'Love The Life You Live' ft. Mr. Ti2bs - The Early Man (single review)

Positive vibes, positive message (on the whole) – The Early Man and Mr. Ti2bs bring the summer funk on ‘Love The Life You Live’ – another taster of The Early Man’s forthcoming LP. This track is a whole lotta fun – there are many people out there who would do well to take on the attitude that this squelchy, soulful track embodies.

‘Love The Life You Live’ is out on 12" on 17th August on the Stop/Start label although it can be downloaded now at their shop.

'The Digital Revolution Vol. 3' - VA - Tricksta (free download)

Tricksta's back with his third volume of 'The Digital Revolution'. This time it's hosted by the beast from the east, TB aka Tuberculosis and it features a whole host of Hip Hop from the UK streets. TB, Manny Moscow, Skandal, LATE, Tricksta, Jay Full Stop V, Stylah, Yogi, Suparnovar, Wordsmith, Mr Drastick, Lowkey, London Zoo, S.A.S, Streetz, Kyza Smirnoff, The Last Skeptik, Tricksta, Show N Prove and Mr. Ti2bs all feature.

This is a great chance to get your hands on tracks like The Last Skeptik and Lowkey's latest BNP protest track 'We Don't Want Them' and Mr. Drastick's latest mixtape taster 'So Many Devils'. The track selection once again reflects the new age of UK music that is still Hip Hop.

'Da Real Sho' - Nemesis and Arrogance (album review)

Inspired by their radio show on Itch FM, Nemesis and Arrogance bring you ‘Da Real Sho’, their follow-up to 2007’s excellent ‘Lend Me Your Ears’.

On only 4 of the tracks here do N & A go it alone, many guests from the UK Hip Hop and Grime scenes grace the other tracks. F.L.I.P (Supar Novar, Big Ben and Rapper Ragz) crowd the booth on the urgent ‘Spit Something’, ‘Don’t Shoot Me’ features Wretch 32 (although this track is a little limp) and Mr. Ti2bs appears on ‘Listen To Your Heart’ - one of the stand out tracks here. Mr. Drastick rocks up on the synthy (but heavy) ‘Let Go’ and star of their last album, SkinnyMan, does his thing on the stripped back ‘North London Pt. 2’ – another top tune from Nemesis, Arrogance and SkinnyMan. Faith SFX also does his best impression of drums and basses as the boys go in with some braggadocio bars.

At 20 full tracks long, a little whittling would have been useful here - together, at 1 hour and 20 minutes long and segmented with radio style shout outs and dialogue, the impact of the great tracks is lost somewhat.

‘Da Real Sho’ will be released on 15th June on Real Records. Get it now from their myspace page for a fiver!

'Blood, Sweat & Tears' - Mr. Ti2bs (free download)

Mr. Ti2bs (pronounced Mister Tibbs!) is the latest UK artist to be throwing out a free download - 'Blood, Sweat & Tears' being the D/L in question. Perhaps the title pertains to the difficulty he and other artists experience when attempting to make a living from Rap.

If anything, the recession, blah and downloading has made artists up their game by making music available for free and making better albums and singles - Ti2bs has killed two birds with one stone here - quality and costing nothing to you, the listener.

The album's serious tone relaxes when our man takes on Mark Ronson's tongue-in-cheek version of Britney's 'Toxic' (with ODB's verse left in). 'Black Man Rise' features some comments on society over a nice laid back beat.

'The Official Mixtape Volume 1' - Ramson Badbonez & DJ Harry Love (mixtape review)

Coming up under the wing of Task Force can never be a bad thing. First appearing in 2002 on the ‘Mud Fam EP’ and then again in 2003 on ‘Music From The Corner Volume 2’, Ramson Badbonez has had a good start in UK rap life. Along with DJ Harry Love he now brings us an epic collection of verses and concepts over a load of beats from the greats (Premier, RZA, 9th Wonder, Alchemist, Madlib and more).

If Badbonez isn’t one of the most promising MCs on the scene right now then I don’t know who is. He’s interesting, clever and witty, he’s laidback, competent and lyrical - skills which could be generalised as ‘panache’.

Ramson displays a versatility that’s missing in most MCs only on their first mixtape. Concepts, hooks, lexis, on-point delivery, real talk, braggadocio and story telling are all present and correct in the most refreshing way.

Standout tracks for me are ‘Put The Mic Down’ (for the awesome reworking of the RZA’s ‘Liquid Swords’) and the British weather reality track ‘Out In The Rain’ but if you’ve got an hour and a bit you’ll find it’s all of high quality. Rounding off with his version of Slick Rick’s ‘Children’s Story’ is a perfect way to end a release which only leaves me hoping that, with a bunch of instrumentals specifically made for him, Ramson Badbonez will produce a storming debut album proper.

‘The Official Mixtape Volume 1’ also features tracks from various projects already released (aforementioned ‘MFTC 2’, DJ MK’s ‘Above Board’ and Ramson’s own 12 inchers). Buy it now, as usual, at Suspect Packages (and don’t download it).

Roots Manuva/Farma G/Mr. Ti2bs (free downloads)

Here are few treats I gleaned from myspace and the like:

Farma G - Paper Fakes
Farma G - Influenza
Mr. Ti2bs - Go Hard
Roots Manuva - Let The Spirit (Hot Chip Remix)

‘Food 4 Da Brain Second Serving’ - VA (album & DVD review)

If the aim of ‘Food 4 Da Brain Second Serving’ wasn’t to serve up a platter of perfectly complementing flavours then I’ll eat my hat. If that is what they set out to do then they’ve royally achieved it. The menu offers up tracks from the finest chefs on either side of the UK Hip Hop/Grime divide; in fact it tastily demonstrates the breaking down of the boundary.

With artists like Ghetto and Virus Syndicate represent Grime, rappers and producers such as Kashmere, Verb T, M9 and Jon Phonics provide the Hip Hop and MCs like Skinnyman, Klashnekoff, Mr Ti2bs and Shameless defy pigeon holing altogether.

MCD sets things off with a self-produced, firmly on the grime side, dubplate proving he has progressed and embraced newer, but rooted in older, music styles. Beat Butcha follows up with his remix of Terra Firma’s ‘Git Down’ and it’s just what you’d expect from that collaboration. Chemo then pops up as producer of Manage’s thriller ‘No One Needs To Know’ featuring LeEo. Mr Ti2bs, Virus Syndicate and Ghetto continue to provide quality platters of goodness, all challenging the listener to label it as either Grime or Hip Hop.

Skinnyman and Deadly Hunta serve one of the albums most delicious tracks – ‘Ballistic Affair’ which also comes in the form of a cool animated video on the accompanying DVD. Invisible Inc then provides a rest between courses with their ‘Invisible’ (or is it ‘Invisible Inc Theme’? It’s the same track that’s on 'Rapsploitation Sessions').

Supar Novar and Big Ben heat things up again and Jon Phonics follows with a remix of M9’s ‘Strange Fruit’ (possibly better than the album version?). Deadly Hunta brings a few more raga vibes on ‘Valley of Death’ and Foreign Beggars come with some electro-funk and Pharrell-esque vocals. Shameless, Bruza and Ghetto finish the sitting with some hard-as-nails riddims.

I can see what the guys behind this have done: they’re on a mission, a mission to blur the boundaries, to lure Hip Hop heads over to the Grime side and vice-versa. This is all about the music, and despite my review, it’s not about genre. This is, actually, what Hip Hop was – the combination of other music forms, a new way of expression that utilises the sounds around it. So whatever you’re preference, buy this and think about the message it not so subtly puts across, ask yourself: ‘Am I open minded?’ Let’s hope so.