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.....

Domineko, Chima Anya and Nas Mixtape

Chima Anya is a creative beast and you can never quite tell what he's going to hit you up with next. Seeing the title of a track "Smoke it, Drink it" I was looking forward to a bit of a mindless banger (Chima is occaisionally capable of these) but had my mind seriously challenged with a hard hitting reflection on the perils of hardcore drug addiction; a topic Chima is well qualified to discuss after working closely with addicts. Well worth a watch, a cartoon sterotype this aint.



Domeniko comes correct with a great mini video for an uplifting and lyrically concious track. This is taken from his new album "Wood Floors" about which he writes "It’s the audio summary of the lessons and bits of inspirations that helped me achieve the long fight of getting back to who I know I want to become as an artist.  I've realized the only person you have to beat is yourself."




And finally, if you happen to be feeling a little nostalgic or just fancy a good blast of Nasty Nas, DJ Reminise has put together a great overview of the legend's progression through life....possibly could have done with a few more early bangers but overall this is well worth a listen....love the intro track as Nas waxes lyrical about going full circle through the medium of Cognac!