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.