Squingy releases a new track Everyday featuring Preecha
August 6, 2012
K Koke “The Only One” Behind the scenes footage by Avit
Avit went behind the scenes at K Koke‘s The Only One video in a secret location in East London. We interviewed Squingy and Exo about forthcoming USG projects and managed to grab a few words from Koke himself at the end of the 14 hour shoot.
Avit have collaborated with USG and launched new USG merchandise check it out on http://www.avitclothing.com
August 2, 2012
LEFTY (USG) – GANGSTERS
Lefty releases the visuals to Gangsters off the Best of Suspect ENT
July 24, 2012
MTV Wrap Up – The UK Rap Rundown
I’m back to give you what’s hot in the world of UK rap for the week. I went down to the premiere of Ice-T’s docufilm Something to Nothing: The Art of Rap and also to K. Koke’s video shoot for his track, ‘The Only One’. There have been some hot releases out this week too…
Tracks that caught my eye this week went to USG’s boss man Squingy, who released the visuals to his track ‘Find A Way‘. The production of the mini movie showed that Squingy is an artist in more ways than one.
Lady Leshurr and Paigey Cakey released a net video ‘Dam City’. As always with Leshurr, her energy was on point – you can always see her passion for what she does in every video. PDC’s Jaja Soze was joined by Diamond to rework the classic Warren G and Nate Dogg track ‘Regulate’, for ‘What If’, stimulating and empowering minds.
The official theme song to the Offenders film was also released courtesy of English Frank and featured Anamate. The film will be released in the cinema on August 8 and stars English Frank, G FrSH and Scorcher – it is definitely worth a watch.
Thursday saw the European premiere of Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap at the Hammersmith Apollo. I spotted many UK rappers there such as Sway, Wretch 32 and Jehst. The film itself took us back to the roots of how elements like battling started and talked business and the technicalities of rap. It was light-hearted throughout and very entertaining, with cheers erupting everytime a hip-hop legend graced the screen.
I went down to K. Koke’s warm up video shoot for ‘The Only One’ on Saturday in Hackney. Turning up at 3pm there were so many people there, showcasing the respect and love there is for Koke – artists such as Margs and J Spades were also present. The video itself included some very nice cars, motorbikes and of course lots of women!
I spoke to K. Koke briefly about the shoot and he said: “today is my video, it was in the hood, out of the hood, we brought the hood to another hood. This is going to come out before my first single.” Keep your eyes peeled for that one! Until next time…
July 17, 2012
Squingy ft Colours – FIND A WAY
Squingy produces the music video for his latest track Find A Way, taking us through the life of man going through tribulations and is trying to make each day better. He turns this music video into a mini movie, watch the video and follow what happens…
July 17, 2012
MTV Wrap Up – The UK Rap Rundown
Wow! It’s been a busy week in the world of UK rap and although I haven’t been to any shows this week, I have heard many stand-out tracks. There are also a few mixtapes and one very big album to look forward to in the coming months. Can you guess who I’m talking about?
A few days before Azealia Banks dropped her ‘Fantasea’ mixtape, we were given a taster of what was to come with ‘Neptune’, featuring London MC Shystie. Shystie was only one of two featured artists on the 19 track mixtape, the other artist being Styles P. Last Monday the south London hip-hop collective Caxton Press released the video to ‘Big Buck Star’ from their debut LP ‘Shame The Devil’ which is out now. Another collective from London, Piff Gang, also released their third 11-track mixtape called ‘Plant Life’. This will be the first of three projects we will see from them in the coming months, so watch this space.
The USG boys have been busy as we saw three tracks released from them last week. The first was K. Koke’s ‘Roc For Life’, featuring MMG’s Wale. I loved the rocky beat on this track and the video was a perfect match. K. Koke tweeted as it premiered, writing: “This ain’t no music video. It’s my journey from streets up!”
Next up was Exo who released the video ‘Way Back Home’ featuring singer Tom Prior – again this had a rocky beat and shows a very different side to Exo. Youngest member Geko slowed it down for ‘Best Friend’ as he reaches out to his old friend. Look out for K. Koke’s album ‘I Ain’t Perfect’ and Exo’s 7 track EP ‘The 7 Day Mile’ due in October.
Ard Adz and Sho Shallow jumped on Sneakbo’s ‘Still Breathing’ to give us a banging remix of the track, complete with a video. These two have been putting in a lot of work this year, so we should be expecting big things from them. G FrSH was joined by Yungen and Cashtastic for ‘Grown A** Boy’; giving us a taster of what is to come from his upcoming ‘Legoman II’ mixtape.
Lastly The Jump Off team recently had a debate, asking: ‘Should Grime Artists Make UK Rap?’ LaLa asked the question ‘If he keeps doing grime, is he not allowed to ever, ever experiment?’
Some of the team thought it was okay to make a few one-off tracks out of their genre, but came to the conclusion that their fans would be upset if they were to completely cross over. However, examples of artists that have crossed over successfully such as Chip and Tinie Tempah show that it is more than possible to start off as a grime artist and move to rap.
July 16, 2012
Geko – Best Friend
Youngest USG member Geko reaches out to an old friend on the phone for new track Best Friend.
July 14, 2012
Exo ft. Tom Prior – Way Back Home
Exo releases a fresh, new track featuring singer Tom Prior, Way Back Home.
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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