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2014 has begun with a bang in the world of UK rap. Firstly lets begin with Krept & Konan whose show we attended at 02 Islington Academy on December 28 and featured guests included Chip, Yungen, G FrSH and Sneakbo who performed ‘Jetski Wave’, Gracious Kthe ‘Migraine Skank’ and Wretch 32 ‘Traktor’ for us. The crowd went absolutely mental especially for ‘Lord Forgive Me’, ‘M.D.M.A’ and ‘Don’t Waste My Time’.

At the end we were treated to the first listen of the official ‘Don’t Waste My Time’ remix featuring Chip, Fekky, Wretch 32, French Montana and Chinx Drugz. The audio is now out now and has got a wicked response, with French also putting another remix with Lil Durk on his ‘Coke Boys 4’ mixtape which is amazing for a US artist to take a UK track and cover it also keeping the hook the same. This will help the guys get recognition out in the US and 2014 should be bigger for them than 2013. (They were also on 1Xtra’s Hot for 2014 list).

Yesterday another remix dropped of ‘Don’t Waste My Time’ this was from Play Dirty member Yungen and Play Hard’s Sneakbo. Yungen spits, “Krept and Kon didn’t bother put me on the remix, won’t catch me bitching cuz their my n****’s.”

Two South London native’s Sho Shallow and Ard Adz have really got off to a good start this year dropping their new mixtape ‘Salute Me Or Shoot Me 2’ which is 20 tracks deep and include features from Goldie 1, Jaja Soze, Wholagun and STP with production from Ayo Beatz, HT Beats, Westy Beats and more. Before the tape dropped they also released a video off there, ‘Laugh Out Loud’, warming everyone up for it.

Young Adz is one I’ve been keeping an eye on for some time as he is very talented and I think has a bright future. Last year hip-hop legend Jadakiss also noticed him and signed him to D Block Europe. Young Adz has begun the year in the right way and that’s dropping some new material in the form of new video ‘#HellaThings’ and hopefully he has lots more lined up for us.

DVS took to channel PressPlay to announce that he has moved the date back only by just over a week for his new mixtape ‘London Boy American Dreaming’ to January 13. He also revealed the track listing which has some big collaborations and got me quite excited, they include Ard Adz, Sho Shallow, Sneakbo, Youngs Teflon, Wretch 32, Young Spray, Krept & Konan, Squeeks, Joe Black, G FrSH, J Spades and more. Although dropping at the beginning of the year this may be one of the best 2014 has to offer, we’ve got to wait a whole year to see!

Three of the STP team from South London also dropped a banger for us last week. This street track titled ‘Heaven Or Hell’ refixed Luniz ‘I Got Five On It’. With Mitch and Timbo handling the verses and Cass the hook they definitely did the song justice.

I also want to shout out Scrufizzer who over the last week has delivered two songs on his Soundcloud. He really deserves to do well as his consistency and quality of work has always remained solid. He released a preview just over a minute long of perhaps his next single produced by Preditah ‘Flow Don-Don’, which sounds great. He also put out a more mellow full track ‘No Need 2 Rush’ with a West Coast vibe on the production and sees him talking about love.