Black Thought and Quest Love of The Roots made their way to Shade 45 for a special Town Hall Discussion with Sway and Hip Hop Nation. In this special sit-down, both Philly natives opened up about their careers and go in-depth about their journey. With Quest behind the turn-tables, they burst into improv performances and Thought even kicked a freestyle.
Track taken from ‘Golden Age Against The Machine’ is a passion play. A living audio love letter to the golden age of hip-hop. This spans the early 80’s to the mid 90’s. Shawn takes up the story
“Like many other musicians, sample based production effected me deeply. It permeated the how and what i played. The sonic qualities of my productions, the arrangements and my drumming… hip-hop at its best was raw and unconventional…. there is something magical about grabbing a loop from an old funk record and layering it with some strings from an easy listening record and pitching down a horn stab from a jazz record and a guitar lick from pysch rock record …. and then pinning it down with a fat beat”
For those that don’t know about Jazz Spastiks, they’re a highly gifted production duo residing in Edinburgh, Scotland. Blending their love of Jazz with Hip Hop, they make nothing but pure head-nodding, neck-snapping beats.
This limited edition 7″ Vinyl consists of 2 solid sides. The A-side ‘Move’ features the legendary Apani B Fly on the mic. Apani’s impressive flow and delivery perfectly complements this finely produced, laid-back, feel-good JS beat. This is a joint you can put on in almost any situation!
The B-side contains 2 tracks. First up is ‘Frequency’ – a fairly fast-paced, upbeat track featuring underground Canadian emcee Moka Only. This is then swiftly followed by a short bonus beat (not stated on the sleeve) entitled ‘Tapedeck’.
7” Vinyl in 3mm spine and full colour sleeve. Limited to 300 copies only.
SHIPPING: On or around 23rd June, 2014
You can listen to snippets of both sides via the link below:
The highly lyrical rap crew eMC sat down with VladTV Journalist Michael Hughes to discuss their upcoming musical projects in the works. Punchline, Wordsworth, and Masta Ace all shared details on the EP they’re releasing, “The Turning Point,” and how it consists of “6 bangers” with 12 tracks altogether when you include the skits on the project.
The crew also discussed the single they currently have out called “Charlie Murphy,” and explained their motivation behind making the song.
eMC has tours coming up as well. In the summer they’ll be touring around the U.S., then in the fall they’ll be taking their talents to various locations in Canada, followed by a month-long European tour.
Ok first things first. This review is a bit late. My sincerest apologies to Lords of Nothing this is not a reflection on their work merely a reflection of my busy life. That being said the delay has caused something serendipitous to happen. As I’m sat here jamming to this EP for the umpteenth time, the sun has made itself known and shone light ( wahey) on this impressive effort to show it as the summer jam that it is. So it all works out in the end haha. (Really though I am sorry)
Lords Of Nothing are are an accomplished duo from Portsmouth, UK consisting of long time collaborators and friends Spitfire and Towa, emcee and producer respectively. Having a solid release like the earlier ‘Triple Filtered’ already under their belts I knew that the ‘Lucky Charms EP’ was gonna be another good one, but even I was pleasantly surprised at just how good it is.
Spitfire has really come into his own on this. Having been putting in a more consistent hard graft than most over the last year or so ‘The Lucky Charms EP’ finds him giving his most confident and comfortable display of skill. Always sounding like the kid who is having the most fun at the party, the sheer enjoyment that comes through in his style is refreshing when dropped in a world of angry rappers. Not to say he’s happy with every subject he writes about, just that he clearly loves his craft. I always get the sense he’s being more himself than a lot of rappers out there, and a lot of them could learn a lesson from Spitfire about this. Riding beats with individuality and character, with an old skool kinda flow he is one of the most recognisable voices in UK Hip Hop.
There are few producers like Towa. Not someone content with churning out a thousand beats of the same style, he has put forward a diverse collection of tracks with Spitfire during their history together. This has given them more variety of sound as a group than a lot of those out there. As I understand it Towa works exclusively with Spitfire. This is probably the reason they have been able to create such a consistently fluid duo. With his own unique take on Hip Hop production Towa is such an interesting producer. I found myself being constantly unsure of what would happen next musically on ‘Lucky Charm’s, even mid song. It’s so nice to be unsure and surprised nowadays with such a large bracket of producers making similar sounding products. I’m not gonna just sit here and write track one beat was blah blah, track two beat was etc etc because that would sell him short.
Overall this is a brilliant collection of natural and honest hip hop. No gimmicks, no fake fronts, no forced attitude just good tune after good tune. I genuinely enjoyed this from start to finish and I think you’d be robbing yourself not checking it out. Look out for more releases from these boys in the future, they re sure to only get better and better.
Words; Adam
Spitfire & Towa – ‘Nice Work’ [Promo Video]
Stream and download your copy of the DOPE ‘Lucky Charms EP’ here
Be on the look out for a Lords Of Nothing full album dropping early Summer. In the meantime look out for Spitfire’s self produced album ‘Pen & The Pads’ dropping on May 24th, featuring cuts from the likes of DJ Madhandz and the turntable don DJ Jabbathakut, the odd verse from Split Prophets member Paro, mixed by Towa , will be out on limited edition white label vinyl, CDs with hand tagged covers including poster of the original idea for the artwork and also 2 bonus tracks.
One of the hottest names out of Detroit in the past few years, fast rising rapper Kid Vishis releases his long awaited debut album “Timing Is Everything” on 22nd July.
The younger brother of Slaughterhouse veteran Royce da 5 9 began rhyming “downstairs in the family freestyle basement sessions” while still at high school before performing at local open mic nights. Such was the public response, word on the street reached his brother who put him to the test one night in the studio in 2003.
The result, a guest appearance on Royce’s M.I.C. mixtape followed by touring as hypeman, saw him perform freestyles to sell out crowds in Canada, California, Chicago, Virginia, Miami and New York, while sharing bills with Slum Village, Rakim, Ghostface, Slick Rick, Talib Kweli and many more.
He has since appeared on all 3 of his brother’s “Bar Exam” mixtapes in addition to the albums Street Hop and Success Is Certain, and released the first of his own “Sick Em” mixtape series Vishis Is Me in 2007.
Timing Is Everything is the product of years of hard work and dedication to his craft, a landmark release which fully announces his arrival. This is a showcase of Kid Vishis at his best, a highly skilled and experienced Emcee with the authority to hold down the album in his own right. Only on “Coward” is he joined by the album’s sole guest artist Royce da 5 9
Coast to coast, the album is represented in the production. Now based in Sacramento, Australian Chase Moore of Hippie Sabotage has once again provided the quality prevalent in his previous work with Raekwon, Rock (Heltah Skeltah), Mistah FAB and Papoose. New Jersey’s Nemisis (Tony Touch, Copywrite, Outerspace, Emilio Rojas) brings his trademark style to the table on “In Yo Face” and the single “Heaven” while Toronto is represented by Nick Zervos’ contribution to the title track.
Back on home territory, Mr Porter (D12 / Shady) gets in on the action by producing “Message To The MC’s” and “The Juice”. All four producers provide the perfect backdrop for Vishis to bring his “A Game”, an unrelenting display of fierce rhyme skills and intelligent wordplay by a lyricist at the top of his form. The combination results in a contemporary classic born of a Golden era.
The inspiration behind the album can be gauged in Kid’s description of it as “the beginning of a Hip-Hop takeover” aimed at those “sick of club tracks and the same ol sound goin around, so just press play, enjoy & Sick ‘Em Sonny Jim !!!”
A self confessed boxing fanatic, Kid Vishis gives notice in the appropriately titled Timing Is Everything that he can go toe to toe with the best in the game, and will be a title contender for years to come.
With US, UK and European tour plans already in the works, Kid Vishis is going to be one to watch this year.
‘Look At All My Sh!t’
Lyric Video for “Look At All My Sh!t”:
Kid Vishis – Heaven (produced by Nemisis)
Pre-orders for Kid Vishis Timing Is Everything are now available at: www.seven13ent.com
‘Golden Age Against The Machine’ is a passion play. A living audio love letter to the golden age of hip-hop. This spans the early 80’s to the mid 90’s. Shawn takes up the story
“Like many other musicians, sample based production effected me deeply. It permeated the how and what i played. The sonic qualities of my productions, the arrangements and my drumming… hip-hop at its best was raw and unconventional…. there is something magical about grabbing a loop from an old funk record and layering it with some strings from an easy listening record and pitching down a horn stab from a jazz record and a guitar lick from pysch rock record …. and then pinning it down with a fat beat”
London producer Moteleola’s latest joint EP, ‘Symmetry & Shade’, with Kentucky emcee, Allen Poe.
Symmetry & Shade is a 3 track concept EP, capturing the upside hope a man feels at the start of a relationship, followed by the collapse of a failed relationship (Symmetry). The final track is the grim (Shade) reality of being alone and giving up on love altogether, writing his experiences with love off, and being a misunderstood man.
Swedish based hip-hop duo Professor P & Dj Akilles serve up a 52 bar, 12 instrumental display to promote the re-issue of their debut album ‘The Realism’.
The video consists of a live set which features production and scratching from Dj Akilles and mic wizardry by Professor P. Professor P gets busy on the mic with new rhymes to promote the re-issue.
Available now on iTunes, Amazon MP3, Google Play, Deezer, Bandcamp, Spotify, Simfy, iHeartRadio, Deezer, Rdio, Xbox Music/Zune, VerveLife, eMusic, Rhapsody, Nokia, Muve Music, MediaNet & many more.
If you would like to buy a physical CD, please email (also the PayPal address) at marcanumx@comcast.net.
For all U.S. Buyers: $14.50 (including shipping and handling)
For all Non-U.S. / International Buyers: $19.99 (includes shipping and handling).
