I write about music and stuff...

Thursday 28 November 2013

Throwback Thursday: Akala - 'Dat Boy' and Thieves Banquet Tour

So yesterday I went to see King Akalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala (aka Akala) and his support act and newly dreaded up Sir Josh Oshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshoshosho (aka Josh Osho) at Nottingham's Rock Citytytytytytytytytytytytyty (yeah, I'll stop now) as part of Akala's Thieves Banquet Tour.

In the humble setting of one of the smaller halls of Rock City, Josh took the stage on a oSHO ting...okay, maybe not quite in such a fashion but I didn't want to waste a good punchline so yeah...
He actually made his way on to the stage by squeezing between me and my friend (who I had dragged along) at the front of the crowd (obviously I, Miss eager beaver, was right at the front), turning to say sorry (like a proper cute little gentleman) as he pulled his guitar past us. With what was probably a smaller crowd then the other venues of the tour, he handled it like a true professional and managed to win over the somewhat, rowdier less engaged members of the crowd, using just the sultry sounds from his lips, symphonies constructed by just the six strings on his guitar and a dose or two of satire. I actually do think this is as a credit to Osho's skills as an artisst and performer considering he: 
    1. was the support act
    2. was an act that who's vibe was much more calmer than the one much of the crowd came to see (which isn't a bad thing for me but perhaps is for others) 
    3. sang songs that were pretty much unknown to those that aren't big Osho fans (sadly there was no 'Redemption Days') which you'd think would make it harder as a crowd member to connect but the pure conviction and soul he saaaaaaaaaaangs with in his performance took care of that.
Now, I must say I am convinced that Akala morphed into a fly earlier that day and followed me around to eavesdrop on the tunes that had been pumping through my headphones and then put them all on the setlist (which he changes for every night of the tour) because it consisted of 90% of my top Akala songs. Although even if the set list wasn't full of many of my favourites I would have left the gig on the exact same vibe: empowered. 

If you already rate Akala, seeing him live is a whole new level. Sitting in front of YouTube watching his Fire In The Booths and being blown away by the outstanding flow, character and most significantly content, is a feeling magnified 100 times when the man himself is right in front of you and a crowd revved up with passion for his words surrounds you. It definitely brings an additional impact to what you get when you listen through your headphones as you journey over to your friends house. Speaking of such journeys, during some of my own, I sometimes used question why Akala uses the instrumentals he does. Why did I question them? Because I always felt they were slightly more rock-like than you'd expect from a Hip-Hop artist (although Hip Hop is really about the words) and could be a bit more epic and add energy to what he was saying. I put the reasoning down to the fact that the choice of instrumentals was probably a method to enable his message to spread to a wider audience, ensure you focus on the words more rather than an overpowering instrumental and helped portray his frustration and insubordination through a more angry rocky beat. Upon seeing him live, I identified another reason: the percussion provided plenty more power. The nature of Akala's music is really meant to be performed live - as a teacher, his lessons have even more capacity when given to you in person. Live music always multiplies the vibe, but in Akala's music the vibe explodes and it's residue sinks into you and I think the thrashy, energetic instrumentals (performed with the help of Cassell The Beatmaker) played a considerably decent part in this. 

I couldn't pin down my favourite performance but the most fun were definitely 'Pompous Pete' and 'The Thieves Banquet' where the enertainment factor was contributed to on multiple levels including Akala's acting skills. Now I thought I'd present you with a video of the night but sadly upon re-watching it my dodgy filming skills and the fact cameras couldn't capture the energy bouncing around the room that night. But oh well, in honour of Throwback Thrusday I bring you 'Dat Boy Akala' from the 'A Little Deeper' mixtape he release with sister Ms Dynamitee-hee which was one of his earlier pieces that evidenced his high level MC-ing capabilities as well as his concious lyricism.

Even if this video doesn't quite put across the levels of energy that I have tried to explain in this post, please please please get down to an Akala show in the near future because it is definitely worth it.




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Monday 25 November 2013

Music Video Monday: Pharrell - Happy


When it comes to Pharrell the words "artist", "genius" and "how does he look so god darn fine at forty" come to mind.

2013 has seen the strong (possibly even stronger than his anti-ageing cream) return of Pharrell, as he managed to hold down world wide number ones with his collaborations with Daft Punk of 'Get Lucky' and Robin Thicke and TI on 'Blurred Lines'. But 2013 isn't over. In fact there are about 864 hours left of 2013. And you can spend 24 of them watching Pharrell's latest project - Happy - the first ever 24 hour music video.

The words that may come to mind now are "Ain't nobody got time fo' dat". I mean come on Pharrell, a man like you, who must have a paaaaaaaacked schedule, should know more than the average person that time is precious. Some of us have work/college/school/eating/Eastenders/sleep/lives to be getting on with. But the concept isn't as outlandish as it first seems. The level of thought that has been put into this, evidenced by the little details that make it such a fun and interactive experience, has nurtured it something pretty cool.

Get yourself onto www.24hoursofhappy.com and someone will be dancing away on your screen along to the catchy (but not annoying... yet) 'Happy', a track that you may recognise from Despicable Me 2 (that's if you're wise - unlike me who decided that 'The Conjuring' would be a more fun and worthwhile choice of movie to watch). The video is essentially 24 hours of people dancing. Every 4 minutes or so the song will end, someone new will take the stage, the song will start again and they will take their turn to infect you with a bit of cheer as they shuffle, shake, slip, and slide. Some of these will be familiar faces like Tyler the Creator, just your average person from down the road or at hourly intervals that person busting a few moves across your monitor will be Pharrell himself and you can use the 'P' buttons on the 'clock thing' to skip to the parts with just him. This 'clock thing' is a clever little thing that helps you skip through to any point of the video and uses the changing sunset and sunrise times to ensure that when the video starts up on your screen it corresponds with real time and what's outside. So basically, if you find yourself depressed that you've only just got home from work at 17:58 and the light of day has already left us, go and watch Happy to cheer yourself up and the person bopping away on the screen will also have a dark sky behind him that mirrors the one outside your window. Is it just me that finds little things like this really really cool?

With naked Kim Kardashians on motor bikes and naked Miley Cyrus' on giant wrecking balls being hailed as revolutionary artistic music video master pieces, it's nice to see something simple, innocent and fun land in our laps. Kim Kardashian naked on film isn't exactly a new concept (yeah, I said it, what say suttinwhat) so even if you think the idea of a 24 hour music video that no one will ever watch all the way through is pointless, you can't say it hasn't been done before.
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Sunday 24 November 2013

Wretch 32 - Daily Duppy

It's Sunday. A day of reflection. So let us recall one event of the week in particular. Wednesday. The day of the storm. The storm that ripped up the UK rap scene. Wretch 32's Daily Duppy. 



There is a reason I have always loved Wretch. He has been my favourite UK Rapper since "End Scene" days where his story telling skills first captured me. On a lyrical front Wretch the Wordsmith has always been untouchable and it's the very reason I feel he is underrated by so many - because his lines simply go over too many people's heads. It's such a shame because there is nothing like sitting on the bus and getting that gas mark 100000000 feeling after uncovering the double (sometimes even triple) meanings hidden amongst the bars - and I can assure you there is not one artist that has got me pausing, rewinding, looping the track as much as Wretch has so I can bask in that very feeling. That's probably why I still haven't got over his Daily Duppy. Until Wednesday I didn't actually think it was possible for him to elevate any higher on the lyrical front. The wordplay was unmissable (quite literally as good ol' GRM daily illustrated it all for us) and if BBM didn't flop then I could predict with 99.9999% confidence that my recent updates would be full of lines taken from this very masterpiece (amongst the odd 'pop up I'm bored'). After taking a few deep breaths and getting over the content, you can then begin to appreciate that full power in the punch does not finish in his words, but lives on in the charisma that leaks out of his delivery and that strong flow - both of which have always been present in his work (if you need proof listen to his Woo Riddim Freestyle), but have also been upgraded, continuing with this theme of growth which we can clearly witness.

I forget in which interview, but I remember when talking on the topic of his achievements, him saying: "it's less celebrating and more elevating". He is improving with success. He reversed the formulae. Charts have changed him - but for the better. He's not sitting around getting too comfortable and allowing himself to slack. That's the kind of mindset that will get him the attention of the US scene. The attention and recognition he definitely deserves because if he was from the USA, this Daily Duppy would have the world going mad.

NOW CAN I GET AN AHHHHHHHHHHHH YEAH


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Friday 8 November 2013

Mercston - Back To 95

So it seems 'The Movement' (that's Wretch, Ghetts, Scorcher and Mercston by the way) are all back to...well making musical movements really. There was talk a couple of years ago about a reunion mixtape from them, but evidently that wasn't followed through and the members continued to work on individual projects. Then along came this summer and they hooked up to give us a 'Fire in the Booth', a 'Car Check', but still no confirmation of any big plans to produce a musical something-something to get us all nostalgic. But it seems Mercston has got it covered and has thrown us back even further than the Movement Days by bringing us 10 Garage infused tracks on his new release.

Now before you do, don't expect classics like "Bring You Flowers" or "Please Don't Turn Me On". It would be silly to even expect that from:
  1. Grime artist 
  2. Any artist in 2013 -  the genre isn't as significant anymore so that level of vibe just can't replicated right now.
But what Mercston has managed to produce are brand spanking new tracks that have the authenticity to pass as actual tracks that would have been floating around all those years ago have you time travelling back to a decade or so. Therefore, its safe to say it is clear that he has successfully replicated the sound and vibe of the good old days and he has done what he set out to do - take us "Back to '95".

There is a great deal of risk surrounding the mixtape which has so wonderfully paid off. For one, there was a risk of mocking the genre in effort to replicate it's sound - it is like doing a cover of a classic song. Thankfully he captured the right energy. There is also risk of not recieving a good reaction to bringing something so new to the table - especially when "new" comes not in the form of diverse beats or multiple flows, but in the form of, well, the old. It did help that he managed to do do the 'old' properly but no matter what the quality, with anything slightly different there is always the risk of a hostile reception. Personally, I like different. Especially when it's good different. So mercy Mr Mercy-Mercston for the fresh dose of old skool and letting the vibes get H'IIIIIIINSSSSSSIDEEEE my body!
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