Thursday, July 30, 2009

Black Superman Music

Props to Str8 Business for dropping this tune on me; its a dope diatribe on the industry clowns insisting on getting paid before putting music on their shows/blogs/magazines or whatever. The fact that this dude is nice definitely makes the point clear. Enjoy, and go check more from Str8 Business (don't be put off by the rediculous cash flashing haha!)


Got to shout out my man Pev from Comabeat for the hook up on the streaming MP3s...expect lots more to come!

Friday, July 24, 2009

Rapscallions Society



Props to Kala Phool for the heads up on this event, looks quality!
Think the most creative modern day social club with an old school friendly vibe!

The Rapscallions Society Monthly Hip-Hop music and market event. A day for designers, Graffiti artists and illustrators to network amongst themselves and present and sell their work to the public.

Starting at 1pm at Cargo in Shoreditch (East London). Market stalls will operate both within the venue and in the beautiful outside yard. The vendors will be creative with their own set up; what reflects them and their brand, vendors will include T- shirt designers, custom graffiti sneaker artist, a barber, nail technician and a rep stall for any DJs, MCs / Artists who would like to come down and sell / promote CDs / Mixtapes.

Patrons will be able to shop around, eat from the bbq and drink from the bar while listening to DJs on rotation and our resident live band. There will be live art shows from graffiti artists and illustrators and every month an artist will produce a canvas to be a part of an exhibition at the end of the year, with the work being donated to children’s hospitals and hospices or auctioned to raise money for a children’s charity of the artist’s choice.

At 7pm the live show commences and finishes at 12am. The Rapscallions Society will also host album / mixtape launch parties and will give the opportunity for up and coming artists to perform on the same stage and billing as UK Hip-Hop legends and each month will include a showcase from an artist between the age of 14- 21.

For more info email rapscallionsociety@gmail.com. Web: http://www.myspace.com/rapscallionsociety.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Field View Festival 2009


This looks to be the perfect vibe event of the summer, if you can make the journey I'm sure this is going to be worth the rediculous £12.50 ticket price! Having worked with the irrepressible Oz many times before and have witnessed the awsome presence of Old School Tie and Lord High Owl, the eclectic line up will definitely bring something special to the summer. Check the Field View Website for more details, but just to let you know their will be a cheeky cameo from yours truly Solocypher alongside the wickedness of the Dial-A-Rave crew.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

New Rakim - Holy Are You


The R, God emcee, one of the most influential emcees to ever bless the mic returns to us with this powerhouse of a track taken from his long awaited forth coming album. Rakim comes uber spiritual and metaphysical on this, just sit back, close your eyes and let Ra take you on a powerfull journey. Great to hear this sort of stuff still being made as I just returned to the UK and have been thoroughly pissed off by the state of lyricism round here, fair enough there's a lot of kids having fun making some reasonably positive party tunes but damn, no body can even come close to rhyming like this.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Queens English - Full Limit


Check this fresh tune "Full Limit" from extremely affable bunch of hip hop heads produced by Embee from Looptroop available for your ears completely free here. These guys are a tight crew doing their own very British, very polite thing, (a penchant for dressage!?) and deliver tunes that might get your gran busting out a Kangol. They are up for a Peoples Choice award, its worth checking out their page here and give em a vote if youre so inclined. Its good to see that these guys were part of the following event put on by Cowboy Tactics, a grassroots night promoting peace and debating social issues, check I.Ps own Pikey Esquire on the beatbox.

Cowboy Tactics: 101 - Night 1! from COWBOY TACTICS: 101 on Vimeo.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

D Stroy and Q Unique with Rocksteady Good

Good to hear these fellas again, the first ever live hip hop show I saw was the Arsonists at Traders Nightclub in Ipswich around 2000, amazing show and huge talent. Track down the As the World Burns album to appreciate this classic crew.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

New Phi Life Cipher plus Quality bizarre battle

Lutons legendary status crew PLC smash it with high haters...

And a bizarre comedy battle shows how love can somehow conquer all!

Gangsta Rap Made me do it

Hanging out in Mexico is definitely an experience to be enjoyed, and along the way along with learning about indigenous cultures, customs and architecture, have also picked up some more contemporary interesting works. Among these have been excellent recent Ice Cube album that manages to channel the venomous anger of a younger O´Shay Jackson into a darkly intelligent questioning of commonly accepted rules of gangsta hood life. Ice Cube holds weight in hip hop history second to none through the development of so called Gangsta Rap embodied in seminal group NWA, home also to a young Dr. Dre. The political element of O´Shays lyrics were often overlooked amid media hyperbole and interest from FBI elements.

This album lands a heavy slap in the face to those accusing Gangsta Rap of various crimes, retorting with
"I do Gangsta Rap
They want to blame the world problems on Gangsta Rap
It's our fault;
Coz motherfuckers are dieing in Iraq
It's our fault;
Coz motherfuckers is starving in Africa
It's Gangsta Raps fault;
That people are poor
Can't get enough to fucking eat or live their life
(That's bullshit)
That's rap musics fault.
It's rap musics fault;
we got all these god damn laws, and restrictions and shit we can't do
(That's bullshit)
They blame it all on us
I'm blamin' them motherfuckers for Gangsta Rap
Because if they didn't create these kind of conditions
I wouldn't have shit to rap about
You know what I mean!

Nuff said, go check for yourself!

Thursday, July 09, 2009

What the hell is a Brick Pelican?


Having a hideous Mezca hangover in a strange Mexican hostel seems the appropriate time to get around to reviewing this little gem. Its been playing randomly on my MP3 for a while now, but this album is well worth a good sit down and listen as its bloody good. Those familiar with COTD fam (Macarbe Brothers are Lee Scott and Monster Under the Bed) will already be prepared, but if not you need to make sure you leave any sense of morality at the door as concepts, language and imagry are course to say the least. Having said that the skill evidenced on the mic and the board seem to fully justify everything.

A wickedly bizarre Muppets sampling intro just about gets you ready for the roulette wheel of fortune, a gamblers tale of woe laced with a great Biggie sample intertwined with our heroes blaggin betting tips from cretinous drunks. Critical Mass Hysteria moves into more authentic dope hip hop masterly treading the line between boom bap space cadet rap and genuine homegrown UK slice of niceness from the dirty drug addled brain side of life. Moron Tick had me grinning at the lesson in proper pronounciation and the hook with "f##k superman and batmans a b!tch" is quality. This is the Run DMC adidas endorsement equivelent. On crack. Phoneys Step Off brings more braggadocious goodness, dark and angry but still good stuff.

Bizzy Bodies bemoans cops wanting to shift me for a half spliff, laced up shoe size bigger than his IQ size...this track gives no benefit of doubt but then tricking plod into getting blazed with the lads and them filming it does make them seem a bit rediculous (in the world of the Brick Pelican anyways) Some Cold Shit comes heavy with claims to being raw come with boasts of drinking Capri Sun without a straw...now thats real! Loads of quality lines on a nicely downtempo but wickedly addictive beat, and the album has great production throughout. Great Grand is a nice concept track following the life of grizzly OAPs tying bandanas to respirators, pimping grannies, throwing bombs on bowling greens and loads more baddass gangsta ish. The finale Men who stare at Goats has a wicked piano laced track you can nod to all day, abuse the booze and refuse to use intelligence sets it off and somehow feels like a confessional even through standard brutality of lathargic, when I make your barnet part from your neck...everyones offended but dont give a f##k. Now this is the sort of stuff that needs a rewind. Go get the damn thing here. Anyone who knows what a Brick Pelican is please let me know!

Friday, July 03, 2009

Eminem back and rediculously heavy

Hey kids posting from Fiji after 5 days away from the internet which did me a lot of good but hey, gotta get back on it! Just heard this on 1xtra...I hadn't been fussed about this Relapse album after his dodgy recent work but goddamn this tune is absolutely bananas. I still haven't listened to it the whole way through, too many rewinds!