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...

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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,...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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MOBO Awards 2013 - 18 Years Old

The past few years I found myself slightly... unsatisfied...with the nominations and winners of some of the categories in the MOBO awards - that being said, it's hard to complain when it is one of the biggest supporters fighting in the "urban" corner of the music scene. This year however, restored some faith into me I must say. I shall explain how and why in my MOBOs 18th birthday analysis which...

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Kendrick Lamar "Diss Track"??

So I was doing that whole wake-up-scroll-through-twitter-find-out-what-the-world-is-on-today routine and my TL was full of "KENDRICK" "DRAKE" "DISS" ... "Say whaaaaaaaaaat?" was my immediate thought. I proceeded to scroll deeper into my timeline to find a link to this "diss track" and upon listening to it, it turns out Twitter was playing Chinese whispers again. Nevertheless the track...

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BBC Urban Proms 2013

Today a sample of  6 of our finest urban artists took the genre to a whole new level and switched up the BBC Proms 1 Xtra styley. Urban Classics live back in 2012 was an event but this was an occasion. The Proms have been celebrating classical music for 119 years, and tonight it invited one of the UK's least appreciated genres and let it's ambassadors show the world how we do. It really felt...

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BGV - Etta Bond and Raf Riley

This post will mean I have 2 Odd Child related posts in a row now. Don't blame me for the lack of variety. The music world hasn't been doing much worth blogging about except Magna Carta but I was too busy at the time and now the moment has passed to write about it. Plus you should know by now Odd Child tend to be a reoccurring theme in this blog because they're doing something that music desperately...

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London and Lunch With Labrinth

I don't usually post about my life on this, seeing as it's a music blog and my life is not interesting. But seeing as Tuesday was linked to music and actually quite interesting and there are loads of people that have asked me what went down, I thought I'd blog about it. In case you haven't noticed I'm still gassed. Sorry this post comes so late - Wednesday and Thursday I was chucked back...

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Cleo Sol - Borderline

After 'Never The Right Time' Cleo Sol has been on a lot of people's radar, but it seems she has been pretty much undetectable since her August dropping of 'Code To Crack' with Scrufizzer and Toddla T. Well, she is back now, and to compensate for her brief absence on the sound waves, she has given us a 3-in-1 treat with new track Boderline where she has combined Kendrick Lamar's "The Recipie", Aaliyah's...

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Trampoline - Tinie Tempah

It has been just shy of 3 and a half years since Tinie Tempah Disturbed London. He's never been a stranger to big tunes - throw yourself back to 'Tears' and 'Wifey' - but what was originally just a demo, Pass Out, had an unexpectedly HUGE impact. It dropped back in the first months of 2010 and ever since then Tinie has been riding that shockwave of success to a double platinum album, touring...

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Let Nas Down - Made Nas Proud Remix

Hip Hop is beautiful. "Let Nas Down" was the story of Cole's hurt when he found out that his first hit didn't impress his idol, Nas. Rapping about his own struggle, Nas jumped straight onto a remix and explains that he was only trying to pass on what he had learnt: "While you was writing down rhymes, I was just tryna show you/That if you say what's on your mind, you can stand the test of time" and...

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Born Sinner and Yeezus Review

Before the anticipation of the 8th of June leaked away along with both albums, when J Cole moved his release date forward to compete with the highly controversially titled product of Kanye's that is Yeezus, Born Sinner suddenly became top of my to-do list as I was fascinated to see if what J Cole had produced was actually worthy enough to compete against King Kanye (or more appropriately Lord...

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Random Access Memories - Daft Punk

I thought my first exposure to Daft Punk was in the form of "Get Lucky" only 2 weeks ago. Turns out, the song that brings back floods of childhood memories, "One More Time", is actually one of their creations. But this was a product of my research AFTER I had listened to Random Access Memories. I decided I wanted to listen to Random Access Memories before I properly researched anything else Daft Punk...

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Dot Rotten - Voices In My Head

As Dot's first studio album, it's a decent body of work. I was actually surprised with a couple of the tracks on the album. Obviously as his first album since commercial success, it was bound to be more varying sound to reach out to more people, but considering the tracks Dot has released as singles, I still wasn't really expecting Dot to deliver some of the tracks he did. The first part of the album...

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Lay Her Down - Skepta ft. Kano

So Skepta decided to hook up with KKK-AAAA and make an extended version to the vibe that is 'Lay Her Down', from Blacklisted, which he is now putting on his new upcoming album (yay), Konnichiwa. I've seen a few of the oh-so-typical "this ain't a grime track reh reh reh" comments ...well no one said it was so shhhhhhhhh and let the 80's flavours soak into your veins and feel the music. The vibe...

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Miguel - How Many Drinks ft. Kendrick Lamar

Miguel goes down in the book with the likes of Bobby Valentino in the chapter of borderline offensive lines that still weirdly sound romantic. I'd say Bobby Valention's: "Slow down, I just wanna get to know you, but don't turn around 'cos that pretty round thing is good to me" makes you feel at least a bit more 'worth it' than "you look good, and yeah I got money but I don't wanna waste...

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Goodbye JLS :'(

I'M EMOTIONAL YOU KNOW. WHO SAID YOU CAN'T HAVE YOUR IPOD ON SHUFFLE AND BE LISTENING TO RUFF SQWAD - XTRA ONE MINUTE AND JLS - BEAT AGAIN THE NEXT?  12:05 am and I'm sitting just watching the Homes Under The Hammer I recorded (you ain't about the Homes Under The Hammer on series link life and what... say suttin...I'm not a weirdo - just versatile) and I have a look on twitter and someone...

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GFrsh - Legoman II Mixtape

FIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! On terms of consistency, range and overall mad vibes - Legoman II has hit the spot. The sun has finally decided to show itself and this mixtape couldn't have come at a better time because mateeeee - these tracks + summer vibes = yes.  So far, it's the UK mixtape of 2013 (yeah, it's only April, but if there are going to be any UK releases this year that will rob GFrsh of...

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Angel - About Time

If this album is your first experience of Angel, you'll think of him covered in tats, rocking the Trapstar hoodie and sporting the Nike Air Max - then you'll ready yourself to nod your head to a few gully beats underneath his stories of the struggle. Press play on his debut album and you will hear the sultry sounds of Angel's vocal pouring out your speakers and coating your eardrums. Not to say...

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