It’s sad to see so many people getting their knickers in a twist over two dudes having a cheeky peck on the lips. The amount of ‘dislikes’ on the video is a bummer, but hey if you’re reading this than consider yourself sucker free, well I would hope. Fashawn doesn’t come off as the most aware dude in the world at best, but at least he’s trying I guess, yeah I guess.
Aimee
The tours dates are as I’m sure you’re well aware of because you can read, for UK cats only, but since Immortal Technique lives in America you guys have nothing to complain about. The rest I am sorry. Be quick and snap those tickets up because two have already been bought, ha! The tour also features Poison Pen, DJ Static, and Swave Sevah. But for those of you that can’t go see him, I recently found this really interesting interview where Tech, as always drops knowledge, as well as talking about why he no longer uses gay slurs, brief talks about how women are portrayed in music although the annoying presenter cuts him off half way through that part. I strongly suggest you watch it, really good stuff.
Since the presenter cut Tech, here’s his answer to the woman’s question.
RETURN OF THE REBELS : UK TOUR DATES
Sunday 21st October : Brighton : Concorde 2
Monday 22nd October : Southampton : The Cellar :
Wednesday 24rd October : Bristol : Lakota
Thursday 25h October : London : Electric Brixton plus special guest LOWKEY :
Saturday 27th October : Birmingham : The Drum
Sunday 28th October : Manchester : Acadmey 2 :
Tuesday 30th October : Glasgow : ABC2
Thursday 1st November : Leeds University
Friday 2nd November : Belfast : Mandela Hall
Last night myself (Aimee) and our in-house beatboxer Matt recorded our first in hopefully a series of podcasts showcasing new and classic hip-hop hosted by, yeah you’ve guested it www.hiphoplifeandtimes.com. We concentrate on mainly underground hip-hop from the UK and international, and the better releases that we’ve been sent or reviewed over the last few weeks. We’ll hopefully be interviewing artists within the hip-hop scene in our up and coming podcasts, so keep checking back to see what’s going on. Anyway I really hope you enjoy this and listen to the over episodes over the next couple months. Listen to it when you’re in the bath, on the train, having a run or trying to forget your hangover. We’re so multi-purpose.
In this episode we talk about whether the UK has ever had a group that could touch the level of success and notoriety of Wu-Tang, why I’m not a fan of Busta Rhymes anymore, demonstrate the diversity of the South West UK scene, talk about Mr-T’s brief but fantastic rap career, and I even try to pass off ‘weeped’ as a word. Click on the track listing to go to artist’s music page, some are free, some aren’t. But you should really give them all your money either way.
1) Aspects – Top Choice (Album: Correct English)
2) DatKid – Home By 8 (Album: Home By 8)
3) A Tribe Called Quest – Scenario Featuing Leaders Of The New School (Album: The Low End Theory)
4) Doomtree – Beacon (Album: No Kings)
5) Book Thieves – Smiles and Cries Featuring Illiterate of Concept of Thought (Prod. Fredo) (Album: Why Do We Do This Everyday?)
6) B-iLLA – Move Back Featuring Big Dutty Deeze (Album: illa Than Most)
7) X-Ecutioners – A Journey Into Sound Featuring Kenny Muhammad (Album: Built From Scratch)
8) SGT Over – Martial Arts Featuring Physical Graffiti & Early Grey (Album: Uncut Diamonds)
9) Three Headed Beast – Swimming With Sharks (Album: Three Headed Beast)
10) Beautiful Eulogy – Covet (Album: Satellite Kite)
11) RZA – Grits Featuring Allah Real & Masta Killa (Album: The Birth Of a Prince)
12) Too Many Ts – It Ain’t Right Featuring Alena (Soon to be released mixtape)
13) The Four Owls – Burning Vapour (Album: Nature’s Greatest Mystery)
14) Jae Apollo – All The Right Mistakes (Album: All The Right Mistakes)
Enjoy!
For all those UK London heads out there, get on this.
“The much loved producer, DJ Premier returns to London to drop a classic set alongside Bumpy Knuckles (formerly known as Freddie Foxxx), who will be performing LIVE to give you a night of pure and undiluted Hip-Hop.
Preemo joined forces with Bumpy on the album ‘The Kolexxxion’, which was his first full length collaboration since the passing of his longtime Gang Starr partner Guru.
DJ 279 originally launched Flava Of The Month with his monthly Hip Hop parties spanning back almost 20 years ago. He continues to bring the best Hip Hop shows to town, whilst maintaining to destroy the airwaves on Choice FM with the longest running Rap show in the UK.
Also performing on the night, will be the UK’s Mynature who is killing it right now with his new album, available for free download ‘It’s My Nature’.
Keeping you musically entertained will be DJ 279 (Flava Of The Month/Choice FM), DJ Snuff (Speakers Corner/End of the Weak) and Dreypa with hosting provided by Braydz.”
Venue: The Garage, 20-22 Highbury Corner, London N5 1RD
Doors: 10.30pm – 4am
Tickets: £15 + B/F
Ticket Line: 0843 221 0100
See Tickets
Ticket Web
HMV Tickets
Ticketmaster
Or available from the Jazz Cafe Box Office
Facebook Event Page
National Poetry Day post 2! Thanks again to all the suggestions, we may put up a third before the night’s out-so keep your eyes peeled. Then again you should be watching us 24/7 anyway.
Next up is not only a UK legend, but general underground hip-hop legend that is the mighty Chester P from Task Force. Stix reminded me what an obvious choice Chester P would be on Poetry Day. Just listening to a few minutes of him spit you can hear immediately that his style could easily serve as a poem. His use of wordplay is ridiculous, and creates verses that just wouldn’t make sense coming out of anyone else’s mouth. Just watch the first 30 seconds of the first video to see what I mean.
Second up is The Ruby Kid. We’ve been big supporters of this dude for a long time, and even did a cheeky interview with him a few months back. The Ruby Kid mixes a lot of metaphors and quite surreal imagery into his music, that whilst still pretty avant garde in places, still manage to pull back the narrative without coming off as pretentious or hipster rap. One of my personal favourites of this year; he also does a lot of spoken word so you can see his influences are obvious.
Third up is DarkoTheSuper. We’ve also covered Darko recently, and did a short write-up of his previous release ‘The Ledge Below The Edge’. The funny thing about this is I (it was me that was reviewing him) said that his style would work perfectly with spoken word, so I guess I was right all along. Darko is an intense MC, and carries an intensity that’s extremely reminiscent of written poetry. In fact I spoke to the dude this afternoon via our Facebook page and he said that he’d been likened to T.S Elliot (accolades indeed!). You can listen for yourself to his new release and see what I’m talking about.
Last up is, well do I really need to introduce Immortal Technique? Ahh come on really? Immortal Technique is in my humble opinion one of the greatest MCs of all time. In my mind he rates up in my top 2, next to Tupac and let me tell you that’s some hard competition in my world. Tech is not only a revolutionary and all round awesome rapper, but a fantastic storyteller. His style is obviously heavily influenced by early toasting techniques, and more traditional forms of storytelling, and communication. If you’re not aware of Immortal Technique then it’s okay, there’s still time we can help, just watch these and everything will be alright.
Did anyone notice I said ‘avant garde’?
Words: Aimee
So if you’re not an idiot, (then again if you’re reading our site then I’m hoping you’re probably well versed enough to know what the five elements are) then you’ll be well aware that MC came from and was heavily influenced by Caribbean toasting, Jazz scatting and last but not least poetry. Well today ia National Poetry Day, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to give shine to a few well known, and not so known MCs that heavily inspired by poetry and spoken-word. Now we could argue that every rapper alive is influenced by poetry, and that wouldn’t be an untruth in fact it’s a completely accurate statement. There are of course MCs out there however that could happily play the same show as a ‘traditional’ poet , and not be out of place. Then again that in itself is a pretty wide statement too, but I hope you can understand where I’m coming from.
If you think we’re missing out on some artists that are so fantastic that you’re shocked we didn’t know, get in contact via our Twitter or Facebook and let’s have a conversation.
First up is Cormega, that I was introduced this afternoon via Christopher Mitchell from our Facebook page. It’s a short accapella spit, but what it lacks in length it makes up for in substance. Really reminiscent of early slam poetry and street cyphers, and is a big testament to Cormega’s skills as an MC.
Next up is an artist that I hope a lot of you will be aware of already, but if not hopefully you’ll become a fan of. Eyedea was a major artist from Rhymesayers the family, and often worked with DJ Abilities. Not forgetting his huge presence within the battle rap and freestyle scene. His multisyllabic style whilst of course not uncommon, was definitely his own, and his use of language could easily have been transfered into written poetry. Evan Souza very kindly showed me a link to a remixed version of Eyedea & Abilties last album together before Eyedea’s sad passing. The album is mixed Illusionist, and you can have a listen down here, as well as a video of Eyedea’s earlier freestyle battles.
Thank-you to both Christopher and Evan for their suggestions! And keep checking back today for a few more National Poetry Day posts.
http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/
Words: Aimee
iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/rebirth-feat.-orlando-single/id562066615
In an ever-crowded marketplace, Tbless distinguishes himself by leaving behind the self-promoting clichés of most rappers to bring a single that inspires empowerment and optimism in these difficult times. ‘Rebirth’ is an honest, reflective cut which sees Tbless discuss confronting obstacles from the past, learning from your mistakes and using that constructively to move forward.
“I took time out; I needed to get back to what I wanted to say. I stopped looking at myself and started to look around me”, Tbless explains, “everything’s a struggle these days, it’s hard times out there so this track and the upcoming album is for the strugglers”.
‘Rebirth’ is the first track from the soon to be released album ‘The Second Coming’, a grand concept album that reflects on the changes in the world and in himself in post-recession Britain.
We’re extremely pleased to announce that ‘Rebirth’ will be play listed on BET TV shortly, with further TV play listing confirmations expected shortly.
Connect with Tbless:
http://www.twitter.com/Tblessartist
http://www.facebook.com/tblessartist
http://www.youtube.com/tblessnumber1
Just a cheeky update.
We haven’t been sleeping for the last 2 weeks, and we haven’t moved to a country with no internet. But Stix and myself (Aimee) are pretty busy with real life stuff, and have had to concentrate on that for past fortnight. Rest assured though that we’ll be back next week to make fun of Chris Brown and post only the finest in underground, and GOOD hip-hop from the UK and all over the world. Thank-you all for your support and love. Blessings!
So much B-iLLA TV! If you didn’t know before, then get to know now. B-iLLA TV is run by yeah you’ve guessed it, the B-iLLA boys. It’s their own company set-up to help give shine to new MCS/groups/DJs and all that other good stuff. They’ve been blowing up over the couple weeks, so I suggest you hop on the bandwagon. You need to check out everrrrrrything!
To check out the B-iLLA boys (Dillah and Mistah Biggz) themselves have a look at the first video, then have a gander at the freestyles of all the artists they’re giving props to.
Mistah Biggz Twitter
Dillah Twitter
B-illah Facebook
http://www.youtube.com/BEiLLATV
Today is the 16th anniversary of the death of Tupac. He was, and still is one of the most influential rappers of all time. Before I even knew what hip-hop was, I knew that I liked Tupac. Cut down in his prime, he was only 25 when he was murdered (by who is anyone’s conspiracy, although don’t give me that east coast, west coast bullshit who do you think was making the most money out of all the beef? Cha), he wasn’t just a rapper but actor, writer and of course revolutionary. His music was full of substance and sincerity, instead of simply talking about bitches, bling and guns he wanted to find a way of freeing the poor black and hispanic Americans.
We’ve stared a new segman called “Classics Sunday” and already featured Tupac with a few of his tracks and an interview, but well who doesn’t like a bit of Tupac, so here’s some more. In my humble opinion he was the greatest rapper all of time, and even now his legacy has more foundation than half of these studio ‘gangstas’. Rest in peace.
(Words: Aimee)
