Here is a single that really encompasses the UK sound in one track. With contributions from the South of London, South of Birmingham, South of Spain and South of Caribbean, this really is a Southern anthem with originality. This hard rolling beat is the perfectly produced backdrop for this catchy new Hip-Hop banger.
A mixture of charismatic flows with honest on-point lyrics, this breaks down with its like to live in the inner cities. Whatever you do know about the dirty south, maybe that’s just changed.
Kicking off with a track called ‘The Evening News’ this sixteen tracker hits hard from the start and really impresses. Ricky Lix on mic duties and Meezy on the boards, this is a meeting of two minds that has really paid off. Lix sounds gritty on some tracks and smooth on others, using full advantage of his distinctive voice and flow. Meezy beats remind me of early Jehst and Jazz T production, Evil Ed and Chemo, but his style is really unique with some great ideas. On tracks like ‘The Wrong Path’ you see depth and cuts like ‘Fresh As A Mofo’ introduces Streakz & LB from Music Lessons, a crew both Ricky Lix & Meezy are from. The album continues to explore into the mind of Ricky Lix who was serving ’28 Days’ while writing this project. For an idea of where he was at check out ‘What The Fuck Am I Gonna Do’ and you will know what it is. Great album, a great energy and something we will play on the regular. Quality UK Hip-Hop that should be in your collection.
London rapper Sean Dean drops his new track, a remix of Giggs ‘Dirty Bastard’. He goes in hard on this one and this is something that will be massive. Grab his single from Soundcloud while its free!
‘The Priory Of Sion’ EP has an international flavour to it and features the lyrical talents from emcees M-Acculate from the UK, Texas rapper Hidden and Mistah B from Adelaide, Australia. The EP has the three lyricists lace Vancouver, Canada beatsmith Chase Magna Beats dope production with gritty lyricism, great storytelling and demonstrate throughout the project the ability to switch up styles and flows.
Early favourites include ‘Believe In You’ featuring Jolene, ‘When We Were Kids’ and ‘Illa Noise’, that could soon change as there really isn’t a weak/ skippable joint on this EP. Don’t take my word for it, Check out this sick 7 track global collab ‘The Priory Of Sion’ EP here…
Our HHLAT brother Nephilim aka Neppy has recently released this dope 17 track mixtape ‘Partly Fledged’ in conjunction with the legendary UK mixtape series UKRunnings and is mixed and hosted by our big homie Tricksta.
What we love about our boy Nephilim is the honesty in his writing, there is no braggadocious elements or ego to his personality and that shines through in his music with this positive upbeat release. Over the past year he has performed twice at RhymePad’s Open Mic comp at Boom Bap festival, and has performed a number of times at Beats & Bars events across the UK.
Since his debut EP ‘Unknown Rapper A’ there has been a noticeable improvement as Nephilim gains the confidence and skills that comes with performing in front of live audiences. He has carefully chosen some dope beats to create the soundscape as he tells tales of life, love, happiness and uncertain perceptions of reality.
Stand out joints from the mixtape are ‘Being Me’, as Neppy up’s his flow over the funky banger produced by Agent Of Change. Nephilim lets us know that there is no one like him and to be real there aren’t too many rappers out there making the kind of sound that Nephilim is, you can’t put him in one box as he is influenced by music of varying genres.
‘Thought Process Pt2’ Neppy goes in with the opening verse and is followed by a heavyweight verse from Dotz who has been murking mics across the country over the past couple of years. Sometimes having a sick guest verse can overshadow the artist but Nephilim holds his own over the A95 beat.
Next up Nephilim shows his love for the culture we all love over the dope Bunker Beats production as Neppy declares his love for spitting bars.
Probably my favourite joint on the release is ‘Loves Real Name’ an ode to his daughter as Nephilim lays his heart all over this track. Knowing Nephilim as I do, I think this is why this one hits home so much. It then flows into the track ‘Scatterbrain’ featuring production from Stealf and the man like DJ Jabbathakut doing his thing and adding dope cuts to finish the joint off nicely. It seamlessly flows into the dope track ‘Drifting’ which features another member of the HHLAT family Mr Melta who adds his recognizable flow to the piece.
I could wax lyrical about every joint on the mixtape, I find it hard reviewing music from people who are close to me, I can either be too forgiving or too critical, however this was easy to write about.
Nephilim has delivered 17 solid tracks, as you can tell from the mixtape title ‘Partly Fledged’ Nephilim acknowledges he’s not the finished article yet, but it’s that honesty which is why we love him, but with a bit of fine tuning it won’t be too long before Nephilim is FULLY FLEDGED.
Don’t take our word for it stream and download Nephilim ‘Partly Fledged’ here
Lost Alliance is a name most UK Hip-Hop fans should be familiar with, gracing the mic well with their last outing ‘Life Cycle’. Now a year on, Pact Prolific drops his solo debut album where once again he has repped his hometown of Wolverhampton well. They are not an act or stable that barrages the scene with hundreds of releases; instead they have crafted releases on their own original production and kept it fresh.
The album kicks off with the title track and brand new video track ‘A Closer Look’ which really hits hard and definitely impresses. A solid opening track from Pact continues to rap with confidence with a flow that is best described as clear and the album also doesn’t get lost in deep lyrical metaphors, instead its straight-up ‘tell it as it is’ in style. An array of rhymes that’ll paint vivid imagery with each line, and quality track after quality track, are factors that make this one of June’s top UK releases.
Pact Prolific – A Closer Look (Prod. by Lost Alliance) Track-list:
01 – A Closer Look
02 – Be Forever
03 – Shackled & Bound
04 – Above Or Below feat. Hot Rox & Alex-is
05 – Dangerous
06 – Sorry
07 – Stampede feat. Hot Rox
08 – All By Myself feat. Sipher
09 – Go Back
10 – Voices feat. Tom Watson
11 – Slow Down
12 – Excuse Me
High Focus and Blah records are arguably two of the most high profile labels about in the UK ‘scene’ at the moment, and April has seen HF continue its strong start to 2015 by releasing a collaborative project from their own Dirty Dike and Blah Records heavy hitter Lee Scott, entitled ‘Butter Fly’.
The twist to the project is that the normally outspoken Dike is involved solely as the producer, allowing Scott to bring his unique style and scouse slang to a selection of beats that matches them very well indeed.
Although the beats may be a bit to down tempo for some, I found that after a few listens you realise that the beats and lyrics really gel to create something that is , at the same time, smooth, jazzy, trippy, boastful, weird (for want of a better word!)and at times wise and even uplifting (‘Walk the Walk’ encourages us to move with purpose in life , and that ‘all routes are scenic’ if you follow this advice).
This release also continues the run of HF releases by artists outside of the labels core stable (the last one being the Onoe Caponoe and Chemo project ‘Voices From Planet Cattelle’ ) which has produced some exciting and interesting music that is a little different from the Boom Bap vibes of Leaf Dog, The Four Owls etc, and added an extra splash of diversity to the label’s output.
There isn’t really a skippable track on this project, as Scott’s excellent wordplay keeps the listener’s attention on every track, and you find yourself zoning out to the smooth beats.
Personal favourites include the neck snapping ‘Sell Drugs’, where Scott tells the listener ‘All I want to do is Sag and sell weed’ and dismisses the drudgery of a 9 to 5, the dark and slightly menacing ‘Eight O Clock In The Morning’ and the penultimate track ‘Don’t Tell me’, with its flurry of double time on the bridge coming as a nice surprise.
In summary, fans of both Lee Scott’s rhymes and Dikes beats will not be disappointed with this solid collaborative project, and I predict that ‘Butter Fly’ will be the sound track to many a head nodding smoke out.
Blackk Chronical Feat. Brenio Meru – A Marionette #Video
Blackk Chronical Feat. Brenio Meru – A Marionette #Single
Based in South East London, Blackk Chronicle is a name you remember from last year’s superb ‘Silver Casket’ joint mixtape collaboration with Solar Black (Phoenix Da Icefice from Triple Darkness). Blackk Chronicle’s first ever public appearance was at 2013’s Boom Bap Festival says it all. Since then he has shared stages with various established UK/US artists such as Pharoahe Monch, Big Daddy Kane, Jeru the Damaja, Mic Righteous, Dead Prez, Genesis Elijah, Jehst, Onyx and many more.
Here he drops a new single on Soundcloud and a video from Global Faction. ‘A Marionette’ is a great track that starts with a powerful slice of spoken word from Brenio Meru before producer Poltageist drops in a heavy beat. This is really conscious and uplifting, and one of the better UK rap tunes I’ve heard this year.
You may know Juttla from back in the day when he dropped his album ‘Bass, Kicks, Snares, Spits’ on Wolftown Recordings which featured the likes of Saigon, Inspectah Deck, Freeway, Rass Kass and many others. Now ten years later he has decided to start a new series simply entitled ‘Remix Sessions’ where he gives us new versions of current bangers.
There are no games here with an all-star line-up consisting of Genesis Elijah, Dotz, LATE and Big Dutty Deeze. This is something creatively refreshing and musically adventurous, if this is anything to go by this is going o be one seriously dope series. I want Volume Two already! LOL.
Juttla ‘Remix Sessions Vol. 1’ (Track-list):
01 – Genesis Elijah – This Year (Juttla Remix)
02 – Dotz – Ship Is Sinkin (Juttla Remix)
03 – LATE – Wrong Attitude (Juttla Remix)
04 – Big Dutty Deeze – Revolution (Juttla Remix)
The Four Owls burst on to the scene with their debut album ‘Natures Greatest Mystery’ a couple of years ago, which proved to be one of the most hyped debut releases we have seen in recent years (in no small part due to the groups members, the well respected veterans Leaf Dog, BVA, Fliptrix and Verb- T, and their close links with label of the moment High Focus).
2015 sees the return of the Owls, complete with their trademark masks, with the new album ‘Natural Order’. The expectations for this album have been building and building, especially since it was announced that the legendary DJ Premier would be producing a track on the album, making the Owls one of the elite few UK artists to ever work with Premo.
As with anything that is built up in such a way, at first the album seems like a bit of an anti – climax, however the more listens you give the album the more you forget the hype and appreciate what a well rounded release this is. When you have MC’s of the calibre of these guys the lyrics will never be lacking in quality, each of the Owls displays great verbal skills, and it is easy to distinguish who is spitting due to the great contrasts in styles and voices between the 4.
Throughout the album the Owls cover a variety of topics, including a warning to those not staying true to themselves on ‘Pay The Price’ , the struggles of staying sane in a mad world on ‘Control’ and reflecting on lost loved ones and times gone by on ‘Old Earth’. There are, of course, some straight up bangers thrown in to the mix, including the DJ Premier produced ‘Think Twice’ , the triumphant ‘Feels Great’ and the menacing ‘Assassination’, which features a typically graphic guest verse from Dirty Dike and possibly one of the hardest Fliptrix verses ive heard.
These tracks are only a small example of the goodies to be found on this album, and although the general feel of the production (provided entirely by Leaf Dog, apart from the afore mentioned DJ Premier production) is a bit more mellow than their debut, the beats are varied enough to ensure there isn’t one track that will have you reaching for the skip button. It is also a huge credit to Leaf that every one of his beats stands up to the DJ Premier production, and gives the album a really nice 90’s nostalgic vibe without becoming boring.
For those looking for the next big sound, or those favouring the more electronic, trap style production of, say, Foreign Beggar’s recent stuff, this will probably not be for you, however fans of that classic boom bap sound will embrace this album.
With the masses coming out in force to support the project upon its release (the album claimed the number one spot on the iTunes Hip Hop chart days after its release, ahead of Drake, Kid Ink etc.) and a tour about to begin, it is fair to say that the Owls stock is continuing to rise, and they are steadily becoming ambassadors of the UK scene in the US.
To summarise, this is an important album for a number reasons, but if you look beyond that, it is a well crafted sophomore release that will only add to the growing legion of Owls fans.
hiphoplifeandtimes 