Blob Strip!

Akira just put up his first Blob Strip on Blob Blog. That is bloody class.

Painful to watch Spinal Tap rip-off

Will Arnett is a funny man. Why did he do this? Some American comedy websites are claiming that this is funny. Did they actually get Spinal Tap? This clip is difficult to watch, but worth it to see how wrong you can get it. I think the show [film?] is called The Rockers.

Uncle Murda goes in

Oooooh-wee. That new mixtape is going to be HARD.

Tiny Tempah- Tears [Video]

Tinie Tempah - Tears
This is a big look. I'm feeling the song and the video. DaVinChe's still nice as hell with it.

Hoods and Badges EP

I just listened to this the other day. I enjoyed it a lot. The whole direction of my writing changed when I made 'I Don't Go (Alone)'. I really wish we'd made a video for it at the time. You can buy 'Hoods & Badges EP' for just £1.49 on iTunes. A random thing to blog I know, but sometimes you just get to reminiscing.

Also the mixtape we put out to promote the EP. We mixed this with Akira The Don. He did a hell of a lot on this tape actually. All through this period of recording and promoting the mixtape and EP we were on our faces broke. We funded everything ourselves at that point, which meant that we owned the recordings which is good, but it also meant we relied on the help of friends like Akira a lot. We'd pretty much just met him too. We did 'Boom (Smash Stuff)', then we did a few gigs around that and one night at The Buffalo Bar Akira hadn't slept in a long while and had quite a decent amount of alcohol in his system we decided to get together and work this mixtape out. I don't think he knew what he was getting himself into. A fruitful relationship though I think you'll agree. Most recently culminating in a collaboration that will feature on ATD 16- which is available for pre-order right now!

Marvin The Martian: Hoods & Badges Mixtape Mixed By Jack Nimble & Akira The Don [zShare]

This Is Mr Bang On - The Mixtape Mixed by Show N Prove

Shout outs to Shinobi who just hit me with this mixtape. Mr Bang On is out of Liverpool and featured on the latest Hip-Hop Connection cover-disc. Show N Prove are big in the mixtape and production game. This shit goes very hard. I love Liverpool, I always get a good response in Liverpool, I've been waiting for a rapper to come out with some shit from Liverpool for a minute, last time I was there some kids promised me there was going to be some serious shit coming.

Mr Bang On- The Mixtape Mixed By Show N Prove [Rapidshare]

Recession in the UK is months away

The boarded up flat seems to have made a sharp comeback over the last two or so months. I'm thinking about taking a photo of every one I see and posting them here. It's a powerful image. According to The British Chambers of Commerce we are six to nine months away from a full-blown recession in the UK. Who remembers the "Credit crunch"?

LINK: Scary times

An Open Letter to MF Doom

I'm personally not an MF Doom fan. I quite liked his 'Dangerdoom' album and his beats on 'Fishscale' but overall I would definitely not call myself a fan. I'm not really a CunninLynguists fan either. They've got some nice beats and they had that great song with Masta Ace but beyond that I don't know their work at all.

Anyway. Kno from CunninLynguists has written an open letter to MF Doom about the way he treats his fans and the impact he's having on live hip-hop in the US. It's pretty great. Read it Here. "Holy awkward racial undertones, Batman" so real.

For the record, Doom takes the absolute piss with his fans; I can't respect that behaviour at all.

Steve McClaren is all kinds of confused

Damn DITD is looking sports heavy today. This isn't so much sport as much as it is hilarious though. Steve McClaren (former England manager) took a job at Dutch side FC Twente a couple of months ago and has picked himself up a little accent. Except...it's backwards...I mean...watch the video. That doesn't make sense does it?

Steve McClaren: "We are not just...how you say...underdogs?"
Ben standing behind me watching the video: "How you say Steve? It's your language!"

Amir Khan moves to Sky

This may not mean a lot to you but it pisses me off so I figured I'd blog it. Amir Khan is my favourite boxer right now, hands down; the reason being that he started his career with ITV televising his every fight, which meant I got to follow him every step of the way. He made great strides in that time, when his ITV contract was up there was talk of maybe BBC stepping back into the boxing arena (their coverage was spot on a few years back in the Eastman/Williams/Harrison/Froch era) but it wasn't to be, there was also hope that Setanta might step up due to their relationship with Frank Warren; which would have been better because Setanta is easier to get hold of than Sky. But alas he's gone with the money option (probably the right option all things considered) and I'm pretty pissed off. I'm going to have to start finding pubs to watch his fights in, his next 4 or 5 will almost certainly be classics.

LINK: Skysports.com

Biggie getting kicked out of a hotel [Video]

This is tour footage of Biggie and the gang getting kicked out of a hotel somewhere or other. It's pretty dull footage but if you're a Wallace stan like me it's hypnotising. You forget how young the man was when he died. I'm going to listen to 'Life After Death' excuse me.

The Sun: "Grime will make you want to murder"

The Sun ran an incredible article on August 6th about a man who seriously likes The Supremes sitting down to listen to 12 hours of straight Grime Music. The results are life changing. Mr Dotun Adebayo found that the stint caused him to have murderous intentions, hold on though, don't fear, Mr Dotun Adebayo will not kill "I don’t have a violent nature." Whew. Thank god. The only grime artists mentioned are Crazy Titch and Dizzee Rascal but I would love to see a track by track breakdown of that list. Will it have that horrible new Wiley song that samples Daft Punk? Hey Kanye. Your move.

Ultimately I agree with Dotun Adebayo though. Why can't black people go back to making non-threatening music written by white people about their baby loves and such? Then us whites could stop being so darned scared of them all the time. Where I live there are no black people; so all I know of them is the music I hear. So when I went into town the other day I saw a "Hoodie" and thought he wanted to wear my Rolex. But I don't have a Rolex so I just nodded and asked him to hold my jar. The confusion made me buy a Snickers but that was homophobic. I'm so glad The Sun's here to tell me what to think.

LINK: Wow this section is called 'Sun Justice'

STOLEN FROM: Prancehall.Blogspot.com

Goonie Pumas

These could be the ugliest great trainers I ever did see.

Joell Ortiz on the perfect debut album

Joell Ortiz has been talking debut albums on his blog. I'm particularly drawn to Rule Numero Un and Rule Numero Trois... Rule Numero Two was particularly difficult for me as I basically had 10 weeks to write and record my record. But I had a life time to prepare for it so I'm good.

Rule Numero Un: Do write about what you know and not what you think you know. – Self explanatory niggaz! There’s never a future in yo frontin’ mang!

Rule Numero Two: Take your time and do it right baby. Nothing fucks up an album more than weak mixes, tinny beats, or rushed herky jerky content. You only get to make a first impression once simpletons. It’s either you sink or swim doggy so make sure you come correct off the rip. Otherwise you get what you deserve! Rule

Nombre Trois: Just let it go. Don’t hold back now sunny, you’re there. It’s up to you. Seriously, all the preparation and long days and nights that you put into your craft have prepared you for this point. It’s up to you now. Don’t hold back and end up regretting shit. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

LINK: Joel Ortiz talks perfect albums

The image above is one of many early artwork options for 'Devil In The Distance' by the way. It's actually not that early. We were almost there at that point. I still really like it though. I'll show you some more pretty soon.