A pixie's everyday writing adventures
The Rap Up UK are doing a brilliant job of putting together documentaries for us based on the UK rap and grime scene and getting people involved in the scene’s take on it. For the first UK Rap Beef series they look at Dappy Vs Scorcher check it out….
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!
This week was an extremely busy one for me as I headed to Norway courtesy of HTC, who took myself along with other journalists from all around the world on an audio tour. We met Norwegian rappers who performed just for us and went to the Jaeger club where DJ Abstract taught us how to mix. We met some fantastic people and artists who all made us feel at home…
On Friday night I went down to Vibe Bar in Brick Lane to check out Melanin 9’s album launch ‘Magna Carta’. It was a pretty heavy line up with performances from himself, Genesis Elijah, Joker Starr, Iron Braydz, Logic and more. I spotted a few familiar faces showing support including Blak Twang and Micall Parknsun.
Speaking of Micall Parknsun, he dropped the visuals to his first single last week entitled ‘Me’, ahead of his forthcoming album ‘Me Myself and Akai’ which Jehst directed.
There was some tension last week on Twitter as K Koke went on the roads for a radio tour to promote his first official single ‘Turn Back’. Dappy has always been a fan of Koke as we can see from his lyrics in ‘Tarzan’, (the only mixtape I believe is K Koke’s), and it looked like a collaboration may have been on the cards.
Dappy tweeted, “Just come off the phone to @KokeUSG He had a bone to pick with me!!! Don’t worry we will make a Monsta together #BadIntentions out Now”.
Koke quickly shut that down, writing: “NAH BRO I SAID WE WILLL TALK ABOUT IT#kokewillnotholla“.
Lucky for us, Koke will definitely holla on Wednesday night, (28) as he is set to perform at The Forum in London as part of MTV Brand New‘s launch; feel free to join us.
Giggs continued his comeback, dropping a visual freestyle over Juicy J’s ‘Bands A Make Her Dance’, to me it was a good choice and in the style of the Giggs we know and love.
Mic Righteous was righteously chosen to feature on the official remix to Naughty Boy’s track ‘Wonder’ featuring Emeli Sande. He has come a long way since dropping ‘Yob Culture’ in 2011, and is set to drop an EP ‘Open Mic’ in February. His socially aware lyrics and fantastic flow make him destined for big things.
Ratlin got some amazing UK talent involved on his first video from his ‘Crown Me’ mixtape. No Lay, Scrufizzer, Youngs Teflon and Rebler all joined him for ‘L’s Up’ and the diversity of the artists really makes this track a banger.
Dappy has always shown his admiration towards K Koke bigging him up in songs like Tarzan, “The only mixtape I believe is K-Koke”, and from an outsiders perspective it looked like a possibility that the two might collaborate.
Dappy tweeted last night that he had just come off the phone to Roc Nation’s K Koke…
“Just come off the phone to @KokeUSG He had a bone to pick with me!!! Don’t worry we will make a Monsta together #BadIntentions out Now”.
Koke was obviously not happy with Dappy and tweeted him back
“NAH BRO I SAID WE WILLL TALK ABOUT IT#kokewillnotholla“.
Daps then asked him to holla when he was ready but clearly didn’t read the hastag above saying he wouldn’t holla…..
NAH SORRY BRO IM NOT INTERESTED U AINT CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH #iAintPerfect #TURNBACK OUT 25th #kokewillnotholla.
Benny Banks is joined by two of UK rap’s hardest Squeeks and Joe Black over a Show N Prove beat to bring you the remix of Who’s The Daddy.
After Benny Banks released a very short teaser of this track, we can now hear the full course and watch the video too..
Last week I informed you that Tim Westwood had put in a complaint to YouTube to have the Mic Righteous ‘Sack City’ audio track removed. Mic didn’t let this bother him, because on July 31, he released the music video he had filmed whilst out in Ayia Napa for Fire On The Beach. The ‘Sack City’ video was filmed by SB.TV and included cameos from Wiley, Mz Bratt, Sneakbo and more. The video has now been made private; now the question is – is this due to another complaint from Westwood…
Now it’s time to look at the standout tracks and videos from last week. The first thing to catch my eye was Haze’s ‘Freedom Writers’ featuring Renee Soul, Mike GLC, Logic, and Cerose. The track is a powerful one and comes from the ‘Loyalty. Honor. Respect’ mixtape from Haze.
Ard Adz and Sho Shallow really are putting in the work, as I’m seeing a lot of new tracks and visuals from them. Their recent one ‘Love Live Life’ is a reflective and thoughtful track from the South London rappers.
London Ivy worked with respected producer Nutty P for his brand new track ‘Do You Wanna Ride’, which will be on the rapper’s forthcoming free project ‘C.A.R.C.D’ (The Conquer and Rule CD).
UK rap maestro Sneakbo joined Vybz Kartel to provide the first remix of Orange Hill’s new single ‘Pon Time’, giving the track a homegrown flavour.
North London rapper Squeeks is the second person on the GRM Daily website to release a Daily Duppy. He uses the numbers 1 to 10 in some of his first bars, showing off his lyrical skills. Meanwhile, Young Spray talks us through how he has become the man he is today on the new track ‘Came Up’ which is the first release from his forthcoming album ‘Hard 2 Kill part 2’, set to come out on August 27.
Influential artists Akala and English Frank have joined together for ‘Educated Tug S**t’. The message behind the track? If you’re not educated and have no principles, street reputation and living a gangster life means nothing. The video shows clips of the ‘Spartan Fam’ exercise group in the background, with the rest kept simple.
Lastly this collaboration is the one that’s been on many peoples lips for the last couple of months. Was it going to happen? It seems the answer is yes as a 17-second teaser was released on the Benny Banks official channel. ‘Who’s The Daddy’ featuring Dappy should be released in full in the next few weeks – keep your eyes and ears peeled!
Cover Drive release the video to their new single Explode featuring Dappy.
This is my first UK Rap Rundown column; here I will be bringing you the week’s highlights in the UK urban scene – I hope you enjoy it! I haven’t even been back from the BET Awards in L.A a week yet and have already attended a festival – Hyde Park’s Wireless. I was pleased to see underground rappers Political Peak, Sho Shallow and Ard Adz get a packed out tent and an amazing crowd reaction – it proved how well UK rap is doing…
Of course, Sneakbo smashed his set too. Sway did an old school hip-hop style set, with verses from Wu Tang, Tupac and Mobb Deep. Roc Nation signee USG member K Koke also performed on the Sunday supported by his fellow crew members.
In other news, Scorcher has replied to Dappy’s ‘Tarzan 2’ diss which hears him say: “I still roll for my hood and I wear my chain, f**k a Top Boy Scorcher he can’t do the same. Real recognise real, how many albums have you sold to date?”
Scorcher wasn’t too happy with Dappy and replied via an SB.TV video called ‘Rockstar’. The MC dropped punchline after punchline, saying that he is an “underground king, you could never be my equal” and “you could have a mill still look like a tramp.” He also mentions Tulisa and the now infamous tape that her ex-boyfriend leaked to the world.
Personally I liked Dappy’s ‘Tarzan 2’ video; unfortunately he had to re-shoot and re-release the video due to the heavy controversy it received. Props to Scorcher; he went in on the diss track and I feel he is the better man in this situation.
The video that caught my attention last week came from Donae’o. I was at the video shoot for the track ‘YDKAM’ and know there’s going to be a lot more to come from the ‘Party Hard’ singer on his album. He told me: “It’s going to have a lot more hip-hop and R&B, there’s a want for it, so I can put it out.”
The song ‘You Don’t Know About Me’ features some of UK rap’s hardest lyricists, such as Joe Black, Squeeks, Dru Blu, Ratlin and Lethal B.
Another interesting one was the Labrinth produced ‘Watchtower’ by Devlin featuring Ed Sheeran. It is the first single from his forthcoming album ‘A Moving Picture’.
Leicester based R&B singer Luke Bingham was also recently joined by Play Dirty’s Krept & Konan for the track ‘Shut It Down’. I really like the beat to this track and Krept & Konan really give the song that hip-hop edge it needed. I predict big things for Mr Bingham; he has the voice, the style and looks to match.
Scorcher was not happy with the lines ‘I still roll for my hood and I wear my chain, f**k a top boy Scorcher he can’t do the same. Real recognise real, how many albums have you sold to date.’ Dappy said about him in Tarzan 2. Scorcher has come back with a very good diss track listen below…
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