Watson G - 'Rain' / Jonny Alpha - 'Incedible Pre​-​Me' Produced by Imperial

Check out the latest double single from Don't Talk To Strangers Records. It features the 2 MCs from Knew Jeru'slum - Johnny Alpha and Watson G. The production comes from from Cambridge's Imperial, recently signed to Illect Recordings out in the US.

The production is big and the rhymes are strong. Check out these West Yorkshire heavyweights for free right now by heading over to their bandcamp page.

Knew Jeru'slum - 'LOVE ME!' Official Video & 'The Samson Lok Files' Mini Album Free Download!

Here is the Video for 'Love Me!' the Free Dowlnload Single taken from the forthcoming 'The Samson Lok Files' Mini Album, also Free to Download from 28th February 2011!

This video is Directed by Kieran Malko, and features production from Paris based Keor Meteor. Mixed and mastered by The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Download 'The Samson Lok Files' from 28/02/11 Here- http://www.knew-jeruslum.bandcamp.com/

'Love Me!' - Knew Jeru'slum (free download)

Positive soulful vibes from Knew Jeru'slum on this new track entitled 'Love Me!'. The group are evidently continually honing their craft and this track is a great addition to their catalogue. Check the northern wordplay of Jonny Alpha and Watson G and the dreamy vocals of Belinda Hards by downloading the track for not a penny more than free. The tune is produced by Paris based Keor Meteor and is to promote the forthcoming 'The Samson Lok Files' Project, which will also be free to download in January.

'Jerus and Gentiles' - Knew Jeru'slum (album review)

Rowdy and militant – that’s how I’d describe ‘Jerus and Gentiles’. Now you must understand; I use both words with all possible positivity. Knew Jeru’slum’s debut LP disturbs the peace with its no-nonsense approach to Hip Hop although it’s not all heavy fire.

‘Intro’ featuring cuts from First Word’s Andy H, ‘Thirty Twos’ and lead single ‘Non-Apologetix featuring US MC Manchild are pure aural assault with the album’s three producers Eliphino, The Scarlet Pimpernel and Brutal Artistry each taking their turn to match the MCs’ impassioned rhymes. ‘Dreamcatchers’ featuring JND (as heard on Certified Banger’s ‘On The Radar’ series) and ‘Kaleidoscopic’, whilst remaining equally as heavy, provide a slower tempo and a rest in the trenches before ‘Speakwise’ explodes into the ear canal with renewed fervour.

Label mate Chief Wigz must have influenced ‘Move Mountains’ featuring Larbi; the interplay between Jonny Alpha and Watson G on the chorus makes for one of the most memorable tracks on the album. Another US MC, Pigeon John, joins the ranks for the summery ‘Hibernation’ on which Belinda’s vocals are showcased beautifully. ‘Aircon’ does what it says on the tin – provides a breather and a chillout moment which is backed up by the serious message and the laid back vibe of ‘One Foot In The World’.

‘Plan To Prosper’ brings the funk and the juxtaposition of the haunting background vocals with the MCs frenzied words is fairly close to surreal, and that’s before it ascends into Drum and Bass chaos. Narykcin provides a heartfelt chorus on ‘Penitent Man’ and if you hadn’t caught onto the fact that this album is inspired by the Christian faith of its proprietors by this point then this will track will point you in that direction, causing you to re-think everything you’ve heard so far.

‘Memoirs’ serves as a decoy before ‘Bobby Legion’ devastates the situation; the track, featuring singer Stevie Heath’, has the most mass appeal because of its chorus which is insane considering the earth-shattering hardcore-ness of its Hip Hop beat – definitely the album’s atomic charge, talk about saving the best ‘til last! In fact, it’s not the last; ‘Hunger’ featuring Rini of Sons of Light and Ragga artist Wizkid bring the final frontier of variety as old school Hip Hop, R’n’B and Dancehall rub shoulders making for a crowd-pleasing product.

Stand up and salute West Yorkshire’s latest offering to the UK Hip Hop scene – Knew Jeru’slum have created a piece of work worthy of decoration. Suspect Packages are stocking this, you can get it (and listen to it all for free) at Bandcamp, it’s on itunes, you can get it at label Don’t Talk To Strangers’ website so there’s no excuse for you not to have this in your collection. Oh yeah, and it's only a fiver.

3 CDs or Vinyls for a Tenner!

Some news from the DTTS camp:

For a limited time only, buy any 3 CDs or Vinyl Records from The Dark City Store for just £10 shipped worldwide! Just add the first 2 items you want to the cart and state the name of the 3rd item you want in the notes field at checkout, simple as that!

(The offer excludes Chief Wigz 'Never Speak Ill Of The Dead Vol 1 as only 2 copies remain)

http://www.thedarkcityblog.com/2010/05/any-3-cds-or-vinyl-records-for-10.html
http://www.dtts.bigcartel.com/

also last few White Tee's with Orange Paisley WY logo now only £5 shipped! All sizes but SMALL in VERY limited numbers...http://www.dtts.bigcartel.com/product/pre-order-orange-paisley-on-white-wy-t-shirt-limited-to-50

This offer includes the No Pretense album 'Music & Mouthwords' (which features Cage and Prince Po), the self titled Chief Wigz LP, the orange Chief Wigz 'Sunday Service' 12" and the No Pretense 7" green vinyl 'Self Harmonic' (click on each title to read my reviews). It also includes the brand new Knew Jeru'slum LP 'Jerus and Gentiles' which I can't recommend enough - keep 'em peeled for a review here soon!

As if that's not enough, free up your diary for this:

Knew Jeru'slum Album Launch + Sherwin Gardner

Sherwin Gardner and WizKid join Knew Jeru'slum for their album launch at Verse UK on Friday 7th May. If you're around Huddersfield then, then this is one to get to.

Knew Jeru'slum feature on Coast 2 Coast mixtape!

Look who features alongside Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Wale, Snoop Dogg and more - it's West Yorkshire's very own Knew Jeru'slum with their track 'Non-apologetix' featuring Manchild. The mixtape is hosted by Wale and features fresh US Hip Hop with the Jerus' track being the only UK track on there this month. Good one boys! Proud of ya!

You can download it for free now. Look out for more features from the Don't Talk To Strangers camp on this mixtape series soon.

'No Matter'/'Sweet and Sour' - Knew Jeru'slum & Miss Tofelees (free downloads)

Miss Tofelees + Johnny Alpha + Watson G =

Here are two new tracks from the combination of peeps in the above equation.

The first track is 'No Matter' by Knew Jeru'slum, so that's Johnny Alpha and Watson G on spits with nice production from Miss Tofelees. 'No Matter' is all about sticking at things despite trials and tribulations - something serious for you. This track is taken off their forthcoming LP 'Jerus and Gentiles' which will be released on Don't Talk To Strangers.

The second track's not so serious. This one is 'Sweet and Sour' by Johnny Alpha, featuring Watson G and produced by Miss Tofelees. If you're into Chinese food, or just food in general, get this track playing whilst you cook up a storm (or get on the phone to your local takeaway). 'Sweet And Sour' will feature on the Miss Tofelees album 'Mist Over Leeds' which will be out late 2009/early 2010.

'On The Radar Vol. 4' Track Highlight: 'Dreamcatchers' ft. JND - Knew Jeru'slum

Name: Knew Jeru'slum - Watson G, Jonny Alpha & Belinda Hards
Age: – Collectively 79 years old, mostly in favour of Jonny Alpha, don’t be fooled by his Oil of Olay looks.

From: Hudds and Halifax

Track on ‘On The Radar’: ‘Dreamcatchers’ ft. JND

Tell us the story behind the track: The track’s produced by Eliphino (9 Livez), and features one of our extended fam, JND. He's dope and always comes with some freshness, so we asked him to jump on this as we’d been talkin collabos for a minute. I watched a film with the same title, and thought it’d be good just to write to a title, get three different perspectives on the word. We took too long from start to finish with gaps inbetween movements on it - a year must be a record!

Record label: Don’t Talk to Strangers fam.

Who you roll with: The main fam are Bane, Mury Poppinz (No Pretense) Chief Wigz, Optics, Spida Lee, Brutal Artistry, Mega Mouth, Ball-Z, Deadboy,TCB, Guvnor, Mikey 3D...We like to think were pretty tight with a certain Miss Tofelees (Biggin’ her up so we get more beats!)...couple of mans further afield like Iz-real, Naryckin, Turtle hands. We're working a bit with Whichcraft too(the artist, not the pastime!).

Favourite album: Jonny - Personally, I’d throw Gravediggaz '6ftDeep' up there, along with 'Illmatic' (Watson – “me too” and 'Baduism')

Describe your style in three words: Watson - “Completely – Mixed & Diverse,”..Jonny – “True – imaginative - Poetry!” Belinda – “Timeless – soulful – real”

Past/Present/Future projects: You can check the DTTS myspace for all previous releases and who's whos. As far as Knew Jerus goes, our album ‘Jerus & Gentiles’ will be the first project, out very early 2010, featuring production mostly from Miki B, and featuring beats from Guvnor and Eliphino, Our first single on Download only –‘Non-Apologetix’ came out a bit ago ft. Manchild from Mars Ill Available on i-tunes, next single is a Double A side 12” Hibernation ft. Pigeon John, and on the flip No Pretense ft. Prince Po – Elevation.

We got an album entirely over Guvnor beats in the pipe line for 2010, an EP called ‘Plastercine’ ft. Some very special guests, and we’re each working on solo material too, keep check on the DTTS myspace for schedules, and other interesting ish happening - we’re busy bees!

Watch out for a couple of guest spots from us here and there...watch out for WYdeboi’s EP!

Watch out for the DTTS releases in the next 12 months, it’s getting BIG!

Peace!

SubSpecies Interview - Fresh New Streetwear

I'd begun to notice some nice SubSpecies threads around and about so imagine my delight when they got in touch with me with some information and the offer of 'samples'. I didn't hesitate in replying and pretty soon after I was rocking a high quality T-shirt and cap. Then, I just had to do the interview so that you lot can get up on these awesome garms:

Certified Banger: Yo! This is a first for me… tell the people why:

Chris Hughes: We are SubSpecies, an urban/streetwear label that was formed by a troop of talented designers who were tired of the poor quality that mainstream brands were banging out and selling out to the sheep of society.

CB: So tell us about your product a bit more. What did you set out to achieve with it?

CH: We want to create something that is a little different from the rest of the brands that are out there, using good graphics on quality fabrics. All our tees are limited edition and there are only 450 of them per style/colour worldwide, so if you’re in a club with someone wearing a Sub tee the same as you... that's just fate!

• Click here for the rest of the interview to find out their UK Hip Hop connections
  
• Check their websites: http://www.subspecies.co.uk/ and http://www.subspecies.bigcartel.com/

Joker Starr and Micall Parknsun on June's Suspect Packages Show

Gots to check out the new Suspect Packages Radio Show with Disorda and special guests Micall Parknsun and Joker Starr.

Tracks included are by Knew Jeru'slum, SonnyJim and Kosyne, the new UK Hip Hopsupergroup Orphans of Cush (Kyza Smirnoff, M9, Masikah & Cyrus Malachi), Mystro, Mr. Scruff and Roots Manuva and loads more including a ton of Joker Starr and Micall Parknsun exclusive material.

Check it out here and now.

Disgracelands Tonight!

If you're in the West Yorkshire area (or near, you might be in North Yorkshire for example) then get over to Bradford for this night of niceness - I'm going. Jack Flash's right hand man J Simple is heading the line up, Brutal Artistry's set will be peppered with guests like Bane and Knew Jeru'slum, beatboxers Ballzee and Megamouth will probably stir up a storm as usual and new kids on the block Missing People will bring the ruckus too.

If you're there then wave some money in Bane's direction and he'll furnish you with a hot off the press green 7" vinyl of his single with Cage. Have a butchers and peep out the last logo on the back:

Beats, Rhymes & Christ - Knew Jeru'slum Interview

"It’s very important to us to be ourselves in this, to speak about what’s important to us and let people get an insight to our lives, none of that’s any good if its confined to the bottom shelf in a Christian bookshop – who’s gonna hear it then? We make hip hop for all heads, where ever you come from."

With an agenda like few others, West Yorkshire based UK Hip Hoppers Knew Jeru'slum bring it hardcore on their new single 'Non-Apologetix'. The boys answered a few of my burning questions about their music and their faith:

Certified Banger: Introduce yourself please:

Jonny Alpha: We are Knew Jeru’slum: Myself and Watson G on the spits, my beautiful missus Belinda Hards on the vocals, and on the most part, production from Yorkshires illest - Brutal Artistry. We’re from various ends of West Yorks - Hudds, Falihax and Bradford. Knew Jeru’slum is a project we started a couple of years ago really, me and Watson were getting some ideas together, then he and his lass introduced me to Belinda – her sister, and when I was chatting her up I found out Belinda’s an amazing singer too, it all linked there, then we met Miki B and loved what he does plus we all got a love for the gospel, so that’s us.

• Click here to read on
• Click here for more news on Knew Jeru'slum

'Non-Apologetix' ft. Manchild - Knew Jeru'slum (single review)

A change of review style here today. Instead of writing a new review I thought I’d let you know exactly what feedback I gave to Knew Jeru’slum about their new single ‘Non-Apologetix’:

Big bad beat (courtesy of Brutal Artistry), Public Enemy/Bomb Squad-ish but with that Eastern twist - it's a good look, reminds me of some the tracks off the latest Styly Cee/Cappo 12". Cuts in there too (from Andy H) - good to hear!

Title and subject matter is clever, playing on the two meanings of the word 'apologetics' - comes across well. I think you have actually managed not to compromise your message whilst still making it sound totally acceptable to every Hip Hop head - I just hope they listen exactly to what you're saying on the track and subsequent tracks.

Lyrics and rhymes wise - it's all good too, no whackness and the Manchild hookup is big! Mars ILL know how to keep things underground and hardcore for sure!

I’m totally feeling this track right now and it deserves some big support, go cop it on itunes – it’s out on Tuesday 31st March. Have a download of a 45 second snippet!

Reviews Pending

As usual I've got a great big pile of CDs waiting to be reviewed, and as usual, I'll endeavour to write about them all. Just so you know, here's what's coming up whenever I get some time, in no particular order:

Joe Budden - 'Padded Room' (album)
Kyza - 'Love and Music' (single)
Haka Beats - 'Underground Journeys' (album)
Choong Family - 'Baptism of Fire' (pre-album)
Ghost - 'Freedom of Thought EP #1' (er....EP?)
Jyager - 'Encrypted Scriptures' (album)
Jack Flash - '4 Minute Warning' (single)
Asaviour & DJ IQ - 'The A Loop Theory' (album)
Tricksta & Lunatrix - VA - 'Flying the Flag' (double mixtape)
Big Narstie - 'The Big Man Returns' (album)
Two Fingers - 'Two Fingers' (album)
Modulok - 'Cities and Years' (album)
Knew Jeru'slum - 'Non Apologetix' ft. Manchild (single)
Mr Scruff - 'Nice Up The Function' ft. Roots Manuva (single)
Reachout - 'Fly Baby' (album)

I'll also be doing interviews with a number of UK Hip Hop artists including Ghost, Endemic, Knew Jeru'slum and Karl Hinds.

Bane of Don't Talk To Strangers Interview

"There’s no one person who calls the shots, each artist is fully in control of their own creative process..."

Having been well impressed earlier this year with 'Disabled Blue' and it's accompanying blue 10" vinyl I knew that if things from Don't Talk To Strangers were to continue in a similar way, they would be big. Bane, from the group and newly-formed record label answered my questions and confirms my suspicions - things from this unstoppable force are going to be colossal in 2009! From releases with Cage, Pigeon John and Prince Po to more coloured vinyl Bane reveals all their secret-up-until-now plans!

Certified Banger: Yo man, how’s it going?

Bane: Good thanks, you?

CB: Yeah thanks! We’ve got loads to talk about because there’s so much going on with you right now. Begin by telling those who don’t know about DTTS, who are you, where are you from, what your mantra is:

Bane: Put simply, Don’t Talk To Strangers is an artist run independent record label and wider collective of creative individuals based in West Yorkshire and slowly working our way into Europe and the rest of the world! We’re basically three crews merged into one, the original DTTS heads, 9-Livez and Brutal Artistry, each keeping its own individual identity but releasing music through one label; strength in numbers as it were. Over the last couple of years the focus was on getting the DTTS name into people’s minds but now its time for the individual acts and artists to get recognition in their own right and shine!

Click here to find out just who is going to be featuring on their releases!