Fist Degree Murda

This is a bit Uncle Murda but I just wanted to link this very fucked up new story on BBC.co.uk. Look at those images. What the fuck people?

Lil Jon Feat. Ice Cube & Ice Cube Impersonator- Killas

Lil Jon feat. Ice Cube & Ice Cube Impersonator- Killas [Sharebee from Nahright]

I used to tune into Semtex every week to hear the new Lil Jon bangers. Remember when people thought he was going to kill hip-hop? God damn hip-hop missed Lil Jon.

Born day

Just a passing mention. I am now 1 year older. I will not celebrate properly until the weekend. Then I will celebrate with a couple of drinks and a studio session. Yey!

VIDEO: Mavado- So Special

I bet this murks clubs. The Tru Life Remix is decent too.

Being Human

Being Human is a show on BBC Three that started over the weekend. It's based in Bristol right near where we recorded the album. It's about a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost who share a flat. I could elaborate but I think if you've read that you've already decided whether or not you want to watch it on Sundays or of course on the BBC iPlayer. I like it so far.

VIDEO: Newham Generals- Head Get Mangled

I'm telling you, this album is going to be crazy.

Fuck The Police Portuguese Edition

How did I not see this at the time? Porto and Benfica fans hate each other with a passion but they came together to send a message.

Smackabitchyitus

I got an anonymous tip in a comment that Juzt Blaze was previewing a lot of the Saigon album on Mogulus. I've heard some incredible shit in the last twenty minutes. God damn. I heard a hot vaulted Joe Budden record a few minutes ago too.

UPDATE: Damn Just Blaze just said he was stopping.

VIDEO: Ice Cube Feat. Young Jeezy- I Got My Locs On

Both of these rappers contributed to my albums of the year list. Oh you want to see the list a month late? *sigh* Fine...

1. Prodigy- Product of the 80s
2. Young Jeezy- The Recession
3. Killer Mike- I Pledge Aliegence To The Grind Part 2
4. Ice Cube- Raw Footage
5. S.L Jones- C.O.L.O.R.S. Bangin On Wax
6. Plies- Definition of Real
7. Kanye West- 808s and Hearbreaks

I could only actually think of 7 and actually that's just the US albums...my UK list is...

1. Roots Manuva- Slime and Reason
2. Sway- The Signature LP
3. Marvin- Devil In The Distance
4. Giggs- Walk In Da Park
5. Ghetto- Freedom of Speech

Yeah I put myself in the list. Should have been number 1 too. Bitches.

G O A T The OG Black President

Jay-Z My President is black Remix LIVE 1-18-09 from benjamin Johnson on Vimeo.

One of the greatest moments in hip-hop history. Easily. What the fuck? Hova the god nigga blasphemy! Makes Joe Wooden and Sai-Gone seem a little bit pointless doesn't it?

The Axis of Awesome- 4 Chords

Well that's my second album ruined.

Durrty Goodz- Panty, Bras, Coke + Cameras [Wiley Diss]

Hahaha. Oh shit. Hahahaha.

Ha!

That sounds wrong.

Dad's Space on Youtube

Dad's Space is a great look. I've mentioned it before HERE and HERE. All the videos from the site have now been uploaded to Youtube. Dad's Space features advise and experiences from myself, DJ Semtex, Lil Wayne, Asher-D, Craid David and even Bear Grylls. Semtex talks below...

Heathrow's 3rd runway

So Heathrow's 3rd runway is going ahead. I'm upset. Not for the reason our Green friend above would have you believe. I actually think Gordon Brown managed to push this bullshit through based on the fact that he knows "Green policy" doesn't mean shit in the eyes of the average voter. If the prevalent voice against the runway was that of the people whose homes will be destroyed and those who live nearby who will now live in sonic hell then I don't think he could have made this call so easily, despite pressure from "Business leaders". Of course this is a "Government of business" which has worked out well so far. The idea that you can run around calling everything "Green" to the extent that you're making 100w light bulbs illegal and in the same breath extend an airport over one of the most densely populated areas in the UK is incredible. This "Green gesturing" needs to stop because nobody believes it.

2000 people will be forced to leave their homes and 600 extra flights will pass over London every day. Add that to the fact that we'll now have a roadblock M4 and M25 and I'm struggling to see exactly who Gordon Brown has consulted. He's already told Parliament that he won't be seeking parliamentary approval although the Lib Dems and Tories are expected to force a vote. Word on the grapevine is that within the Labour offices, the 3rd Runway is in the early stages of being branded "Green Heathrow". Genius.

Transformers Disney

This would be way cooler if the Transformers movie wasn't so fresh in our minds. You spend your whole childhood and adult life wishing for something and then when it happens you get Michael Bay's version of it. God can be so cruel.

Simon Cowell'ed from Just Blaze

Home of the Hooligans

I just found this video on Youtube. '05 shit. Takes me back.

Vybz Kartel- Don't Run (Last Man Standing) [Mavado diss]

This is funny as fuck. I still prefer Mavado all in all but Vybz is a G.

Nore more Lily Allen show

Lily Allen's truly awful TV show has finally been canceled. Straight after her first series somebody at BBC Three announced that it would be back with a second run. Nobody who saw the show could understand the logic of keeping her around. She even said herself recently that her show was shit. So after an acceptable period of reflection BBC Three have decided not to keep the show going. The reason I blog this story is this quote "We've got a gap because we're not doing another Lily Allen show," surely you can fill that with yesterday's Family Guy? Or back to back 2 Pints? Or some of the worst shows every televised such as 'Me and My Man Boobs' or 'The Wrong Door' or 'Clone' or 'Gavin and Stacey' or 'Trexx and Flipside' or 'Touch Me I'm Karen Taylor'. No offense BBC Three but your whole schedule is one big "Gap". 'How Not To Live Your Life' is cool though.

VIDEO: Next Day Air Trailer

I've already seen this on a lot of blogs and I hate blogging the same things as people but they all seem focused on Mos Def or Mike Epps. I mean, Mike Epps is the man, but the real story of this trailer is a) Lauren London [GOD DAMN] and b) Avon Barksdale. This film has a pretty great cast. Turk from Scrubs is a random choice, I mean, he was cool in Clueless and Big Fat Liar but...this is the problem with blogging, how do I make it known that I'm joking about watching Clueless and Big Fat Liar? Probably not like this.

VIDEO: LR Rockets/ Dance It Away

This is my boy Chris' band. They've started picking up a lot of coverage with this single.

This is going to be crap

Kids/ Blue Peter viewers are being given the opportunity to design a special 50p coin for the Olympic games in 2012. Doesn't that sound crap? We've already got an ambi-sinister slow child's Olympics logo, we don't need you crapping up our currency. That coin might actually be worth something in 3 years. Unlikely I know but fuck. Do kids still watch Blue Peter? I used to do everything in my power to avoid watching Blue Peter. Then again I never designed a 50p piece. I think I know where I went wrong in my life.

VIDEO: B.O.B- I'll Be In The Sky

The sound quality on this is poor but fuck. Maybe it's a lack of Outkast that makes me love this record so much or maybe it's the fact that this record really just needs to be at number 1 in every chart. They need to hook up a remix with Big Boi and Andre 3000. Will B.O.B and Asher Roth find it hard breathing when Eminem and Outkast come back though?

VIDEO: Jadakiss Feat. Faith Evans- Letter To BIG

I just saw this on RWD. Nobody else is running it? We were talking the other night about how the majority of D-Block/ Jadakiss fans these days probably don't even know about his affiliation to Big or know anything about Big period. That made us genuinely sad. I mean, we took a breath. Poor kids. I remember arguing with one of the youngers on the roads a couple of years back about who's the hot rappers, he said J-Hood and Gravy. I said "What about Jay-Z and Bun-B?" he said "Nah fam. That's olden times rap". To be fair though I put him on to Lil Wayne and a couple of others and when I last spoke to him he had no love for J-Hood or Gravy.

I'm posting this for Pixel who said he was feeling it a lot. I think the film looks okay too. Fuck it I said it. I know most people who have seen it say it's good but Americans generally call films way too early. I am willing to give it a go...until I see a scene that makes me want to kill myself. Then I will dismiss it without a moment's hesitation...fingers crossed.

Littles- Out On Bail The Mixtape

I've only just seen this. Littles has got a new mixtape called 'Out On Bail'. I'm on there. You should download it. It goes hard, Littles developed a lot in the last 12 months. He always had charisma but he flipped his flow on some other shit around the time he came out of prison.

I heard there was a new Narstie mixtape as well but I can't find it. Maybe it's not online? That would be a good look. People like me and 50 Cent are ruining the mixtape market for real rappers. I might have to holla at Nars to get a copy regardless.

Littles- Out On Bail The Mixtape [Sendspace]

Wastebook

I'm going to be all the way real with you on this. I did not know my Facebook password. I got emails saying I have new friends or whatever but barring a couple of occasions I never signed in. A couple of people had my password details and I think they accepted friend requests. I talked to two or three people over the period of like 7 days but I really didn't fuck with it. Anyway, we were out on Saturday night celebrating Pixel's birthday with a couple of drinks and my mum phoned me talking about "You're never on your Facebook. I suggested a friend...." I decided at that point that rather than ignore Facebook I should actually just delete it. So I did. Twitter aside, is social networking dead? MySpace is still great for what it's great for but everything else can eat a dick. Twitter's cool but I'm not getting involved.

Ghostbusters 3? No. Probably not.

This is supposedly footage from the filming of the new Ghostbusters movie. Except it almost certainly is not. As Ghostbusters 3 is still in the writing stages and it turns out they don't actually make robots in films any more. They just use computers and internets or whatever. I'm hearing it's a viral clip, of which there will be many, for the new Ghostbusters game which looks amazing. The video below is probably the same deal.

DJSEMTEX.COM

DJ Semtex went ahead and sex'd up his website for the new year. I think it was Wordpress before and he's gone down the self-hosting route. My site gets more traffic than my blog and my MySpace for some reason, I haven't posted anything there since the Bizzle tour I don't think. I'm waiting for the license to run out. I actually asked my label to turn it into a blog way before I set up my Blogspot. Ho hum. Semtex is pretty much the best British Hip-Hop blogger at the moment, you know he's getting everything early.

DJSemtex.com.

Also Semtex's boy Mr Hudson (who I've done a couple of shows with) has just announced a UK tour I'm going to have to pass through that Scala date.

VIDEO: Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip Feat. Pos from De La Soul- Thou Shalt Always Kill (De La Edit)

That's a serious blog title right? Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip are the shit. De La Soul are the shit. This record is the shit.

Happy Pix-Day

*Image does not represent Pixel's appearance in 2009 (I really need to get a modern image up actually no homo).

It's Magnum P-I's Bornday today, I think he had a decent year last year. I think this year will be better. Wishes of greatness towards thee. Share in these people. Share indeed. We need to rave it down.

Dolce Gusto

Dolce Gusto Cappucino > Anything in Cafe Nero.

Durrty Goodz- Cokey The Snowman

Clay Davis: "Sheeeeeeeiiiiittt..."

VIDEO: Young Chris- I'm Good

This is a hot record. It's got a Bay meets Baltimore kind of thing going on.

More Asian women 'use hard drugs'

This article on BBC.co.uk is crazy. More Asian women 'use hard drugs'. I remember talking to a...person...about who were the rising purchasers of...products...a year or so back and he said it was Asian men and women. Which interested me. Knowing what I know, it probably shouldn't have though.

This guy swallowed T-Pain

Behind a gate I hear you say. Well watch the next clip.

Not qualified

The situation in Israel and Palestine is an enigma at this point. I've read things this week; some reactionary, some calculated, some propaganda, some straight bullshit and I'm no closer to formulating my own actual opinion on the situation. There are people who have dedicated their lives to this conflict on both sides, there are people who have dedicated their lives to this conflict who sit right in the middle. Jay Smooth says it better than me...as usual.

Pete Rosenberg's dad questions Israel's response and the overall affect it could eventually have on the Jewish state. He's talking about Ariel Sharon and Yitzhak Rabin. Prime Ministers who actually came out of conflict to allow growth in Palestine, from a strong military position which lead to them overseeing periods of peace, which is probably the best we can hope for at this point. Internal politics of the hard right Israeli lobbyists will probably make that difficult right now though.

Was it a good day?

Take the test. I really didn't have to use my AK!

Oh Eight

I keep trying to decide what the deal with 2008 was. I had some good times, I had some great times, I achieved some things, but overall it was a let down. I keep reading this statistic that Lil Wayne released "150 songs in 2008" which I'm kinda impressed by, but without trying I think I managed to drop more than 75. Between my album, two EPs, two full-length solo mixtapes, remixes, collaborations and random shit I can name you 75 songs off the bat. I think there were more too. I also recorded a load that we haven't dropped. It doesn't feel like I dropped 75 songs last year really but I know I did. I'll break it down...

Devil In The Distance
+ 10 songs... (10)

That One Time EP
+ 5 songs [The EP had 6 songs but the title song 'That One Time' was on 'Devil In The Distance] (15}

The Blogspot Mixtape
+ 27 songs [The tape was 30 songs long but one of them was on the 'That One Time EP' and two were Pixel songs...] (42)

Somebody's Watching Me Mixtape
+ 18 songs (60)

Superhero EP
+ 5 songs [the EP was 6 songs but the title song 'Superhero' was on 'Devil In The Distance'] (65}

Superhero Remixes EP
+ 2 songs [although due to an error at Universal the EP was never officially released :straight face:] (67)

Remixes
+ 4 songs ['That One Time' remixes from Akira The Don, HunchBakk and Dr G + a 'Thieving' Remix produced by Jack Nimble] (71)

Collaborations
+ 4 ['Bladed' with Akira The Don & Littles, 'Back In The Day' Remix with Akira, Why Lout?, Narstie & Shizzio, my version of 'Vacation' which is technically a collaboration with Young Jeezy and the remix of 'Bladed' by Joey2Tits which would be in Remixes but it's like a whole new song. Shit bangs] (75)

Actually I forget that I recorded a really nice drop for DJ Excalibah over a Game beat that I should upload here. That makes it 76. Add to that the songs that never came out and I was pretty productive. Nowhere near as productive as I will be in 2009 but it's a pretty good launching pad. Add to that the videos for 'That One Time' and 'Superhero' plus the 'Back In The Day Remix' video, all my 'That One Time TV' videos and all the other random shit including shows, radio stuff, interviews and all the other crap I did in '08 and yeah I was pretty consistent.

It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out we weren't best pleased with the way the label approached 2008 in a lot of ways but we never really relied on them for anything so while I expect to to approach the recession in a different mood in terms of paying my bills I expect my output to be something like, if not more regular than it was in 2008. We've already got about an EP's worth of material ready to go, we've got the next album started and you know we're always on the fringes of a new mixtape, we shot a video at the end of the year that we're looking over at the moment and we're talking about launching something completely different very soon. I ran into my dude Westwood in the West-End at the end of the year and I'm trying to get on Semtex, MK and the rest of them's backs no homo with this new shit. Unfortunately I don't think the alternative/indie markets are going to quite "Get" this new shit right away. It's kinda hard. It's kinda Hip-Hop. It's sorta grimey.

I thought about doing a roundup of 2008 in terms of my favourite albums, singles, videos, rappers, newcomers, DJs, TV shows etc. but I remembered that I can't be fucked. 2008 had some good shit, it had some corny shit that people didn't want to call corny and it had some real wood for the trees moments when I serious wondered whether culturally Britain had anything to offer hip-hop music. I'm glad to say that a few people restored my faith, word to Giggs, Ghetto, Sway and Roots Manuva.

Oh happy new year by the way. I hope 09 promises you more than you're expecting in every way. We're about to hit double digits in this millennium so it won't be before fucking time.