New Wu Tang ft Havoc

Ghostface, RZA and Havoc rip up this beat in classic Wu style with supreme mathematics references and all, this one's a grower. In anticipation of the New Wu album (or compilation) out at the end of the month. Wu Tang

Bambu 'Quit' Video

There are quite a lot of tunes that deal with 'fakers' (wack rappers doing all the fake gun talk standard stuff) but this one I thought dropped a particularly heavy critique, taken from the 'Exact Change' album. Check one two.

Bambu - "Quit" Produced by iLLMind from LightWork Media on Vimeo.

Mudmowth tearing down beats

Big shout out to Welsh stalwarts Associated Minds for consistantly coming with rediculously complex flows, punchlines and imagery giving every day life a wickedly distorted spin. Watch out for Mudmowth & Metabeats ' Sledgehammer Kisses' coming soon. While I remember, go and buy Metabeats Metaphysics as it's heavy, and if your skint you can hear Ralph Rip Shit tearing up beats along side Dubbledge on the stupidly heavy Celtic Underground Session 3 for free. Also check the 'Holmes - Hip hoperation' track, well heavy have tried to track down the dude but can't find him, any ideas!?

Truth 'Procrastinat(k)ing' Free EP

Get the Truth now For Free Right Here The 'Procrastinat(k)ing is probably one of the hardest EP titles to spell but well worth it. A sparkling Roc-a-Fella worthy intro music allows Truth to introduce the listener to his skills in no uncertain terms that makes you pin your ears back ready for some quality. Flipping up flows with panache and delivering the sort of punchlines that you only get halfway into the next bar, this is straight up quality hip hop. 'Numbers' extends abilities with the best numerical track since 10 Crack commandments. 'Officer' is an unusually well balanced critique of tunnel visioned 5 oh, cleverly analysing the link with anti terror legislation and draconian enforcement, seargeants should pay attention to this track unless they want to be mistaken for 'cuntsables'. Heavyweight rhymers Sonnyjim, Conflix, Grimlok and Kosyne help out with more standardly dope bars over all round great production from a variety of beatmakers to round out the E.P, however the real gem for me was 'Take Time' produced incredibly by Sivey. This is well worth a good few listens to really get into the life of times of the young Reginald. Great artwork to from Kimbo!

Ghostface and what makes a great emcee?

I Was privileged to catch Ghostface Killah live in Auckland, New Zealand the other night and found out how unfit I am after a load of jumping; along with my girlfriend throwing up W's. It was a great show with a lot of love shown from both views of the stage. At one point it made me think as Ghost stated his confusion within rap at the ridiculous proliferation of substance less music from rappers swamping the market with garbage pop rap. Listening to the classic verses and tracks Ghost smashed through in a great show, and his explanation of how a story rhyme might be constructed intricately over a matter of weeks, made me wonder about the exact composition of artists who truly excel in the field of hip hop. Here is my plea for you, if you love hip hop, to help go someway towards answering this question.

What makes a great emcee?

Rappers, emcees and hip hop artists are constantly being judged, analyzed, scandalized, derided, despised and idolized respectively depending on who you speak to. So what makes 'good' hip hop music? For many the negative aspects of hip hop are a major talking point. Why are hip hop lyrics often overwhelmingly violent, misogynist and nihilistic; is this having such a negative impact on society as some claim, or is it, as is often stated in rebuttal, a reflection of a harsh street life and environment that is apparently created around a group or individual by forces out of their control. Either way, does your opinion over such matters then get taken into consideration of the artistic skill of narratives by artists such as Mobb Deep. How does the music and beats affect how a rapper is rated what about the arrangement of hooks, bars, singing, scratches? How do live instruments, a DJ, beat boxers etc influence how heavy an emcee is, live or recorded. And from other artistic perspectives, what sort of categories could be made for the skills involved in rapping and does the 'image' of the particular emcee affect how relevant or artistic the lyrics are? Does the ultra complexity and advanced subject matter of Canibus make him a more intelligent rapper than Rakim? How does KRS One match up to Cannibul Ox, or Roots Manuva to Lil Wayne, Bahamdia to Fiddy Cent, Immortal Technique to Jay Z, Aesop Rock to Scarface, Biggie to Killah Priest or Big L to Eminem. Is Location, Political, Gender, Race or Religion specific rap or sub genres such as 'geek core' rap more or less important when talk of 'keeping it real or true to yourself' in light of many stereotype fulfilling fabricated characters? The debate could go on infedinitely. Hopefully it will, please join the debate add your comments here or on the Vocalswords discussion boards. Cheers!

Tupac Cake

Mummy can I have a cake like this for my birthday!?

'Load' Heavy Artwork Display

Checking some of these images looks defo worth a peek if you're in the Big Smoke, this Monday 22nd "once in a lifetime opportunity to see the amazing artwork commissioned as a permanent feature" at the prestigious venue of none other than the Royal Albert Hall. Midday till 9pm.

Eat Good Records

It's about bloody time I stuck a post up about these fellas, reppin' Brum/West Mids I had the privilege of sharing a few stages and ciphers with these boys and its heavy to see them smacking the shit out of lyricists and beatmakers all over the shop. Check the cypher for a little taste (Taharka smacks it) then jump into the stupidly big online world of Eat Good Records.

Don't Flop Battles = Stupid funny

DISCLAIMER! The following video contains some pretty brutal swearing, imagery etc even by rap standards so please don't watch if easily offended (that means you Dad! :) Having said that, had to post it up as some great lines. Taken from a facebook battle group you can check more from here. In my opinion a pretty tight battle especially at the start...always tough as time goes passes to keep stuff fresh...see what you reckon, was it a unanimous win?

New Zealand Hip Hop - Scribe

Walked into 'Real Groovy' records here in Aukland, NZ and was stupidly impressed with the amount of proper hip hop they had stocked, putting UK record shops to shine as they stocked Killa Kella, Phi Life Cypher, Black Grape, Pyrelli, Dirty Diggers and loads more. Even more impressive was the backing of homegrown talent. I picked up a stack and will take some time before I can review 'em all but in the meantime check the vibe of Scribe; from the looks of the video he's got it locked with the kids, good to see!

O.C and Wu Tang

Kicking back in New Zealand is definitely the way forward. They love their hip hop judging from conversations I've had in "Groovy Tunes" record shop whilst searching for two hours through a rediculously cheap and well stocked sale section. Picked a up a good selection of Aotearao hip hop but need to find a CD player before listening to it. In the meanwhile this O.C. tune has been on constant rotation; the Wu Tang just because I'd forgotton how wicked they are

Terra Slim From the City EP

My inbox has been a bit empty of late but just got sent this scorcher from the Beeswax Entertainment outfit and is well worth a peep. If grime aint usually your thing don't let it put you off (unfortunately the missus couldn't be persuaded when I was blasting it on the highway) because the lyrics and style of Terra are quality and shows how progressive the too often dismissed grime scene can be. A street savvy author means this short EP goes a long way to presenting a graft fuelled view of urban UK from low level hustling, beefs with chiefs and police over various issues. Also took me back to jungle filled days with great use of the 'Police and Helicopter' sample.

Editors 'The End has a Start'

Chilling in Airlie Beach I was well chuffed to see this video for the first time being played in a bar. The blonde homie Wilkinz put me onto the tune way back and I pissed him off by having it on repeat all the time. Hopefully the band will become huge megastars...local props too because the drummer apparently went to my school. Not much hip hop coming my way at the moment but I'm sure even the head nodders can't front on this, catch it here and have a browse around the old website, some good stuff and nice to see Oxfam as a prominent partner.

Money Doesn't Own Thought

Rap music has a great tradition of innovative names; KRS One and Public Enemy coming straight to mind... M-Dot joins this league as the acronym stood out from the other artists in the mix tape melee. The mans lyrics live up to the type you might expect from the name but bang hard with great production, particularly the 'Wrote a letter' track. This mixtape is available for free download so you know the deal get involved right here.

Diversity bring breakin back

Nice to see Britain's got talent repping for a bit of a hip hop with the win of Diversity on the show. I normally have a bit of cynicism towards these sort of shows, but BGT has sparked my interest as it's not just a kareoke/wannabee fest and loads more random shit goes on (loving the dancing cleaners last year)! I'm sure there is still a load of devious manipulation going on behind the scenes a la Ben Elton's Chart Throb satire, but good old Byker Grove memories won't let me believe it! PJ getting shot in the eyes by paintballs was finally worth it. Greedy ITV won't let me embed the blighter but you can check it out hereOr if you would prefer, a rediculously cringe inducing flashback to the Grove with the lovable Geordie duo! Curtains anyone?!