Swift Kirabo is rap artist from Manchester who started writing and recording around three years ago. Ever since a young age Swift Kirabo has had a strong passion for music and even now we writes on the daily, working at his craft as he spreads positivity through his creations. The mixtape is as diverse as it is powerful, with a versatile selection of tracks from soulful and lyrical excursions to more hyped up powerful sounding tracks as well as deep thought provoking concepts. This release features contributions from Michael Leon, Joshua Reeves, Nu Vintage K Lawton, KMP, D.A, Mylo, Jon Doe, Original Genius and Spex, and is a brilliant introduction to a talent to look out for.
The Icepick is probably the most multi-faceted emcee in the UK game, and is unarguably one of its best. He has one of the games most viscous flows, battles at an incredibly high level, and has a body of work that is both varied and experimental.
The Icepick came into the game at the tail end of the 1980’s, serving as the front man for his crew, The Zombie Headhunters, founding members of the HQ Squad. He instantly made an impact with his legendary ‘Enter The Tormentor’ verse that was used on both ‘The Burial Proceedings In The Coarse of Three Knights’ put out on the Music of Life imprint, and ‘The Contract’ which was featured on Hijacks ‘Horns of Jericho’ LP. The Icepick also made a memorable contribution to the BROTHER Movements ‘Beyond The 16th Parallell’, a track rallying UK Hip Hops finest against apartheid in South Africa.
His punchy, vociferous style and mind-blowing imagery made a huge impression on all who heard him, and many were waiting for him to follow up his explosive entry into the game with a single of his own. Unfortunately, fans were left wanting for at least another four years before they would hear anything new. But then, in 1995, The Icepick came back out of retirement to record ‘The Genocide EP’ with a new crew called The Body Snatchers that comprised of DJ Supreme and MC Grizzly. The EP contained blistering battle raps related over the type of militant, vicious production that Supreme had used to make Hijack a household name. It was a classic record. Unfortunately, ‘The Genocide EP’ saw a very limited release so not many people even knew of the records existence. Furthermore, fans had to wait a further two years before they would have access to new, widely available, commercial material from The Icepick.
When The Icepick did return with the single ‘Phenomenal Criminal’ in 1997, there was a slight change to his sound. The punchy inflections and battle mentality that are his signature energy were still in effect, but now The Icepick was holding up a mirror to life on the streets. So the subject matter and the language he was using in his lyrics had changed slightly, and it was more in line with the kind of language you’d associate with man from road. The Icepick had made a radical transition the mentality was less B-Boy and more Roughneck. To draw attention to the change, Supreme altered his production style too. Gone was the Old Skool Hijack sound we had come to associate with him, as he moved on to a live flex, centered around the use of analogue keyboard sounds and slower drum programming an auditory experience more inline with the old skool reggae sound systems from the 1980’s.
The reinvention didn’t stop there. In 1998, The Icepick dropped ‘The Icepick EP’ which featured the track ‘Sour Puss’. Here, The Icepick played the Slick Rick role, demonstrating his ability to tell funny stories. You may remember hearing him freestyle this track live on DJ 279’s Choice FM show and the whole studio was on the floor weeping with laughter. This is one department where UK Rap traditionally lacks, but The Icepick, who has always demonstrated an ability to be witty, funny and insulting in his more battle oriented material, is a comedic master.
In 1999, The Icepick altered his style yet again when he dropped the ‘Dungeon Funk EP’ on Ruf Beats/Backbone. Here, The Icepick demonstrated that he was adept at mastering that frenzied style of flow one normally associates with a Busta Rhymes or Twista. However, what he produced came off as a whole new style in its own right, since The Icepick melded it with the UK nuances and ebonics one would usually hear on inner London city streets.
Since then, The Icepick has contributed vocals to a variety of projects. These include Gunshots ‘English Patient’, MC Mell-O’s ‘Against The Grain Project’, and his own crews ‘HQ Radio’ mixtapes. Since then The Icepick (now known also as Jack Jones), has recorded with acts such as Insane Macbeth, ‘Against the Grain’ featuring artists such as Grizzly, Don E, MC Mello and Estelle as mentioned earlier. He has now embarked on releasing this album covering his years as a recording artist. This Album is a must for all fans of UK Rap.
“Praying For Japan” is a tribute to the Japanese people that marks the anniversary of the devastating Tsunami/Earthquake. Two years ago, a magnitude-9.0 earthquake unleashed a wall of water that killed nearly 16,000 people in northeast Japan and sparked the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years. Armagideon wrote this song while watching news reports from his Milwaukee apartment. “Every lyric is a true account of what happened March 11th in Japan.” proclaims Armagideon. The video includes never seen before disaster footage and japanese news clips of the massive damage.
Trek Life is preparing to release his newest album “Hometown Foreigner” April 2nd (digital) and April 9th (CD) on Mello Music Group. The new album was produced, mixed, and mastered by Duke Westlake. The album features verses from yU, Oddisee, Bishop Lamont, Richard Wright, and more! To give people their first taste of the sound to come, Trek is releasing the single Just The Music.
An extremely laid back and heavily soul influenced song to wake you up on this windy Spring morn (well if you’re living in Bristol, UK as well). Charmingly Ghetto has teamed up with schhmooth voiced, Brionne Wright to create a song all about the loss of love (ain’t that a kick in the teeth?). I’m always happy to hear hip-hop songs with full bands; and this song features Pinionist Deshawn Alexander, saxophonist, Brian Johnston, guitarist, Nick Cabrera and bass guitarist, Ronnie Lanzilotta. I like to see more hip-hop cats going back to the early days and incorporating live instruments again. Zach Capner’s done a really good job of putting all these elements together, and the result is song very reminiscent of Fun Lovin’ Criminals (if you don’t know who they are, shame on you).
When you say Airklipz, people that know of his work instantly say “Lyrics” but recently they’ve also been known to say “Flow” as well. An ever evolving south London native, his style seems to be based on old school structure but heavily influenced by the new school swing. Really versatile, he has work on various genre breaking projects and now after constant experimentation and fine tuning, has happened upon his sweet spot.
Parachute Life 1 & 2, offer the listener a chance to get to fully understand the self confessed “90’s Era” addict and his love of double time rappers like “Twista” and “Bone Thugs n Harmony” are evident throughout. Influences include Nas, Terra Firma, Styles P & Curren$y and his message is simply “REALITY RAP” and only chooses to rap about actual events which happen around him. Not one to be seen with the flashy chains or cliche models in videos and pics, he wants instead to be recognized and respected for his talent and impressive workrate (Over 10 mixtapes have been released over the last 5 years).
An independent artist under “Undadog Entertainment” (a label he and top producers RedIRob & Jammy Git co-founded in 2007), all his music is handled in – house (Production, Recording, Mixing and Mastering) at Kennel Studios phase 2 in Lewisham, London. He has worked with various producers (Dr Kay, Dj Chris, Dj Dan Hills, Mo Productions, Sleepy Time Ghost, Ghosttown, Eddie Ethics, S.I.M.O, Hitman, G.O.L.D, Jimmy Screech, Dj Smokey, Trackdealer and many others) and too many artists most notably Jimmy Screech, Legz Diamond, 4MA, Yemi Bolatiwa and Shaadie (to name a few). All his music is available online at http://airklipz.tk and Parachute Life is available on itunes.
Tone Fazoolz from Long Island NY got his start as a teen under the guidance of Hip Hop legend Chubb Rock. Pegged as one of the “next to blow” in the mid 90’s( as a young teen) several issues kept Fazoolz from fulfilling his destiny.
Now back with a fiery passion, Tone Fazoolz has linked with numerous heavy hitters and is ready to once and for all claim his spot….
“Soldiers” Tone Fazoolz Feat JoJo Pellegrino and The Shark produced by DJ Wally Pish Posh
