‘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.

Hip Hop Producers - L.G. Interview

For a while now I've been thinking over the role of producers in Hip Hop. Rarely do they get the same status as the rappers for whom they produce. When I listen to Hip Hop music the initial indicator of whether or not I like the track is based on the production. It's the beat and the melodies, the samples or the instrumentation that is immediately important to me. For most of the tracks I absolutely love, a natural requirement is that the production matches, or in some cases outshines the rapper.

When I got the chance to interview UK based Hip Hop producer L.G. I decided I'd put some of my thoughts to him:

Can you tell us your necessary background details so we can build on basics for the rest of the interview? For example: who you are, where you are from, projects you have worked on, people you have worked with.
I’m from London. I started Sit Tight Records with Lopez a good few years back and we put out:
Rocket Fuel feat Jehst & Skriblah / City Breaks featuring Yungun 12" (which I produced)
Micall Parknsun - Tha Shit,
Wordsmith feat Jehst and Skriblah - Life After The Apocalypse
Micall Parknsun - The Working Class Dad album (which I produced half the tracks on)
LG & Biscuit - Smoke Rings album
LG & Biscuit feat Dubbledge - Sonshine,
Conspicuous - Family Photo album (I produced about half of it)

I’ve also produced:

Party Animals 12" with Tommy Evans, Doc Brown and Usmaan,
Falling Down and ESP on Jehst’s Falling Down album,
Jehst - Psychadelic Phlegm 12",
Suki Suki, Neckbreakin Remix, Souls Of The Unborn remix with Kashmere and Who’s That with Micall Parknsun on The Mengi Bus Mixtape by Jehst,
Dubbledge - Rice & Peas / Imagine That 12"
Dey Ain’t Ready and Scram on Dubbledge’s Richest Man In Babylon album
Terrafirma - My Brothers Keeper on their mixtape
Smurf - Timothy 12” and on 'my alpha' album,
Kashmere - 'In The Hour Of Chaos' I did 'Souls Of The Unborn', 'Opium Foetus' feat Verb T and 'Have Faith' and some other stuff which I've forgotten

How would you describe your sound?
That’s hard to answer. In my head my sound changes all the time but to answer the question it’s old-school-but-new-school-psychadelic-hiphop-space-jazz ????

Who have been your biggest musical influences and which Hip Hop producers have inspired you?
Marvin Gaye, James Jamerson, James Brown, Miles Davis, Coltrane, Bootsy Collins, Jimi Hendrix, Jaco Pastorius Etc Hiphop Producers - DJ Premier, Pete Rock, J Dilla , Madlib, Beatminers, Extra P, A Tribe Called Quest Etc.

Do you have a musical background? Do you play any instruments?
I’ve been learning to play the bass, I’m practising when I get time now as I wanna be in a band. I can also play a very small amount of keys, just to get by as a hip hop producer.

How did you find out that you were handy when it came to crafting beats?
I just enjoyed doing it, I had a passion for it and people started using my beats, I had records out so I just kept doing it.

What three pieces of equipment do you value most when it comes to production?
Turntable, MPC3000, Logic Audio

What other programs/equipment do you use?
Akai S950 sampler, I’ve got loads of software synths and plug-ins on the computer I also use a keyboard and bass guitar.

Do you feel like many producers are overlooked or overshadowed by the MC's that rap on their beats?
I think the UK has some of the sickest hip hop producers in the world, I hear so many people’s beats that just blow me away. It depends on what the producer’s intention is when making a beat though. Most hip hop producers make beats with MCs being on their track in mind, so the MC can be the final part of the completion of a song. If you are making a beat that doesn't need an MC you are probably gonna have other things or different arrangements going on in it, in which case an MC wouldn't sound right on the beat, but part of being a producer is to find the balance and make it work whatever’s happening in the track.

What process do you go through when writing a track? Do you start with a tune, a sample, a drum beat or a concept? What happens next?
A lot of the time I start with a basic drum beat, then start chopping some breaks or playing synths or bass over it, when I get something I like I might change the drums to work with the music more and then start adding other things that sound good until I feel its kind of finished…which sometimes it never is.

You've worked with some big name UK MC's but you've also worked with singers and musicians (most notably flautist, Biscuit). How does it differ working with each kind of artist?
Some people you know well and are friends who you hang out with, like Biscuit, which can be good because you can be more experimental or sometimes do stuff on the spur of the moment. Sometimes I don’t really know some one very well at all but have given them beats which they have written to and they come in the studio and smash it, which always brings new energy. It’s good to change it up, the best music always comes unexpectedly.

How do you prefer to work when collaborating with rappers? Do you both get in the studio and write together or is there a separate process?
Again it varies. When me and Jehst had the studio in Old Street there would always be people around so I would be making a beat and Jehst or Parke or whoever would be writing the bars then and there. Sometimes they would even spit them on the track before I was even finished, like on the Guns Of Naverone on Parkes album. Other times people take beats away, write at home and then record on another day.

Have you ever been given some invaluable advice when it comes to producing? What tips would you give to an aspiring Hip Hop producer?
If you’re sampling drum sounds off records, try leaving the air on the drums.

Tell us what it's like being a part of the YNR famalam. Do you spend a lot of time with Jehst, Micall Parknsun, Sir Smurf Lil et al? Is there a lot of touring involved in being a producer?
Yeah we spend time together as we are all friends, we mostly link to do music but we chill as well. We've been touring recently all together but we haven’t got a lot of time to chill on tour, cause we are all trying to balance our normal lives at the same time.

What can we expect from you in the future? Are you currently working on any exciting projects?
There’s some stuff I don’t really wanna say, but there will be an album with me, Jehst, Micall Parknsun and Kashmere, we are called Arkham Asylum.

Any last words or plugs?
LG Presents 'The Mission' with Jehst and Micall Parknsun / 'What Would Happen' with Kashmere 12" is out now on YNR. Go buy it, it’s sick (trust me I'm a doctor!)

A lot of people don’t know about the LG & Biscuit 'Smoke Rings' album. It’s a beautiful album, even though I'm biased, check it out on Sit Tight Records.

Asaviour - Be Careful
Yungun - City breaks
Terra Firma - My Brothers Keeper
Tommy Evans - Revolutions remix
Micall Parknsun - Somehow

All 5 tracks here

K-lashed

Klashnekoff – Ocean Rooms, Brighton – Good Friday 2007

Should any one occurrence, object, person, or anything for that matter, be judged individually or in comparison to other similar occurrences, objects etc? There is no simple answer, in an ideal world I’m sure everything would be judged on its own merits and downfalls. In this world, however, we human beings tend to compare two or more occasions in order to rank our experiences. This is the only way I can approach reflection on the Klashnekoff gig.

I cannot divorce memories of other hip hop shows from recollections of last night. Saian Supa Crew were amazing, displaying tight knit cooperation combined with some superb visually and sonically stimulating beat boxing. 50 Cent brought everyone on G-unit, seeing Mobb Deep do Quiet Storm and Shook Ones pt. 2, M.O.P. do Ante Up and Cold as Ice and Ma$e do Mo Money, Mo problems were moments in my life that I never expected to happen (all on a free ticket too) and Jurassic 5’s show was just perfect in every single way (see my review here.) So how did K-lash measure up?

I would put Ricochet Klashnekoff on a par with aforementioned rappers and groups in that he has done as much for UK Hip Hop as SSC have for French Hip Hop, as 50 has done for commercialised, viable gangsta rap and as J5 have for bringing the golden era to the nineties and noughties. By no means has Klash been on the scene for the entire rise of UK Hip Hop but he has succeeded in becoming respected and recognisable and I’m sure has put in much hard work.

Klash took to the stage in some sort of drug induced trance. I say took to the stage, he was already on it really as the Ocean Rooms provides space only for the most intimate gigs, (no dressing rooms here) and almost immediately began to apologise for the absence of Kyza Smirnoff. Kyza seems to have really annoyed the remaining members of Terra Firma by notifying them via email of his departure, ouch, maybe he dumps girls by text too? Klashnekoff proceeded to dig himself into a hole about the whole saga and was met by comments like “Shut the F**k up and rap will you?”, so he did.

He rapped, he did a variety of tracks from ‘The Foundation’, ‘Focus Mode’ and ‘Lionheart: Tussle with the beast’. To be honest I don’t own The Foundation, a collective effort by Terra Firma and didn’t know those tracks but, I might buy it, I might not. I was surprised at the way some of the tracks from L:TWTB (Sounds like some sort of a gay organisation) went down, have people actually bought that CD yet? I am glad I went, it was worth it but I wasn’t impressed by his attitude (again, drug induced?) I felt sorry for ‘Bumberclart’ Skully and silently patient Skriblah for putting up with him, I’m not surprised Kyza left by email. Klash has a big ego manifested in his arrogance. He will remain a favourite MC but I wont be rushing out to witness him bumbling through what could loosely be called a set. Unless, that is, he takes a leaf out of a more mature artists book and finds out why people actually pay good money to see him.

I’ve been pretty harsh so far, and I’m sure he would hate me for pretty much everything I have to say. It seems he is not really friends with the internet community as too many people call him on there without actually ‘tess’ing’ him. I don’t want to test him, I love his recorded music, I continually to return to his tracks and enjoy them and I know that somewhere inside him there is more than just his knobbish front. Heartfelt songs such as My life, Son of Nia and Black rose show us that he is not all macho bravado-ness and this should come across more on stage. He should go see a Sway gig and see how he involves the crowd, how it’s possible to be friendly and successful as a rapper and how some things, especially things that are made for enjoyment (hip hop) should be light hearted and, well, just more happy.

All in all a good night out, if you like his tunes, go. Hearing them live is great, he has bangers mate, bare bangers, hearing Murda was brilliant, as was Sayonara (personal fave) and the Jamrock remix. Brap.