Posts tagged ‘K Koke’

November 23, 2012

MTV The Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown

I hit Electric in Brixton on Wednesday night for the 2 Chainz show. Not really being into his music, I was pleasantly surprised to see him put on a good show to a packed crowd – but I was more interested in the supporting acts from the UK; J Spades and Mic Righteous. The long queue meant it was half full when J Spades was on, but by the time Mic got on the room was full and he was bursting with energy. He really won people over with ‘Sack City’…

Yesterday (Sunday) I went down to K Koke’s video shoot for his new track from his ‘I Ain’t Perfect’ album, which features fellow Roc Nation signee Rita Ora. The whole USG team were there and South London’s Ard Adz had a special role to play.

I talked to K Koke about the track and the video as he explained, “the single is called ‘Lay Down’, I’ve been working on this feature with Rita Ora. The video is based in prison and it’s just about prison life, talking to the youth and letting them know the roadside is not the way to go. It’s like a remix to ‘Listen Little Man.’”

We talk briefly about the chemistry between the two in the studio, with Koke saying, “Rita’s proper. She’s good stuff; she’s bubbly and easy going so we get along well.”

With the album out next spring, the lyricist talks about how he has progressed: “’I Ain’t Perfect’ is going to show growth, from ‘Pure Koke 1’ to ‘Pure Koke Vol 3’ there have been steps. ‘I Ain’t Perfect’ is going to be that big step that cements me in history.”

One of UK hip-hop’s rawest and realest MC’s released a video last week. We saw Genesis Elijah tell us why he is the ‘Underground King’ in his new track, explaining his views about the industry: “They don’t wanna put Elijah on lists that’s fine, I ain’t p***ed, but don’t act like the UK hip-hop scene ain’t mine when it is…”

Last week radio 1Xtra’s DJ Target premiered one of the leading tracks off Ratlin’s new ‘Crown Me’ EP, which is set to drop on December 10. The track entitled ‘Roley’ has a nice electronic, upbeat vibe and it’s going to be exciting to see what other tracks Ratlin has in store for us on the EP.

Bayoz Muzik dropped a street track ‘Soldiers’ featuring an impressive line up of J Spades,Blade Brown and Youngs Teflon. The track will be on his forthcoming ‘Death Of A Beatmaker’ EP.

Until next week!

November 23, 2012

K Koke Shows His Intentions Towards Dappy

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.

 

 

October 23, 2012

K.Koke – Turn Back [Music Video]

K Koke releases the video to his first official single Turn Back featuring Maverick Sabre.

October 17, 2012

K Koke – An Insight [Documentary]

The heat on K Koke is growing in the UK and worldwide, making him the first UK rapper to land a deal with Jay Z‘s label Roc Nation. His latest offering Turn Back features vocalist Maverick Sabre and is set to be released November 25th, with his debut album I Ain’t  Perfect out early next year. In this documentary Koke talks to video director Emil Nava for an 18 min deep insight through his journey and his career, the highs the lows, his family & much more.

October 9, 2012

MTV Wrap UP: UK Rap Rundown [News]

Nas was in London last week to play three intimate shows and brought Wretch 32 and George the Poet for support, which saw them both perform at one of Nas’ shows in Shoreditch, showing the exceptional lyrical talent the UK has to offer…

Meanwhile, one of UK raps most talked about artists at the moment will soon have something new for us; J Spades is hitting the studio tonight as he announced on Twitter that he will be finishing off an exciting new track: “Studio tonight to finish up that new  ‪@REAL_JSPADES and ‪@WackaFlocka tune! ‪#Bricksquad ‪#MMMP! #MMMP2 coming soon!” As he mentioned in the tweet, his new mixtape ‘More Money More Pagans 2’ will be coming real soon.

Chip also took to Twitter to tell us when his anticipated mixtape ‘London Boy’ is due out and also revealed details on the next project that he has in store for us: ”‪#LondonBoy 25th December !!! FREE MIXTAPE #PizzaBoy feat. @MeekMill up next… Shutting the clubs DOWN!!!”

I previously filled you in on Rapper Tag UK; an online cypher that started with Mystro. The last one ended with M9 aka Melanin 9; their latest video is up now and sees Hackney MC Cyrus Malachi spit some bars. It is also Rapper Tag’s first birthday – we wish them many more years to come!

As well as K. Koke’s ‘Pure Koke Vol. 3 ‘dropping last week, the USG rapper also got airplay for his debut single ‘Turn Back’ featuring soulful singer Maverick Sabre. The track is about his struggles and samples Sting’s track ‘Shape Of My Heart,’ which Nas also used on ‘The Message’. The video will be dropping soon.

USG boss Squingy was joined by members Exo and Lefty to bring us the theme tune ‘Money On My Mind’ to the forthcoming movie ‘Fedz’. The soundtrack will also include tracks from J Spades, GiggsMargs, DVS, Joe Black and more.

South London’s Colours Miyagi has returned from a short hiatus to bring us a brand new track ‘Burn’, showing us that even though he has been away, listeners are “locked down now I’m back”. His lyricism and flow has developed into something more special; other rappers can learn a thing or two from this one.

Political Peak has dropped two tracks this week in the lead up to his ‘Dreams 2 Reality’ mixtape. ‘Wise Up’ was the first one to be heard featuring Ard Adz and Blacker. The next was ‘Dreamin’, an emotional track featuring former Sugababes member Keisha Buchanan who add a nice touch to the song with her strong vocals.

Until next Monday!

October 5, 2012

K Koke feat. Maverick Sabre – Turn Back [Audio]

Here is K Koke‘s first official single Turn Back featuring Maverick Sabre where he talks us through the struggles he faced. The sample is a famous one from a Sting track Shape Of My Heart, which Nas also used on The Message. This track should go on to be as big as both of them…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUjo5IzbInQ&feature=youtu.be

October 5, 2012

MTV The Wrap Up: K. KOKE – ‘PURE KOKE VOL. 3 – THE MISSING TAPE’ [Review]

K. Koke had fans wondering what he was going to unleash when he tweeted on Sunday that a ‘#KokeSurprise’ was in store. In fact, there was not only one but two surprises; the first being the video to a track called ‘Warning’, which led to his second surprise – ‘Pure Koke Vol. 3 – The Missing Tape’. The USG member also revealed it was to be the last in the series…

The ‘Pure Koke Vol. 1’ mixtape created a heavy buzz underground for the now Roc Nation signee and was independently released and downloaded over 10,000 times.

‘Pure Koke Vol. 3’ is going to keep fans entertained until the release of his debut album ‘I Ain’t Perfect’, which is set for release in January. The first single is called ‘Turn Back’ and features Maverick Sabre, which is due to air on Zane Lowe’s show on Radio 1 this Thursday.

The first two tracks ‘Power’ and ‘Warning’ were a good way to warm up fans old and new, as Koke eases newbies in as gently as he can to his sound. The ‘6 Million Ways To Die’ freestyle is more of Koke’s style and uses the famous Cutty Ranks ‘A Who Seh Me Dun (Wake De Man)’ sample in the beginning, which was furthermore popularised on Snoop Dogg’s ‘Serial Killa’ track.

Onwards, there are a mixture of tracks that, as a Koke fan, you would have already heard. These include ‘We Get It In’, ‘I’m Ready’, ‘Film It’, ‘I’m Back’, ‘Cold Roads’ and more.

I was very impressed with the new tracks, one being ‘Clap Clap’ featuring USG member EXO where he refers to the infamous barbers incident: “I slip regardless, but I didn’t get wigged in the barbers”.

For me, ‘Holla At The Kid’ featuring Dotstar saw Koke deliver something different but impressive. The production is on another level and the electro vibe to it was a welcome addition. ‘I’ll Never’ became a straight banger for me as soon as I heard it. I liked the vocals on the hook, with the rappers motto: “I will never b***h up, I will never switch up, I will never take the stand and snitch”, and of course on this note, the reference to Spider.

The biggest thing to impress me on the tape was the mixture of features. It isn’t like an average UK rap mixtape, where most of the other features are relatively known UK artists. Koke has shown versatility reaching out to rappers from around the globe; for example on ‘Music In My Veins’ a French rapper, CID Youssef, is featured.

On ‘Toronto 2 UK’, we see Canadian rapper Gangis Khan. US rapper Krayzie Bone from Bone Thugs-n-Harmony is present on ‘Way To Go’. ‘Change’ features Grand Hustle members DJ Drama and SPOT and we hear ThoroughBred on ‘Ain’t S**t Change’. He also supports UK talent with the Margs and Malik MD7 feature, as well as including DotstarBig Narstie, Meeks, C Biz and Frostman.

K. Koke fans will definitely be impressed with his latest offering – as one myself, I am. I would have liked to have heard more new tracks, but I reckon he has done the last of the ‘Pure Koke’ series justice.

Now we just have to wait for his Roc Nation debut ‘I Ain’t Perfect’ to see how he switches up the levels in the jump from the mixtape to the album.

October 2, 2012

MTV Wrap Up: UK Rap Rundown [News]

He has been one of my favourite rappers for over a year now, since the release of ‘Yob Culture’ and my first meeting with him last summer at the filming of the UK BET cypher. Mic Righteous has announced that he will be releasing an EP called ‘Open Mic’ in January and after his immensely impressive SB.TV session last week, I know this may well be the best we have heard from him so far…

He has also asked the True Tiger boys to remix his first single ‘Ghost Town’, which I expect will have a dubstep sound.

Cashtastic was busy on Saturday night as he shot the video to his new track ‘Alarm Clock’, tweeting: “Gunna wake the game up wid ‪#AlarmClock both song and video”, he tweeted this along with pictures from his Instagram account to give his fans a taster of what is to come.

K. Koke had a special surprise for fans last night as he had them guessing on Twitter what his ‘#KokeSurprise’ was. He then released a net video to a track called ‘Warning’, announcing that he would be releasing ‘Pure Koke Vol 3’, writing: “THE LAST PUREKOKEVOL3……… AFTER THIS IAINTPERFECT 2 D WORLD USG ATEAM RCA/ROC”. The last of the Pure Koke tapes will be out tonight at 8pm, so make sure you look out for it.

Last week we heard a bit more of what was to come from Giggs – I know I am definitely excited to hear some new music from him soon. He tweeted last Monday: “WHEN WILL IT STOP” still coming soon…” He also shot a new music video last Monday, so we should be hearing and seeing some new material from him in the immediate future.

Political Peak gave us a video of the behind-the-scenes action for his forthcoming video ‘Jump Off’ and then released the audio to the track. The club banger comes from his forthcoming ‘Dreams 2 Reality’ mixtape.

I spoke to him about the track, which sees him take a different approach his usual style: “A producer from Philadelphia came over to London to work with me. He showed me his sound that he’s got going on out there – then ‘Jump Off’ was created. The song is basically about bad girls getting treated like good girls.”

Youngs Teflon has been working hard and recently released the ‘Wrapping Ain’t Dead’ video from his ‘Tr!ll!n’ mixtape. The south London rapper has called on some UK heavyweights such as SkeptaNoLayJoe Black and Squeeks to help him out with the free 16-track mixtape

October 2, 2012

K Koke – Pure Koke Vol. 3 [Free Mixtape]

K Koke wasn’t lying when he had a surprise in store on Twitter a few days ago and announced he would be releasing the last in the Pure Koke series. Here it is for your listening pleasure, Pure Koke Vol. 3.

Download K Koke – Pure Koke Vol. 3 here

October 1, 2012

K Koke – Warning [Music Video]

K Koke gives fans a surprise as he releases the video to Warning, a track thats over a year old. The reason why the video is being released now? Because Koke announced last night that the last in the Pure Koke series will be out tonight at 8pm, and Warning will be on it.