Check them out at…
Website
Myspace
Cherry Red
Showing posts with label Blade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blade. Show all posts
Monday, 17 January 2011
New record label Original Dope re-release some classic UK material.
Check them out at…
Website
Myspace
Cherry Red
Monday, 18 October 2010
'The Lion Goes From Strength To Strength (No Compromise)' - Blade (re-issue review)
In some ways, this review (or feature?), is easy to write. In others it's more difficult.
The easy bit is this: It's undeniable that the music contained is classic material and has had great bearing on UK Hip Hop's progression. Many of you will know the music from its release in 1993 and therefore don't need me to dissect it in the usual manner - all you'll need to decide is whether or not you need a remastered, CD version of this brilliant album. For those of you who don't know the music but consider yourself to be a UK Hip Hop fan, then you just need to trust me, all the people who bought this on vinyl at its original release and the good folk over at Original Dope, that this is something you need to have.
The difficult bit is this: This is a re-release and thousands of people before me have formed an opinion on the music contained within this double-disc CD with extra liner notes. This leaves me with very little to actually add without putting my own opinions on a pedestal. What I can say is that the price is great, the presentation is excellent, the included booklet, written by Blade himself, is a fascinating read and the sound quality is second to none (way better than the old vinyl rips!).
All in all, I hope I've given you just cause to buy this release. The re-issue of Blade's 'The Lion Goes From Strength To Strength (No Compromise)' is available now at Original Dope for £11.99 plus postage (which is 99p).
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
'Careful On The Way Up' - Diversion Tactics (album review)
Authentic Hip Hop from the UK – don’t believe that? OK – Percee P and Tim Dog, two pioneering Bronx rappers, feature on this LP. Believe me now? Thought so. Need proof from the UK? UK legend Blade endorses this by lending an out-of-retirement verse – dopeness and total awesomeness in my books.‘No Collaborations’ features no collaborations – with lyrics like “if you think this is about you, then this is about you” Chubby holds his own over the banging beat shaming you for ever needing big names to recommend ‘Careful On The Way Up’ to you. As well as Blade ‘Three Card Blag’ features back-on-the-rise D.Gritty – top tune.
When top quality producers Jazz T and Zygote aren’t doing their dusty thing, Tommy Koi is flipping some 80s-sounding cheese on ‘Return of the Ladies Man’ and The Last Skeptik is doing the honours on the neck snapping ‘Where I’m From?’ (on which Chubby discusses the roots of Hip Hop).
Previously heard tracks ‘Can’t Swim’ and ‘Back To School’ (produced by J-Zone) still sound aces as part of this small (35 minutes – just how I like it) but perfectly formed LP with won’t be released until January 11th 2010 on the Boot label.
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Golden Mic Challenge Finals This Week!
Free Entry? A rap battle? In Leeds? Me as a judge? You know you wanna come along! It's on Thursday night (28th May) and it's the Golden Mic Challenge! Four MCs who have battled their way through the heats compete to take the top spot to win the golden Shure SM58, a beat from Mr. Thing, some threads, some cash and more. Judging by what I've heard and seen of the MCs in the running, it should be a good ol' fight!
Oh yeah, and did you see that BLADE is the special guest judge?! Big!!!
Monday, 22 September 2008
'Hip-Hop Connection Presents Recognition...' - Various Artists (compilation review)
Reviewing a CD without listening to it isn’t standard procedure (for me anyway). But when it’s a compilation CD supposedly containing genre-defining tracks it’s a credit to the compilers that listening isn’t necessary. And what more would you expect from the worlds original rap magazine?‘Hip-Hop Connection Presents Recognition 20 Years Of Fire-Starting UK Rap Anthems’ is 20 tracks of…well; the title is pretty self explanatory. In roughly chronological order, HHC curates the annals of the art form done Blighty’s way and succeeds in drawing together some of the most influential specimens. (Click here for tracklisting)
As I hinted before, anyone interested in the UK Rap scene will have heard the majority of what’s on offer here, meaning this serves perfectly as an introduction or education to the un-schooled. It also provides perfectly for that car journey when you forgot to burn off your favourite UK tracks onto a compilation CD.
There are one or two surprises; Blak Twang’s ‘08 album cut, ‘How Long’ fills the gap between ‘91’s ‘Son of Noise’ and ‘01’s ‘The Unknown’ by Mark B & Blade - a gap that Twang’s ‘Red Letters’ would have filled perfectly. Or with a little re-sequencing ‘So Rotton’ would have been more than fitting. The last tracks, although good, are probably not the best representatives of the evident creativity of UK Hip Hop’s last couple of years.
If I didn’t have this I’d probably get it, A) for lending to ignorant friends and B) for an effortless stroll through some of the masterpieces of my collection. It’ll be released on 8th of October on the Hip Hop Village label and there’s no doubt everywhere will be stocking this.
Friday, 29 August 2008
Hip Hop Producers - Baby J Interview
Seasoned UK producer Baby J took time out of his busy, pre album launch schedule to answer a few questions for Certified Banger:
Certified Banger: Your new album, ‘Baby Food’ is out towards the end of this year, in a couple of months. What can we all expect from that? What are you most excited about with respect to its release?
Baby J: It’s just nice to have my s**t coming out, I love letting people hear my stuff and seeing what feedback it gets. I always feel lucky just to be able to be releasing music, it’s what I’ve always wanted to do so every time is an honour.
CB: You’ve had loads of attention from the sphere of UK Hip Hop and I’ve heard your tracks on Radio 1 nuff times, especially ‘Young, Gifted and Black’. You’ve made moves with big names in the pop world like Mark Ronson. What are your hopes and expectations for the success of ‘Baby Food’?
Baby J: I think I’d just like to get my stuff heard outside of the UK hip hop arena, I feel like I got my stripes there, I’d like to be known as a producer not just a hip hop producer, I’m always gonna make hip hop cause that’s my heart but id like to be able to try some other stuff to.
CB: There are going to be loads of guests on ‘Baby Food’, as usual. Who have you had a chance to work with this time that you have never worked with before? How important are the guest singers and rappers to your work?
Baby J: Farma G and Million Dan were big ones for me, just cause they’re both legends. The artists on my albums make the albums, I provide the landscape but they make it what it is.
CB: What do you look for in an artist when doing collaboration? Are there any MC’s or singers who you would really like to have on your productions in the future?
Baby J: Just someone that stands out. And someone that’s about their business, I’m getting too old to be chasing rappers! I’d like to do something with Dizzee, and Rodney P and Lilly Allen and Adele
CB: Let’s talk about your production sound now. You seem to have a knack when it comes to picking samples; your beats are always so catchy whether they have a happy or a darker vibe. What’s your sample finding process?
Baby J: 2 things, firstly its got to be sonically nice, there’s gotta be something nice about the texture of the sound, the way it was recorded, the instruments used. Secondly the original music’s gotta be hot. I’m usually into a track before I sample it.
CB: Lots of people read my interviews with producers to get tips. What tips would you give to an aspiring producer? Are the any little secrets you can let us into?
Baby J: When you’re working with samples you’re the last musician in the room, so try and add instruments and playing styles that are sympathetic to the music that’s already down, don’t just add some generic boom bap drums over the top. And… EZ Drummer, vintage rock, insider info.
CB: Does the production on ‘Baby Food’ follow the traditional sampling method or have you started from scratch on any of the tracks?
Baby J: There are no samples on the new album. All the tracks have been made from scratch. A couple of tracks have been inspired by other tracks id heard and id got musicians to come and replay things but everything else was from scratch. It was a conscious decision, I felt id done the sample thing and I wanted to challenge myself with a new way of working, so I bought a piano of ebay for £40 and a bass and a guitar.
CB: Who and what inspires you to make music? What got you into producing in the first place?
Baby J: I first started making music because that way I didn’t have to wait for new records to come out to have new music, in some ways it’s the same thing now, I make music when I want to create a certain vibe or feel.
CB: As a fan of Blade, I’ve got to ask, as you produced his last ever album, how did you feel when he said he was going into retirement? Did you know he was going to do that when you were working on ‘Guerrilla Tactics’?
Baby J: To be honest I don’t think I really believed him, I thought it was talk. When we did the album and it came out it was on the tale end of records actually selling and I think he just got disheartened with the sales from the project. We new it was a good album, and it got the critical acclaim but that just didn’t manifest into sales cause people just weren’t buying music in the same way they were 5 years ago.
CB: A lot of prominent people in all walks of life feel a certain amount of responsibility. What’s your role in UK Hip Hop besides making dope beats? Is hard being the one behind the ones with the voice or is that good for you?
Baby J: I get to choose which artists I work with, so they get to speak for me in a sense. I look at music as propaganda. its a tool to talk to the youth so we all have a responsibility to use it accordingly, if you aint got nothing worth saying put the mic down. Recently I was at an anti BNP rally outside their national festival, you see these guys pushing their pro-white racist bulls**t and it suddenly occurred to me, I bet most of their kids listened to black music, they damn sure aint listening to morris dancing.
CB: Thanks for your time. Are there any last words, anything you’d like to add that we’ve not covered? Any interesting insights that you’ve been thinking about over the last couple of weeks?!
Baby J: Check my blog http://babyjbiz.blogspot.com to hear my rants about life. FTP (oh, and buy my album, please)
Baby J: It’s just nice to have my s**t coming out, I love letting people hear my stuff and seeing what feedback it gets. I always feel lucky just to be able to be releasing music, it’s what I’ve always wanted to do so every time is an honour.
CB: You’ve had loads of attention from the sphere of UK Hip Hop and I’ve heard your tracks on Radio 1 nuff times, especially ‘Young, Gifted and Black’. You’ve made moves with big names in the pop world like Mark Ronson. What are your hopes and expectations for the success of ‘Baby Food’?
Baby J: I think I’d just like to get my stuff heard outside of the UK hip hop arena, I feel like I got my stripes there, I’d like to be known as a producer not just a hip hop producer, I’m always gonna make hip hop cause that’s my heart but id like to be able to try some other stuff to.
CB: There are going to be loads of guests on ‘Baby Food’, as usual. Who have you had a chance to work with this time that you have never worked with before? How important are the guest singers and rappers to your work?
Baby J: Farma G and Million Dan were big ones for me, just cause they’re both legends. The artists on my albums make the albums, I provide the landscape but they make it what it is.
CB: What do you look for in an artist when doing collaboration? Are there any MC’s or singers who you would really like to have on your productions in the future?
Baby J: Just someone that stands out. And someone that’s about their business, I’m getting too old to be chasing rappers! I’d like to do something with Dizzee, and Rodney P and Lilly Allen and Adele
CB: Let’s talk about your production sound now. You seem to have a knack when it comes to picking samples; your beats are always so catchy whether they have a happy or a darker vibe. What’s your sample finding process?
Baby J: 2 things, firstly its got to be sonically nice, there’s gotta be something nice about the texture of the sound, the way it was recorded, the instruments used. Secondly the original music’s gotta be hot. I’m usually into a track before I sample it.
CB: Lots of people read my interviews with producers to get tips. What tips would you give to an aspiring producer? Are the any little secrets you can let us into?
Baby J: When you’re working with samples you’re the last musician in the room, so try and add instruments and playing styles that are sympathetic to the music that’s already down, don’t just add some generic boom bap drums over the top. And… EZ Drummer, vintage rock, insider info.
CB: Does the production on ‘Baby Food’ follow the traditional sampling method or have you started from scratch on any of the tracks?
Baby J: There are no samples on the new album. All the tracks have been made from scratch. A couple of tracks have been inspired by other tracks id heard and id got musicians to come and replay things but everything else was from scratch. It was a conscious decision, I felt id done the sample thing and I wanted to challenge myself with a new way of working, so I bought a piano of ebay for £40 and a bass and a guitar.
CB: Who and what inspires you to make music? What got you into producing in the first place?
Baby J: I first started making music because that way I didn’t have to wait for new records to come out to have new music, in some ways it’s the same thing now, I make music when I want to create a certain vibe or feel.
CB: As a fan of Blade, I’ve got to ask, as you produced his last ever album, how did you feel when he said he was going into retirement? Did you know he was going to do that when you were working on ‘Guerrilla Tactics’?
Baby J: To be honest I don’t think I really believed him, I thought it was talk. When we did the album and it came out it was on the tale end of records actually selling and I think he just got disheartened with the sales from the project. We new it was a good album, and it got the critical acclaim but that just didn’t manifest into sales cause people just weren’t buying music in the same way they were 5 years ago.
CB: A lot of prominent people in all walks of life feel a certain amount of responsibility. What’s your role in UK Hip Hop besides making dope beats? Is hard being the one behind the ones with the voice or is that good for you?
Baby J: I get to choose which artists I work with, so they get to speak for me in a sense. I look at music as propaganda. its a tool to talk to the youth so we all have a responsibility to use it accordingly, if you aint got nothing worth saying put the mic down. Recently I was at an anti BNP rally outside their national festival, you see these guys pushing their pro-white racist bulls**t and it suddenly occurred to me, I bet most of their kids listened to black music, they damn sure aint listening to morris dancing.
CB: Thanks for your time. Are there any last words, anything you’d like to add that we’ve not covered? Any interesting insights that you’ve been thinking about over the last couple of weeks?!
Baby J: Check my blog http://babyjbiz.blogspot.com to hear my rants about life. FTP (oh, and buy my album, please)
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Baby J's 'Fix The Problem' mixtape and forthcoming single 'Lies'
Baby J has rapidly become well known in Hip Hop, mainly in the UK but as a result of working with Wu-Affiliate Shabazz the Disciple, Brand Nubian and Dead Prez and others there are some in the US who will also know his name. His knack for sampling already insanely catchy songs and matching them up to MC's and singers who are actually decent has seen him score a few successes. 'Young, Gifted & Black' featuring Dynamite MC got loads of Radio 1 airplay, he produced a good few tracks on Skinnyman's album debut 'Council Estate of Mind' and entirely produced Blade's last ever album 'Guerrilla Tactics'. He has had two great 'Mixtapes' (F.T.P. & FTP2: Fight The Power) that are really more like production albums featuring the likes of Fallacy, Mr Ti2bs, Rukus, Yogi, Ty, Klashnekoff, A-Alikes and Moorish Delta 7 as well as others.
Now, Baby J has 'Fix The Problem: FTP The Mixtape pt.2' which slightly confused me because I didn't even know the first one existed (it does, it's called 'For The People: FTP The Mixtape' and if anyone wants to send me a copy, be my guest). Anyway, 'Fix The Problem' seems to follow along the lines of the first mixtape in that it's got hundreds of tracks, each one a verse from a different rapper.
Actually it's got 'MORE THEN 60 OF THE WORLDS BEST BLACK MUSIC ARTISTS, PERFORMING OVER BABY J'S GREATEST INSTRUMENTALS' - and this is where I take my only issue with this CD. In that one sentence, emblazoned (well not quite, but it's there) across the front there are 2 errors that annoy me and something else that just nags me. First, 'MORE THEN' - it's 'More than' and secondly, 'WORLDS BEST' when it should have an apostrophe - 'World's best'. Now I know that sounds fussy but if you want to be professional, spelling and grammar is important. The third thing that gets my goat is 'BLACK MUSIC ARTISTS'. I don't like that as an umbrella name for Hip Hop, Grime, R'n'B and whatever else it encompasses, especially when half of the folks on here are white! Gripe done.
It's a great collection of guest verses (there are 65 tracks/verses) from the likes of Million Dan, Jehst, Shameless, Brotherman, Asher D, Young Max, Yungun and Dynamite MC and obviously, a flippin' truckload more. Consider this a starter course for Baby J's 'Baby Food' album, scheduled to drop in October.
The big single off 'Baby Food' is 'Lies', a simplistic track that features Asher D (going by his real name - Ashley Walters - trying to shake off the old So Solid/jailed for gun crime associations?). For you Americans, he's the guy who played one of Marcus's mates in 50 Cent's 'Get Rich or Try Dying' film (y'know he got shot and was in hospital and that). It also features UK R'nB 'sensation' Nathan. It's a really catchy,insanely radio friendly, modern sounding piece of slick UK Hip Hop; it's destined to attract teenyboppers/radio listeners and props to Baby for that! It's got a nice, light summery vibe to it too; it'll be unoffensive to your ears as you sit back in your hammock this August.
Check back here in the autumn/fall for a review of 'Baby Food'. As a fan who has actually bought his previous work (Gasp! People buy music?!), I'm really looking forward to it especially since I know it's going to feature guests old and new: Million Dan and Farma G (of Task Force) being my most anticipated collaborations!
Monday, 14 April 2008
We got it for Cheap - 'Lowlife is 40' & 'UK Takeover Vol. 4'
There's a bit of a Braintax track (possibly 'Monsoon Funk' off 'Panorama') where he says something about how he's mixed down half the UK classics. Well, it's true, it may be a slight underestimation when considering UK Hip Hop from at least the last 10 years. This CD, that you can get for a ridiculously low price (59p, anyone?!) here on the wonderful Amazon marketplace features some great tracks from Braintax, Task Force, Jehst, Rodney P, Mystro, Asaviour, Kashmere, Skinnyman, Verb T and Lewis Parker. It was created to celebrate the 40th Lowlife release and it really helps to prove Joey's point although it's not an exhaustive list and there are plenty more classics where these came from. It also features what is becoming UK industry standard for packaging: Classy gatefold style cardboard, and that makes it nicer to own, OK not so good for keeping in the car if you want it to stay nice!
Whoever you are, where ever you're at, just get yourself a copy of this and enjoy. I've already copped 3 for me and my bro and my mate.
You wouldn't go far wrong either by ordering this: UK Takeover Volume 4, the soundtrack to the night. It's packed with classics ('Survival of the Hardest Working' by Blade), some personal favourites of mine (Baby J's 'Let it Go remix' and 'So You Want More' by Ty and Roots Manuva')and other tracks by great UK MC's (Yungun, Estelle etc) . You can pick this up for around the 50p mark too, awesome!
Thursday, 13 September 2007
What Come Around (Go Around, Kid) #2
At number 10 we branched and the first option for the tenth track was N.O.R.E and Kanye West with ‘Ima Get You’. In 10 tracks we’ll cross the pond to London, take the seacat to the land of frogs legs and snails and then hop right back to Rodney P.
Download this lot here all zipped up
11. Kanye West had a big hit with the Shirley Bassey sampling ‘Diamonds (from Sierra
Leone)’, a bigger hit for me is the remix with Jay-Z…”Yup, I got it it from here
‘Ye”.
11. Kanye West had a big hit with the Shirley Bassey sampling ‘Diamonds (from Sierra
Leone)’, a bigger hit for me is the remix with Jay-Z…”Yup, I got it it from here
‘Ye”.
12. On what was supposedly Jay-Z’s departing album a different producer was
drafted in for each track. One of these was the most reliable 9th Wonder who
produced the excellent ‘Threat’.
13. 9th Wonder got together with Murs to make the underground smash – Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition. Pick of the bunch is title track ‘3:16’.
14. Murs, who seems to tirelessly put out music, featured on the Z-Trip produced ode to cartoons and cereal ‘Breakfast Club’ with Supernatural.
15. Z-Trip gave us ‘Something Different’ by getting Chali 2na, Keno-1 and The Hermit to guest on the same track.
16. Chali 2na, who seems to have his fingers liberally dipped in a few pies at the moment, features alongside Roots Manuva on the lyrically awesome ‘Join the Dots’.
17. Roots Manuva took a trip to France to join Saian Supa Crew on their international version of ‘X-Raisons’, this genius manoeuvre (sorry) resulted in ‘Hey Yo My Man’.
18. Saian Supa Crew featured on a remix of Mark B & Blade’s ‘The Unknown’.
19. Mark B & Blade did alright for themselves and UK Hip Hop in general when they released the album ‘The Unknown’, guess who featured on ‘We Stay Rough’? Yup, Rodney P.
20. Finally, the 20th track, from Rodney’s ‘The Future’ full length is ‘I Believe’ featuring Olivia Chaney.
Whadya think ‘o that then? I reckon you could do that with most semi known artists, have a go yourself.Monday, 11 June 2007
Collabo Connections #2 - Skinnyman
Skinnyman featured on Mark B & Blade’s ‘The Unknown’ in ’01 on the track ‘The long awaited’, a banger for sure. Skinnyman, considered by many to be a UK Hip Hop veteran, spent his childhood in Chapeltown, Leeds, moving to Stoke Newington when he was 10. These two locations schooled him in the art of toasting lyrics at reggae sound system clashes and after Malcolm Mclarens ‘Buffalo Girls’ introduced him to Hip Hop it was inevitable that the two styles intertwined.
The year before Baby J dropped ‘F.T.P.’ he produced 3 tracks on Skinnyman’s long awaited debut album. The two big tracks were ‘I’ll be surprised’ and the Bobby Byrd sampling ‘No big Ting’. This led to Skinnyman having the first track on F.T.P. – ‘None of them (ft. Laurissa)’. Also producing on ‘Council estate of mind’ were DJ Flip (producing the title track), DJ Noize, Stone and Adam M. ‘Council estate of mind’ was released on the number 1 UK Hip Hop label – Low Life Records (owned by Braintax whos Biro Funk set featured Skinnyman on ‘Opening Titles’).
Taking it back Skinnyman was, and still is, a member of Mud Family who released, most famously, ‘Itchy Town’. Mud Family at the time comprised of Skinny himself, Chester P (Now of Taskforce) and (Blak Twang hater) Mongo. The changing line up of Mud Fam meant that Skinny also worked with SupaNovar, Mr. Ti2bbs, Farma G (Chester P’s Brother/other half of Taskforce) and others. Before Mud Family, in the mid 80’s, Skinny was a member of the Bury Crew also with Chester P and Mongo as well as Intenz, Mike Skilla, Keith and Sparks.
In 2000 Skinny appeared on ‘Twilight of the Gods’, a Skitz track which also featured Rodney P, Wildflower, Riddla and Prime Cuts. Skinnyman was on Westwood’s second compilation (2002) holding up the UK’s tiny section (2 tracks) at the end of the 2nd CD was ‘Straight Outta Jail’, a song probably written straight after Skinny got out of jail (“I ain’t sayin’ what I do//I ain’t gettin’ catched”). Skinnyman also featured on a track with Mystro and Jargon called ‘Put the word out’.
2003 brought a teaming up with Foreign Beggars on ‘Asylum Speakers’ and 2004 saw a couple of collaborations with Karl Hinds; ‘Have Patience’ and ‘Let’s av it’.
In ’05 Skinnyman (along with Blade) featured on First Rate’s album ‘Walky Talkyz’. His track Barfight is a song all about…well you know…over a wobbly piano led beat. In the same year he featured on a remix of Sway’s ‘Up your speed’ with Pyrelli, Triple Threat, Bruza and Bigz. Skinny also worked with Life (of Phi-Life Cypher) and Sway on ‘The whole nine’ in this year.
Skinny’s latest track is ‘Live Right’ featuring Monkane, an ex-label mate at Gilles Peterson’s Talkin’ Loud records before it folded.
There are plenty more leads to take here as well as the ones from the post on Blade, this is just gonna get bigger peeps!
(There are so many collabos, for a full list of appearances check out Wikipedia)
The year before Baby J dropped ‘F.T.P.’ he produced 3 tracks on Skinnyman’s long awaited debut album. The two big tracks were ‘I’ll be surprised’ and the Bobby Byrd sampling ‘No big Ting’. This led to Skinnyman having the first track on F.T.P. – ‘None of them (ft. Laurissa)’. Also producing on ‘Council estate of mind’ were DJ Flip (producing the title track), DJ Noize, Stone and Adam M. ‘Council estate of mind’ was released on the number 1 UK Hip Hop label – Low Life Records (owned by Braintax whos Biro Funk set featured Skinnyman on ‘Opening Titles’).
Taking it back Skinnyman was, and still is, a member of Mud Family who released, most famously, ‘Itchy Town’. Mud Family at the time comprised of Skinny himself, Chester P (Now of Taskforce) and (Blak Twang hater) Mongo. The changing line up of Mud Fam meant that Skinny also worked with SupaNovar, Mr. Ti2bbs, Farma G (Chester P’s Brother/other half of Taskforce) and others. Before Mud Family, in the mid 80’s, Skinny was a member of the Bury Crew also with Chester P and Mongo as well as Intenz, Mike Skilla, Keith and Sparks.
In 2000 Skinny appeared on ‘Twilight of the Gods’, a Skitz track which also featured Rodney P, Wildflower, Riddla and Prime Cuts. Skinnyman was on Westwood’s second compilation (2002) holding up the UK’s tiny section (2 tracks) at the end of the 2nd CD was ‘Straight Outta Jail’, a song probably written straight after Skinny got out of jail (“I ain’t sayin’ what I do//I ain’t gettin’ catched”). Skinnyman also featured on a track with Mystro and Jargon called ‘Put the word out’.
2003 brought a teaming up with Foreign Beggars on ‘Asylum Speakers’ and 2004 saw a couple of collaborations with Karl Hinds; ‘Have Patience’ and ‘Let’s av it’.
In ’05 Skinnyman (along with Blade) featured on First Rate’s album ‘Walky Talkyz’. His track Barfight is a song all about…well you know…over a wobbly piano led beat. In the same year he featured on a remix of Sway’s ‘Up your speed’ with Pyrelli, Triple Threat, Bruza and Bigz. Skinny also worked with Life (of Phi-Life Cypher) and Sway on ‘The whole nine’ in this year.
Skinny’s latest track is ‘Live Right’ featuring Monkane, an ex-label mate at Gilles Peterson’s Talkin’ Loud records before it folded.
There are plenty more leads to take here as well as the ones from the post on Blade, this is just gonna get bigger peeps!
(There are so many collabos, for a full list of appearances check out Wikipedia)
Skinnyman - Ill be surprised.mp3
Mark B & Blade - The long awaited ft. Lewis Parker &.mp3
Mud Family - Itchy Town.mp3
Skinnyman - Straight Outta Jail.mp3
Skinnyman & Baby J - none of them ft. Laurissa.mp3
Skinnyman - No big ting.mp3
First Rate - Barfight ft. Skinnyman.mp3
Skinnyman - Council Estate of Mind.mp3
Sunday, 10 June 2007
Collabo Connections #1 - Blade
Here begins a series which after some thought I realise could run for a long time. Collaborations and rap go hand in hand. There are few rap albums out there that don’t feature a cameo from another rapper or group. Some artists rely on paying a bigger rapper to help them either launch or revive their career. Other artists have the insight that fans want to hear two (or more) of their favourite MCs together on one track. Often collaborations are frowned upon for the first of the above reasons but I would be so bold to say that without them the rap world would be slightly boring at times.
There is no reason for starting this thread off with this artist other than I wanted to write a post on him anyway. Whilst meditating a post on Blade I realised he had worked with many other artists who in turn have worked with other artists, and so on. Then (slightly influenced also by ‘Comedy Connections’ off the telly and maybe my mums obsession with family trees) I came up with the idea of creating a string of posts that map out who’s worked with who and how hip hop eventually links up into one big family.
Growing up in Yorkshire and being born in 1984 means I missed out on all of Blade’s earlier work. I haven’t yet had a chance to familiarise myself with his back catalogue it so most of this post will be focussing on his work following Mark B and Blade fame.
In 1989 Blade released ‘Lyrical Maniac’, his first official single (go here for more info). In 1997 during depression he released ‘Rhyme Bomb’ (go here for more info).
2001 saw Mark B and Blade being played on Radio 1 with their track ‘The Unknown’ and then ‘Ya don’t see the signs’. The former was released with, amongst others, a remix featuring France’s premier rap collective; Saian Supa Crew. The latter hit the airwaves in the form of a rocky remix by Grant Nicholas of Feeder and frankly rock and rap rarely sounds this good together. The album, also entitled ‘The Unknown’ featured collaborations with Rodney P, Lewis Parker, Skinnyman, Chester P and Westwood (!).
In 2002 Blade reared his head on Lewis Parker’s ‘It’s all Happening Now’ on ‘The Chase pt. 1’.
Blade’s next big move was in 2004 with the release of ‘Storms are Brewing’, an album on which he collaborated with only session musicians and DJ’s, he produced and wrote it all himself. The flip to the single ‘Reflection’ was ‘Soldiers’, a track featuring Life (of Phi-Life Cypher) and Respek BA.
2005 was Baby J’s year in the UK and Blade was making moves with this modern superproducer. He appeared on J’s excellent album F.T.P. on Mumps (also featuring Laurissa). This hook up obviously worked so well that Blade decided Baby J would produce his entire second album, my personal favourite being the excellent ‘UK Hip Hop’, a track with which Blade hopes to educate people about the roots of rap in Great Britain simply by name checking all the greats (note – I’m not going to use that fact to make tenuous links to all and sundry in Brit Hop!).
2005 also brought us a solo album from The Scratch Perverts DJ First Rate. Blade cooked up a feast on the tasty ‘Hamburger’; a semi-hilarious ode to eating fast food on tour.
There is no reason for starting this thread off with this artist other than I wanted to write a post on him anyway. Whilst meditating a post on Blade I realised he had worked with many other artists who in turn have worked with other artists, and so on. Then (slightly influenced also by ‘Comedy Connections’ off the telly and maybe my mums obsession with family trees) I came up with the idea of creating a string of posts that map out who’s worked with who and how hip hop eventually links up into one big family.
Growing up in Yorkshire and being born in 1984 means I missed out on all of Blade’s earlier work. I haven’t yet had a chance to familiarise myself with his back catalogue it so most of this post will be focussing on his work following Mark B and Blade fame.
In 1989 Blade released ‘Lyrical Maniac’, his first official single (go here for more info). In 1997 during depression he released ‘Rhyme Bomb’ (go here for more info).
2001 saw Mark B and Blade being played on Radio 1 with their track ‘The Unknown’ and then ‘Ya don’t see the signs’. The former was released with, amongst others, a remix featuring France’s premier rap collective; Saian Supa Crew. The latter hit the airwaves in the form of a rocky remix by Grant Nicholas of Feeder and frankly rock and rap rarely sounds this good together. The album, also entitled ‘The Unknown’ featured collaborations with Rodney P, Lewis Parker, Skinnyman, Chester P and Westwood (!).
In 2002 Blade reared his head on Lewis Parker’s ‘It’s all Happening Now’ on ‘The Chase pt. 1’.
Blade’s next big move was in 2004 with the release of ‘Storms are Brewing’, an album on which he collaborated with only session musicians and DJ’s, he produced and wrote it all himself. The flip to the single ‘Reflection’ was ‘Soldiers’, a track featuring Life (of Phi-Life Cypher) and Respek BA.
2005 was Baby J’s year in the UK and Blade was making moves with this modern superproducer. He appeared on J’s excellent album F.T.P. on Mumps (also featuring Laurissa). This hook up obviously worked so well that Blade decided Baby J would produce his entire second album, my personal favourite being the excellent ‘UK Hip Hop’, a track with which Blade hopes to educate people about the roots of rap in Great Britain simply by name checking all the greats (note – I’m not going to use that fact to make tenuous links to all and sundry in Brit Hop!).
2005 also brought us a solo album from The Scratch Perverts DJ First Rate. Blade cooked up a feast on the tasty ‘Hamburger’; a semi-hilarious ode to eating fast food on tour.
Blade has worked hard for decades now so please go buy some of his music if you do like what you have heard. Visit his website and go to the store.
I’m sure you’ll agree there are many roads I can now take and I shall endeavour to explore all of them. I’m pretty sure I’ll get quite confused on the way and we’ll see how truly intertwined the web of the hip hop spider is.
If, during any of this series, you have tracks and collabos to add then feel free to leave comments or drop me a line. I’ll gladly add them to expand the wealth of knowledge available here!
Blade - Lyrical maniac.mp3
Blade - Rhyme bomb.mp3
First Rate - Hamburger ft. Blade.mp3
Blade - Soldiers ft. Life & Respek BA.mp3
Lewis Parker - The Chase pt.1 ft. Blade.mp3
Mark B and Blade - The Unknown ft .Saian Supa Crew.mp3
Blade - UK Hip Hop.mp3
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