Diversion Tactics, Krate Krusaders, Tactical Thinking and 3 Amigos Live At Top Billin!

Featuring the hefty line up of Diversion Tactics, Krate Krusaders, Tactical Thinking and 3 Amigos this is defo not one to miss for you south coasters. 9th December is the date, White Rabbit is the place - I only wish I could be there.

'Too Broke To Go Solo' - Tactical Thinking (album review)

If you want raw, hyperactive, non-stop Hip Hop look no further than Tactical Thinking’s ‘Too Broke To Go Solo’. The group approach equates to pack mentality – with a united goal (to bruise your ear canal) this collective of artists hit hard.

17 tracks, 1 hour, 6 MCs and 2 Producers plus guest spots from even more TT family members makes for a relentless audio assault. Opener ‘Dusk ‘Til Dawn’ embodies the whole album in one track – this is their war cry. With sometimes cheeky lyrics, sometimes downright dirty it’s hard not to faux-screwface and get down to this release.

With a variety of beats ranging from electronica (‘Superstars’ and ‘That’s Right Move’) to wonky dubstep (‘Stick ‘Em Up’ and ’10 to 3 Chicks’), straight up Hip Hop (‘Do Wah’) to jaunty productions borrowing from a range of musical genres (even Barbershop Quartets) no two tracks sound alike – and that’s a grand thing.

Buy this, take a deep breath, slot into your player, sit back and prepare for the face-distorting G Force of Tactical Thinking – mighty.

'Rising Styles The Album 2009' - VA (review)

The fellas in charge of Brighton's Rising Styles Festival have put together yet another dope compilation of tracks by up-and-coming UK Hip Hop artists and it's out today just in time for the actual festival.

There's the awesome future-hop of Asaviour and Apa-Tight's 'Gully', the fire of Tactical Thinking's 'TT Onslaught' and the madcap adventures of Elemental and Tom Caruana on 'Blind Bob's Vengeance'.

There's also a good representation of the UK's 'real' countrywide Hip Hop scene - watch out for a nice range of accents with London's Grit Grammar (& other Southern types), Leeds group Verbal Contact and Birmingham's Jimmy Davis.

Check out the Rising Styles website for news of the events that kick off on Thursday 1st October. Download the sampler here then get to Suspect Packages to download your copy of the Rising Styles compilation.

Certified Banger Podcast Pilot (free download)

Here is the first podcast from Certified Banger! The aim was to give you a taster of some forthcoming UK Hip Hop all in the space of an hour - hopefully I succeeded. Let me know your thoughts and ideas for the official #1 episode. Go here http://feeds.feedburner.com/certifiedbangerpodcast to subscribe in your itunes and other similar applications. If you just want to download the mp3 then right click here.

Tracklisting:

Famslam ft. Task Force Family - Skuff & Inja
Back Home - Yosh
Mic Check - One Wish & Stereotype
You Lot - Freyed Knot
In Due Time - J-Treole
Jamaica (Original) - Jimmy Screech
They Dont Know (Original) - J Simple
Sunday Service - Chief Wigz
Higher Higher - Juice Aleem
A.L.P.H.A. - Alphabetix
The London Convention ft. Funky DL, MCD, Skinnyman, Blak Twang, ESP, TY, Phoebe One, Kwes - London Allstars
Family Name - Bombadeal
It's Not Relevant - LDZ
Do Wah - Tactical Thinking
It's So Different Here - Tom Caruana
Sunnicide -Skuff & Inja

Certified Banger Podcast Pilot by Certifiedbanger on Mixcloud

Rising Styles 09 Album Tracklist

Listed below are the artists and tracks that made it onto this years festival album. It's good to see that here at Certified Banger we haven't been off the mark with some of the underground artists who we consider to be on the way up - Queens English, Asaviour, Apa-Tight, Kasha and Grit Grammar have all been on 'On The Radar' and Skilf, Elemental, Tom Caruana, Verbal Contact (Leeds stand up) and Tactical Thinking are all firm favourites here. Well done to all involved:

01 Jimmy Davis - Brits Are Coming - www.myspace.com/littlejimmydavis
02 JackL & Timmay - Turn It Up
 - www.myspace.com/timsbeats
03 Queens English - Full Limit featuring Mr Chips & Embee of Looptroop
 - www.myspace.com/queensenglish
04 Asaviour & Apatight - Gully
 - http://www.saving-grace.co.uk/
05 Kasha - Rats & Roaches
 - http://www.kashamusic.co.uk/
06 Skilf - Let Loose
 - http://www.skilf.co.uk/
07 Theory 77 - Who’s He? - 
http://www.nofrillsrecords.co.uk/
08 Mr Tubz - Take Me Away featuring Katarina - 
www.myspace.com/tubzta
09 Elemental & Tom Caruana - Blind Bob’s Vengeance - http://www.teasearecords.net/ www.myspace.com/mcelemental
10 Grit Grammar - Musical Life - www.myspace.com/gritgrammar
11 Verbal Contact - Trifling Times - www.myspace.com/verbalcontactleeds
12 Tactical Thinking - TT Onslaught - http://www.tacticalthinking.co.uk/

An official announcement regarding the release date will be made early September. The album will be available as a digital download from Suspect Packages

Suspect Packages Live October & November

Go here for more details on the Suspect Packages live extravaganza featuring, as you can see above, Children of the Damned, Joker Starr and Micall Parknsun all for only 4 pounds. That's upstairs @ Brick Lane's Vibe Bar in East London on Friday October 9th. Then same place different day, Friday November the 13th to be exact, go check out Sonnyjim and special guests and Tactical Thinking.

Suspect Packages Radio Show August

Suspect Packages Radio. August. Free Download/Stream. Features Tactical Thinking, Micall Parknsun, Orphans of Cush, Karl Hinds, Lowkey, Koaste, Elemental & Tom Caruana, Juice Aleem, Contact Play, Big Cakes, Double D Dagger, Foreign Beggars and loads more new stuff that even I've not heard yet - lucky I'm on holiday and can just blast it then.

As Disorda says "No special guests though due to shear amount of tunage to get through (which gives me more time to vent my anger at bootlegging blogs), but wait 'till next month on the guest tip". I'm not a bootlegging blog so I'm in the clear.

I can't believe I haven't...

...told you about Suspect Packages. As their slogan says it is 'the one stop shop for UK Hip Hop', and it really is. Nothing worthwhile will go unnoticed by Disorda which means that if its from the UK, is Hip Hop and has been released on any format (even mp3) then you can get it here. Its also better designed than any other online music retailer; where else can you hear a mp3 sample of every UK Hip Hop track as and when it's released?

Disorda is a lucky man, he gets to listen to all this Hip Hop and as a result he does three things well:

a) he runs a well stocked shop - you can get 12"s, CD's, Mixtapes, T-Shirts, Magazines, information, reviews, top 1o's and samples all for the price of an internet connection, which obviously, you have,

b) compilation CD's - which you can buy, surprisingly, at http://www.suspect-packages.com/. He's currently on number 4.

d) radio shows - you can download the podcast too which means you get to keep on your hard drive his pick of the best current UK tunes. The latest one can be downloaded here (on their new blog) and he's even written down the tracklist for you there. This particular show brings you great tracks from Blak Twang, Shameless, Asaviour, Farma G (of Task Force), Braintax, Jehst, Terra Firma and loads more quality UK artists. It's all neatly introduced via an exclusive track from The IRS so you know it's gonna be good when it kicks off with them.

It was good to see a familiar underground name on the playlist too; that of the Tactical Thinking Crew. Part of the TT crew is made up of Surreal Knowledge/SK Crew. When I was at uni I had a weekly Hip Hop night in the SU Bar and SK were kind enough to bless that one night with mad freestyles, turntablism and a boisterous live set.

The first time I saw them was when they supported Adam F in Preston and they totally ripped it there. I still remember their track that went along the lines: 'If you go down to the clubs today' that was set to the tune of 'Teddy Bears Picnic'. Then I heard Mr. Dick and Stoopid Ill aka Derogatory on 'Stealing', an LP by the Funky Fresh Few that was released on Mark Rae's Grand Central Records. Check their myspace page for some hot new tracks that will raise a smile and set your feet a-tapping, that's if you're not just straight wiling out.

Here's a video of them on some TV show, this will give you a good taste of what they are like both live and in person:

Now...if you didn't already download that Suspect Packages radio show, do it now and fast forward to around 15 minutes in. The Tactical Thinking track produced by Naive is so, so, SO heavy! Jay Madden and Mic Dyson rip, rip, RIP it up! Yes, yes, YES! Then a bit later on the whole TT crew smash it on 'Dusk til Dawn', all them SK blokes are heavy.

Surreal Knowledge and Tactical Thinking are defo ones to look out for and the man Disorda agrees!

Surreal Knowledge - Here Come The British