Birmingham’s Meeks drops the video to Change Up off his recently released mixtape Co-Lab-Adoration which sees Trinity’s Rukus join him for this collaboration.
May 22, 2013
Margs – Daily Duppy S.2 EP.3 [Video]
Mashtown’s Margs joins GRM Daily for their freestyle series Daily Duppy…
May 22, 2013
Dizzee Rascal – H-Town feat Bun B and Trae The Truth [Music Video]
Dizzee drops the video to one of my favourite tracks of his released in a while H-Town featuring two southern legends Bun B and Trae The Truth.
May 22, 2013
Lyrican ft. Harry Shotta – Take Me Alive [Music Video]
Harry Shotta joins Lyrican for his brand new video Take Me Alive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEfrO1urK3w&sns=tw
May 21, 2013
MTV Wrap Up – UK Rap Rundown [News]
Spit TV brought to you by We Hustle TV re-launched last Sunday on Channel AKA – it began about ten years ago on Channel U, before the days of Youtube and Twitter. This is where the best emcess from the UK are invited to spit for around three minutes. Ras Kwame the host described it as ‘one take, one mic, one spit’. Link-Up TV released a behind-the-scenes video along with the visuals for the Eurogang and Frisco freestyles. Look forward to seeing the likes of Benny Banks, Joe Black, Geko, Griminal, Scrufizzer, Coops and many more…
An array of some of the hottest UK grime and rap emcees come together for the remix of Lethal Bizzle’s ‘They Got It Wrong’ originally featuring Wiley. Krept & Konan, Kano and Squeeksjumped on the remix to make it an all-star cast.
Another remix to drop last week was Sneakbo’s ‘Ring A Ling’ which saw Wiley and Krept & Konan give the Brixton rapper some heavy-duty verses on his next summer club banger. Expect to see a video for this one soon, as the track is released in July.
Young Spray reminds people that Northstar are originals in new track ‘Pull Your Pants Up’. “Only saw So Solid’s before the North Star Chain, only knew PDC when North Chain came. I saw the best come and go; the rest are dumb and slow.” He also shows respect to Giggs, Blade Brown and Asher D in the track.
Shak Corleone released the video to ‘Voice Of The Streets’ from his latest mixtape ‘Purgatory’. The Brixton rapper keeps it 100% road rap with the track featuring Lil Torment, Skore Beezy and Don Slice who all spit hard street bars.
PW is definitely a rapper who has a lot of heat surrounding him right now with a lot of co-signs from Dappy, Cover Drive and The Saturdays. His latest release ‘From PW With Love’ was well received and last week saw him drop the visuals to featured track ‘Here With You’.
UK rap veteran Mike GLC was the next up on SB.TV for his 3rd Degree freestyle. He spits over some classic joints with his effortless flow, showing people how it’s done.
Benny Banks gave us the visuals to track ‘48 Freestyle 1&2’ off his new mixtape ‘Patiently Waiting Vol 2’ which is available to download for free. The two laid back instrumentals allow for Benny to drop his classic relaxed flows which he is known for.
May 15, 2013
They Got It Wrong (Remix) Lethal Bizzle Feat. Krept & Konan, Kano, Squeeks, Wiley [Music Video]
Too much talent on this remix to Lethal Bizzle‘s They Got It Wrong and here is the video to the track featuring Krept & Konan, Kano, Squeeks, and Wiley.
May 15, 2013
MTV The Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]
Supa Dupa Fly for me is one of the best old school hip-hop & r&b nights in London, with music from the 90’s through to early 2000’s. Last Friday I went along to Jazz Café for one of their nights which saw Kings Of The City and Franko Fraize perform live. Franko’s British sound and modern take on his life and culture has led to comparisons with Mike Skinner, who is a fan of his work. He has a new track ‘Hand Me Downs’ so check it out…
Dizzee Rascal released two tracks last week, the first being ‘H-Town featuring UGK legend Bun B and Trae Tha Truth. Dizzee absolutely smashed it with this track, which is based on Houston’s culture. He also dropped the video to his collaboration with Robbie Williams called ‘Goin’ Crazy’, which sees the two on pimped out mobility scooters. What did you think about the track and video?
On Friday Dizzee also did an interview on 1Xtra’s breakfast show with Twin B where he finally spoke out on Wiley. Twin asked what he thought of other MC’s in the game, where he responded, “I want to put it out there openly, I haven’t got an issue with anyone.”
To confirm who he was talking about Twin asked if he meant Wiley and Dizzee went on to talk about their history. “[DJ] Target cared about me, early. Wiley never cared about me [from] early.
“Wiley eventually got me involved in the Roll Deep thing after I built a little name for myself. And it worked. We got on really well. I looked up to Wiley, I looked up to Target… As far as all that, I’ve actually not known Wiley longer than I’ve known him.”
He ended on saying just because people think he should work with Wiley it doesn’t mean he should and he’s just focusing on what he has to do – I think that’s all the clarification needed on the matter.
There are two mixtapes out that I definitely think are worth downloading. The first is from S-Squad’s Birmingham rapper Meeks, hosted by i Records DJ Cage. ‘Co-Lab-Adoration’ is a mixture of collaboration tracks showing an ample range of ‘who’s who’ in UK rap talent.
Mic Righteous released a free mixtape ‘Mic Wasn’t Thinkin’ as a thank you to the people who have supported him over the years. Make sure you get down to his headline show at The Garage in Islington which will see him celebrate the mixtape and also his birthday.
K. Koke released the lyric video to his new track ‘My Time’ with another Roc Nation singer, Bridget Kelly. The combination of the two blend well together and tells a story of the struggles of life and getting to where you want to be.
I’m going to end on Giggs’ Fire In The Booth which was his second on the Charlie Sloth hosted show. I was pleased to hear a variety of instrumentals from ‘Pop’ to ‘Started From The Bottom and ‘F**kin’ Problems’, which showed him switching up flows. He later said on Twitter: “Watch when I drop this bludklart album, that fire in the booth was light as day.” If that was easy work for Giggs, then we will be in for a treat when his album drops.
Until next time…
*published on Monday 13th May
May 15, 2013
Young Spray – Pull Your Pants Up [Music Video]
Mr RTM gives a nod to certain MC’s in his new track Pull Your Pants Up including Blade Brown, Giggs and Asher D for the acting. He also reminds people that Northstar are originals…
“Only saw So Solids before the North Star Chain, only knew PDC when North Chain came. I saw the best come and go, the rest are dumb and slow.”
May 12, 2013
Young Mad B ft. Dru Blu – Find A Way [Music Video]
South london’s multi talented singer and rapper Young Mad B releases the video to motivational track Find A Way featuring his i Records label mate Dru Blu.
May 12, 2013
MTV The Wrap Up – Context [Interview]
Four years ago in 2008, Context released his debut EP ‘Dialectics’ with Huw Stephens, revealing his first track to the world on BBC Radio 1. This was a fantastic start in his journey as a music artist, and he later went on to win MTV’s Brand New Unsigned Artist competition in 2012. Now the narrative story-telling MC is back with new single ‘1.4 at 12’ – he talks The Wrap Up’s Shireen Fenner through his sound, going to university and what’s next for him…
The Wrap Up: What was the foundation to your journey as an MC?
Context: I was always really into rap music in a major way. I moved out of home when I was 19 and I was working in a call centre; I just started messing around, writing tracks to talk about what I was experiencing. I just did songs about living in a ropey house, having a ropey job, but also having a really amazing time with my mates.
Of course, as I’ve got older and experienced more, I have more and more to write about; but at its core, my music has a thread running through it, and I guess that thread is me – exploring what it means to be a young man from a small town. I guess exploring parochialism and everything that comes with it.
TWU: Your sound is very unique, mixing dubstep productions with hip-hop and indie sounds. How did your sound develop?
Context: It just came from the fact that I’m into a lot of different stuff; but the main reason is a bit more conceptual I think. The whole of idea of being unashamedly yourself is something I’m really keen on. People like Giggs or Drake; they just do exactly what they want musically. Whether you like them or not, you can’t deny that. I rate that a lot.
TWU: Where does the influence for your sound and lyrics come from?
Context: My influence is my life and the life of my mates. I felt like “Urban Music”, for lack of a better term, didn’t speak to us at all. All our life we grew up on hip-hop and grime, but apart from The Streets, we never related to the artists in the genre. We’re not living in the hood, but we’ve not got any money either. Who speaks for us? Who tells people how large amounts of young people live, well, at least the young people I know anyway, day to day? I felt like I had to do that and do it honestly.
TWU: How do you feel about being called a ‘game changer’?
Context: It’s great. All I really ever wanted to do was tell our story. I wanted to take the music that I loved and grew up on, but use it to tell people about how we live. Everyone loves to listen to the stories of people in far off lands like Queensbridge or the Marcy projects. When you live in Norwich, London is glamorous too! Like when we heard ‘Boy in the Corner’ – what did we know about Bow? It’s a different world to ours. So if people like the fact that I’m changing the focus of attention to different groups of people, I think that’s great.
TWU: Whilst you were releasing a lot of material, you were at university. Wasn’t it hard to balance the two?
Context: It’s a doubled edged sword. Of course it slows you down, but uni is the ONLY reason I can make music, that’s a simple fact. How else would I live day to day? I can’t live with my parents; my dad’s in Scotland and mums in Manchester. My student loan IS my income. Music is an incredibly expensive hobby. It’s like a full-time job that pays no money in the short term. I would always tell people to go to uni if it’s right for them.
TWU: Your new track ‘1.4 at 12’ was just recently unleashed to the public – Tell us about the track.
Context: I was driving around Norwich on a Saturday night going over to my mates. I started writing down all the things I was seeing; a guy bleeding outside a kebab shop, ‘rudeboys’ in maxed out cars, couples arguing… I started thinking about the track ‘Aston Martin Music’ and was just like; the whole ethos of that track has nothing to do with our lives. It’s meaningless to us. This is our life. And honestly, it’s great! Who else is chatting about this? The song basically wrote itself.
TWU: What is Context up to this year?
Context: I’ve just dropped ‘1.4 at 12’ and the video for that. There are a series of remixes dropping in the next few weeks too. Then I’ve got an EP of entirely new material dropping in April or May called ‘Lacked Capital’. I think there will be another single from that EP too. The plan then will be to start getting everyone ready for the album, which is mostly written now. I’ve also got some amazing live dates happening this year too!
Words: Shireen Fenner (@Shireenxoxo)
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