Posts tagged ‘2014’

  |  
September 17, 2014

Youngs Teflon (@YoungsTeflon) Live At Barfly Camden [Review]

Youngs Teflon held his first headline show on Monday (September 1) at Barfly in Camden where he performed tracks from his recently released mixtape ‘The Renaissance’ with a live band. The Wrap Up’s Shireen Fenner headed down there to watch Tefs and all of his special guests for this live night featuring some of the best UK rap had to offer.

Teflon hit the stage accompanied by just Docta Cosmic on the decks, with his special guests joining him afterwards. Released in March, ‘The Renaissance’ went to No.1 in the iTunes hip-hop chart and No.22 in the overall national album charts, proving the strength of homegrown music in the UK.

Tefs performed the ‘My Pattern Intro’ from the mixtape and a track called ‘Never Failed School’ produced by Carns Hill which was a kind of middle finger to his school and teachers who thought he would fail; we discovered that ultimately he had done very well and received 2 A*’s for his English GCSEs. ‘Survivor’s Story’ and ‘Django’ got really good crowd reaction and it seemed everyone in the crowd were true supporters, knowing every lyric of every song. One thing was clear, Youngs Teflon was not disappointing any of his fans tonight.

One of the highlights for a lot of people was seeing Blade Brown and Corleone join Youngs Teflon for their collaborative track ‘Trap God’ which got everyone buzzing and Donae’o getting up on stage for their recent track ‘Oi Mate’ which set the internet alight – most people knew these two tracks word for word. Bonkaz, Stormzy and Swift also performed their cover of Krept & Konan’s ‘Don’t Waste My Time’ with the crowd getting more and more energetic with Stormzy also performing his HeavyTrackerz – produced song ‘Not That Deep’.

I loved how Docta Cosmic started mixing grime beats such as Rebound X’s ‘Rhythm N Gash’ into some of the tracks with Youngs Teflon and a lot of his guests, including Section Boyz on the stage in the middle of the show and them all spitting together, and then completely switching it over to grime. This was one of the most creative shows musically I’ve been to in a while and I hope to see more shows like this in the future.


* Published on 3rd Sep 2014 on www.mtv.co.uk/the-wrap-up

Advertisement

Posted in MTV Wrap Up, Reviews | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
August 12, 2014

MTV The Wrap Up: Global Gathering 2014 [Review]

Global Gathering returned to the pretty, historical town of Stratford-upon-Avon to bring us the best in electronic music in two days of partying. The festival has been going for 13 years now, and each year festival goers can listen to 12 hours per day of music, this is definitely for the hardcore ravers.

Main stage acts included the legendary Andy C who literally played tune after tune on his hour long set on the Saturday, keeping the drum & bass ravers exceptionally happy. Jaguar Skills brought his mixing skill to the table blending hip-hop, funk, dub, drum & bass and everything in between. Major Look warmed up the sitting down crowd nicely with his early 1pm set getting everyone up. Annie Mac also smashed the main set in pure dance style that only she can do. Netsky was a firm favourite of mine on the Friday and Chase & Status who headlined on Friday completely smashed it with their light effects and music.

Apart from the main stage the UKF tent, Hospitality and 1Xtra tent was where I spent most of my time. Wilkinson played to a rammed UKF tent with an exceptional set playing well-known tracks such as ‘Afterglow’ and ‘Too Close’. Friction also played a standout set as always but unfortunately no special guests were present. I also caught a bit of Matrix & Futurebound and Digital Soundboy’s Shy FX who played a pure class set of jungle and drum & bass.

Hospitality set up on the Saturday too and I ventured over various times to watch and listen to the sounds of High Contrast, Sigma and Camo & Krooked. Sigma played their single which has taken over the airways ‘Nobody To Love’ getting the crowd singing along to every word, and showcased some other great tunes. Welsh drum & bass producer and DJ High Contrast played a fantastic set to a highly lively and energetic crowd for an hour.

I also managed to catch a bit of Toddla T and Mungos Hifi over at Ram Jam. Overall the festival was one of my favourites of the year so far, full of energy and a great crowd, and managed to keep me up on my feet dancing for pretty much the whole time. See you there next year!

Posted in MTV Wrap Up, Reviews | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
July 29, 2014

Lovebox Festival Saturday 2014 [Review]

Lovebox returned to Victoria Park in East London again this year over the Friday 18th and 19th July 2014. SBTV‘s Shireen headed down there on the Saturday, with the sun beating down on us despite the rainy forecast…

 

First up we caught some of Supa Dupa Fly action over at the Roller Boogie stage where they were banging out some old school hip hop beats courtesy of Emily Rawson, CJ Beatz and more, with a similar vibe to that of their nights held at the Jazz Café in Camden.

Heading straight over to the main stage, we caught the British soul & funk legends that are Soul II Soul , who many know for their smash Back To Life. Their music filtered through the crowd, with a nice mellow and relaxed vibe, perfect for the summer, Saturday, afternoon.

Maverick Sabre was next up on the main stage, leading on perfectly with his soulful, jazzy and reggae influences, he kept the crowds ambiance on the same level, lifting it slowly as his set moved on playing tracks from his album, Lonely Are The Brave. Similarly, I Needgot everyone in the crowd singing loudly – as did his latest single, Emotion.

 

Then, it was time for Nas, a crowd of people begun walking up, and what seemed like a reasonably spacious main stage was now packed. Joined by DJ Green Lantern, the Queensbridge legend took to the stage to perform tracks from his seminal debut, Illmatic, celebrating 20 years since the release. Tracks such as Got Yourself A Gungot everyone buzzing and raising their gun fingers.

Other tracks that seemed to please were One Love, If I Ruled The World, N.Y State Of Mind and Made You Look. Nas had turned the energy levels to 100.  He proved why he is one of the best hip hop artists working the stage and fans with complete effortlessness.

Next up was MIA who blast onto the stage which was now filled with lights and around 20 dancers who threw glow sticks into the audiences to their delight. She started straight intoBucky Done Gun, but unfortunately this was the beginning of the audio issues as she asked for her Mic to be turned up.

 

Unfortunately the Mic cut out completely and her and her dancers walked off stage leaving MIA looking not very pleased. She came back on stage to the audience’s gladness, but the sound quality was still poor as she performed Paper Planes and Bad Girls leaving again because of the audio. It was a disappointment as we, along with I’m sure many others in attendance, were similarly looking forward to the performance.

Posted in Reviews | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
July 4, 2014

Scrufizzer (@SCRUFIZZER) X Maxsta (@ItsMaxsta) – Reason [Audio]

Scrufizzer and Maxsta link up for new track Reason giving advice and talking about haters. Stop, wait, think….

Listen to the track below.

 

Posted in Music | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , ,
July 4, 2014

Camden Crawl 2014 [Review]

SBTV‘s Shireen Fenner headed to this year’s Camden Crawl festival over the weekend to catch all of the action…

Camden Crawl took place last weekend Friday 20th and Saturday 21st June across many bars and venues. First up on Friday was rising R&B singer Raheem Bakare who played at the Monarch. He wowed the audience with his stunning vocals from his recent EP AWOL as well as covering Sam Smith’s Stay With Me. It wasn’t just me blown away by this future superstar, everyone was captivated as we also all sung along to Bob Marley with Raheem.

Ghetts was up next with his live band and he performed to the packed pub with such raw energy, it was hard to not enjoy his performance. filled with such vigor and freshness. He was joined by Rival, a highly rated MC who performed collaborative track Said To Me with Ghetts, also bursting with liveliness. Ghett’s performed tracks off his album such as Gas Mark 9 leaving us all on a high.

Next stop was Underworld to watch UK rap favourites Krept & Konan. It was disappointing not to see the venue full for them, as these two deserved, but they gave it their all performing their hit Don’t Waste My Time and other tracks off their recently released and critically acclaimed Young King mixtape. DJ Target took over on the decks now to play a mixture of tunes, and Manga joined him on hosting duties keeping the crowd lively.

Itch FM and Big Promo’s Thad Boogie put on a great stage at the Beatrice on the Saturday night. I arrived first to see the rapper everyone is talking about Little Simz. She just released her EP, E.D.G.E, which she showcased some tracks and showed newbies to Simz why she is next in line to blow. Her confidence along with her unique voice, skippy flow and bouncy energy got everyone listening.

Lady Lykez was up next on the same stage, and the North London had the most vivacity of the night. She was like a lioness on stage, encouraging the audience to bounce along with her and chant her lyrics back, she has fantastic stage presence performing tracks such as, I Love My Butt, which celebrates body image, Eurgh and Psycho her recent release which explores dynamics in relationships.

Emily Rawson and Big Ted were at their usual spot in Camden, the Jazz Café where they put on regular hip hop night ‘Supa Dupa Fly’. Here, we checked out Blizzard. With just himself and a keyboard (yes, he plays), along with his charm, he took to the stage performing his own tracks and getting the crowd to sing along to tracks such as Wilkinson’s Afterglow. Our favourite bit of his set was a rendition of Tracey Chapman’s Fast Car nameed Megabus, which was an extremely witty and funny track about the struggles of his journeys from Manchester to London.

Next up, Mumdance and Novelist took it up a notch as it got to that time of the night where we wanted to dance and that is just what we did. Performing at KOKO, Novelist really impressed us with his ability to control the audience and keep them entertained, as well as Mumdance’s too. They both held their own, with Mumdance displaying his unique, futuristic sounds.

Last but not least was Plastician, who had us raving our hearts out to his set. As a pioneer in the scene, we wouldn’t have expected any less than what he gave us switching up between dubstep and grime and a little of something inbetween.

All in all, it was a great weekend for fantastic music, as Ghett’s told us, ““Camden Crawl was one of my best gigs to date, really looking forward doing it again next year. It’s a great festival for introducing new talent into the London scene”. We couldn’t have put it better ourselves  (obviously not the performing part, but, hey, you never know!)

*published on SBTV on 25th June 2014

 

Posted in Music, Reviews | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
July 4, 2014

Nasir Mazhar x Skepta Collaboration Afterparty [Review]

I headed to the after party to celebrate Nasir Mazhar and Skepta‘s collaborative efforts at Metropolis Strip Club in East London, where models and grime artists awaited and guests such as A$AP Rocky were present…


They say music and fashion go hand in hand and this is the perfect example of that. Grime and fashion in this case, as Nasir Mazhar collaborated with Skepta on a jacket for his collection during London Collection: Mens. Their collaboration was not limited to fashion as they also worked together on the soundtrack, too.

The event was put on by Red Bull Studios, who are committed to bringing together fashion designers and up and coming musicians to create soundtracks for fashion week.

The male models from the show – as well as the dancers – were also wearing Nasir’s contemporary new designs, giving people who weren’t at the show the opportunity to check out the designs.

Nasir is one of the hottest young designers around at the moment, known for his edgy, fashion forward and contemporary streetwear. Skepta is one of grime’s brightest and most talked about artists, so the fusion of these two seems like a completely natural one.

Skepta brought in some other grime stars to perform on the night including Boy Better Know’s Jammer, Newham Generals’ D Double E and Footsie, newcomer and rising star Novelist and on the decks we saw Swindle and Preditah holding it down. These performances were the highlight of the night with everyone’s eyes locked on them.

All in all, it was a good night for the UK fashion and music scene, and was fantastic to see two great talents joining forces to create something tremendous.

*published on SBTV on 24th June 2014

 

Posted in Music, Reviews | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
June 7, 2014

We Are Fstvl – Day 2 Sunday[Review]

Day 2 the sun was shining and it was a lovely warm day. I was pleased also that the mud from the previous day had all disappeared. Tight shorts and revealing outfits were in force today! It didn’t seem as busy as the Saturday, even though the sun was out, and everyone had a day off work tomorrow too!

Sven Vath impressed over at the The Big Oudoors – Cocoon stage and it was a better day to be stood enjoying the sound system. I got there early enjoy to Tough Love too over at Toolroom Knights who dropped some pretty impressive tunes along with Tensnake.

Andy C had his Ram tent for the Drum & Bass heads on the Sunday where I watched the likes of Noisia, Loadstar, and Andy C. The tent although was not as packed as the first day still brought the ravers loads of energy. Loadstar and Andy C were definitely my two favourite sets I watched over here and the Ram tent was full of nice vibes all day.

I went over to the main stage to see Duke Dumont who played their own tracks such as ‘I Got You’ and tunes from other artists. They had a really nice mixture and the crowd really enjoyed their set with the sun blaring down and everyone dancing. Annie Mac was another DJ I watched on the main stage and of course in she didn’t disappoint playing all the biggest summer cuts.

Headliner Fatboy Slim did the title justice as he played his classic tracks such as ‘Praise You’, Right Here Right Now’ and newest one ‘Eat Sleep Rave Repeat’ along with some of the biggest dance tunes ever. There was a lazer light show during his set, fireworks going off at the side of the stage and big fireworks once he had finished shooting across the sky above the stage, ending the festival magnificently.

*published 3rd June 2014 on SBTV

 

Posted in Music, Reviews | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , ,
June 7, 2014

We Are Fstvl 2014 – Sat Review [Review]

We Are Fstvl took place over the bank holiday weekend of May 24th-25th.  Based in Upminster in Essex, the festival is only in it’s second year. The first day after checking into the hotel and getting to the site we arrived around 4pm, with the sky filled with clouds and rain about to descend we weren’t going to let that ruin our fun. The site itself for the festival had got increasingly bigger, and so it seemed had the VIP where you could go and relax and pamper yourself with MK taking over in the tent.

I spent a lot of my time in the Hospitality tent on the Saturday. Being a D&B fan I got to see some of the best DJ’s play everything from liquid to jump up. I was especially excited to see Shy FX, Friction, High Contrast and Camo & Krooked who played tune after tune mixing in some Grime tunes in the middle such as ‘German Whip’.

I ventured over to Defected In The House too who were really successful at the festival last year made a return where we sam Kenny Dope, Nick Curly, Sam Divine and more spin to a happy and packed crowd. Oliver $’s and Guti got a really good crowd reaction over at Defected.

The two outdoor stages were not affected by the rain and mud as festival goers could not miss the big names headlining at the Big Outdoors – We Are Elctrnc and the Main Stage. We Are Elctrnc saw the likes of Knife Party, Chuckie, Hard Rock Sofa and more take to the stage and make everyone forget about the miserable weather.

The main stage saw brothers Disclosure who have shot to fame play an early set along with heavyweight in the game, Mary Jane Coles. The headline acts Richie Hawtin and Matador closed the main stage leaving the festival goers smiling and ready for day two.

*published on SBTV on 3rd June 2014

 

 

Posted in Music, Reviews | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , ,
  |