A pixie's everyday writing adventures
Ratlin and Young Spray take Hucci‘s Realm instrumental and put their own stamp on it for new track Just Do It where Young Spray features first passing over to Ratlin. The two rappers sounds work well together and they control the trap instrumental as if it was made for them…
Going to meet work colleagues for dinner at Drunken Monkey, a place I had strolled past many many times before on Shoreditch High Street and hadn’t even noticed, I was a bit dubious about it being a good Chinese as they are hard to come by. I walked in and was impressed with the layout, sort of pub meets restaurant making it laid back, and the ambient lighting with cool, funky music playing in the background. I sat down and waited quite a long time before the waitress came over to take our drinks order for the two of us whilst we waited for the rest.
When the other 6/7 people arrived we turned to the menu starving and decided to order portions of Singapore noodles some with prawns and some with chicken and drunken monkey noodles which come with pork and chicken and are thicker, less spicy noodles along with chilli salt fried squid, honey smoked crispy chicken, spring rolls and egg fried rice keeping it simple.
The chilli salt fried squid is a firm favourite of mine whenever I go to a Chinese restaurant and Drunken Monkey did not let me down, the seasoning was just right not too hot, not overly battered and not over salted and the squid was soft not chewy. Both noodle dishes were delicious too, unlike some noodles I’ve had which are bland, these were full of flavour and had enough vegetables and meat in them and the portions were huge.
The honey smoked crispy chicken was also a generous portion and at only £4.90 was so nice people kept grabbing for the bowls not wanting it to disappear before they had more. I normally don’t like mixing sweet and sour dishes but I have to say this was quickly becoming a firm favourite for me too especially teamed with fried rice.
Most of us drunk Rumba Brava’s all liking the idea of rum mixed with passion fruit (well I think it might have been just me) which were strong but deliciously sweet at the same time and went well with the food. Afterwards I was given a long island ice tea for my birthday which had passed and that too went down a treat.
The only bad thing I have to say about Drunken Monkey was the service was slow, but the food and drinks came pretty quickly once ordered so it kind of made up for it. I’d love to come back and try there dim sum menu too maybe for lunch as we had the main courses mostly and sample more of there menu, but I left thoroughly impressed. Get down there on the weekend in the evening also and you might catch a well known DJ as they have ones from around the world playing. Good food, music, cocktails what else could you want?
Where To Find
222 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 020 739 9606 http://www.thedrunkenmonkey.london/
Donae’o is about to revive funky house and this track featuring Mista Silva and Flirta D is just the beginning of what he has to come for us this year. Swear Down is as catchy as hell and is going to be a big one for the DJ’s on the radio and in the clubs…He says: “I will be making Uk Funky for the whole of 2015 and Swear Down is my first introduction coming back to a sound I love making. I will officially start my Funky campaign with a song called “Mummy No Like” at the beginning of March 2015″
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faVU2We-Qf8&feature=youtu.be
The scene definitely needed a shake up and Lady Lykez has certainly caused a commotion with Nobody Can a track about being boxed in as a ‘female’ MC category and taking shots at males in the scene saying she can do what they can and do it better from Wretch 32 to Stormzy, P Money, Big Narstie and more. I hope one of them are brave enough to speak up…
UK hip hop and American hip hop meet in a brand new track from The Four Owls on High Focus Records which consist of Leaf Dog, Fliptrix, BVA & Verb T who meet with the New York don DJ Premier who provides signature sounds and cuts for this truly gritty hip hop banger. It’s not often your a worthy enough spitter to get a track produced by Premier so you know these guys are something special to have have him bless their track. This is the second single off their forthcoming second album Natural Order.
He has been named this year as one to watch by many, and a lot of people are keeping an eye on this young Grime MC from Northampton. Izzie Gibbs also part of Invasion Alert has just dropped Reload from his new EP out in March Project X, which should cause a stir…
One of the biggest bass music festivals in Europe returns for it’s 8th year to it’s home in Pula, Croatia at the beginning of September (2nd-6th). Set on the beach on the Adriatic coast with blue seas and skies, brining the best music artists from around the world to perform in different settings on the site, Outlook gets bigger and better every year.
The London launch party takes place next weekend, Friday 30th January at the Cornet in South London and sees artists from the bass music, drum & bass, hip hop, grime and jungle spectrum, making it already look like a party not to be forgotten.
Legendary MC Wiley takes to the stage, joined by Andy C and Friction fave Randall and The Bug Ft. Flowdan & Manga who fuse grindcore, industrial, metal, hip-hop, dub and jazz to mesmerising effect.
Grime specialists The Originators are joined by the huge Kiwi producer and DJ, P Money. Outlook continues to champion the genre which goes from strength to strength, with grime crew Ogz also starring, along with Footise, one half of the brilliant Newham Generals and a huge festival fave. Larger than life artist Big Narstie is joined by Rinse FM’s Logan Sama; then Croatia regulars Iration Steppas join dubstep heavyweight Skeptical along with Kenny Ken, Benton, V.I.V.E.K, Cern, Kromestar and many more.
Outlook Festival – London Launch Party
Friday 30th January 2015
@ The Coronet Theatre, 28 New Kent Road, SE1 6TJ, London
High Focus Records
The Four Owls (Flipxtrix, Verb T, Leaf Dog, BVA)
Edward Scissortongue – Onoe Caponeo – Molotov
Wiley – Randall – The Bug Ft. Flowdan & Manga
Originators Ft. P Money, Ogz, Footsie, Big Narstie & Logan Sama
Iration Steppas – Skeptical – Kenny Ken – Benton
V.I.V.E.K – Cern – Kromestar – Brother Culture
Gerra & Stone – Mella Dee – Amy Becker – Moony
GDC Sound System – Kaiju – Danny T & Tradesman
Fokus – Geode – Exodus – Gutso – Brakeman – Onset
10pm – 6am
£15 plus booking fee
www.outlookfestival.com
https://www.facebook.com/events/1509784355955106/
Sneakbo takes American R&B singer Miguel‘s track Girl With A Tattoo and covers it putting his own spin on it. The Brixton rapper talks some real shit on this track about a girl from the ends and how she needs to get her priorities right and fix up.
I know what you’re probably all thinking, another Ain’t On Nuttin remix, originally the track from Yungen ft Sneakbo on his Project Black & Red. This remix has to be the hardest remix I’ve heard with Ratlin, Skore Beezy, Shak Corelone & Matt Milla all giving a verse to this street anthem making it more grittier than before. Everyone went innnnn on this and it’s very difficult for me to say whose verse was the best, but personally (I’ll say it again personally) Skore Beezy killed it for me, although they all went in hard…
This is one mixtape I have personally been waiting for for a long time. I named Potter Payper as my 5 emcee’s to watch out for this year last week, and this week he dropped his heavily anticipated 24 mixtape for the rap fans out there. He had a few good releases last year including video for Bandoe which is remixed on the tape and features Youngs Teflon, Bonkaz, Snow Team, Illmade and Sicker we also see other features on other tracks from Mark Asari, Keke and more.
This was worth waiting for and a tape that will stick around on my iPod for a while to come and may stay a classic. He wasn’t shy to show emotion, and his pain and struggle really shines through.
Download Potter Payper – 24 here
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