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April 14, 2013

MTV The Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]

There were quite a few video and track releases last week. Let’s start with Political Peak, whose buzz has been massive already this year. ‘Get Lean’ is his latest video and the visuals are really slick, which sees Peak walking round South London rapping. This is only the beginning for the young rapper and shows off his ability…

People’s Army representative Logic asks a lot of questions in ‘Question Everything’, a song that made me re-evaluate a lot of things in life that we just accept as the truth. It’s a very deep track from the conscious rapper who makes us realise we are not as smart as we think sometimes.

MashTown’s Margs compares himself to football player ‘Rooney’ in his new track, showing off some of his skills on the pitch in the video too. It’s a clever track which sees him using skillful lyricism.

Carns Hill, one of UK rap’s finest producers, brought out the second installment to ‘OT’ – ‘OT2’. He released the video to the intro which sees Blade Brown, Youngs Teflon and Mental K spitting some real life street bars in this hustler’s anthem. You can get the 18 track mixtape ‘OT2’ from iTunes now.

Rapper Fuze had some fantastic news last week after his track ‘Too Much Swagger’ dropped featuring Sneakbo, which is an extremely catchy track that would fit perfectly in a club. He then signed to Alwayz Recordings, the independent label responsible for some of the UK’s biggest talents such as Wretch 32 and Chip. I can guarantee there will be much more to expect from this rising rapper.

Rap duo Krept & Konan released with the video to their track ‘Numb (I Can’t Feel My Face)’ produced by Rymez (‘Heatwave’). This is definitely going to do well as a summer club anthem.

Ratlin’s ‘Crown Me’ mixtape was one that got a lot of people talking. ‘Back On My Bulls**t’ is one of the strongest tracks on the tape and Ratlin released the video featuring a hook from singer Vee.

Mic Righteous gave an outstanding and passionate performance on SB.TV’s new #3rdDegree series, and Mic is the first one on there. The Margate rapper stuns with this performance, but it’s no surprise as he always does.

S.A.S Mega and Mayhem along with two thirds of Eurogang, Bigz and Skrilla Kid Villain took to Tim Westwood’s crib and absolutely killed the freestyle session. I think this is one of the best I have seen this year…

Published on 8th April 2013

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March 27, 2013

MTV Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]

It has been over a decade since the crew first launched in the early 2000’s and last Thursday saw them reunite for the So Solid Crew Reunion Tour. The tour sold out and this was no surprise as the crew were instrumental in the development of the UK music scene. In particular, ’21 Seconds’ went straight to No.1, proving that this type of ‘urban’ music could reach commercial success and is still a well-known song in pop culture…

Ms Dynamite joined the crew for track ‘Envy’ getting the audience hyped to see the female MC joining the crew. Chip also joined them on stage and you could tell he was excited to be on stage with the crew who inspired him. Skepta unfortunately was meant to be performing with Megaman on ‘We Begin Things’ but police would not allow him into the venue.

Godfather of grime Wiley leaked what is set to be his last album ‘The Ascent’ nearly two weeks before its release date. His decision to do it was due to iTunes not letting him change something on the album and communication problems with his management.  Let’s hope his album sales still rocket as he deserves it.

Known for his hot freestyles and well-respected tracks, and with a constantly growing street buzz, Nines has always supported and represented his NW home of Church Road to the fullest. Unfortunately he is now reportedly in prison at Wormwood Scrubs for reasons unknown and unconfirmed at present. He tweeted “If it’s peak for me @ court make sure you give my new mixtape 2 skinny black and dem n***rs make sure I hear dat on da yard.” Let’s hope he’s out soon and we hear it too.

One of UK raps respected Fekky joined Charlie Sloth for Fire In The Booth, proving why he has earned this status and it’s not going anywhere. He lays down hard, truthful bars lighting up the booth.

Pound Sterling dropped his ‘Last Man Standing’ mixtape which sees a solid 19 tracks and contains some strong features from Skepta, Fekky and Jaja Soze. The tape shows his elevation and progress as an artist keeping the real, authentic rap there.

G FrSH released another video to a track off his forthcoming ‘Legoman 2’ mixtape. This time we see Sincere and Fekky join him for ‘18k’ with all of them dropping some big heavy-duty bars.

South London’s Political Peak has been on his grind, releasing quite a few videos recently. We saw him refix Drake’s ‘Started From The Bottom’ over a week ago. A day later and wasting no time he dropped motivational track ‘Get Money, F**k B***hes’ which saw another STR88CASH representative Kerz join him.

Meanwhile, Sho Shallow and Ard Adz have released the G.H.E.T.T.O EP – you can get the 13-track offering on iTunes now.

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March 19, 2013

MTV Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]

I was excited to see Dot Rotten and Black the Ripper on Wednesday evening (13) as they opened up for Joe Budden at XOYO. I think they are both massively talented, and I hadn’t seen them live before. The two first performed ‘This Is For’ together and then Dot left Samson to perform tracks from his ‘Married To Marijuana’ mixtape. Dot Rotten premiered a new track for us called ‘The Grief’ which I’m sure you will be able to hear for yourselves soon…

A few things happened on Twitter last week, starting off with K Koke’s and Dappy feud being brought back alive. Dappy replied to a tweet from Koke, saying that the Roc Nation artist was just not on his level yet, tweeting a picture of a packed arena.

Koke then replied to Dappy asking him to get in the ring with him for Red Nose Day, claiming: “I’ll beat him up with one hand tied behind my back I promise”.  Personally I think they should have done it and had it out; it would be rather entertaining to watch too!

Cashtastic released ‘5am in London’ covering Drake’s track ‘5am in Toronto’, where he addresses some issues and announces his deal with Universal, spitting: “Adz sent for me but where did that get him? Focus on your career and just make money bredrin.”

Seemingly after the track was released, Ard Adz tweeted Cashtastic yesterday (17) with a message that read: “@cashtasticmusic UR A NERD UR NOT ALLOWED IN UR OWN ENDS UR JUST A RAPPER , U CAN NEVER RELEASE A VID CALLED #PECKHAMBOY. HOPE TO SEE U SOON”

He continued: “@cashtasticmusic UR HARD AT RAPPIN BRO INSHALLAH U GO ALL THE WAY , ALL IM SAYING IS STOP FOOLING THE FANS UR NOT BOUT THAT LIFE SEE U SOON”

Cashtastic didn’t reply, perhaps given his Universal announcement. Cash has gone from strength to strength over the years, proving himself to be one of the best in the UK rap scene. Let’s see how this deal will elevate him and his career.

Speaking of Brixton’s Ard Adz, him and Sho Shallow released the visuals to their new track ‘Brixton Boy’ last Monday which will be on their ‘G.H.E.T.T.O’ EP, out this month.

Giggs, who is one of the UK’s most respected rappers, put together a 53-track free downloadable mixtape with DJ Big Ryde for the fourth in the series ‘Best Of Giggs’.  You can download that via GRM Daily now.

South London rapper Colours returned with ‘It’s Going Down’ after a short hiatus to bring us the video to this methodical street track, where we hear Colours flows easily over a big, heavy bass beat. We should expect to see a mixtape from him very soon.

Rap Up UK released two biography mini documentaries last week, kicking off with Tinie Tempah for the first one, showing his rise from the Aftershock days, ‘Wifey Riddim’ to his first album ‘Disc-Overy’ which took him from the UK underground to worldwide stardom.

The second one showed a rapper who is still at the tender age of 15-years old. Geko is already predicted to be huge in the future and the documentary saw how his persistence messages to K Koke from the age of 10 paid off when he messaged him back; he later became a part of USG. His first official single ‘They Gonna Know’ will be available to pre order from iTunes soon.

Speaking of Geko; himself and Dot Rotten will be performing at Mic Righteous’ event on May 24 at The Garage; you can buy tickets for that now!

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March 11, 2013

MTV The Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]

I hit G Shock Sessions on Friday evening, the first one of 2013 and this was definitely one not to be missed. With a heavy-duty line up, people braved the rain to head down to the shop in East London and catch the live acts which included Scrufizzer, Saskilla, Mic Righteous, Dru Blu, McLean and Trilla…

When Shystie dropped the ‘Control It’ video featuring Azealia Banks last Sunday evening (March 3) to positive feedback, no one could have expected that her (ex?) friend Azealia was talking with her label about removing the video from the net. Whatever reasons she had for this, the New York diva did not come across well, as most people were backing Shystie and the video was re-uploaded. ‘Control It’ comes from Shy’s forthcoming ‘Pink Mist’ EP.

There was a lot of new music and videos out last week. We heard Wretch 32’s new single featuring singer Shakka. The track is called ‘Blackout’ and is the first tune to be heard from Wretch’s new album, giving us a little taster of what to expect. The album is expected to be released at the end of 2013.

Scorcher’s latest project ‘Simply The Best Vol 3’ was released in December last year and was heavily rated. A newly-released video sees him and Fekky going in hard over a trap instrumental called ‘One Time’ produced by Slic Vic.

In the lead up to the release of his single ‘Lay Down Your Weapons’ featuring Rita Ora which came out yesterday (March 10) K Koke did a bit of promo, which included an SB.TV twitter hijack, a USG cypher from himself, Aystar, Geko, Squingy and Lefty and a music video for ‘Do Dis Ting’, dedicated to the USG supporters. ‘Lay Down Your Weapons’ got to No.17 in the charts last night.

The USG team’s youngest member Geko along with their newest recruit Aystar dropped the video to ‘Play Around’, which sees the two proving that even though they are young, they can go in and lay down bars along with the best of them.

Sho Shallow and Ard Adz revealed the tracklisting to the general public for their new EP ‘G.H.E.T.T.O’ which is set to drop on Tuesday March 12 and will see 13 brand new tracks from the duo. Their video ‘Brixton Boy’ was due to be out last night, but due to technical difficulties it didn’t get released – I’m sure it will be out soon.

Link-Up TV put together a documentary on UK rap recently. The documentary was done in light of the UK rap scene gaining a lot of attention and to praise its success. It looked at the past, present and future and talked to rappers including Wretch 32, Mike GLC and Giggs. Make sure you check it out.

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February 19, 2013

MTV The Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]

Last Sunday saw the release of Mic Righteous’ ‘Open Mic’ EP and on Tuesday (12) he held a launch party in Camden with special guests. Support acts consisted of one of London’s finest female DJ’s – SB.TV’s Melody Kane, rapper MyNature, lyricist RoxXxan, grime’s Big Narstie and ‘the people’s prince’ Charlie Sloth…

Mic performed all of the tracks from his EP and the recent Radio 1 Live Lounge cover of ‘The Power Of Love’ with singer Lucia. Vocalist Ella Chi also joined him for my personal favourite track off the EP, ‘King Of Hearts’. Everyone was excited to see English Frank join Mic on stage along with wordsmith Akala. It really was a special night and it was great to see Mic captivate and wow every single member of the crowd.

A mini biography documentary on Giggs was released by Rap Up UK recently, talking us through his come up, achievements and why he is important to UK rap music. It features artists like Ard Adz, Sho Shallow, Pepstar, Propane, Manga, D Dark and Squingy, who all gave their positive and respected views on him, showing how significant Giggs is to the scene.

Wretch 32’s biography video came out last night via the same platform, looking at his career from his huge underground success and being part of The Movement along with Devlin, Ghetts, Scorcher to his most recent mainstream success.

His ‘Crown Me’ mixtape dropped in December 2012 and became a much talked about and listened to mixtape; so it was only right for Ratlin to drop the video to one of the bangers off their entitled ‘Roley’.

Sneakbo released another video from his forthcoming ‘Certified’ EP, getting people geared up for the release. ‘They Don’t Know Me’ has a catchy beat and hook and is definitely one I can expect to hear in clubs. Sneakbo’s bars and flow sounds effortless too.

Young Spray hit up Fire In Booth on BBC Radio 1 with Charlie Sloth, starting off by spitting hardcore bars over the instrumental ‘Clique’ then ‘Renegade’ and ‘Home Town’. His lyrics switched to different subjects but irrespective are fueled by his passion and emotions.

A lot of heat was surrounding Bayoz Muzik last week as his ‘Death Of A Beatmaker’ EP was released. It has seven strong tracks and features some of the UK’s best emcee’s including Giggs, JME, Blade Brown, Gunna Dee, J Spades, Youngs Teflon and more. The tape has helped propel him more into the limelight and spark new interest and fans.

This is my favourite track of the week… ‘Passion’ comes from South London’s DVS. The piano led instrumental is beautiful and fits the various topics of the track, with the lyrics showing DVS’s depth and thoughts.

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February 14, 2013

MTV The Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]

Myself, The Wrap Up’s editor and the Avit! Clothing crew headed to Leicester this weekend to go to Eskimo Dance at the 02 Academy. The line-up, as with every Eskimo Dance, was an all-star one – Midlands crew StayFresh were the first MCs to spit. Wiley, Boy Better Know, Ghetts, Trilla, Flirta D and many more also took to the stage. Fekky made a special surprise appearance and closed the show, making it different to any other one I have been to…

MistaJam premiered Krept & Konan’s new track ‘NUMB (I Can’t Feel My Face)’ last week and it was a different sound to the normal from the Play Dirty boys. This is one more for the clubs and could be a potential hit for them.

Benny Banks also went down the club track route with ‘Molly’ and last week we saw him release the video to it. The track is taken off his recently released ‘Patiently Waiting Vol 2’ mixtape.

Propane dropped a video to a track taken off his ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ mixtape. ‘Bill Another One’ is a street banger, featuring Squeeks and Birmingham’s Malik MD7.

Producer Skott Summerz is known for working with some of UK rap’s finest and recently enlisted four heavyweight underground rappers, Rebler, Double S, Mic Righteous and King Cas for new track ‘Deal Or No Deal’.

Mic Righteous was in hospital last week, leaving people worried about what had happened to him. Luckily he is out and even released a freestyle yesterday to build up the momentum of his ‘Open Mic’ EP. It has already reached No.1 in the iTunes hip-hop/rap album charts and No.8 in the album charts. Remember it’s the launch party tomorrow, so for all of you going I’ll see you there – and if not, come back next week to read what went down.

Check out my interview with Mic Righteous to hear a special exclusive about what’s coming next from him – you’ll catch it on The Wrap Up site later today (Monday 11).

Until next time…

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February 6, 2013

MTV The Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]

North London rapper Chip was happy last week as mixtape site DatPiff gave his ‘London Boy’ mixtape a gold certification. He tweeted “#LondonBoy GOOOLD on @datpiff. That’s sick to know 100,000 people on one website checked out my music. Thanks to everyone for supporting.” The mixtape, which featured Grand Hustle members T.I , B.o.B and Iggy Azalea, has put Chip in an extremely good position for the future…

Sway got everyone talking last week as he dropped the video to his latest track ‘Still Sway and Kane’. Sampling Dr Dre’s ‘Still Dre’, he definitely impressed a lot of people with the track, which featured Kano and Tigger da Author.

Sho Shallow and Ard Adz have kept the consistency flowing as they released another video last week from their ‘#Ghetto’ EP, which is out soon. ‘Windy’ shows the two rapping about certain sacrifices.

Chiba dropped an old school Fekky freestyle, proving why he is one of the hottest rappers around with some timeless bars.

It was his 21st birthday last week which is cause for a huge celebration, but as well as that Yungen decided to drop a net video entitled ‘21’. This guy doesn’t seem to rest, even on his birthday.

There have been two mixtapes last week that caught my attention….

North west London’s Naf Skrilla has been a name on a lot of people’s lips for over 10 years now. After much anticipation he has released his latest mixtape ‘Doely’ as a free offering, with 22 solid tracks. Riddled with stories, this tape will keep the streets on their toes as he brings back raw and authentic rap.

S.A.S dropped the B Side to their ‘Coming To America II’ mixtape with guest features from Nicki Minaj, ItsNate, Bigz, Mclean and more. Hosted by Big Mike, DJ Allure and DJ Snips, the 13-track tape shows why Mega and Mayhem have been a staple part of the UK rap game for years and will continue to be.

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January 24, 2013

MTV The Rap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]

I hope everyone has been enjoying the snow over the past few days; last week was pretty jam packed and we have a few good events this week to look forward to! It looks like Chip has been having a hard time with singers recently, as he tweeted last week: “Hollering at singers for hooks does get long after a while. Time to start singing them myself here and there. #onthescene #actionman #GDS”

The Grand Hustle signee also headed down to Madame Tussauds last week, releasing a video unveiling East Coast and West Coast rap greats, Tupac, Biggie, P. Diddy and Snoop Dogg. Alongside it he wrote, “I wasn’t really allowed Biggie or Tupac’s music as a kid. The first I think I bought Biggie Smalls ‘Ready to Die’ and ‘Life After Death’ at the same time, I bought both at an age when I was actually allowed to have them as music on my own.”

Last week saw more videos from the USG collective. One from the youngest member Geko, who dropped ‘Night n Day’ off his recently released ‘Voice Of The Future’ mixtape. K Koke’s visuals to ‘Real Right Now’ from the ‘Pure Koke Vol 3’ mixtape was also released, as well as the behind-the-scenes to his latest single ‘Lay Down Your Weapons’ with Rita Ora – the video for that is out now.

A track for the streets and a big collaboration is also here as Pound Sterling joined Jaja Soze to talk about being ‘Real OGs’. Sneakbo has definitely been putting in the work this year, as we saw him drop the third video from his forthcoming EP ‘Certified’ recently.

SN1 representative Gunna Dee also has a mixtape coming out on January 31 and gave us a video from it – ‘4 My Town’ features singer Loick Essien and is produced by Wizzy Wow. This is a banger and I look forward to listening to ‘Hustler By Nature 2’ when it drops.

Cashtastic is back with Steel Banglez, who produced most of his tracks for their first one of the year, entitled ‘One Day’ which features three great vocalists – Abel Miller, A.R.I and Akua.

Black The Ripper headed to Amsterdam to shoot the video for ‘You Will Never Know’ which is one for the smokers and the first track to be heard from his forthcoming EP called ‘Married To Marijuana’ – the EP will drop on January 31.

There are a few good events happening this week – weather permitting I will be down at I Luv Live tonight to catch Ard Adz and Sho Shallow, alongside singers Tom Prior and Bobbi Lewis.

Saturday will see Musicalize go down at the o2 where you can see Chip, Krept & Konan and Professor Green take to the stage. See you there!

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January 23, 2013

Bayoz Muzik to release ‘Death Of A Beat Maker’ EP [News]

The producer behind the smash hit from Giggs Look What The Cat Dragged In is set to release his heavily anticipated EP Death Of A Beatmaker on 11th February 2013. Bayoz Muzik has teamed up with UK hip hop and grime stars for it including JME and Paigey Cakey. Having worked with some of the UK’s finest and African acts such as Wretch 32, Gunna, Ice Prince and more he is now being widely acknowledged within the UK scene. We have already heard the debut tracks from the EP such as Soldiers featuring J Spades, Blade Brown & Youngs Teflon and Lemme Get That featuring Giggs and Wacka Flocka giving us a taster of what to expect.

Available for free download 11th Febuary here www.bayozmuzik.com

 

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January 16, 2013

MTV The Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]

What’s up Wrap Up readers! I hope you’ve missed me and my UK rap updates since the Christmas holidays – I’ve been away in Brazil so I’ve just started my working year today! It was my birthday on Friday (11) and I celebrated it at the Jazz Café in Camden, where they played 90’s hip-hop and r&b. I saw Emily Rawson and Big Ted take to the decks, and live performances from the brilliant Joel Culpepper and Rough Copy…

2013 is going to be a big year for UK rap – we have seen it progress and mature so much in 2012. This year got off to a fantastic start; Clement Marfo & The Frontline’s top 40 UK hit ‘Champion’ is going to be used for another sporting event, this time as the theme song for the World Wrestling Entertainment event ‘Royal Rumble’ on January 27. In 2012 it was played during the BBC Olympics & Paralympics coverage, Wimbledon Tennis and more.

We saw DVS release the visuals to a track from his ‘1 In A Billion’ mixtape, ‘Go From Here’, where the south London rapper shares his thoughts on a special female. Speaking of, J Spades released the video to ‘What It Is’ featuring DVS, which is taken from his ‘More Money More Pagan’s’ mixtape.

In the lead up to his EP ‘Certified’, Sneakbo and singer L Marshall got together for ‘Me And Mine’ which shows his development as a rapper on this thought-provoking track. A week later he then released another video from the EP entitled ‘I Love Girls’… the title being pretty self-explanatory.

Political Peak also released a video to his deep track ‘Asking Why’ at the beginning of the year, which comes from his ‘Dreams 2 Reality’ mixtape and features Jaja Soze and signer Ruby Smith.

Black The Ripper has released two videos in the space of two weeks. The first week saw the video to ‘Home Sweet Home’ featuring Shystie taken from his ‘Black Is Beautiful 2’ mixtape. Last Monday he put out ‘Real Recognise Real’.

Mic Righteous’ ‘Open Mic’ EP is out next month, but he gave fans a preview of what to expect from it as he released a video. He hit BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge and covered Gabrielle Aplin’s ‘The Power Of Love’ beautifully as part of 1Xtra’s Hot 10 for 2013.

Pakman and J Spades got together for a new track ‘Four Seasons’ which you can find on Pakman’s forthcoming mixtape ‘Legend’.

Ard Adz and Sho Shallow put in a lot of work last year. They kicked off this year by releasing the visuals to ‘Get Drowned’, an unconventional track that works off their ‘G.H.E.T.T.O’ EP.

USG’s Squingy, Lefty, K Koke, Exo and Don Jaga kicked off things by giving us a taster of a track ‘Stay Up’ which is set to be on their forthcoming album. Judging by just this one track, the album will be definitely one to look out for. K Koke also visited DJ MK and Shortee Blitz at the Kiss FM building to drop a heavy freestyle recently – be sure to check it out.

Haze released his ‘Loyalty, Honor, Respect’ mixtape in March and last week kicked off 2013 by heading over to Paris and dropping the video to ‘On My Own’.

Last but by no means least, rap fans can look forward to MTV’s Best of the Best: UK MCs show this month, which airs on MTV Base on January 28 at 10pm. The show sees judges from Charlie Sloth to Naughty Boy and others take to a panel to discuss who deserves of the title of the Best MC of 2012. In 2011, Wretch 32 won – who do you think deserves the title this time?

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