Posts tagged ‘Dizzee Rascal’

May 15, 2013

MTV The Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]

Supa Dupa Fly for me is one of the best old school hip-hop & r&b nights in London, with music from the 90’s through to early 2000’s. Last Friday I went along to Jazz Café for one of their nights which saw Kings Of The City and Franko Fraize perform live. Franko’s British sound and modern take on his life and culture has led to comparisons with Mike Skinner, who is a fan of his work. He has a new track ‘Hand Me Downs’ so check it out…

Dizzee Rascal released two tracks last week, the first being ‘H-Town featuring UGK legend Bun B and Trae Tha Truth. Dizzee absolutely smashed it with this track, which is based on Houston’s culture. He also dropped the video to his collaboration with Robbie Williams called ‘Goin’ Crazy’, which sees the two on pimped out mobility scooters. What did you think about the track and video?

On Friday Dizzee also did an interview on 1Xtra’s breakfast show with Twin B where he finally spoke out on Wiley. Twin asked what he thought of other MC’s in the game, where he responded, “I want to put it out there openly, I haven’t got an issue with anyone.”

To confirm who he was talking about Twin asked if he meant Wiley and Dizzee went on to talk about their history. “[DJTarget cared about me, early. Wiley never cared about me [from] early.

“Wiley eventually got me involved in the Roll Deep thing after I built a little name for myself. And it worked. We got on really well. I looked up to Wiley, I looked up to Target… As far as all that, I’ve actually not known Wiley longer than I’ve known him.”

He ended on saying just because people think he should work with Wiley it doesn’t mean he should and he’s just focusing on what he has to do – I think that’s all the clarification needed on the matter.

 

There are two mixtapes out that I definitely think are worth downloading. The first is from S-Squad’s Birmingham rapper Meeks, hosted by i Records DJ Cage. ‘Co-Lab-Adoration’ is a mixture of collaboration tracks showing an ample range of ‘who’s who’ in UK rap talent.

Mic Righteous released a free mixtape ‘Mic Wasn’t Thinkin’ as a thank you to the people who have supported him over the years. Make sure you get down to his headline show at The Garage in Islington which will see him celebrate the mixtape and also his birthday.

K. Koke released the lyric video to his new track ‘My Time’ with another Roc Nation singer, Bridget Kelly. The combination of the two blend well together and tells a story of the struggles of life and getting to where you want to be.

I’m going to end on Giggs’ Fire In The Booth which was his second on the Charlie Sloth hosted show. I was pleased to hear a variety of instrumentals from ‘Pop’ to ‘Started From The Bottom and ‘F**kin’ Problems’, which showed him switching up flows. He later said on Twitter: “Watch when I drop this bludklart album, that fire in the booth was light as day.” If that was easy work for Giggs, then we will be in for a treat when his album drops.

Until next time…

 *published on Monday 13th May
July 31, 2012

MTV Wrap Up – The UK Rap Rundown

The Olympics is what everyone was talking about last week, with the opening ceremony on Friday being rather explosive and extravagant. We saw familiar faces such as Mr BeanJames Bond and the ‘Queen’ jumping out of a helicopter…

Dizzee Rascal was given the honour of recording the official Olympic Song of the London 2012 Olympic Games. At the ceremony, he performed the track ‘Scream’ which features the first lady of Dirtee Stank, Pepper along with ‘Bonkers’. Wretch 32 opened the Olympic Torch Relay Finale in London’s Hyde Park. This was a great moment for the urban music industry, showing the popularity and strength it has.

Margate rapper Mic Righteous previously released a diss track to Tim Westwood called ‘Sack City’ which has now been taken off YouTube after the ‘Big Dawg’ put in a complaint about it. Mic tweeted a picture of the video, which has a message on it stating, “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Tim Westwood.” Considering the track came out over a month ago in June, it has taken quite a while and everybody has probably heard it by now anyway…

Hip-hop collective Caxton Press have been hard at work releasing video after video. Last week the visuals to ‘Touch The Sun’ came out, which is the eighth video from their ‘Shame The Devil’ album.

Sho Shallow showed us another side to him as he took a more laid back and melodic approach for new track ‘Weed In My Lungs,’ a refix of Kirko Bangz’s ‘Drank In My Cup’ – which has also previously seen remixes from J. Cole and 2 Chainz.

Manchester’s Lyrican put out the first joint US and UK hosted mixtape ‘The Problem Child’ with Charlie Sloth and DJ Drama. The 15 track project includes the internet hit ‘Simon Cowell’. He is becoming one of rap’s most promising figures and the mixtape proves why with his intelligent wordplay and strong delivery.

There are two freestyles that have caught my eye this week; the first one goes to USG’s youngest member 15-year-old Geko, who brought heat to Charlie Sloth’s Fire In The Booth. He tells us a few stories through the first track and then gets into an emotional freestyle.

With the re-launch of the Grime Daily website and the name change to GRM Daily, rapper DVS was the first artist after the re-launch to put out a Daily Duppy. He slows it down with some deep bars for the first half before switching it up over the ‘Rack City’ beat – check it out!

July 27, 2012

Dizzee Rascal ft Pepper – Scream

Dizzee Rascal was given the honour of recording the Official Olympic Song of the London 2012 Olympic Games, so here is the video to Scream featuring Pepper of Dirtee Stank recordings.

June 12, 2012

Capital FM Summertime Ball Review

Capital FM the first national hit music radio station announced their 2012 Capital FM Summertime Ball with some of the biggest artists from the UK and US. Shireen from Flavour was in attendance backstage to catch up with the likes of Usher, Conor Maynard, Cover Drive and Dizzee Rascal and to watch performances from Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber and many more. The shows opening act was the magnificent Coldplay.

I went outside to catch one of my favourite r&b singers Usher. The last time I saw him in concert was when I was about 12 years old. He hasn’t lost his touch, his dance moves were on point, and he hit the high notes when singing ‘Climax’ and ‘Scream’.  My favourite moment was when he performed ‘Let It Burn’, with two big flames behind him, and strangely enough they did burn with one of the flames setting the stage on fire, causing someone to rush out with a fire extinguisher.

The two summer sizzler’s really were sizzling. The first surprise was Dizzee Rascal who performed his latest track ‘Power’, and we were glad to see a grime legend amongst the pop acts. Cheryl Cole was the other surprise guest after Dizzee dressed in a skintight lycra playsuit, she looked pretty amazing. It must be hard work getting into one of those, but later she told us that she goes to the gym saying her favourite workout song was, “Katy Perry, ‘Wide Awake’”.

Ed Sheeran was another highlight of the night; he was overwhelmed as he announced it was the biggest crowd he had performed too. Unlike everyone else, he walked out just him and his guitar. Singing ‘A Team’, ‘Small Bump’, and more everyone was singing along to this incredible talent.

When Justin Bieber came on I had to hold my hands over my ears as the 80,000 strong crowd started to scream all at once. He came out looking very patriotic dressed in a union jack t-shirt and doing some pretty good dance moves.  Serenading a girl for a rendition of ‘One Less Lonely Girl’ he had her in fits of tears. His songs ‘Baby’ and ‘Boyfriend’, sent the crowd insane, with girls holding up signs dotted all over the arena, it was clear to see who a lot of the people were there for.

Katie Perry closed the show dressed in 50’s style polka dots singing ‘Part Of Me’, ‘The One That Got Away’.  It was a good night for pop music, and the atmosphere in Wembley Arena was one of the best I’ve witnessed.

April 20, 2012

DJ Fresh ft. Dizzee Rascal – The Power

After two no.1 singles (Louder & Hot Right Now) DJ Fresh hooks up with Dizzee Rascal for his new single The Power. The official video was shot in Miami during the Winter Music Conference.

The Power is released 3rd June on Ministry Of Sound Recordings.