Reviews Coming Up @ Certified Banger

Yo! My postie has been a busy man over the last week or so (and so has my virtual postie) and I've got millions of CD's and tracks and things to review. Let me give you a list so you know what to look forward to:

Sway - 'The Signature LP'

Skreintax - 'Scene Stealers'

Illustrate - 'The Stuff'

Rhyme Asylum - 'State of Lunacy'

TB - 'The Beast From The East'

M9 - '144,000'

Chronic Redeye - 'Knowledge is King'

Geejay - 'I Came To Represent'

Dap-C - 'Street Karma'

Pyroradio.com Presents 'Top Selectors'

Occupy Your Mind Records Presents 'Grime'

Evil Ed & Conspicuous - 'The Get Together'

Jazz T - 'All City Kings'

Wordsmith - 'They Don't Seem To Care' EP

The Mantis Chapter - 'Graveyard Poets' EP

So check back regularly, add me to your reader feeder or whatever to find out what's going to be worth listening to out of this little lot!

'A New Bloodline' - Sir Smurf Lil' (album review)

‘A New Bloodline’; Sir Smurf Lil’ teams up with the current cream of UK producers – Jehst, Apa-Tight, Beat Butcha, LG, Conspicuous and Asaviour – all men well known for their dusty Hip Hop beats. Don’t take that the wrong way though; on paper ‘A New Bloodline’ may seem like a quick tracing of the UK rap outline but in reality the uniquely stylised rendering of Smurf makes this more than just a carbon copy.

Sonically and topically this is a nicely diverse album presenting Sir Smurf’s creative streak. On ‘Blossom’ man/woman relationships are explored over a beautiful backing whereas on ‘Words are Weapons’, a menacingly lilting beat accompanies determined fighting talk. The title track opens up raucously whereas closer ‘The Lord’s Chorus’ laments the loss of a loved life. Single ‘Candlelight’ still sounds fresh as does it’s B-side ‘That Sound’ featuring T-Bear and Big Cakes.

Other microphone guests are partners-in-rhyme The Colony (Grimlok, Conspicuous and Willo Wispa), Dubbledge, Kashmere and Jehst all of whom make worthy contributions to the overall piece.

‘A New Bloodline’ is a mature second album from an MC who deserves to gain recognition and momentum in this thing we call rap.

‘A New Bloodline’ is out on November 3rd on YNR Productions.

Jon Phonics - 'Half Past Calm' review

Jon Phonics forms beats in the 90’s mould - no bad thing. ‘Half Past Calm’ proves that sampling and flipping classics is still a relevant art form. The beats are evocative, an essential element when working with MC’s – they have to be inspired. The guest list is a nice selection of current names including MC’s from Triple Darkness, Verb T, Sir Smurf Lil’ and Mr. Drastick.

Jon Phonics provides the MC’s with more than decent backdrops for their deep thoughts. Even scanning through the track listing provides evidence that these rappers have something to say; they have been stimulated by the quality of Jon’s music. Each track is a solid head-nodder and at 12 tracks long the formula isn’t tiresome. This CD provides the perfect soundtrack for either an evening in or a car journey and the weight of the beats means that many tracks would sound awesome on a club sound system.

Sets like this should revive hopes of Hip Hop’s health in 2008. If the masses were listening to music like this they wouldn’t be moaning about Hip Hop’s lifelessness. The fact that this brilliant release is totally free does provoke the question: ‘How will Hip Hop survive and stay alive when the music is given away?’. The answer I think is that we’ll have to wait and see, this change is only just beginning to take place and who knows, this new business model may reap many rewards. Certainly, if the free music in question is as fine as that of Jon Phonics, artists should have no problem with garnering a following.

Certified Bangers: ‘Nothing Wrong’ ft. Mr. Drastick & Luc Skyz, ‘The Lion’s Den ft. Cyrus Malachi & ‘Jealousy’s a Bitch’ ft. Mr. Drastick & Verb T.

Top Lyrics: “And there’s no war, but there’s many ills//Over love many innocents are getting killed//over hate, many enemies relate//tryna come to a compromise, they conversate” (Verb T on ‘Alternate Take’)

Download 'Half Past Calm' here!