For those keeping up with us, and the inner-workings of Swerve & SYG, you will remember they’re currently running a series titled ‘Pay Day’. These releases could be full songs, freestyles, videos, basically whatever takes their fancy at the time I guess. This is the second drop from them, with a track entitled “Have Mercy’. Whilst their first release was a lot more smooth and relaxed with some jazz influences in it, this is a bit more of a party jam mixed with a healthy does of soul samples; it has a different bounce to it.

To peep the earlier drop ‘No Idea’ click this link and build up your collection.

Check the bluuuurrrrb:

Now Remember this new series “Pay Day” means on the 1st and the 15th of each month you will get a new track from Swerve (on the 1st) & SYG (on the 15th). Could be a freestyle, video, song, or whatever. Basically just things that won’t make any album/mixtape cuts that we want to release. So from here on out. Every pay day you’ll get a gift from us as well. Love.

Have you noticed at the big influx of beat tapes coming our way over the last 2 months? I’m not talking A MILLION BEAT TAPES A DAY, but the inbox has steadily been filling up with some really good releases.
This latest release is from Doc Heller, who incidentally doubles up as DarkoTheSuper. We’ve posted a lot of his earlier stuff in the site; he seems to never sleep, instead he just creates more music. This is a good mix of loops, old skool and new beats, mixed with some weird little breaks. The fun thing about this is the record label that is putting this out, Grappa Frisbee Records are not only releasing it digitally, but via the humble cassete as well. Come on, you know that’s cool as fuck!

Grappa Frisbee Records Facebook

Manchester local beatmaker, Pro P has just released his third beat tape, for all those beat junkies out there, and MC’s that might potentially want to work with the man himself. If you fancy it, get in contact with him via his Twitter or Facebook Page.

Yes! More blues samples in my ears please.

The duo of Elevated Soul and the Magnificent Ruffians are back at it with Kingsmen. After the huge success of their first double cd, (Magnificent Soul) the Elevated Ruffians knew they had to work together again to create more fresh hip hop for the fans.
This album however has a specific dedication to the great Ben E. King. Hence the name, “Kingsmen”. Each song on this EP has a beat that was flipped or sampled or inspired by a previous work of Ben E. King.

So once again you will get the old school blues and soul vibe on this album because that is exactly how they intended it to be. With that said, sit back, turn on the blue lights, get a cigar and a small glass of crown royal and play this album.

Over the last 12 months or so I’ve noticed a definite change in style in production, and vocal flow; especially when it comes to our colonial cousins. It seems as if in response to the mass produced, triple snared, auto-tuned top 40, the independent and underground heads had replied by appreciating the original elements a lot more again. The use of real DJs, classic soul samples, scratching that last longer than 7 seconds, and intelligently placed cuts (Oh I love me some cuts). That sentence right there is how I would describe Supastition’s newly released ‘The Blackboard EP’.

Although saying all that, and whilst I am extremely happy that a lot of rappers have reignited their friendship with DJs, and not iPods, if done badly it can still be just as monotonous and boring as the auto-tuned dudes. The title track is a good track, using some nice classical bass cuts, and shows off Supasition’s MC skills, both lyrical and flow-wise. It’s a nice opener, but in my opinion not his best on the EP. The songs that follow are vast improvements, and really open up his eclectic style; ‘Daydream’ got me a lot more interested in this released, and ‘Indestructible’ and ‘Rejoice’ had me hooked and convinced. Faust, Shortee and M-Phazes truly give ‘Indestructible’ its extra backbone, and push it over that edge.

Supasitition has a style very reminiscent of Nas’, and I don’t mean that in a biting sense, I mean that Supasition raps from the back of his throat and pushes the words out in that same sincere and hard way. He is also akin to Nas and other greats, in that he has a really strong grasp of storytelling, and opens up about some pretty personal, and imitate issues throughout the record. Being vulnerable on a record, and being completely sincere whilst dodging obvious obstacles is a hard task to do, and he conquers it well.

It’s not all non-fiction though, and ‘Best Worst Day not only has some of my favourite production and instrumentation on the whole record, but the narrative behind the song has a really interesting, and a nice little twist to it. For the exact story behind this track, and all the others you can read the song by song explanations through a link on his Bandcamp page.

Overall, this is a really solid and enduring release, that I believe I’ll be bumping for years to come. Supa has been out of the game for a while and this a perfect release to not only reclaim his spot, but make a large space for himself.
The EP would also not be as half as good as it without the joint collaborations of Faust, Shortee, M-Phazes, Dirty Art Club, Marco Polo, Veterano, Rik Marvel , The Mighty DR, Croup and of course the vocal talents of Dominique. This feels like a huge team effort, created by a crew of people that really care about the outcome, and it shows in the final project. Get this.|

Words: Aimee

For fans of: Blacastan, Nas, Homeboy Sandman.

Supastition.com
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The Underground Railroad Network is the result of a collaboration of artists, TeckZilla, Rapsom, Black Intelligence, BurntMD and a whole host of others. It’s a a truly international effort, with artists from the UK, U.S and Switzerland all pitching in. It’s a good mix of intense tracks, some smoother joints, and some nice old skool beats. To get yourself a copy, head over to their Bandcamp page. As always we encourage you to spare yourself the 4.50 coffee and give some deserving artists a few coins instead.