Last week I was out in Los Angeles for the BET Awards with The Wrap Up’s editor. We were lucky enough to see Beyonce perform her first show on her North America Mrs Carter tour, before going to a BET kick-off party at Drai’s Nightclub on the rooftop of the W Hotel. We also attended an amazing BET after party hosted by Chris Brown, where we saw rapper Problem perform… 

We also spoke to many celebrities on the red carpet at the awards including Elijah Blake, Bridget Kelly, DJ Drama, French Montana, Elephant Man, 2 Chainz and more as well as spotting Pharrell, Chris Brown, Kendrick Lemar and Jamie Foxx.

There have been a couple of notable mixtapes out this week. The first one comes from Church Road rapper Nines, who although is currently incarcerated, dropped ‘Gone Till November’ along with a video ‘Growing Up/ Back In The Day ’ on SB.TV’s channel. I’m pleased to see new material from the North West London rapper whose last mixtape ‘From Church Rd To Hollywood’ became an instant classic. Even if he is gone till November, this material is good enough to keep his fans satisfied until then, with personal and motivational tracks.

North London’s Young Spray has gained himself a high spot in the UK rap scene. Along with dropping strong projects consistently, his levels of hard content and lyricism have kept him a favourite in the UK rap game. ‘Hard To Kill Vol. 3’ is the latest offering and as ever, he delivers some hard hitting, powerful tracks just right for the streets.

Eurogang rappers Mega and Mayhem who make SAS have been keeping their flow of work consistent and last week dropped a slick video to track ‘I Am James Bond’ off their latest mixtape ‘Coming To America 2’.

Hailing from South London and in my opinion one of the best to come from there is DVS. He went back to BBC Radio 1Xtra to join Charlie Sloth for his Fire In The Booth freestyle show where he dropped some heavy weight bars, with subjects ranging from the roads to females. He is releasing a mixtape ‘London Boy, American Dreaming’ soon, so watch out for that.

Another favourite from South of the river in London is Sneakbo who has always managed to keep his work rate rolling. His latest summer club smash ‘Ring A Ling’ was released yesterday (July 7) and he has already given us a behind-the-scenes clip of his new video ‘I Don’t Trust Nobody’. Sneakbo again has come through with another strong certified street track.