American Exchange

I've talked and talked in the past about Baby J's production credentials on this site since day one, and highlighted the modern UK classics he's already created with countless british emcees.

He has three solid producer albums under his belt, all of which have been well-recieved. He's helped Blade craft arguably one of his best albums a couple of years back in 'Guerilla Tactics' and he is about to unleash new material very soon. One thing Baby J doesn't get credited for is his work with US emcees.

Even on his debut album 'Birth' he had songs with Shabaam Sahdeeq of the late 90s indie label Rawkus fame. In fact, one of his best ever songs was with revolutionary, at times quite racist but always entertaining 'dead prez' on his song 'Scattered People'.

One US group that have been a permanent fixture on Baby J albums is the A-Alikes. They are a duo who are loosely affiliated with dead prez and Tahir (Hedrush) and they make some hard-hitting tracks. Whilst not the MOST talented duo, they certainly know their way around a hook and a beat. Also, with Baby J producing every track on this album, they couldn't really fail.

'Kill The Middleman' is a solid if not spectacular that showcases J as notjust a one trick pony. Although he does rely on soul samples a lot of the time, he has proved that he has other weapons in his arsenal.

A-Alikes - Kill The Middleman (2005)

1. Intro
2. Pop Off
3. Young Buk to OG (feat. I.G.)
4. Love Is Love
5. Why? (feat. Laurissa)
6. Freedom
7. Treeman
8. Keep It Funky
9. What Niggaz Do
10. Throw Ya Gunz
11. I'll Probably Wind Up
12. If I Get On (feat. Teresa)
13. The Babies
14. Some Of Us
15. Snitch
16. Eenie Meanie (feat. Teresa)
17. Strategy
18. Grey Skies

Skitz & Pieces

I did say in the last post 'more on Skitz later', and this is what I meant. Daddy Skitz released a series of mixtapes in the past few years (I say a series, I mean err...two volumes) engineered to mix the best talent from UK, intersperse their music with a couple of choice tracks from overseas and bring the fans some exclusives along the way.

'Homegrown Vol. 1' kind of went under the radar when it came out and the second one didnt do much better, but don't let their lack of sales take away from the fact that they are brilliant compilations. To be honest though, hardly any UK hip-hop albums get good sales figures unless you're called Dizzee so no-one on our shores should really worry about that anyway.

The album is less mixtape more track selection, coming off just like Skitz himself was in his front room picking tracks he likes at the time on his iTunes just to listen to. Believe me, this is a good thing, because this man has been there and done it all and probably knows more about UK hip-hop than anyone else in the game.

He's released a classic album I still listen to religiously to this day, he's had a very succesful 1Xtra show with Rodney P, he's produced countless tracks for pretty much anyone who is anyone in our genre and he's still got a lot left in his tank.

The album is from 2004, and its like a small time capsule of hot tracks from the time, featuring Million Dan's SEMINAL monster hit 'Dogz & Sledgez', Pharoahe Monch's brilliant political attack 'Agent Orange', Canadian rapper-who-has-just-sold-out-and-is-just-about-to-blow-up-because-of-it Kardinal Offishall with arguably his best ever song 'Bakardi Slang' (if you don't know or haven't heard this song, the beat is pretty astounding).

Great artists like Seanie T, Rodney P, Taskforce, Braintax, Phi Life Cypher, Skinnyman, Roots Manuva, actually pretty much every big name in UK rap are on here, and the album itself shines because of it. Great selection, great DJ, great download.

Skitz - Homegrown Vol. 1 (2004)

1. Skitz & Solomon - Intro
2. Million Dan - Dogz & Sledgez
3. Keith Lawrence (feat. Seanie T) - Muzik Ed Special
4. Life & Nappa of Phi Life Cypher - Soldiers
5. Kardinal Offishall - Bakardi Slang
6. The Extremists - Revolution
7. Pursuit & Taskforce - Norse Code
8. Terra Firma - Sionara (Skitz Xclusive Mix)
9. Braintax - Just Me
10. Karl Hinds (feat Seanie T & Toyin) - You Done Know (Live-O)
11. Skibadee - The Greatest Show
12. Dynamite MC - Bubble
13. Pharoahe Monch - Agent Orange
14. Roots Manuva - Check It
15. Skitz, MC D & 2Ice - Champion Sound
16. Rascalz (feat. Notch) - Warrior (Dirty Version)
17. Ty (feat. Roots Manuva) - So U Want More? (Revox)
18. Beyond There (feat. Yungun & Jehst) - Slumber (Skitz Xclusive Mix)
19. Rodney P - Big Black Boots
20. Sterling Collat (feat. Skeme, Dirt T & Big P) - What Goin On
21. The Sea & Mr Ti2bs - Introducing Mr Tibbs
22. Skinnyman - What's My Life Like

Wreck The House

Let's go back to the very turn of the century. Its 2000, there is a certain smell in the air. Some man is fishing on a dock and he notices the ripples of the sea are quickly increasing in size. He looks into the distance and sees a wave of monumental proportions heading his way. He drops in rod and desperatly tries to escape its clutches. However, its too late. The man gets swallowed up by the wave in double-quick time. Only its not a wave. Something in the water caused that wave and he's surfaced to wreak havoc on decks nationwide. It's Agzilla!!!!!

Sadly, in this album there are no excerpts from Matthew Broderick or Hank Azaria. There are no smaller agzilla's hatching in the bowels of Madison Square Garden. But there are a ridiculous amount of heavy beats interspersed with large doses of scratching & film quotes.

Deckwrecka (aka Agzilla) came out with his debut full-length album 'V...For Vengeance' in 2000, a rip-roaring hour of nothing but beats and breaks that would put a smile on any b-boy Brit's face.

Wrecka's LP was incidentally the first ever release from UK label Ronin Records, famous pretty much only for being the label that released the classic 'COuntryman' by Skitz. But more on him later. This album makes up with great scratching and quotables what it loses from a lack of vocalists, and its the type of CD you can just put on and listen to all the way through as a full piece of music. Sit back, light a blunt (or in my case put the kettle on and make a cup of tea cos I don't smoke that sh*t) and enjoy some proper turntablism.

Deckwrecka - V... For Vengeance (2000)

1. Intro
2. The Big Up
3. Assassin's Road
4. Secret Warz
5. My Thesis
6. Furious Styles
7. 23 Forever
8. Sever The Wicked
9. Dedication
10. Change The Style (interlude)
11. Scores On The Doors
12. Sycosis
13. Double Zero Zero
14. Ogami's way
15. Live @ Visage
16. Catch Wrecka
17. Deleted Files (Bonus Beats)
18. Mind Control
19. Tsik Wei Step
20. Bayou Boogie
21. Zilla's Theme
22. Rough Winds
23. The Return
24. Ghetto Princess
25. Rice Cakes
26. Hah Breakdown
27. 5 Door Finale
28. Outro - Deckwrecka Theme

New Events & Videos

Just while I'm away from my music collection for a week, here's a word from the sponsors:

Hip-Hop Connection magazine are celebrating their 20th anniversary this Autumn. For the first time ever, the world's longest running hip-hop magazine Hip-Hop Connection will go on tour. With a line-up designed to attract all spectrum's of hip-hop fans, this tour is set to be one of the most historically important events in British Hip-Hop.

Leeds Hip Hop Scene have teamed up with the longest hip hop magazine in the world to bring a special one off gig at the Wardrobe in Leeds on 4th October 2008.The night will feature an all-star team of UK Hip-Hop artists,Million Dan, Jehst, Stig Of The Dump, Dr Syntax, Klashnekoff and hosted by Baby J.

The night is guaranteed to have crowd participation, featuring an open mic emcee battle hosted by Million Dan and product giveaways (free artist merchandise, free copies of Hip-Hop Connection, free CDs, free Puma goodies, free LHHS gear and much much more).

50 Special Advanced Tickets for £10 from http://www.leedshiphop.co.uk/ will be available from 9am Monday 8th September 2008.

Further Tickets will go on sale later in the month via Jumbo Records in Leeds, & if that wasn't enough for you we have Blak Twang performing at the Wardrobe in Leeds November 2008 look out for more info!!

To tide you over till the next post, here's some brand new videos you might enjoy:

ROOTS MANUVA - again & again


BLAK TWANG - champagne lifestyle

A British Soul

Right, then lads and lasses. Something a little different for your ears instead of the usual hip-hop. Here is the debut album 'Just Living' by Kevin Mark Trail, a British born singer-songwriter.

KMT is a brilliant soul singer that makes exemplary and modest soul music ideal for any night in. This album garnered HUGE critical acclaim from everyone from The Guardian to being pondered over for a Mercury Music Prize nomination. You may know him, or at least his voice, as he guested on two tracks on The Streets' debut 'Original Pirate Material', most notably he sung the chorus on the single 'Lets Push Things Forward'.

After touring with Mike Skinner he went out alone to push his solo career and this first release is a great introduction to his sound. Plus, he had UK legends Blak Twang (so glad he brought out new material...now if only I had money to buy...) and Rodney P on the remix to his song 'Last Night', so you can't argue with that. Hopefully the man will come out with some more material soon and not get lost in the already massive pile of r'n'b singer that failed to really blow up commercially despite their considerable talent. Sit back, make a hot beverage, wear a cardigan, and relax in front of the fire (or the radiator for the lesser posh) to the sounds of Kevin Mark Trail.

Kevin Mark Trail - Just Living (2005)

1. D Thames

2. Vibe

3. Lion By Trade

4. Last Night

5. Ticket Line

6. Bread

7. Ego City

8. Full Moon

9. Breathless

10. Backbone

11. Perspective

12. City Boy

Kevin Mark Trail - Last Night REMIX feat Blak Twang & Rodney P (VIDEO)

Back to Business

Finally here we go with some more Great British material from our beloved urban scene! Today we have the underground duo of Jiff & Rap6, better known as Paragon.

In 2004 they released their long-awaited, long-anticipated long-player 'The Long Road' to some critical acclaim and not much else. Their videos got a bit of play on the now very poor Channel U when it first arrived on UK digital television and it seemed that they were a group ready to set alight the airwaves (or at least the pirate airwaves) of England. Four years down the line and save for one or two singles they have pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth (to my knowledge anyway), and that is a very sad thing.

In fact, Paragon had been going a HELL of a long time before they got their acclaim and dues for 'The Long Road' - it was actually a decade of hard work for them before they put the album out!

The album is true underground hip-hop in a universal sense as it has that gritty sound, but Jiff & Rap6 are true Brit rhymers through their slang and delivery, and the sound is much more warmer than some underground emcees from the US. By that I mean the production value is at a paramount and always solid throughout.

The big hit from the album was 'The Anthem', and if you were big on UK rap in the early 00s and youu havent heard it then shame on you. They followed that up with the, frankly, exquisite ode to the ladies 'Queen Like No Other' and eventually a year later a remix to 'The Anthem' was released to much fanfare (see video below).

The album features guest spots from such UK stalwarts as Tommy Evans, Cashino & Asaviour and is a very enjoyable listen.

Paragon - The Long Road (2004)

1. Intro
2. 16 Bars Aren't Enough (feat. Finale)
3. The Anthem (feat. Esta)
4. You're Making Me Laugh
5. Queen Like No Other
6. Back Against The Wall (feat. Dil, Toby Thompson & Ms Davies)
7. Give It Up (feat.Dil)
8. You Just Don't Get It
9. Music (feat. DBlack, Cashino & Toby Thompson)
10. Hard To Believe
11. Beef
12. Alright
13. V.I.P. (feat. Toby Thompson)
14. The Heist (feat. Redmaster & C-Lone)
15. You (feat. Sam The Man)
16. UK Hot With It (feat. Asaviour & Tommy Evans)

Leeds Festival (The Urban Edition)

So, another weekend at Leeds Festival has been and gone and this time I was not disappointed. Of course, its a predominantly rock-based music festival, but there were quite a few urban, hip-hop acts nestled in among the madness.

On the Friday, Lethal Bizzle played the Dance Stage in the afternoon, and he completely shocked me with his live performance. The tent was absolutely packed and the former More Fire Crew member got the whole crowd jumping with a whistle-stop set through his biggest hits such as 'Pow!', 'Fire' and 'Its A Shame'. I would personally like to apologise to Bizzle for including him in the list of grime acts with no talent only a month ago, because this man completely surprised me with his onsatge presence.

It is no wonder that Lethal Bizzle has been embraced by the indie scene as much as his bread-and-butter urban scene (he is fawned over in NME each week), as he has an onstage persona that completely belies his music's made-in-the-garage sound (the sound most grime music has to my ear). Halfway through his set he jumped atop a massive speaker on the side of the stage and started performing his new single 'Bizzle, Bizzle' from up there before getting the crowd to chant his name followed by 'Fuck Download' (*he played Download festival earlier in the summer, which is a staunchly positioned metal festival...needless to say the metal fans did not take kindly to his being there and they bottled him off - completely the organisers fault because an urban artists shouldn't be playing Download in the first place). It was one of the most refreshing and surprising performances of the whole weekend, which is an achievement considering he was only on one of the side stages and he was playing to mostly indie hipsters and metal fans (Metallica were headlining later that day).

A new man when it comes to infiltrating the mainstream consciousness, Natty played a very impressive laidback reggae set on one of the smaller stages to an appreciative crowd. Natty's new album 'Man Like I' has just come out and is an absolute belter so run out and buy it now or I'll cut your balls off.

Dizzee Rascal continued to excel live when he played the main stage on Saturday afternoon. The crowd he gathered at about 2pm was phenomenal, with everyone singing hits such as 'Fix Up, Look Sharp', 'I Luv U', 'Stand Up Tall' and the questionable newer song 'Dance Wiv Me' in unison. He was joined onstage by 1Xtra man DJ Semtex (who was much fatter than I remember!) and some hype men.

Space Age funksters Chromeo delivered a great set to a small crowd on the Dance stage late on Friday evening, further cementing themselves as one of the best funk acts around in the world of modern music. The great thing about their set is that despite the crowd being small, everyone their knew the songs inside out, and the use of hip-hop tinged vocoders and keyboard trickery gave them a much more urban feel, allowing the crowd to really get involved with the songs (hip-hop tracks are MADE for live performances).

Wiley played much later on the Alternative stage on Friday and apparently delivered quite a good performace (I was on the main stage awaiting Metallica, yeah, I'm a metalhead too) but obviously most fans were indie kids and came to see the dance (see: not hip-hop) track 'Wearing My Rolex'. Wiley is a very creative and interesting rapper but its disappinting that the only way a man like him can breakthrough to the mainstream is if he changes his sound so much that its almost unrecognisable.

Even with all of this, the best 'urban' (I'll explain) act there was by far Rage Against The Machine. 'RATM, hip hop?', I hear you ask. Well, maybe not in sound alone, as they are widely regarded as one of the best metal acts of our generation, but frontman Zack de la Rocha is arguably one of the best lyricists and emcees of all time. The man oozes charisma, and people were passing out as he took the stage to perform 'Testify'. de la Rocha raps like he was a hip-hop legend, and one of his verses has more substance than most emcees have spit in their entire careers. Anyone who is a hip-hop fan but has never listened to RATM because they are seen as metal, I URGE you to pick up one of their albums and listen to them. You will not be disappointed.

Sorry about letting this website slide, there are a few reasons why which will bore you to death so I won't mention them. I'm not going to lie, posts will be a bit further apart for the next few months than they used to be, but I'll make sure updates DO come.

The Problem With Grime

I've always been staunchly against Grime as a sub-genre ever since its explosion on the UK urban scene a couple of years ago. It is, in a way, a twisted younger brother of the garage scene that came to have great success at the turn of the century. Grime has now not only took over the UK urban scene, but it seems to have ushered in 'bassline' music to share their wider audience.

Now... I wouldn't have an issue with Grime at all usually, as there are one or two other genres I don't fancy much that I don't feel the need to 'hate' on as whole (yes, this is a 'hater' article, I'm a blogger, ranting is what I do). The reason the genre is such a thorn in my earhole is because it claims to be hip-hop. Cross-over artists such as Dizzee Rascal & Sway came from the early grime scene to make a name for themselves, and their music is palatable to my ears because they are talented emcees that embraced the hip-hop culture within their sound. Dizzee Rascal, more notably, featured UGK on his last album, and has even managed to break America (apparently, I'm sure one or two US readers can shed light on that).

The reason Sway & Dizzee have made a name for themsleves from the Grime scene is because they have lyrical skills in abundance. Grime really gets on my wick because it is chock-full of untalented artists who have no right to call themselves such because all they do is talk slang and make gunshot sounds over sloppy frantic beats. Artists such as Bashy or Tinchy Strider are now getting ridiculous exposure, yet their music is nothing more than our very own version of the Souljah Boy type rap that is coming to the forefront in the US.

This is my first post in about a month now, due to me moving house and being without the internet. In this month the biggest UK urban release has been the soundtrack to 'Adulthood', a film basically about a bunch of illiterate ASBO kids in London that I really would not want to meet because their version of English is a mixture of txt spk and weed talk. There you go, who needs Jonathan Ross when I can be both informative and stereotypical about inner-city youts in one sentence.

This first post is here for a reason. I need to make a distinction between UK hip-hop and Grime. The line seems to have blurred in the last year and it worries me. New scenes bubble up to the surface all of the time and its healthy for music as a whole, but this site is 100% UK hip-hop. Grime is nothing more than a educationally-sparse teenager's hobby. Job done.

Proper posts coming soon. Transitions are occurring at the moment but hopefully we can get this site up and running ASAP. For now, support hip-hop. Throw away anything that has the words 'Oh My Days', 'Seeeeeeen' or 'Brrrrrrat!' on it.

Please voice your opinions on whether you think Grime has had a good or bad effect on UK hip-hop since its arrival on the scene in the comments section. I'd be very interested to see if I'm by myself in my thoughts on the music as it seems a lot of people have embraced it with open arms.

Revelations & Recommendations

The first few months of 2008 didn't really spark much interest in me in terms of new releases, but things seem to have picked up of late with some real corkers coming out in the past few weeks or months.

Firts off, I HAVE to give a very special mention to 'When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold' by Atmosphere. I'm always been a little bit of a fan of Atmosphere and Slug especially, but their albums have rarely impressed me too much as a whole piece of work. However, I am going out on a limb and saying that their new album is not only their best album to date but it's also my favourite album of 2008 so far.

A few factors contribute towards this album rating so highly. The first is that this albm is the definition of slow-burner. The first listen brought up one or two favourites and a few duff songs, but on second and third listen I started to love every single song and now the album rarely gets listened to if not in one entire go.

Songs such as 'Dreamer', 'Glasshouse' and 'In Her Music Box' are true lyrical achievements, with Slug painting a picture of realism and the way people think and live perfectly. In fact, one of the brilliant things about the entire album is that every song and line is beautifully observed and will strike a chord with someone.

Ant's beats never outshine Slug, but that is a very good thing in this case, as each song is solid and leans towards the content rather than rhythm, which is something hip-hop has lost in recent years in my opinion due to increasing impatience in listeners and an eye towards the 'fast buck' from the artist. Its a truly great album, but one that needs to be fully absorbed.

Another great spect is the fact that album's design is brilliant. My copy came in a CD 'book form with the CD slipped inside a 'page', along with a 36 page lyric book and 'children's stroy which ran alongside the themes of the album. It also had a bonus DVD with live performances and such on it. If more artists and groups took so much time and put as much effort into their album's aesthetic qualities as Atmosphere have, I'm sure retail sales of albums would increase ten fold.

Another album to look out for is 'Spektrum' by Million Dan, formerly of the classic group Demon Boyz. Its been a long time since a full release from him, but it has came along at just the right time, as the shift from UK's urban out put has shifted to grime and the market has been saturated with it. My hatred of 99% of grime can be covered on another day, however.

Million Dan has collected a lot of his singles such as 'Dogs N Sledges' & 'Spektrum Ride' and added them to some new tracks to create one of the most versatile and interesting sets to come from the UK this year. The guy deserves all of the plaudits and I fully recommend you at least check this guy out. In fact, I must remember to upload his Infra-Red mixtape from last year as a taster later on in the week.

Two years since the release of 'The Borrowed Ladder', Huddersfield's Asaviour is back with his second full length album entitled ''The A-Loop Theory', this time alongside DJ IQ, who he has released some mixtapes with. Here's hoping he builds on the momentum gained from Savior Faire and The Borrowed Ladder and become the leading light in British Rap that we all know he can be.

Another album I'm really looking forward to is 'It'll Never Catch On' by DPF, which to my surprise and delight seems to be getting quite a bit of shine in the UK blogosphere and media. DPF is one of the best (and underrated) emcees in England and I've been salivating over a full release ever since I heard 'Jelly Bellied Eels' and 'Dis Cuss Peace'.

Prose - Wasted Talent EP

I get a couple of e-mails a week from various artists and such asking for their material to be posted on my blog and I have a tried and tested method of actually listening to them and giving them a personal thumbs up before I go ahead and post them up. Mostly, I'm never impressed, but this last one really caught me.

One of the main reasons it caught me is because I have actually heard some material by them even before they sent me this, and what I heard I really liked. So when they sent me their new 'Wasted Talent EP' I jumped at the chance to post it up.

Prose are a UK duo from London & Leeds respectively, made up of beatmaker Steady Rock and emcee Efeks. They've been on the circuit for a while now putting in work and both of their original EPs 'Wasted Talent' and 'Running Man' sold out a long while ago. Luckily, to coincide with the release of their new mixtape of sorts 'The Boom Bap Project Vol. I', they've made their 'Wasted Talent' EP readily available for free download on their myspace pages.

The Boom Bap Project Vol. I is a culmination of their previous efforts, taking cuts from both EPs and running them alongside some new tracks to keep their audience happy, and all of it is mixed and blended by DMC Champ DJ Matman.

We have their first EP here for you now.

Prose - Wasted Talent EP

1. One People
2. No Concern
3. Originate
4. Wasted Talent
5. Wasted Talent (Instrumental)

Go to http://www.myspace.com/prosebbp or http://www.myspace.com/steadybbp to download this EP directly from them (same link anyway), and check out the other downloads they have on there. They have the instrumental version of it up for free D/L along with the 'Originate' single.