway, this is one he's done with DJ Skee for Okayplayer.

01. Stay On Your Level
02. Harlem
03. Just A Musician
04. How
05. Presidential Pondering (Ft. Fidel)
06. Twitter 16
07. Windows Media Player
08. Down
09. Mixtape vents
10. Butcherman
11. Music Suicide
12. Saving Grace
13. Supersonic’s First Freestyle
14. Forever Again
15. Do What You Love

LINK: Charles Hamilton & DJ Skee- Death Of The Mixtape Rapper [Sendspace]

Thieves!

When I was recording This podcast with Akira a few weeks back we had to find a copy of my album on the internet so we could play the songs and talk about them. I was shocked at how simple it was to find my album. So a few weeks on I tried it myself, today; it was even easier! My album is all over the place! You dastardly thieves! I'm not too mad though to be honest, have you seen that Estelle took her music off iTunes? Because the back end is so low? Yeah. That's pretty much how it is now. Having an album on iTunes is basically as good as giving it away. From the label and the artist's perspective.

I'm not telling you to search "Marvin Devil In The Distance" and download my album for free. Heaven forbid, but you know. Better that than you buy the promo on Ebay. My next album will only be available physical. How do you like that? Revolution!

PLUS: I'm aware that most of you have never seen the back of my album. Well there it is above. Nice.

Has your child started using new slang words?

A charity in Birmingham is offering a guide book to help spot the tell tale signs that your child is in a gang.

* Has your child started to use new slang words?
* Do they have any unexplained money or new possessions?
* Do they have a new nickname?
* Has their appearance changed? Are they dressing in a particular style or "uniform", for example, wearing a bandana?
* Do they use graffiti style "tags" on possessions such as schoolbooks?
* Do they have unexplained physical injuries?

What do I have to do to get my hands on one of these?

LINK: BBC.co.uk

September

It's the 9th month of the year. The summer is over, the Autumn is here. I've got a crazy lot of shit going on in my life right now that I'm not going to get into but I will talk you through my rapper plans for the month.

The First!!!

A new Video! We are shooting a new video this month for one of my favourite songs on the album. I'll let you know more details in the coming weeks. It's an ambitious treatment, an arty treatment, something that will probably be too controversial for TV. Something that we really want to do.

The Second!!!

A new Mixtape! I've been recording for the last two weeks. I did some stuff at the start of the month and I've set myself a 10 day deadline for completing it. Then I hand it over to Jack who will mix it, we'll record drops and we'll give it to the people i.e. you. The mixtape is called 'Somebody's Watching Me' and so far it's sounding hot. I guarantee hotness.

The Third!!!

Gigs! In these credit crunchy times it's hard to book one off gigs hardly anywhere, but I have a couple and I will be bringing a new set for these dates. September 6th in Bridgwater and September 14th at Shoreditch Shuffle.

The Fourth!!

I technically don't have a fourth! Not that I'm ready to tell you about anyway. The second half of the month will be spent mostly getting ready for November. Which is going to be a good month. But also January/ February, which is the scheduled release time for my second album! Woah!

And so on...