Feel Cool Forever

What a piece of advice! And what a stormer of an EP...classic raps, introspective soul bearing dopeness and beats that absolutely smash it, this is an evocotive piece of work crafted with a depth of soul, acoustic finesse and lyrical accomplishment that makes it a definite to check and download for repeated listening.....a lot of instrumentals on the end of the jams which is great for you aspiring rappers out there to get up and rhyme to your reflection in the window!

I probably need to write in shorter sentences. So check it...

Scare the Normals, Endemic Emerald & Skanks and Marcus Juvann....Dope Fresh Rap Yo

"I can't take it, I'm loosing my childhood favourites, Bill Cosby a rapist & Hulk Hogan a racist"....too true and a sentiment I increasingly find myself relating too. This beautifully produced banger from Endemic Emerald, the seasoned UK heavyweight producer smashing it in NYC sets the scene perfectly for Skanks to deliver topical insights into the messed up world where the Black Lives Matter is increasingly heard but not necessarily addressed.



Bury St Edmund's is pinned definitively on the map by the Scare the Normals crew who present their second full length release "Creepy Brainfood" a very welcome blast of fresh air from the fens incorporating anti-establishment spit fire rhymes with hyped up instrumentals with the classic festival stomping elements of scratching and mind bending sound effects. Serious messages are nicely laced into the fabric of the hectic, feel good vibe while reminding us of perils of modern life; "Diet coke and fluoride giving me a tumor" Apologies but late Sunday eve and there are too many bangers to go in depth review wise on but if you want to mainline the goodness jump straight to "Brass Leaf" for a super smasher of a track.




Marcellus Juvann presents a nicely laid back projects kicking off with "Make my way" which has some lovely sax work intertwining with everyman struggle bars interspersed with some imaginative vignettes such as winning a stare out competition with Medusa. "Do the Right Thing" gives a good account of the dillemas faced in modern life and the percieved need to get the Fat Gold Chain and other shiney trinkets.

Beautiful Hip Hop from AZ & Masta Ace

Compelling Chester P Interview on the Housing Crisis, plus Cult of the Damned

Scarface Laments Police Killings

You really need to check Scarface's incredible, poignent and disturbing new track. Venting out as only Brad Jordan can he goes in hard as "the evil demons came back" and he reflects with desolation; "Ive been a loyal dude and you can trust that, but loyalty versus greed equals fuck that".

Great new music from Stig of the Dump, Jehst, Ackurate & Divine Suns

What an absolute stormer! I say that even though the track is relatively laid back tempo and beat wise but the precision of wordplay of Stig and infectious hook from Jehst make this a paradoxically hypnotic yet lyrically super satisfying tour de force. I've played this on repeat many times without the video and it's an absolute banger. Watching the video almost makes it too incredible; the attention to detail and incredible homage to Stanley Kubrick deserves serious respect and attention. Stig's interpretations of leading characters whilst still delivering parts of himself through his bars is very impressive; and the surreal glimpses of Jehst depicting iconic scenes from Kubrick's work makes the whole video a proper classic.



This track should be an absolute classic. It suffers slightly from a lack of consistent engineering and though the beat is hella dope it should be slamming in harder. Aside these criticisms this really shows hiphop in it's most incredibly positive social light; some ill spitting helps deliver a profound message of solidarity and hope whilst gently calling out some of the more mainstream artist who are "ignorant to civil rights like it aint they fight". The incorporation of many people and generations in the video help cement this as a great focal point for positive, collaborative and hopeful music.




Ackurate's new joint describes him as a "Soul Misfit" but in reality the precision of beats and points of view he expresses should have him fitting well into the ears of those appreciative of intelligent and progressive hiphop. No surprise his work is tagged with "90's" and "Underground" on his Bandcamp page; it is indeed a strange state affairs that such non-mainstream tags still need to be applied to what is in fact great quality music that, in the humble opinion of Vocalswords, should actually be getting that big ol' mainstream spotlight. Highlights include The Excursion giving a nice intro to the poetically inspired styles of Ackurate and his world view while 'Vibes' produced by Capo is a smoothly rolling track oozing positivity.

Rest in Power Sean Price

A massive loss to Hip Hop comes with the news that underground legend, Sean Price aka Ruck; one half of the incredible Heltah Skeltah outfit has passed away. I played "Monkey Bars" a few weeks ago in full and was thinking how many other rappers have such complex, entertaining and brutal styles and to be honest I'm not sure there is anyone better. A sad day. I've posted a couple of my favourite clips of Sean P and one of my favourite joints from Monkey Barz; the chemistry dude had with Rock and the incredible skill level is in full effect; Thanks for the work big man.

It aint all Greek Tragedy....

As Greece faces an uncertain future in terms of it's solvency and relationship to the European Union after an historic vote which may prove pivitol in the history of both democracy and international economic affairs I thought it fitting to play a slice of hiphop from Greece. Fortunately I stumbled fairly quickly over this hopefull sounding banger from Sins; a prophetic "Live as One" hook haunts the track as headknodding melodic flows referencing Cronus provide the subtance that at the moment is unfortunately elusive. Any translaters, or Sins if you are out there get at me to break the lyrics down!

New Music from Ras Kass, Ron Beatty, V. Nova & D.O.S.

Word up Ron Beatty; I know why they ain't heard about you dog, its cause you sound truthful, humble and honest....give me a lift in your (hopefully electrically powered) Maserati one day and I'll join you leaning out the window yelling! Holler @RonBeattyNC, Video Shot by @Nervreck and @scorpioflo_kob1

"My Instructions came with a typo!....tough life tales from @Mr_VNova but with a poetic flair that keeps it banging along nicely over a Crack Factory beat. 

Rass Kass uniting struggles with characteristic hardcore flair here over Domingo's swinging, gun shot laced production.....a shame that the rich are killing the weak but as long as that is the status quo the elite need to watch out for the wrath of Rassy....Domingo has an impressive stack of joints featuring some dope dope emcees, go check it here. 



The last one is a big shout out to my girl who complains about too much of hip hop being a bit depressing or over intellectualized (ok, mainly just UK Hip Hop coming mainly from white boys like me). This track is pretty much about hard core bars with a video about having fun, so not too much too complain about from me as long as I am of course overlooking the standard misogyny, crass commercialism etc blah blah blah ah stuff it its been a long day and D.O.S got some bars to cheer me up, is having a great time with his crew so why not!!?

Fresh Hip Hop from Napoleon feat Killah Priest, Rapper Big Pooh prod Apollo Brown Sim-E ft Rock, Torae & Quelle Chris

Unbelievably ill, stick this shit on rewind from the former Little Brother heavyweight emcee telling you with force and panache "What you already new" over a banger from Apollo Brown. Also peep the goodness from Napoleon who hold it down getting Biblically inspired with a nice feature from Killah Priest. We finish off with an excellent video for a banging cut where Sim-E smashes the beats up and is ably assisted by the irrepressible Rock of Heltah Skeltah and the ever intriguing Quelle Chris.

Hey!zeus.i 'Holy Cow' ft. Strange U & Jehst plus Ghostface Killah & Elzhi

Check out this slice of Psychadlic Bovine illness from the Young N Restless camp; Hey!zeus.i asking the important question "....if the lands barren where you graze your flock?" and Kashmere of Strange U giving the sage advice ".......get creative" this tripped out marvelously hypnotic track is completed by The High Plains Drifter kicking in a holy cash cow earning verse. Great to be hearing this original business, great music should be appreciated by all.

And if that's not quite enough high powered lyricism for you check out the new Tony Starks LP "Sour Soul", a tour de force of paired back rhymes allowing a soundscape to showcase some of the illest flows in the game.  As Pretty Tony spits....

Stand the fuck up like Flav to fight the power
I'm an activist, socialist, deadly ass poetrist
Supreme Clientele, I'm a goddamn vocalist
My thoughts are so heavy I could change a generation
The x-factor, we puttin' holes through inflation

New Music from Pete Rock, LouieVon & Young Cam plus Herrotics repping for Blah Records

    

Pete Rock releases a free download of "Heaven and Earth" a gorgeous instrumental as you may well come to expect; if you're not familiar get to know the man's back catalogue ASAP, true hiphop legend. Watch out for the full length coming from Mellow Music Group coming 23rd June.  

The Blah Records camp is in full effect at the moment with Herrotics releasing "Fathead" alongside two videos documenting UK city life to the sounds of some immensely hardcore lyrical rap...Get involved with this and pick up some tasty Blah Merch here, Not gonna put my geographical knowledge neck on the line; if you know which city (ies) are being repped by Herrotics get at me solocypher@gmail.com.

New track "Come Up" gets analytical on the trap situation many increasingly are struggling to escape from. "Praying for a come up" appears to depressingly be the only way out for LouiVon & Young Cam as they get serious over a nice beat from Enlighten. Check the Memorial Day Mixtape Out Here. 

Going Hard...Mnsr Frites drops dope album "River Wandle"; Plus Emerge MC smashes it!

Its a pleasure to introduce these next two videos coming from talents representing my current home town of London.  First up the cerebral laid back tones of Granville Session's Big Frits goes nicely over a jazzy soulful beat from Cognitive. Frites has a serious flow but humour is always lurking as he's "Staying current like a synonym for raisens" This is a fresh trippy visual that pairs with the other excellent vid "I Drink Coffee" from the man who has just dropped the ill full length banger "The River Wandle,,,I've been lucky to have a sneak peak and it is ill, (top choice so far is Track 16, Sim City prod. Sam Zircon), so....promoters get booking this dude, just remember to put Dim Sum on the menu yeah!? Word to Mr Chips.

Next up is the irrepressible Emerge who destroys with bar after bar of heated bars drawn from his turbulant, wildstyle lifestyle. His passion for life, his people and desire to be at the top of the game is shines through....back on his boss shit!

Futa - Ferguson "Finally Someone Talkin Real Ish"

I've followed Futa for a lil while now and sensed something powerful would come from this talented artist. This track is the one...incredibly powerful lyracism from a cat who needs to be recognised. The opening "One question, have you ever seen a woman cry from methods of genodcide..." shocks and awes the listener into a record that is raw and incredibly painful but ultimately beautifully uplifting.
"Fuck what they told you every soul has a heaven"

Sonny Jim, Blahz Martell, Copywrite

 Bigging up your home town is one of my favourite parts of hiphop music and Blahz Martell smashes this alongside grammy nominated Camille Carolina.



Brum based emcee legend returns with a very generous serving of Granola with his latest installments, available from Eatgood

Now here's a selection of bar related goodness I've been put onto recently....First Flabbz is going in HARD on Charlie Sloth's 'Fire in the Streets' sessions; followed up by Chester P's contribution....I'm posting it straight up then watching as I already know its gonna be well worth it ha.....then a couple more slabs of heavy weight lyracism firstly with Copywrite putting a great twist on slang with 'Yasin Bey' and then Tre Isaacs vibing out on hyper medula venting operation....









https://soundcloud.com/respect-magazine/premiere-cormega-feat-craig-g

Lil B

New Hiphop Music from Donta Black, Chima Anya and Georgia Anne Muldrow

Chima Anya has jumped into a fantastic project with Clem Beats, and this deeply emotional track is the first single with visuals taken from their EP available here. RIP Ade. A new voice to Vocalswords, Georgia Anne Muldrow is certainly no novice and this powerful track gives a lyrical knockout to the commercial world of pop rap.

https://soundcloud.com/donta-black/round-of-applause

Whole Heap of Beats and Rhymes from Nutso et al, RJD2 & STS....

First Up, really digging this, a fantastic audio back drop from RjD2 gives STS the perfect canvas to throw down knowledge....

Vocalswords try to keep things on a righteous tip and I was excited to find this selection of collabs with def rhyme spitter Nutso...so got a bit worried by the uber violent "The Reaper" but then taking it for the extended metaphore it is decided to give it the benefit of the doubt; concerns over the presentation of uber violence, misogyny and all the usual difficult subjects stick with me as the tape progresses; however the fact that many of the rhymes in this project give a much better defined narrative with explanatory caveats (or just the Nutso " FucK You Attitude") than the majority of music (much of which often only contains about the total of 2 sentences of actual lyrics) that I'm getting daily through the inbox means it deserves to be heard...especially the Ras Kass appearance from around 15mins in...plus an existential take on Shakespeare around 22mins in....will balance out the hip hop karma I reckon!....

Birmingham Hip Hop Heads Get Down this Friday!

New Ludacris, Large Professor, Medina Green and more fresh hiphop

And whoosh...that was February gone! Such a short month sometimes feels like it doesn't even exist, and a big job changeover as meant a chance to chill in hiphop land has been lacking 'till now...Luckily the Legendary Ludacris has decided to smash back into the booth to remind new jacks who's got the Juice..."You rap like something behind ya"...Some speculation on the Youtube comments that this is aimed at Drake; I don't care either way but if there is a reply it better be fire!....Freshness!



Always love to see a Large Pro release in my inbox....always a guarantee of quality and the Hook says it all...Megadon slams hard and the chorus rocks hard with "Ay yo this Chemistry will make you form ideas, and make things clear, Y'All B Squared"....delivered by the wonderfully voiced Medina Green; an old school hero for producing some of the illest early joints alongside Mos Def....Damn Right We Breakin' Atoms!



An academic career nearly de-railed by drugs, a teaching zipping out disses to wanna be G's in his class, and a pot head puking up at a bar.....got to say bravo to Bravado for repping his profession and presenting a banging record. Along with Alumni SC Static and No Name well crafted bars come flying out covering many ideas and themes common to many young men, nicely paralleling the life of Johnny Cash, as depicted in the film and song, Walk the Line. No prizes for creative sample flipping here but an enjoyable and interesting slab of a track.



A cool combination here over a mellow beat gets the best out of these emcees, it's always particularly good to hear Sean P get reflective, even when as expected it's sandwiched betwen a plethora of depressing gun imagry. Tragedy Khadafi holds it down nicely as do Oowop the Don/Kima Rocel






@MCBravado @IStillLoveHER

Kenn Starr, Blacktivity, Wordsworth, Supastition, Black Milk and more

Kenn Starr has reportedly gone back to the drawing board despite critical acclaim of his first release. Nothing wrong with keeping to the fundamentals and a posse cut has always been a classic move. Taken from his latest LP "Square One" Washington's finest bought a few friends along. 

Detroit is well known for it's high calibre of artists and Blacktivity is no exception; the crew have dropped thier first LP and it's a very nice slice of hip hop documenting a blue collar lifestyle full of reality, hopes, fears, dope beats and scratches. MC Ill Tone provides the on point lyrics (including a very nice nod to Wu Tang on Data Day) and the production is held done wonderfully by Shade Cobain. The creativity of this album is seriously impressive, it has been a while since I've heard something fresh with so many ideas and themes. "Photo Album" is a great concept, as it "Death of an Artist" which tells a familiar but sad tale of broken creative dreams, while "Wedding Crashers" goes on a joyfully mischeaveous jaunt of nonsense. The overall tone of the album is very nuanced but ultimately positive. I'm especially interested in the message delivered in the Outro about the effects of translation; however have no idea where it came from. I will investigate; in the meantime check out the whole album.


And finally....I meant to blog this incredible track a while ago as soon as I stumbled over it...Now this is what I call a collection of Emcees! 

DJLord 2MP, Olodo, De La Soul, Chuck D & Strange U

Who's down for freeing Human Beings? As ever the great Chuck D is on point urging us to "Eat the Rat" alongside DJ Lord who absolutely tears the track to pieces. Power Music.

An M.C. conducting a raging river? Check. An artist singing his own hook? Emotive bars to catch your attention that then cut off to want you fiendin' for more? Check Check it out! Ikey comes heavy with the refrain "they said I was Olodo" apparently translating as 'dumb'...no longer a suitable adjective yo.

And finally....this has been out for almost a year but in my terrible lack of keeping up to date with the Universe I've only just stumbled across it....essential for those interested in creativity.

Eat Good 2015 Cypher, UK Music Industry Event Plus New Music Out of Washington DC from Gerreddi

Very pleased to hear that Birmingham city will be hosting an event to get the UK rap scene together to develop a more coherent industry. DJ Miss C Brown has put together a lively selection of videos from classic and new UK artists as a showcase for the event on 24th January. Hard to say exactly how a more cohesive scene could be made, especially as music seems increasingly to be seen as something that should be available for free, or at the very least at a much lower monetary value than yesteryear. How successful different approaches can be is up for debate, and especially in rap and hip hop there's inevitably lots of cliques and differences of styles and opinion going on; one set of 'like minds' do not always see eye to eye with another set so will be interesting to see if answers come out of this.....I know Malik from MD7 does a whole heap of work in this area so those attending will be in a privileged position to hear him.

Very fitting that this event is coming to Birmingham, as the ever heavy Brum collective Eat Good have just released this banging cypher featuring RedBeard, Kosyne, Gen Uchiha and representing good Ol' East Anglia new recruit Booda French. Check this out, then head to the Eat Good website for a prime example of a business model built from the ground up with a very clear focus on style and quality product.

Finally, back to the global Inbox and Washington native Gerreddi delivers a track pushing a positive frame of mind in the face of hate and the ills of society, with the "Black Lives Matter" featuring heavily in the video. Not entirely cohesive lyrically I reckon but it stands out from the generice bling trap music that continues to jam up the Vocalswords PO Box.

Turn Off the Machine & Trip Out : Minty Burns, Hey!zeus.i with Dudley Perkins plus Vinny Virgo Special

Shame on me, I hadn't checked for the legendary Soul Khan for a while so it was good to follow a twitter heads up to find he has released the Psalm EP, available here.

Minty Burns comes with some refreshment, a dude I've never heard of before but is coming nicely correct...



Dudley Perkins gets a wild stop motion video redux couretesy of Hey!Zeus.i here, the endearing character struggling to gain an optimistic view of the world ties beutifully with Perkin's desticntive narrative, enjoy!



And finally, a special shout to this dude. Having only just heard the name Vinny Virgo I'm still reeling from shockwaves of uber-lyracism; drenched in psycadelia there is a stream of pure rationalism throughout Virgo's raps; and the admission "Im a mother fucking Carl Saganist" is one that mainstram culture ought to take pretty fucking seriously.Not for the faint hearted, easily offended blah blah blah....enjoy!

Beat Creators - Instrumentals from Audible Doctor, Kosyne, Jas Beats, Pro P & Seattle Sans

A few hungry beat makers/producers/instrumentalists have sent through things for the blog recently, and I also get sent a lot of work from producers selling me their wares as part of their business promotion. Fair play all round, so thought I'd do a couple of posts highlighting some of these new school architects of hiphop music plus a couple of cats from the UK I've appreciated over the years. This is Part One so if anyone wants shine in Part Two holla at solocypher@gmail.com. To pay dues, gotta start off a post of this kind with the work of Audible Doctor; this tape from 2011 has some gems but dont forget to check out his more recent work too...I have no idea what his terms and conditions are but if you just want some great beats to freestyle over get familiar...

The Eat Good Family out of Birmingham, UK have been providing consistent quality over the years and stellar beats have emerged from the ingenious melting pot of Louis' Den. Eat Good's rhyming and beat producing heavyweight Kosyne, has been (excuse the pun) been instrumental in all this, however it was only in April this year that he released his own beat project. Some very creative and funky styles are given great exposure here, the dreamscape sonics of 'The God 'Shif a particular highlight.



And keeping to the shores of Albion, Manchester's Pro P has been pumping out classic headnod boom bap beats since at least 2009. Check out his catalogue of beats and collaborative projects here. In the meantime get some homies round for a cypher over the menacing vibes of 'Rep My Crew' from Volume 5 of his Boom Bap Tape series. PS Check the end of this post for a sneaky example of his work with emcees on board from yours truly and some of the illest UK spitters....



Jas Beats

16 Year old Jasmine Pope aka Jas Beats has got a pretty comprehensive Sound Cloud page showcasing her pretty impressive work. Some nice use of samples are made to get you in the mood with theme ready beats...




Seattle Sans 



Some deliciously dusty samples and production here, this one's definitely for the old school mellow heads although with the right emcee these could potentially be some classics...

 Maskerade Beats

Not a lot that immediately appealed to me as a lot on here has more of an RnB vibe so I ain't hating; Zoning out to 'See Through' beat though so worth checking out.

 Not my usual cup of tea but I guess in this day and age people may well be after some demented loony space age trap style music, and this is the sort of businiss DJ CPO seves up with aplomb.