Beat Assailant and Braille

Just thought I'd shine a light on some random titbits of US made music for you on this good evening:

Beat Assailant had a great 12" out a few years ago entitled 'Hard Twelve - The Ante' (video). He's just released his second album which is called 'Imperial Pressure' and if something sounding like Lupe Fiasco meets The Roots meets Herb Alpert sounds like your particular thing then get yourself a copy. The songs go on a little too long with a quite an emphasis on the (well produced) real-live instrumentals. Beat Assailant has a funky rhyme style although sometimes you might wish he'd just throw off his hang-ups and rap about something else. Some tracks are a little Black Eyed Peasish for me ('Crash the Party') some are quite, nay very, NERDesque ('Payback'), so maybe you'll hear him on your radio soon. Check out 'The Good News' and 'Haterz'. My mind is not yet made up...

In 2004 Braille brought out his album 'Shades of Grey' - which isn't as boring as it sounds. Braille, a rapper well respected for his technicality is a born-again Christian although this isn't 'Christian Hip Hop' - it's normal Hip Hop by someone who is a Christian. There are loads of positive vibes on here although the album is not all sonically upbeat. A number of equally as hungry MCs join Braille including Pigeon John, Ohmega Watts, Othello, ManChild and Sharlok Poems. This is really for fans of real Hip Hop - shed your inhibitions and stereotypes and download 'Hip Hop Music' (featuring scratches from Rob Swift), 'Keep On' and '10 Years' (produced by 9th Wonder).

*Links dead - Download all tracks here*

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!

You said it wasn't art, so now we're gonna rip you apart

Click on the links for the mp3's.

The thing, I realised recently, about Hip Hop, unlike many other genres, is that it’s never really been hackneyed into lots of different sub-genres. Admittedly there are genres within Hip Hop or Rap but these labels never ever define the source of musical inspiration. Hip Hop samples or takes concepts from Jazz, Blues, Rock, Soul, Funk, Ska, Classical, Electro, Reggae and all other native musical styles. Any instrument can provide a sound suitable for use in hip hop. The diversity is immense, dive in and get immersed. It’s also an amazing springboard for listening to other genre’s of music; hear a sample, listen to the original. I have grown to love many old tracks by this method. The CD comes in roughly hewn blocks today and takes you through a few differently influenced areas of hip hop with a predominantly summery vibe.

We start with 4 dramatically orchestral tracks. Carl Orff (and presumably his orchestra) kick off the proceedings in fine style and gets me well up for hip hop type firey heaters. Jedi Mind tricks come unrelenting and urgently over this beat that would provide a perfect backdrop to a medieval battle, get your shiny armour on now. Australians have made an extraordinarily nice life for themselves considering they are descendents of criminals and they also have a very healthy hip hop scene down under. If you didn’t know Clandestien were Australian you would wonder what the chaff their accent was about, it’s like a Swedish person trying to rap in American via Birmingham. Weird. Weird but good. Check out that third guy; vicious. (Amazing Lyric: ‘Buck Buck Teeth, you rappers sound like you got…’). In an attempt to cut the tension of the CD the last of the first four is 4th Avenue Jones with ‘Why do we?’. A nice radio friendly classical sample here (can’t remember what the original is, my Grandad would know), the only annoying bit is that bird off ‘The Sound of Music’ warbling over the tune. Check out more from the Sphere of Hip Hop collective here.

The next two tracks are just some nice hip hop tracks that don’t rely on snares and kicks. Joell Ortiz, Dre’s latest signing, brings us a piano and string driven reminiscent sounding tune simply entitled Hip Hop, I’m definitely feeling this and I want to hear more. The second is a total headnod piece from Organized Konfusion (Pharaoh Monch and Prince Po back in the day). Large Professor brings the funk on this summery tune, really one for the BBQ here.

Brighton’s own eccentric mentalists Monkey Sons continue the summery theme in a triptych of tracks that are built around horns. This uptempo track cannot be hated on, it’s just so fun and honest. The filling in the sandwich is ‘Pablito’s way’ by Motion Man and Kutmasta Kurt. If you had or heard the Linkin Park Remix album these two hombres did the excellent cut up rework of ‘In the end’. This has a spanish/mexican vibe will have you throwing on your sombrero and sipping on a Corona or a Sol. Mavrik rides in on a similar heatwave with ‘Walk around it’. The highlight of this funky slice of the sun is the big fat horn stab on the 8th beat of each set of 16 beats, it’s almost comical.

Here’s a twosome that will yet again get your head nodding along in a syncopated manner. Motion Man and Kutmasta Kurt provide ‘Confidence’ for your delectation, they should make some waves in the hip hop ocean, so long as they don’t get written off as dross just cos they don’t appeal to those odious chavs.( Plus sampling Chali 2na on the chorus gives them marks in my book). Brainpower, if I remember rightly IS Swedish but thankfully the verse he’s cheekily slipped into this European sounding remix of 'triple trouble' by the Beastie Boys is in his native tongue.

Pigeon holed (on his own?) in the ‘concious rap’ genre is Common (although check HHC this month for the story of his radical makeover). Here he comes as conscious as any man could be by sampling the good Reverend Martin Luther King on, you guessed it 'A Dream'. The track is well produced and is nice for humming along to. On the theme of sampling vocals and in the vein of Baby J and Kanye West, Pigeon John samples some 80’s pop/rock jollity on ‘Weight of the world’. PJ takes on the character of one who tries to conform to the American Dream by ignoring reality and putting on a brave face. This is an interesting little bit of social commentary rapped up (sorry…Bec, you got nothing!) in this fun little track. I can’t tell you how much I want to get my hands on ‘The Weatherman’, the new LP from Evidence (of Dilated Peoples fame). This track, 'All said and done' is what you would expect from someone who had a hand in bringing such classic albums as ‘The Platform’, ‘Expansion Team’ and ’50:50’ to the worlds attention. I’m thinking this is an Alchemist production who is a wiz at building a sample into a hot track and he doesn’t fail Ev here.

Nas - Where are they now? (80's remix)

Nas - Where are they now? (Westcoast remix)

Hip Hop is dead. Is it? I don’t think so. There seem to be a lot of MC’s on Nas’s remixes of ‘Where are they now?’ who disagree and are about to prove him wrong. I cannot get enough of these two tracks. Put all the big rappers of today (by big I mean the ones who sell the most and are more widely recognised) on a big posse cut like this and you would get bored so soon. Put all the big MC’s from the west’s past on a track and I can’t get enough of it. Put all the big MC’s from the 80’s on a track and I can’t get enough of that either. The 80’s MC’s really know how to ride this break, putting Nas to shame – I didn’t like the original on the basis that his flow sounded awkward over the JB sample. These tracks induce a huge grin and make me hope some of these MC’s will give hip hop another chance, highlights are too many, the best thing to do is to listen to it all – over and over.

Cool down time again and keeping it old school. Like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest? Get some Digable Planets in your life, put it on your £4.97 mp3 player from Tesco and go skate and reminisce about the old skool days. Kool Keith provides the finale; ‘Voicemail, pagers; these are the things that robots carry’ – ‘I’m seein’ Robots’. A diss track to everyone who follows trends is always relevant as the cool kids are always jumping on something, tackling it, flooring it and rubbing it’s once cool face in the dirt. Take note kids, being different en mass makes you the same as the rest; Robots.