I write about music and stuff...

Tuesday 24 December 2013

Mr Bigz - My Funked Up Soul *Mixtape*

It's been about a year since we last heard from Bigz, one of the UK's finest HipHop veterans who we've seen steadily working up the ranks since Channel U days, but a couple of weeks back (yes I know - I'm a bit late) under his new more grown alias of Mr Bigz, he brought us a slice of the equally matured sounds of 80s soul flavoured with 90's HipHop flows and wit.

Skilfully produced completely by Turkish Dycypha, the mixtape is far from secreting the stench of "trying too hard" to imitate the sounds of the big hair and parachute pants days. Instead, it radiates the redolence of the reminiscent vibes that would have been floating about the studio, conjuring memories of the times when it was all simple and easy. Vibes which have seeped into the songs and given us 16 tracks of perfect Sunday morning easy listening material. It seems Mr Bigz's recent, and might I add: APPLAUDABLE, grind in the gym has not only helped him drop a few stone but also bad vibes as they're non existent amongst the witty wordplay, fun flows and hints of humour that you'll find in every track. It's seriously refreshing to have a whole EP of laid back, yet quality, tracks that do nothing but make me want to walk down the road in a Soul Train esque manner as I make my way to college.

Although I am not oblivious to music before my time (it would be rude not to be), as someone who is too young to have lived to remember anything even near times that these type of sounds originate from, I really enjoyed the authentic samples. Amongst the familiar ones used such as Mary Jane Girls' "All Night Long" which I recognised from LL Cool J's old school shenanigans, the not so familiar samples gave me an excuse to geek out, get my research orrrrrrn and expand my musical horizons so fist bumps all round for that Mr Bigzyyyyy and Turkish Dycypha.

My only qualms with this mixtape is the line in 'Trouble Man': "We only see shadows in the dark"  because you need light to produce shadows and the line lead me to getting into such a deep mental debate over this fact on the bus that I got so caught up in it and almost missed my stop. But apart from that rather picky criticism, Mr Bigz has beautifully united the funkaaaaaay sounds of soul and hard flows and lyricism of real Hip Hop into an EP strong enough to make it into my favourites of 2013. I'll probably be still pumping this as we make our way to 2014 because, and I can't stress this enough, it's so so effortless and eaaaaaaaaaaaaasy to listen to! It's also nice to hear something different coming from the UK scene - the absence of collaborations perhaps prove this; in that there wasn't anyone quite riding the same wave as Bigz and therefore worthy of being featured. I'm glad he has kept 'making good music' at the heart of the project and didn't sacrifice a feature of an artist that didn't quite get 'it' in order to reach out to their fanbases for a bit more buzz. Instead, he has poured a '100% pure with bits' glass of himself into the project ensuring the vibe he was feeling was channelled into a great mixtape.

If you haven't already then get downloading/streaming at www.mrbigz.co.uk 

PS. Merry Christmas innit :D
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Monday 23 December 2013

Music Video Monday: ICEY - Skepta

Skeppy has let his creative juices spill over every inch of this project. Not only did he produce the song with Jason and Hooks, he also directed, with the help of Kritikal, the intriguing visual (albeit not as..."intriguing" as the 'All Over The House' video) which kills two birds with one stone with it being a platform to promote his new song and new clothing range. As a result of this efficiency, what we find before us on our screens is what is probably the hoodest catwalk ever.

In the spirit of being ICEY, the video was FRESHLY dropped into our laps less than 24 after Skepta and Kritikal had spent 26-odd hours creating it. It basically consists of Joseph Junior and co. walking up and down, rocking his golden-JME-pendant inspired (think back to: "She said she's in love with my Jesus piece. I told her to look a bit closer, it's not Jesus baby it's JAY EM EE") jumpers/t-shirts. It's not the most outrageous thing you'll ever see yet you'll find your eyes unexpectedly glued to the screen. It may have something to do with the visual being tailored so it wasn't solely an advert for the clothing range but still held relevance to the song and this was achieved just by adding in the little details like Yardy walking up the catwalk with the belt every time the track plays "still trying to get the championship belt of Yardy" - seesimple.

In regards to the song: it's okay. It grows on me the more I listen to it. It's not his hardest but it's enough for it to resemble what you'd imagine the backing track for 'Super Mario Bros: Tuggggg Edition' would be. It's not clear if the song is going to be a single or an album track but if it's just a song to go along with the promo for his clothes then it more than does it's job.

Check out the video below.
If you want to get your hands on the clothing then hit up: attackthezombies.com/
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Saturday 14 December 2013

Beyonce - BEYONCE Album

Recently my posts have been dropped here and there because, well, I've been busy. Atleast that is what I thought I was until Beyonce dropped an album of 14 songs and 17 visuals all whilst she was rehearsing for/performing a world tour, being one of the biggest international stars of our generation, a wife oh and a mother too. I then thought maybe I could spare a chunk of my now-not-so-busy schedule to write a word or two on "BEYONCE" - the album.


If you've watched Beyonce's biographical movie "Life Is But A Dream" you will be aware of the pure blood, sweat, tears and time from her years that she puts into a single performance. Multiply this by the amount of songs on her set list and then multiply this again by the one-hundred-odd shows she is doing around the world and you'll find yourself on a cloud of confusion floating around the question of how the hell did she even find time to (co)write an album, get into the studio to lay down the vocals and play about with them to fix them into an actual song, and then film 17 visuals to accompany all of this. God knows how she did it, but she has done didded it anyway. Perhaps she invested into new cutting edge scientific research around how to stop time, or maybe she has cloned herself, or maybe we are taking too much credit away from her work ethic, which seems to be even crazier than we first thought. It is this very work ethic that has got her to such a point that her marketing team can kick back for a bit and watch as she crashes iTunes with an album she dropped just like that with no promo. It is this very work ethic that drives her to pull such stunts to make sure that no one will be catching up to her any time soon as she, not only reaches but, surpasses the top of the game.

Before I even got to the visuals, I listened first. This was because I was intrigued to see if the focus on the visuals and the fact she has been so busy doing pretty much everything else, was going to take away from the quality of music. (I assure you my reluctance to not watch the visuals first did not stem from the fact I had to get to college and I didn't have time to let the videos sync on my iPod before I left the house). The album begins with "Pretty Hurts" - a song about society's pressures on the average human being to be perfect. Now if I'm going to be honest, a message about it's what is inside that counts and that "the soul needs the surgery" is all well and good and I'm ALL about self worth and stuff, but when it comes from one of the most visually appealing women in the world, who doesn't really exaggerate her natural beauty, the message is a tad bitter-sweet. Then again, I remembered that she is human and even she will feel self concious from time to time and she is under 10000 times more scrutiny than your average Susan Smith and maybe I should cut her some slack. Soz B. Anyway, as you get deeper into the album all that socially concious, deep stuff (as much as I do love a good uplifting message) fades into the background as in the second song she tells us she is "sold not for sale, probably won't make no money of this but oh well" implying that this album is more than just her doing her job as a musician and stacking a few bills from it, but it is in fact a statement of art. It seems interesting then that what's to follow on in the song and for the next few tracks is basically Beyonce's freaky side as she takes us through the more hot and sweaty parts of her life. For instance "Can you lick my skittles, that's the sweetest in the middle, pink that's the flavour, solve the riddle" is definitely not about coming home from work on a Tuesday night and stabbing up the plastic film on a microwave meal for one. Recently I have been reliving the sounds of my favourite Beyonce album, B'Day, and these songs have very much reflected the energy she channelled back then - from the bouncy, fun instrumentals to the kinky-er, "Kitty Kat" esque lyrics.

By the time we get to track 7, the tone changes as she begins to question her relationship with Jay-Z, sings about jealous suspicions and in "Mine", a track shared with Drake, she talks of the strains of a long distance relationship. By "XO" we can be reassured that Jigga and Beyonce are fine though *phew* and are still deeply in love."***Flawless", the following track, shows that in light of this, she's back on top of the world again and instructs us to "BOW DOWN B*TCHES B*TCHES". Rather than this being just an extremely un-modest declaration of her superiority, it also doubles up as a feminist statement of female suppression by males (although I think Queen B can be a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to her "independent woman" empowerment malarkey). Her next track features Mr Frank Ocean and continues to tell us the love story of her and Jay-Z. At this point I realised that since reaching the midway point of the album, her sound has become much more grown and serious and it increasingly resembles her last 2 albums. If I hadn't realised by then, I would have definitely been hit by this change in her penultimate track where she tells the heart breaking story of the loss of her unborn child. The final track titled "Blue", which is about, yep you guessed it, Blue Ivy, brings the whole album to an end but signifies the beginning of a new chapter in her life: Motherhood.

Upon reaching the end, I thought back to her statement in her second track with it's implications of this self titled compilation being art and it all made sense. The album is a biographical experience that lets us into her 2 most important jobs: being a wife and being a mother. It begins with "Pretty Hurts" which explains her coming to terms and adjustment to media's challenges as she rocketed to fame. This is the only track that directly discusses her career because the bulk of her life really revolves around her other half, and this is why this love story is what dominates the content of the album. The channelling of those "B'Day" album vibes is a symbol of reminiscence over her and Jay-Z's relationship when it was in the young, fun, honeymoon period. Bang on in the middle of the album the sound matures as we move into the next chapter of her life and we get a peek into the stresses and strains of keeping a relationship strong but we also see the rewards of making it work. Only the 2 final tracks are dedicated to motherhood, because this is the part of her journey she has only just begun.

I am glad I did listen before I watched because I feel I would have missed out on so much had I just watched the visuals...mainly because they pretty much all consist of Beyonce half naked and I'd probably get distracted by all the twisted moral - yeah I said it! Considering that a lot inspiration can be drawn from this project in terms of work ethic etc. it worries me that Beyonce, mother, wife and idol to many girls, chose to leave a little less to the imagination in these videos. It makes me wonder why we condemn Rihanna for doing the things Beyonce does despite Rihanna being in a more justifiable place (even though it still isn't justified) to do it (i.e. being less of a household name, international sweetheart, not a mother or a wife). To be honest all of Beyonce's videos seem to go along the theme of her behind a camera doing a dance routine or something, but I felt with this album she had a chance to get artistic and paint a more vivid story with the visuals. The videos dissapointed me because yet again I'm getting mixed moral messages from B and I feel sorry for the many people that have missed out on the real story running through the music because they went straight to the videos and were hypnotised by her jiggiling gluteus maximus.

Aside from the videos which I felt let her down and in my eyes stripped a little credibility from the album, the rest is GOOD quality. The production of the songs, the vocals and the actual story - it's nice to finally have a true album that is honest from Beyoncé. The only thing that could have made this more epic for me is, as you may have guessed, BETTER visuals and perhaps an ending video with a 5 second shot of Jay-Z sitting in a chair, smugly puffing on a cuban cigar and then all you hear is the *Jigga Laugh*.
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