I feel like a bit of an idiot for not knowing about ESH earlier. I mean yeah, yeah, sure, sure I can’t be Queen Hip-Hop all the time but come on. We all have our roles within HHLAT. Stix’s role is to never sleep, know every rapper ever in the UK that’s made an 8 bar in the last 15 years, and my role to get excited about breathing, and to know every rapper ever that makes weird and/or angry bars. Matt’s is to talk shit on our podcast and beatbox. See, roles?
Well I clearly fell asleep on my duties. ESH is an urgent and angry rapper; in the sense that you can get the feeling he really has no time for bullshit, and extra frills. ‘Merica’ is a track ESH recorded alongside DJ Keal & Hibe for their new album Borderless. The track really shows off their varied set of skills when it comes to instrumentation and production; a healthy mix of early 2000 to present. Not something that’s always done well, but they pulled it off really, really well.
On first listen you might mistake dude for just another snotty nosed rapper. Well yeah, he is a snotty rapper (and I love it) but he’s also got a lot of unique skill, pretty macabre lyrical content without being offensive just for the sake of it, and here’s the kicker, he’s actually saying things. You have to keep up with ESH because whilst you can easily sit there and bop your head (not a bad thing), he’s just said ten different things, and you missed it. You know, things that aren’t just ‘cat, sat, mat, bitches, bling lala’. Hoohoo well obviously we wouldn’t post it if he wasn’t.
Words: Aimee
On the 26th of this month, ESH will be releasing a brand new free EP entitled ‘Nightworks’ with producer The Arcitype (AR Classic / Duck Down Records). Featuring Ceschi, Romen Rok, and Fran-P.
For fans of the 17th, Fokis, BLESTeNATION, Mike Mictlan.
US emcee Harn SOLO performing the song, “Name & Fame” in London. Traveling the United Kingdom during 2012 Olympic Games, Harn SOLO finds himself at the London Bridge delivering fan favourite vocals, “Solo-lo-lo”.
Name & Fame closes off a great year of music and visuals from Harn SOLO. Look forward to his new album “Journey To The Sky” coming January — 2013.
Harn SOLO – “Shooting Star” album produced by Pro Prospek
East London rapper and spoken-word artist The Ruby Kid (hands up who likes me saying exactly where the artists are from?) has recently released his second EP ‘Strange Lively & Commonplace’, teaming up once again with producer and DJ Dan Angell. The EP is only 4 tracks long, and serves as a bridge between his first EP ‘Maps’, and his much lengthier record ‘Maps II’ which will be out next year (12 months eh? Well that sure narrows it down).
As I mentioned previously, this is only 4 tracks long, which immediately felt too short for me. Not only did it not outstay its welcome, I was actually annoyed it wasn’t longer. Not a big feat considering its length you might stay? Well trust me, I’ve heard 4 minute songs that outstayed their welcome after the first 90 seconds-so yes a feat, a considerable one.
From the very outset of the title track the change in pace, style and even flow of this record in relation to The Ruby Kid’s earlier material is obvious. I don’t want to say it’s more ‘poppy’ or ‘melodic’, because that doesn’t really mean anything, and would do a disservice to Dan Angell’s production skills. Which by the way; really shines through on this release. However it does sound like The Ruby Kid has cut away with some unnecessary elements within his songwriting, and style. What those elements are, I can’t quite explain to you; but hey man it’s art yeah. You try to describe what a circle looks like to someone who’s never seen shapes…Yeah deep. You’ll just have to listen to it won’t you? Back to the change of pace, style and flow. It’s not to say the dude isn’t still extremely abstract, and surreal because he is, and quite frankly he wouldn’t be the same rapper if he wasn’t. There’s just a significant change in style that will only notice when played next to his previous releases.
It sadly took me two listens to realise that the characters ‘Amanda’ and ‘Benny’ in ‘Benny & The Crow’ were about actually drugs (An East London spoken-word artist talking about drugs, who’d have thought it?) Unless, they are people and not drugs? Maybe they are people and aren’t, all at the same time! ZOMGZ MY BRAIN! NOTHING IS REAL ANYMORE! But I doubt it. Aside from having my mind blown, the lyrical imagery is fantastic in this song and perfectly pinpoints the feeling of being high on naughty things you shouldn’t be. Although this isn’t a one time occurrence (the imagery I mean, not the drugs. A boom, boom schh). Each track on the EP is its own little vignette in its own right, and fits perfectly next to the other. Ruby Kid’s storytelling, and his use of descriptive language have really upped a level on this EP, and I hope he can mix in this new progression with his previous work, for ‘Maps II’.
I was also really excited to see that Sensei C from H.L.I makes a guest appearance on the EP, and the two rappers, along with Angell’s production make ‘August’ one of the best songs on the EP. Such a good pairing. I’ve only known of H.L.I for a few months, and I was really happy to hear more verses from him. We’ll be interviewing the H.L.I boys in the next few weeks as it happens, so look out for that one.
Now, now it’s 1:30am (well when I post this it’ll be probably be in the afternoon) and I am on a rolllllllll tonight, but as I have kept reminding you this is only a 4 song EP so to over-critique and analyse it any more might run the risk of, dare I say it? Boring you. I will then end this review here saying: this is a really well thought out, interesting and extremely memorable release. This is an obvious continuation to ‘Maps’, but a stand alone piece in its own right as well. There’s nothing worse, and sadder than when one of your favourite rappers disappoints you. Well he didn’t, he gave me more reason to listen; so now it’s your turn.
(Seriously though, how could I not realise the whole song is about doing drugs? There are skits about buying drugs at the end and the beginning of the song ffs.)
Motor City brothers Apollo Brown and Guilty Simpson have wasted no time pounding the pavement for Dice Game. In the past few weeks Apollo has toured Australia and New Zealand while Guilty did a lean and mean west coast run that spanned LosAngeles to Seattle before hitting the NBC/Universal lot to be on Carson Daly‘s show.
Today, while our road dogs get a breather, they release the all new, non-album, bonus track “Parkour” to announce the release of their new limited edition wax (ivory vinyl w/ bonus 45 featuring two non-album cuts). This first bonus, named after the military training parkour where practitioners need to burst through an obstacle course using the terrain to gain advantage. In similar fashion, Guilty takes the terrain laid out by Apollo Brown and powers through it like a linebacker with a vengeance. The sound has a bit of an electronic tinge, something not so present on the official LP but very much welcome here.
Itch FM caught up with Melanin9 aka M9, a North London based British rapper that has a style more of the ’90’s era of hip hop.
Drawing his influence from Nas, Wu-Tang and others from that era, Melanin9’s style could be described as being social conscious with a jazzy feel. Melanin 9 has just dropped the sick debut album ‘Magna Carta’ check out the snippets below and click on ‘BUY’!!!!…..
J Dilla fans are gonna love this, coz we do….DOPE! This is the first visual/single of off the late, great J Dilla’s (RIP) ‘The Lost Scrolls’. Yancey Boys – “The Throwaway” feat. Frank Nitt Produced by J Dilla
Directed by: Josh Polon
Concept by: Frank Nitt and Illa J
Produced by: Rick Ross, Josh Polon, Ryan Maxey
Edited by: Peter Dean
Director of Photography: Ryan Maxey
B-Camera: Josh Polon
Titles: Ryan Maxey
hiphoplifeandtimes 