London’s Melanin 9 is releasing his EP High Fidelity 31st May on his own Red Snow label, and releases a brand new bonus cut Colours from it.
March 13, 2014
Colours Miyagi (@coloursmiyagi )- Through My Lens [[Music Video]
Colours always knows how to put out well thought out, solid tracks and this new one Through My Lens is no different. Watch him bring out more tracks in the lead up to his new project Sunshine & Rain.
October 29, 2013
Colours ft Gyptian – Suffer [Music Video]
Colours drops the visuals to Suffer off his Wheres My Money Reloaded mixtape which was released this Summer. The track talks about struggling and features the vocals of Jamaican reggae singer Gyptian.
September 10, 2013
MTV The Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]
There has been a lot of positive stuff going off this week in the world of UK rap. Firstly on Tuesday Team Wrap Up headed down to the MOBO Nominations launch where we saw performances from So Solid Crew and heard that Akala, K Koke, Wretch 32 were up for Best UK hip hop/grime act. Who do you think deserves to win? I know personally who I do…
Krept & Konan are the names on everyone’s lips right now as their ‘Young Kingz’ mixtape dropped and entered the UK official album charts at No.19, a huge, game changing achievement. They had a lot of tweets congratulating them from Skepta, Zeon Richards, Fekky, and more. They were also nominated for best newcomers at the MOBO’s so get over to their site and make sure you vote for them. Check out their new video from the tape ‘Too Young’ featuring Yungen which is their third video from the mixtape to be released.
There were a few freestyles out last week that I recommend checking out. Firstly check out the Daily Duppy from Krept & Konan which saw Krept spitting over The Fugees’ ‘Ready Or Not’ instrumental, then Konan taking over with a more upbeat track. Mike GLC took to SB.TV to put out his second 3rd Degree with no instrumental just him talking straight reality.
Colours and Benny Banks took to Link-Up TV for a Behind Barz session. Colours showed impressive lyricism spitting over Jim Jones ‘Summer In Miami’. Benny made his return for the third time with his laid back flow over a funky, hip-hop beat.
Talking of Benny Banks him and Squeeks who were meant to be friends and are both from Islington, North London have took to Twitter dissing each other. Squeeks tweeted ‘The boy ain’t real & from time he signed 1 2 deals I can’t ere from n****s simple really that’s why I be like #F***Banks’. He then went onto say without him, Joe Black and Westy Beats Banks would be nothing. Banks last tweet on the matter was ‘Thank God for my haters!’
The only video really worth mentioning this week is Giggs new one ‘(Is It Gangsta) Yes Yes Yes’. The 9 minute long video featured some of his SN1 crew. Giggs is upping the levels in the UK rap game, everyone take notice.
Boom Bap Festival is on in a few weeks from the 13-15 September in Peterborough and I headed down to the warm up party at Vibe Bar on Saturday where I saw legends in the game Chester P and Micall Parkinson perform. If you missed it you missed out on seeing two of the best lyricists from the UK, so make sure you head down to the festival itself.
August 21, 2013
MTV The Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]
Last week was a good week for the world of rap, especially for me live music wise, as I had quite a busy weekend. I went to the G-Shock Session’s on the Friday evening in Brick Lane to hear some quality live music. I caught Cashtastic, Baby Blue, Scrufizzer, Maxsta, old school legend Rodney P, Smiler and more perform. G-Shock always has the best when it comes to music and never disappoints…
Saturday and Sunday I was a V Festival, which is quite a ‘poppy’ festival but not enough for me to not enjoy myself. They did have K. Koke perform but he was the first act on Saturday and I didn’t arrive till late so missed him, but I did catch Yungen perform on Naughty Boy’s set so look out for that track.
Giggs released the album artwork, tracklisting and release date for his forthcoming album ‘When Will It Stop’ and all I can say is I’m so excited to hear this album (Giggs if you’re reading can I have an album listening invitation, please?). I genuinely can’t wait to hear the track with Styles P, and the one with Ed Sheeran will definitely be a banger too. To be honest I think all of the tracks will be hot. October 14, hurry up!
Colours Miyagi is back with another visual from his ‘Where’s My Money: Reloaded’ mixtape which has done really well and he’s keeping the buzz going with the videos. Even though ‘Like Me’ is a street track it’s one that the ladies can still get down to and could be heard in a club.
It looks like Squeeks is back on a roll too as he a few weeks back he gave us some new music called ‘Clean Cut’. This week sees him drop the video to a track called ‘This Life’ featuring Goldie 1 who I’ve been hearing a lot about. It’s good to see Squeeks back on his A-game in the lead up to ‘Presidential Musiq’.
Koder dropped a mixtape last week called ‘The Calm’. He is one to watch out for, and I had a quick chat with him about grime at Apartment 58. “I think everyone is scared right now; they’re scared of the competitive element which used to exist and was a big part of grime – like battling, clashing, sending for each other… that ‘I’m the best in the room’ effect.
“I feel everyone’s attention has kind of shifted; we’ve lost that core element – but I think it can be summarized by the word ‘scared.’”
Interesting and I think he has a point, what do you think?
August 1, 2013
Colours – Real Rap [Music Video]
Colours releases the visuals to Real Rap taken from his recent mixtape Where’s My Money (Reloaded). He has kept up the consistency releasing new tracks but not over bombarding fans with too much material. Colours is showing why his name is one to stay with his impressive flow and why real rap should make it this year.
July 19, 2013
MTV The Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]
Colours is one of the most respected and best road rapper to come out of London, so when he dropped his mixtape ‘Where’s My Money Reloaded’ he sent the internet ablaze. Respected UK DJ’s Charlie Sloth and Ras Kwame have backed the 22 free downloadable tape which has features from K Koke, Stylo G and Gyptian. He also released the video to ‘Everything’ sampling Mariahs ‘I Give My All’ and like the mixtape sees him spitting nothing but real, life-riddled bars.
Young Don is gearing up for the release of a new mixtape the follow on from his last one The Weatherman, coming back for Part II this time with DJ Khaled hosting. He gives us a teaser of what to expect by dropping the video to ‘Harder Than Them’ a street track which we can assume to be on the tape.
At only 21, Lady Lykez is one of the best the UK has to offer in terms of her witty lyricism, her new track ‘I Love My Butt’ is no different. Topman described it as ‘a hip-hop party cut of the summer’ and she has had artists Lady Leshurr and Blizzard tweeting about it. Make sure you check it out.
Brixton rapper Sho Shallow along with partner Ard Adz puts out video and track after track, constantly impressing with not only the quantity but quality of their work too. This time Sho Shallow goes solo for new track ‘Intro’ which is the first track off his forthcoming mixtape ‘Girls In The Middle’.
Cashtastic released the visuals to ‘London Summer Day’ giving his fans something to enjoy now the sun has finally graced us for the summer. We heard the track last summer, but it doesn’t feel old with Cash tweeting, “Big up @RAPCITYTV we shot this #LondonSummerDay video last year, put it out a year later and it’s still fresh!”
Rap Up UK discussed the subject of haters in their recent mini documentary. They talked to artists such as Dru Blu, Margs, Political Peak, Pak Man, Fem Fel, Pound Sterling and more talking about the reason for haters such as people not wanting you to do better than them and how with success comes jealousy which breeds hate. What’s your thoughts on haters?
Words: Shireen Fenner (@Shireenxoxo)
*published on Monday 15th July
July 11, 2013
Colours – Everything [Music Video]
He is one of the UK’s most respected and best road rappers. Check out the video to his new track Everything where we can hear sampling from Mariah Carey’s I Give My All and Colours spitting nothing but real bars.
June 11, 2013
MTV The Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]
I’m going to start off with mixtapes this week; firstly because I’ve been away for a few weeks I’m still going to talk about Gunna Dee’s ‘Hustler By Nature 2’, which was released at the end of May. The mixtape was well worth the wait and sees 11 strong tracks from the SN1 representative and features from Giggs, Blade Brown and Angel. The mixtape shows Gunna’s development as an artist and a mature perspective on life…
Last week he also dropped the video to a track off the tape ‘Music Therapy’ which features BBK’s Skepta. Make sure you check out both.
This is one a lot of UK rap heads have been waiting for and it’s from Mashtown’s J Spades. ‘More Money More Pagans II’ is the second installment and follows on from the success of the first ‘MMMP,’ which threw the UK rap scene into a frenzy in 2012. The 19 track tape features some of the cream of the scene including Joe Black, Cashtastic, Chip, Blade Brown, DVS, Margs and more.
Now it’s time to look at new tracks/videos. South London’s Colours brought out a new one called ‘Lil Skeeza’ over an up tempo hip-hop instrumental with hard street lyrics. He is due to be releasing a mixtape soon, so look out for that.
We’ve had a few covers this week, the first notable one is from brother’s Mega and Mayhem who make up rap duo S.A.S. releasing their take on the classic Camp Lo record ‘Coolie High’. The track has a nice relaxed, summer vibe to it and the guy’s own insightful lyrics.
We had the lyric video first, then Sho Shallow decided to put a video together of his cover of Wale’s ‘Bad’. The track really shows the Brixton rappers talent as he puts his own spin lyrically on it.
There’s been a few live acoustic versions of this doing the rounds, but for this one Akala and Josh Osho took to Virgin Red Room for a live sessions with a full band for ‘Lose Myself’ off his newly released album ‘The Thieves Banquet’. The track is one of my favourites and has a massive rock and rap influence.
Giggs put out a short advert titled ‘Warning’ for his forthcoming ‘When Will It Stop’ album which is causing quite a buzz in the lead up to the release. The advert shows Giggs ironing to one of his tracks saying into the camera ‘When Will It Stop is round the corner lads’. There are many including me that can’t wait for the album.
After the horrific news a few weeks ago of the killing of solider Lee Rigby, emcee Boya Dee witnessed the account first hand in Woolwich tweeting it as it was happening which led to him being hounded by news teams. Last week he took to Channel 4 News, releasing a ten minute video taking camera crew on a tour of the area speaking to local people. The footage included rappers Mynature and Saskilla. You can check it out online.
Words: Shireen Fenner (@Shireenxoxo)
June 9, 2013
Colours – Lil Skeeza [Music Video]
In the lead up to his mixtape, South London rapper Colours drops the video to street track Lil Skeeza, check it out.
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