'No Fire Without Smoke' ft. SkinnyMan & Thr3

Those of you who remember DJ Moodie's 'Construction Skills' mixtape will welcome his return. The fact that he's returning with SkinnyMan makes this absolutely essential. The track is taken from the forthcoming LP 'Built From Scratch' which will also feature Lee Scratch Perry, Roots Manuva, Task Force, Graziella, Foreign Beggars, Plan B, Inja and Skrein. 'No Fire Without Smoke will be out on March 22nd on Our Time Records.

'The Rest Of...' - Mystro & DJ Ames (free download)

New Mystro mixtape from the good man himself and big-in-the-mixtape-game DJ Ames - 'The Rest Of Mystro'. The mix features some real classics such as 'The Word's Out' featuring Skinnyman and Jargon - named in HHC in their top 100 UK Hip Hop tracks. It also features collaborations from the Yes King album and some of his Australian connections. For a guaranteed quality listen get this downloaded for yourself.

Support the man by buying his 'F.D.T.' EP from itunes and look forward to his debut LP 'Mystrogen' coming soon!

SkinnyMan, SonnyJim, D.Gritty & DJ First Aid Live at Top Billin!

Top Billin must put on the best Hip Hop nights in the UK right now judging by their latest two line ups. On the 27th November be at the White Rabbit in Plymouth for SkinnyMan, SonnyJim, the release of a Sika Studios Mixtape and D.Gritty and DJ First Aid.

'Hat Low' ft. SkinnyMan & Fallacy - Inja (EP review)

I always thought of Inja (or on myspace) as a pretty traditional MC but his 'Hat Low' EP put an end to that. This new track sees him, SkinnyMan and Fallacy go in over a well executed Grime style beat. Whether or not he's trying to cash in on the fact that Grime is a better-selling genre right now (just check any HMV), it can't be ignored that these 3 MCs actually really put it down on this.

I can't say I'm a fan, not even a Mr. Thing remix does it for me (it's still pretty grimey) although the Dubstep remix by Chimpo and BioViolence's Drum & Bass remix are pretty nice. Loads of people are gonna be feeling this one though and Inja will no doubt appeal to a different audience.

'Police Don't Like Me' and 'Deep Within' are again in the Grime vein with the latter vibing in a more mellow, melodic way. 'Hat Low' will be out on 20th July on In Records.

Tea Sea Records CDs Available!

Big ups to Tom Caruana, UK producer and boss of Tea Sea Records. I've just got home to a fat pack of CDs from him, 7 in all, so thought I'd big them up a little (if that isn't a contradiction?).

He's sent me, in no particular order, 'The Rough Versions: Bootleg remixes by Tom Caruana' (which features tracks from D.I.T.C, J-Live and Busta), 'Tom Caruana Instrumentals Vol. Two' (which features beats from Dr. Syntax's 'Off The Radar' and Wordsmith's 'The Roadman Showcase'), 'Boiler Room Collective: The Mixtape' (with tracks from Dr. Syntax, Wordsmith, SkinnyMan, Genesis Elijah, Supar Novar and loads more), Longusto's 'Back In The Bad Books', 'Tom Caruana Instrumentals Volume 3', 'Boiler Room Collective: The Album' and his own 'Welcome Aboard'.

All of these CDs are available to you from Suspect Packages (just click on the CD names above) for the very reasonable price of £4.99 or less! There are also other bits and pieces available over at SP from TC's stable. I'll be working my way through these and keeping you updated on my progress!

'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!

Nemesis and Arrogance Launch 'Da Real Sho'

Nemesis & Arrogance, whose latest project is ‘Da Real Sho’, are holding a launch party at the Carhartt Warehouse in Hackney (18 Ellingfort Rd, Hackney, E8 3PA) this Thursday 11th June between 18:00pm – 21:30pm.

The night will showcase music from the mixtape with performances from some of those featured alongside the boys: Mr Ti2bs, Jelluzz, F.L.I.P [Supar Novar / Big Ben / Rapper Ragz] and live Hip Hop band Lazy Habits! Form and Charlee Brown will be DJing and there will be free drinks courtesy of Meantime Brewery.

Da Real Show mixtape is out now and features: Sincere / Wretch 32 / Faith SFX / Bashy / Mr Drastick / Skinnyman & others...

DMC UK DJ Final Next Month!

DMC UK DJ Final and Battle For UK Supremacy
02 Academy Islington, N1 Centre, N1 0PS
Thursday 9th July 7pm – Midnight

There will be live PA's from Jehst, DMC World Champions DJ Switch V DJ Shiftee in a UK V US Showcase Battle, Inja performing his brand new single ‘Hat Low' live featuring Skinnyman and it's all Hosted by Inja and Billy Biznizz. Click here to see the back of the flyer.

Tickets - £12.50 available from
http://www.dmcworld.com/ (01628 667124)
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/ 0844 477 2000
http://www.o2academyislington.co.uk/

'Hat Low' ft. Fallacy & Skinnyman - Inja (video)

A case of tapping into popular markets? I think so! Inja goes all grime with the music, the look and the Granny-scaring subject matter. Man he's even got backing dancers (I like dancers though)! Not sure what I think of this yet...

'Def Jam' - K-Delight (free download)

K-Delight, the dude behind one of my favourite albums last year (see my run down), has just put out a free mix. It's one of those things that you could stick on at any time and everyone who you're with will just love it. It's got the Hip Hop of course, even UK Hip Hop but it's also got beats, disco and reggae - it's a real live turntable session. I'll be burning this one.

Apparently the mix has been inspired by a Hip Hop/Breaks night in Darlington, which I assume is called Def Jam - if you're up that way then be sure to visit, if it's anything like this then it's a good night!

The mix features Little Brother, Jurassic 5, Nas, Q-Tip, DJ Format, Beastie Boys, Main Source, Skinnyman, TY and The Roots all bigging up the rapping side of things and elsewhere Aim, Quantic, The Bamboos, Babe Ruth, Lowell Fulsom and The JBs rock things in their own way.

HHC put this on their site today along with a minterview (yeah, that's a word I made up for mini interview) so brothers out there with sisters, peep it.

'Jimstrumentals' - Jimmy Green (free download) **New Link**

Rapsploitations Sessions man Jimmy Green has put this awesome mixtape together of his beats with UK Hip Hop verses from the greats - just check the image for the list of MCs. Let me assure you now before you listen in, Jimmy Green's beats are HOT, next thing he'll know is that these rappers will be calling him for beats and next thing we'll know is that his beats are on tracks and albums by said rappers.

Check out the way he totally changes the vibe of Rodney P's vocals from 'The Doggist' and how he re-flips Premo's 'It's Yours' beat! Listen as he throws in quotes from 'Dead Mans Shoes' and comedy routines about bad breath. Get this for yourself and if you're an MC get in touch. If you're a producer - watch out! Click for tracklisting.

Here's a new link that includes DPF's verse:

'Flying the Flag' - VA - Tricksta & Lunatrix (album review)

When Tricksta and Lunatrix are ‘Flying the Flag’ you’re guaranteed that your tastes will be catered for. Whether you like Hip Hop flavoured Grime, Boom Bap flavoured Hip Hop or Rap flavoured Ragga it’s all here – providing its origins are in the UK. This does mean that probably not every track will be to your liking – some of the Grime tracks I still can’t get with, mainly based on the daft lyrics (Spitta raps about Slimline PS’s and DS Lites).

On the Hip Hop side of things there are loads of artists on here to make this more than worth a purchase: Wordsmith, Kashmere, Jehst, 10Shott, Sir Smurf Lil, Ramson Badbonez, Dr. Syntax, SkinnyMan… I could go on but instead, go check the tracklist. Some of the tracks are little dated but it’s still great to have them alongside newer and more exclusive material.

This is a significant release – it’s the first time Grime and Hip Hop have been mixed together on one release - a good sign of some unity between the two scenes. The music from both sides is of high quality and Tricksta and Lunatrix do nice job of mixing it and making it flow.

‘Flying the Flag’ is out now on RGS Entertainment on 2xCD or mp3 download. UK Record Shop have it in stock now.

DJ Step One - New Blog

DJ Step One (no I'd not heard of him before either) has just joined the geeky world of Hip Hop blogging at his nicely titled 'Only Built For Zshare Links' site.

He's basically posting up a load of material that no other blogs have ever posted and in doing so is providing a valuable back catalogue of 90s Hip Hop radio shows and the like.

The thing most relevant to this blog is his own 'UK Bubblers' mix which is "a selection of some of [his] favourite UK tunes. Mostly they're from 2001 -2005." It features tracks from all the big boys: Lewis Parker, Rodney P, Roots Manuva, SkinnyMan, Klashnekoff, TY, Fallacy and loads more.

Another thing he's just posted is again, some of his own work. It's a mashup/refix of the Ultramagnetic MCs' 'Poppa Large' and Ronny Jordan’s ‘So What’. It's a jazzy banger!

'Flying The Flag' Coming Soon!

Here's something I'm looking forward to: Tricksta of UK Runnings and Lunatrix of HHB Radio have teamed up to put together a double disc compilation/mix CD.

Now the UK Runnings series have always hit the spot with me - up-to-date tracks from UK Hip Hop's overground and underground - so my expectations are justifiably high. ‘Flying The Flag’ features underground anthems, exclusive tracks, unreleased tracks and remixes.

The double CD features the following artists; WILEY, SKEPTA, LATE, SUPAR NOVAR, RELOAD, IRON BRAYDZ, DJ SNIPS, TB, PYRELLI, SHAMELESS, RUKUS, SKINNYMAN, DEADLY HUNTA , TINCHY STRYDER, WRETCH 32, TINIE TEMPAH, SCORCHER, BASHY, SWAY, CHIPMUNK, MILLION DAN, MC DYNAMITE, MCD, K.NERS, SKREINTAX, STIG OF THE DUMP, GIGGS, DUBBELEDGE, KYZA, BIG CAKES, M9, CHEMO, THUNDERCLAPS, GHETTO, ORIFICE VULGATRON, REGGIIMENTAL, UNFRIENDLY NEIGHBOURS, LOWKEY, SONNYJIM, MALIK, YOGI, SHADE1, 10SHOTT, SMILER, STYLAH, LETHAL & DESTRUCTION, TOR, SI PHILI, WORDSMITH, KASHMERE, JEHST, CHARLIE SLOTH, JOKER STARR, GENESIS ELIJAH, LOUDMOUTH, BABY J, RANSOM BADBONEZ, DR. SYNTAX, THE LAST SKEPTIK, TRICKSTA, JABBA THA KUT, MANNY MOSCOW and CONMAN amongst many more!

HHBRADIO & UK RUNNINGS Present ‘FLYING THE FLAG’ is out on RGS Entertainment March 2009.

For more information check these website links…

http://www.hhbradio.com/
www.myspace.com/lunatrix
http://www.oymmedia.com/
www.myspace.com/butchershousestudios
www.myspace.com/oymmedia
www.myspace.com/occupyyourmindrecords
http://www.ukrunnings.co.uk/
www.myspace.com/trickstawolftown
www.myspace.com/ukrunnings
http://www.wolftownrecordings.com/
http://www.parkstreetpr.co.uk/
www.myspace.com/parkstreetpromotions

'Ballistic Affairs' ft. Deadly Hunta - Skinnyman (video)

Here's the animated video for the awesome Show N Prove produced track taken from the 'Food 4 Da Brain Second Serving' compilation album:

‘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.

'Street Karma' - Dap-C & Dirty Sweet (album review)

Armed with a plethora of guests Dap-C alongside producer Dirty Sweet brings you ‘Street Karma’ on NGU records. This could be an album but apparently it’s not - it’s a mixtape.

After the intro (which features real scratching - yay) proceedings proceed with Blak Twang featuring ‘Music Game’ which is good. Then his NGU compadres drop in on the well produced but just a little bit silly our crew is the best boasting track. The reason why it’s silly is that following this you get tracks featuring Lewis Parker, Fallacy, Sir Smurf Lil, Stylah, Mr. Drastick, Late, Tricksta and Conman and I don’t need to tell you that their crews are actually better.

Dap-C, in my opinion, is pretty nice with his on most outings and the more established guests here complement his concepts well. There are a nice range of sounds here; Dirty Sweet is more than just competent behind the boards as he harmonizes with the emcees and their content.

The version of ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ on offer here (featuring Skinnyman, Supar Novar, Emceekilla, Karisma and S.Kalibre) is nowhere near as good as the one on the video included on the DVD, it’s disappointing that the album cut makes it boring. ‘Passing Me By’ sees Dap-C take on a track alone with slightly less effective results than when backed up by guests of ilk.

On the whole ‘Street Karma’ is worth picking up and you can get it now at most of the usual places.

'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.

'Heaven' - Dap-C

If 'Heaven' is anything to go by, 'Street Karma' by North-East spitter Dap-C is a great CD. Heaven features Mr. Drastick and Stylah and is produced by Dirty Sweet, as is the rest of the album. This is on some straight up, head nod vibes and Dap-C actually raps last, an unusual move but one which works.

He's also been busy with other stuff too. Check out this video with Geejay for his track 'Fresh' and whilst you're there you can click some more links for more Dap-C vids.

Dap-C has also made last years 'The Richest Misfit' mixtape available for absolutely nowt. That means its free so download it, ya can't go wrong!

'Street Karma' features big names like Blak Twang, Fallacy, Skinnyman, Lewis Parker (and the list goes on) so you know with support like that it can't be bad. Stay tuned here if you need more convincing, I may review it if I get a copy!

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!