Check out the first single from MidCentury Modern (Sintax the Terrific on the rhymes and Rheomatic on the beats) with the title track from their upcoming album ‘The Goodness”. The single features Sivion, Manchild, and Boog Brown.
MidCentury Modern’s ‘The Goodness’, releases Friday December 16th via Illect Recordings and the guest list is strong and features: Dres (Black Sheep), Jarobi (A Tribe Called Quest), Miles Bonny, Boog Brown, Sivion, Manchild, Krum, Elias, Derek Webb.
Veteran UK emcee Verbal Skillz with the joint ‘N16 6AH (I Pray For Trouble)’ featuring heavyweight rappers REKS, the UKs Micall Parknsun and Journalist103 all going in over Apollo Brown’s dope production.
The track is lifted from Verbal Skillz 3rd studio album ‘Old Man Rapper’, following the releases of ‘The Guillotine’ Album and ‘Verbal Vision’. Verbal lives up to his reputation as one of the UK’s hardest working emcees putting in the work and grinding hard, the London emcee continues to produce some of the best independent music with some of the industry’s biggest names. Production on the ‘Old Man Rapper’ album comes from Apollo Brown, Mr. Green, Sultan Mir & Micall Parknsun with guest features from Reks, Journalist103 & more. Verbal’s hip hop co-conspirator DJ Stix works his magic magic as he drops cuts on 3 tracks.
Queensbridge legend Nature (The Firm) delivers a new visual for his 1st single “Keep Frontin'”. Produced by BP, the epic choir sample is the perfect backdrop for Nate to transport us to Queens in this unique video directed by Mike Hanratty for Scientific Lens. “Target Practice” Deluxe is out now on all digital platforms.
Nature’s new album “Target Practice” is brought to you by Infamous Records, DCM and is produced entirely by BP. Features include: Royal Flush, John Jigg$, Mike Delorean, Tragedy Khadafi and Prodigy of Mobb Deep.
Track List:
1. Keep Frontin’
2. Back to the Rap
3. Queens Tale Part 1
4. This is Easy ft Royal Flush & Prodigy of Mobb Deep
5. The Second They See Him
6. Snap
7. Terminator (Crazy)
8. Give It To ‘Em ft John Jigg$ & Tragedy
9. No Surrender No Retreat
10. Real Like Me
11. She Loves Me
12. Never Quit
Bonus
13. Toxic
14. No Wins ft Mike Delorean
15. Fantasy RMX
16. America
After being one of the few American artists to perform at this years Hip Hop Kemp Festival in Czech Republic and headlining the Zabij Nude Festival in Poland, 60 East returned to Los Angeles and released the West Coast anthem “The Origin” featuring California Hip Hop legends Sly Boogy and Blu of Blu and Exile.
Off the back of this highly successful release, 60 returns with another visual this time featuring one of Brooklyn’s most prolific writers Skyzoo, who has recently released a new project alongside with Apollo Brown under Mello Music Group.
The song captures the essence of the title ‘Enemies 2 Friends’ in a very direct but through provoking way, especially in the video (also featuring model Krystle Lina.) The layed back soulful beat almost makes the tragedy of the tale harder to watch, but also sits perfectly alongside 60, and Skyzoo’s flows.
Download/Stream Single:
‘Enemies 2 Friends’ is featured on ‘10,000 Hours: A Story of Success’ available for FREE at:
Mickey Factz, veteran emcee, former XXL cover freshman recently released his debut album, ‘The Achievement circa ’82’, with Grammy award winning producer Nottz handling all of the production for the ten-track project, which also includes guest appearances from Blu, Phonte, Styles P, Mack Wilds, Smoke DZA & Curren$y.
‘Wants’ is the second video lifted from their collaborative album, video Produced by Make Stuff Media & Directed by Jon Gollner. Editing and Effects by Alec Pieper
Illect Recordings present their latest release, ‘Name Dropping’, by German hip-hop producer Sebastian Hochstein. The EP features 14 tracks (7 songs and 7 instrumentals) with guest spots from: Chali 2na (Jurassic 5), Sadat X (Brand Nubian), Wildchild (Lootpack), Jurny Big (The Battery & Tunnel Rats), Sivion/Krum/Manchild/Sev Statik (Deepspace5), Scribbling Idiots, Abdominal, and more.
On ‘Name Dropping’, Sebastian definitley brings his A-game and put together 7 dope joints with killer guest features, get your copy here
Check out the visual for ‘SOLO’, produced by BCHILL MUSIC lifted from Baltimore emcee Sullee J’s album of the same title. ‘SOLO’ is an album which reflects the come up of this talented artist. The album is full of bars, lyricism and wisdom that Sullee is renowned for, every track is a story.
Sullee J has recently been picked up by the label Bogish Brand Ent. owned by King Ca$his former Shady Records Artist. His latest single with his group TRIPL3 Threat was just released last week on iTunes, Apple Music & more featuring Slaughterhouse’s Royce Da 5’9.
On Friday 25th November, High Focus head honcho and highly respected UK emcee Fliptrix releases his 6th solo album ‘Patterns Of Escapism’. We were lucky enough to get an early copy from the good people at High Focus Records of this DOPE release, so i went to my go to reviewer at present Intuitive and it would appear ‘Dope’ is relevant to his review in more ways than one! Here’s what Intuitive had to say about the album……
So over the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to keep myself on the straight and narrow.
Trying out veganism, joining a gym, quitting weed – you know the ones. Those resolutions you make to stop you from coming to the conclusion that your life is one empty, unstoppable train wreck, happening in slow motion. And I’ve been doing okay at it, as well. I haven’t been eating meat, I’ve been getting up early, but the weed… Well…
I was trying my hardest, but then Stix decided it was time for me to do another review. Another week of listening to brand-new UKHH bangers for me to assess. To keep my mind off of the ever-growing need for a zoot. And who does he give me?
Fliptrix. Of course it’s fucking Fliptrix.
So a week later here I am, big stinky zoot in hand, typing at my computer with eyes redder than an angry tomato, feeling at peace with the world. Fuck going to the gym. Fuck it.
Fliptrix has been one of my all-time favourite artists ever since I heard ‘Theory of Rhyme’ and he does anything but disappoint on his newest release, ‘Patterns of Escapism’. Entirely produced by Illinformed, it’s a 17-track experience – featuring some brilliant verses by names such as King Kashmere, Ocean Wisdom, Life MC, Verb T, Dabbla and the Four Owls. Many would argue, myself included, that Fliptrix has been instrumental in the development and success of the UK hip-hop scene so far, having spearheaded the legendary High Focus label that is now one of the biggest hip-hop labels in Europe, and also mentored and assisted countless UK artists who have gone on to big things such as Rag ’n’ Bone Man and Ocean Wisdom. Therefore this release and the artists who collaborated to create it are right at the forefront of where UKHH is going – helping to shape the scene’s sounds and influences in a groundbreaking fashion.
Characterised by wise words, thought-provoking concepts, greezy style and a strong underlying message of both peace and passion for music, Fliptrix has very sharply defined who he is and what he stands for over the last twelve years. As a result of this I have always felt his songs have two main ‘themes’ or ‘styles’ – one style where he is not attempting to send any specific message, but is going as hard as possible – and another where the beats are more contemplative and less neck-breaky, and he attempts to educate you rather than make you go nuts. This duality and versatility is one of the reasons Fliptrix is a unique artist and is also why he has such a loyal fanbase. After coming to this conclusion I decided to try and pick my favourite ‘go hard style’ tune and my favourite ‘send a message’ tune from this album. ‘One Time’ outstripped the other tunes as my favourite banger – packed full of punchy flows, witty lines and big boomin’ samples, for me, it’s Fliptrix at his finest. ‘Burn It’ featuring Ocean Wisdom definitely deserves a mention though as well – the beat is one of Illinformed’s best contributions for this release, the bounce that the track has is fantastic – and for anyone new to High Focus, listening to Ocean Wisdom’s feature on this tune will help you realise why High Focus stuck him on practically every one of their releases this year doing doubletime features. In terms of the more laid-back songs with a message to transmit, I felt as though ‘Spread Peace Around’ was a standout effort – I’ve felt for a while like Fliptrix’s ability at lyricism gets forgotten sometimes because he always has such great production. As an emcee myself I can see the care and thought that goes into songs like this – too often rappers leave a line that they’ve written that doesn’t really fit because it rhymes nicely. With songs like this however you can tell that there is a real, conscious effort to connect to the listener’s emotions and understanding of the world around them. Fliptrix himself said “The music I make is all about the depths of self-exploration and the heights of human consciousness.”
In conclusion, this album is absolutely fantastic. I cannot really fault it – it’s hard to try and find cracks in music that you consider to be better than your own. From the production, to the features, to Fliptrix’s own verses, message and style, the album is consistent in a way that can only come from making honest music and music that you truly believe in. This is Fliptrix’s 6th solo release, and so marks the 6th chapter in his extraordinary story and list of achievements. If I had to think of a criticism, I would say that Fliptrix and High Focus in general have positioned themselves to be ambassadors of the UK scene, and as such could collaborate wider within the scene with things like features and guest production. They do this already, don’t get me wrong – but as somebody who listens to every High Focus release (and I’m not the only one – their fanbase is steadily growing) I’d really like to see a wider range of artists on their albums. After all is said and done, however – I reckon I can probably forgive Fliptrix and ‘Patterns of Escapism’ for completely destroying my attempts to quit weed. It was worth it.
Words; Intuitive
Fliptrix ‘Patterns Of Escapism’ is available digitally, on CD and Vinyl here
NEW VIDEO (Out Today) Fliptrix – ‘Smoke Lingers Always’ Feat. King Kashmere (Prod. Illinformed)
Fliptrix – The Poltergeist (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
Fliptrix – Thunder Clouds (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
HF TV – Fliptrix (EXCLUSIVE BARS)
NOMINATED FOR BEST NEWCOMER URBAN MUSIC AWARDS
Despite having released 6 solo albums, 2 crew albums and over a decade in the game, it was revealed that Fliptrix has been nominated for the ‘Best Newcomer’ Award at the UK Urban Music Awards. The award ceremony is scheduled for the 26th of November(the day after the release of ‘Patterns Of Escapism’), it would be a real honor for a High Focus artist to pick up such a prestigious award. Please take one minute out of your day to vote for Fliptrix using the following link: HERE
On top of all this, High Focus also have the ‘Patterns Of Escapism’ Official Launch Party taking place at the infamous Brixton Jamm in South London on the 10th of December. Not Only will both Fliptrix and Illinformed be present performing a special album launch set, but legends such as Task Force will be in the building performing their first show together in London for over a decade, The Four Owls will also be swooping in as will Dabbla and new signings Strange U. Dont miss out on this event, its bound to be a night to remember! GET YOUR TICKETS HERE
Inglewood native Koache returns to one of his hottest tracks of the year, “Turn Me Back,”on this super-smooth, Nottz-produced remix featuring guest vocals from Xzibit, Demrick, and Quan.
The original track appeared on Koache’s ‘Game Point’ album, which dropped this past March on LOTZAH. And it, too, featured a head nodding instrumental from Nottz, along with a strong guest verse from X-to-the-Z. But on the remix, the Virginia producer flipped his approach entirely by ditching the grit of the original track, for a jazzier, more laid-back sound.
New visual from Amsterdam’s MC Melodee and Spanish production duo Cookin Soul’s joint ‘Up & Down’ the 4th video single of Melodees new album “Passport Pimpin”. Hitting you with that soulful 90s flavour with Cookin Soul on production and Melodees rhymes, “Up & Down” makes your head bounce and makes you crack a smile as you reminisce about them good old days.
Video directed and recorded in Valencia, Spain by Assen Petrov
Get the MC Melodee album “Passport Pimpin” on all digital platforms here
