Legends, New Jacks and General Business

Had a fine weekend of hiphop and just wanted to salute Nas, Immortal Technique, Soul II Soul and Hassan Salam for keeping London very lively these last two days. Seeing a whole sea of fans rapping along to classic lines from the 'Illmatic' album was a beautiful thing at LoveBox, an event which apparently has a bit of a bad rep in terms of attitude all I saw was love especially as veteran smooth party rockers Soul II Soul did thier thing in the late afternoon sunshine! If anyone happens to read this and has photos of the event holla and I'll re-edit to stick them in; I was too busy partying to document anything! Anyhow a lot of cool shit right about now so check these if you gots time to chill!

First up, the big questions....Why has religion always been so powerful? A strong contender for reaon number one is the dicipline it teaches. Becoming very focused on a set of ideals can imbibe one with a feeling of enormous power and Hopsin demonstrates this incredibly well, even as he shares confusion his dedication to questioning and searching ".......Theres way too many different religions
with vivid descriptions begging all fuckin men and women to listen....." this is great, intense stuff in this the latest "Ilmind" of an amazing series.



Another great lyricist is the irrepresable Jehst, whose performance of  Camberwell Carrots at the Jazz Cafe here in London is well worth checking.....



Now a little treat for Onyx heads who have had to wait 10 years but now the crew are returning with a Snowgoons produced album....first cut visuals, produced by Trash Secco and Rome York, for 'TurnDaFucUp' are right here, and its as rugged as you could possibly want....



Mean while emcee Adil Omar takes raucous hiphop to another level with the fisticuff flaunting  'Paki Rambo'




And finally, I was sent some music by Skipp Whitman, and though it was solid I thought it may not be his best so I did a bit of digging and found this little honest gem.....recently my girl has been forcing me to watch old episodes of Glee I was actually appreciating the glitz and ceremony of the big band stuff; the unabashed optimism of this dude is pretty refreshing, though I reckon a bit more work on the complexity of his bars could help push him further.....

Brand New Heat! Fredro Starr produced by Audible Doctor "Made in the Streets"

Fredro Starr, Granville Sessions, Audible Doctor, Professor Green

As a long time Onyx fan its great to see Fredro Starr bringing some New York perpsective to a haunting Audible Doctor banger. Fredro is introspective to an extent I'm not used to hearing as he's seperated from his Onyx brethren, though the hard street description means you're never spearated from the groups essence, built from a town where "You gotta have street smarts". Freddro paints a picture of his environment in which he is more than comfortable, tripling his cash through sports betting and coke dealing, atestamernt to a street life committed to getting paper running directly parrallel to the legitimised nexas of high finance "New York stand strong like that Bull on Wall Street" head nod shit for real. 

Repping the London scene on a regualr basis with ill shows accross the capital, with a contant thread of banging beats, introspective and entertaining lyrics delivered with razor shar precision reminicisnct of the best of the boom bap ere, the boys from Granville have delivered a great new album with the lead single presented here in a classic video, with fellow ill spitters Jester Jacobs and Oliver Sudden enhancing the vibe in thier inimitable style.



Audible Doctor is bringing the heat repping' 100 Mad but also is gearing up for his latest project the EP "Summer Tape"....showcasing Oddisee and Hassaan Mackey on "The Vibe" "Read between the raps to find the greater truth, within the lines"



After not checking Professor Green for a while, I was very impressed with track"Read all about it" which features Emile Sande in a track that is incredibly honest and powerful

 

Onyx, Sonny Jima and Soul Kahn goodness

Sonny Jim - The Psychonaut EP
The Birmingham spitter ramps up his output in anticipation of the Psychonaught LP (apparently only available in Australia) to present a selection of tracks he recorded whilst travelling down under. I'm a big fan of Sonny's highly complex and humour stuffed verses but for me enjoy his style best when he's in reflective mode, and Lotek's remix of his 'Mission Statement' at the end of this EP is my favourite joint. Its a good showcase for the other spitters from various corners of the globe; but go get it quick as I think it's only available till the end of the month....Get it Now


Hip hop accross the pond is still lurking around if you care to dive into the grimy underground. Vocalswords favourite Soul Khan recently shot a video (at last) for my personal favourite 'Soul Like Kahn' tune from his free to download album. I think a few people have used this sort of edit before but love the way it's done here.


Meanwhile at the grimier end of the spectrum its good to hear of Onyx making a bit of a comeback with their 'Classic Terror'....if your gonna do thug music, do that shit properly!