Squeeks is joined by singer Tom Prior and MckNasty to perform their track I Ain’t Gonna Beg in this live session. Check it out.
October 30, 2012
Maxsta ft Squeeks & Ghetts – Pop Off Remix [Music Video]
Squeeks and Ghetts jump on the remix of Maxsta‘s Pop Off which will also be on his forthcoming Gear 6 mixtape.
October 8, 2012
Benny Banks feat. Dappy, Squeeks & Joe Black – Who’s The Daddy (Remix) [Music Video]
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.
September 11, 2012
MTV Wrap UP: The UK Rap Rundown [News]
I’m back after a week’s holiday in the beautiful country of Croatia for Outlook Festival, where I caught Akala’s set and the Don’t Flop Battle alongside much more. I had no technology out there, which was wonderful, thus missing my last week’s rap column. I’m back now and here to fill you with this week’s happenings in the wonderful world of rap…
Whilst I was away a new Rapper Tag UK came out. Rapper Tag has been going on for just under a year and is an online cypher that started off with Mystro. You get a wide array of the UK’s finest spitting their bars before tagging another deserving rapper to join in.
Dubbledge tagged Iron Brayd for the latest one, who at the end appears to tag in North London’s M9 aka Melanin 9… watch out for his Rapper Tag video.
Political Peak released his video for ‘Tears In The Rain’ featuring Exo who sings the hook. The track is taken from his forthcoming mixtape ‘Dreams To Reality’, which is set to drop on September 29. You can catch Political Peak supporting the Maybach Music tour on Wednesday.
Ratlin and Squeeks joined forces for their new video ‘Not Gonna Change’ featuring singer Karina, bringing us into their world and discussing the past and present. True Tiger released their EP ‘Eye Of The Tiger Vol 2’ with one noticeable track for me called ‘Even In Death’, which hears Mic Righteous spitting over the producers beat.
Rap City recently released a video from their ‘Lost Files’ series. ‘Not Guilty’ comes from Joe Black’s ‘Realionaire’ mixtape which came out last year. We should be seeing Joe’s ‘Realionaire 2’ soon as he recently tweeted:, “NO MORE TWEETS UNTIL #REALIONAIRE2 IS READY.”
The multi-talented artist/radio presenter/battle rapper Mr 13 brought us a video release called ‘Kick Back Part 2’, which was shot at the 2012 Nottinghill Carnival and comes from his recent EP ‘Pain Is Inevitable, Suffering Is Optional’.
I was at the USG clothing shoot on last week with Squingy, Lefty, K. Koke and Exo for their new merchandise collaboration with Avit Clothing. Squingy was also shooting parts of his music video to the track ‘Deeper’ from his ‘Wrighty’s 1st Son Part 2’ mixtape. Watch out for the music video to ‘Deeper’ coming soon!
If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, head down to Peterborough for the Boombap Hip-Hop Festival, which takes place between the 14-16 September and features artists such as Kyza Smirnoff, Dabbla, Phi-Life Cypher and Jehst.
Until next time!
August 24, 2012
MTV Wrap Up: The UK Rap Rundown [News]
In last week’s column I gave you some info on Professor Green’s Twitter rants. This week, he and Akala went head-to-head with one another on the social networking site. Pro Green hit out at Akala after he used him as an example of white rappers depicting black culture in music, referencing Pro Green’s ‘Jungle’ negatively. Akala threw Maverick Sabre’s name in, who featured on the track, during the heated twitter discussion which led him to release a statement – read more here…
Clement Marfo also went on Twitter to show his frustration at his record label recently, explaining that him and his band The Frontline’s album should have been released last autumn; yet there is still no release date. He then leaked five of his album tracks for free to his fans.
Last Monday I headed down to the Jump Off Finals at Scala, London. The MC battle was a very close one, but in the end Tenchoo was the winner of the 5K prize. The producer battle wasn’t quite as close and most people had decided on the winner Loko (Black Ice) from the first round. Dance crew Prototype won the 10K prize, the biggest of the night. Congratulations to all of the contestants for getting so far.
Squeeks has been releasing a lot of visuals this month; this week alone he has put out two. The first one is ‘Meet K’ where he talks us through a story of a female. The second one ‘I Got You’ was released yesterday and is a refix of The Weeknd’s ‘Rolling Stone’ – it’s definitely one for the ladies!
Wretch 32 released his freestyle ‘Drinking In The Sky’ featuring Chip, giving us a teaser of what to expect from his mixtape ‘Wretchercise’ the next day. This was his first full-length project in a year since his album ‘Black & White’. I have to say every one of the 17 tracks on it is strong and makes me excited for his next album.
SN1’s Gunna Dee also tells us why he likes ‘Bad Girls’ on the first video from his ‘Happy Hustler’s Day’ mixtape. The track features Angel who gives us a catchy hook.
There was said to be an interesting mixture of people in the studio last week as Shystie, Scorcher, Exo and Red Skull Beats joined Vince Kidd for what I believe will be a remix of one of his tracks – as usual, keep your ears and eyes peeled ‘til next time!
August 19, 2012
Squeeks – I Got You [Music Video]
Squeeks drops the video for I Got You, which is a refix of The Weeknd‘s Rolling Stone and you can get off his Call Me Squeeko mixtape.
August 15, 2012
MTV Wrap Up – The UK Rap Rundown [News]
To kick this week’s Rap Rundown off, lets talk gossip. Professor Green went on a bit of a Twitter rant last week, lashing out at his label, writing: “Why would your own record label hinder you? Answers on a postcard.” He then went on to say “Dignified silence is pointless. A rushed second single, the ‘Remedy’ video a month late and now similar problems with the ‘Avalon’ video unfold…”
Answering some people’s tweets, he added: “Just to reiterate something for the stupid, my problem isn’t that they take that money, it’s that there are people not working for it.” Obviously he was frustrated, but he did point out that “there are a lot of people who are amazing at their jobs @ EMI.” I think Pro G was just about to quit smoking and was rather stressed at the time, so maybe his label won’t take it to heart!
London has been buzzing with energy and major events since the Olympics began. On Saturday I went down to Puma Yard in Brick Lane to catch one of my favourite bands, Clement Marfo + The Frontline. They wowed the crowd yet again, bursting with energy and getting us all moshing. Professor Green headlined the gig; but we got a surprise as Usain Bolt turned up to DJ with Manny Norte. I also attended the RWD x Adidas party, which was at a secret location in Shoreditch. Performances there came from Wretch 32, Scorcher, Bashy and more…
The USG team have kept the tracks coming strong, with Squingy releasing a track featuring Preecha entitled ‘Everyday’. Their youngest member Geko also released a net video for the track ‘Life Ain’t Easy’. It’s safe to say that the team are definitely putting in the work.
With the Olympics closing ceremony taking place and the Paralympics due to start, Calibar showed some love for his hometown, giving us ‘It’s A London Thing’ featuring Splurgeboys. We also saw an SB.TV Warm Up Session from him over the ‘Stay Schemin’ beat, where he spat: “Excuse me for being late on this beat, I’ve been away for half a year, meeting after meeting just planning my career.”Squeeks talked about the developments in his music career when he dropped the visuals to ‘Changes’. Political Peak had a similar theme in mind as he talked progress and perseverance on his new track ‘Tables Turned’, which is the first track from his forthcoming mixtape ‘Dreams 2 Reality’ which will be available on September 1.The rapper everyone has been talking about, J Spades, has been in the studio with Tinchy Stryder and they have already shot the video to their new track titled ‘Lead Role’ – make sure you watch out for that one coming soon!
August 14, 2012
Squeeks – Meet K
Squeeks releases a new track where he talks us through a story of a girl in Meet K, the visuals are courtesy of SB.TV
July 9, 2012
MTV Wrap Up – THE UK RAP RUNDOWN
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.
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