Official Video for talented London emcee/singer Amy True’s track ‘Falling Stars’, Produced by Question Mark, lifted from her dope 9 track EP ‘Question Authority’.
Official video for Born Ina Barn’s ‘Foreven Chillin’, featuring Ambush Tactics. Video directed by Oliver Whitehouse. The track is taken from their dope album ‘Love Won’t Pay The Bills’ OUT NOW on all platforms with LIMITED EDITION CDs available from http://www.sikastudios.co.uk
The ever prolific UK label High Focus Records are back with yet more dopeness with the latest release from Dead Players. After their sick self titled debut album the trio are back with another banger with their sophomore album ‘Freshly Skeletal’ and our boy Adam gives us his thoughts and what you can expect from the album…..
A thousand million rappers, that’s what we’re dealing with these days. Maybe we always were and the Internet just gave them all a platform, but either way there’s a vast haystack and a disproportionate number of needles to find. We have two of the sharpest here in Jam Baxter and Dabbla, along with a producer of a rare order in Ghostown, collectively packaged as Dead Players. After a debut album that naysayed the game they return with “Freshly Skeletal”, an album that gives zero fucks for ‘convention’ and goes all the way in, in the hardest sense.
The sheer levels of levels on levels is frankly undeniable to surely even the most hardened ‘purist’, “Freshly Skeletal” finds them again blurring lines of genre with a sort of style of Hip Hop that is a word that doesn’t exist. This is not a 90s throwback affair, it’s not a trap affair, it’s not anything that falls in between, but it’s all of those and its own twist, basically it’s mad original.
Both emcees are unique and have extensive work singularly. Jam Baxter with his seemingly never ending vocabulary of abstract visions is still proving his rep as one of the best lyricists in recent times, with white hot confidence levels that find him writing at a level and rate that is hard to match. The tangents and the imagery, the imagination that he brings here still have me blown away, able to work each track as an individual piece of art whilst keeping a continuing narrative throughout his work .
Then you’ve got Paddy Mashdown a.k.a Dabbla, who has one of the most enjoyable styles to listen to in the scene, with a wit and an ability to turn a phrase with intelligence, while delivering it with conviction and style of his own there’s no one out there quite like him. I find him to be very relatable and honest with it as well, his contribution to this album is his best work in my opinion ( and that’s all that all of this is, my opinion) There’s no one out there quite like any of these three cats. Ghostown is gonna be responsible for many, many neck injuries with this production, back again with pigeon hole shunting melodies and speaker damaging drums, he just has class to his beats where some over do things with less effect. There’s full on bangers here from him,there’s trance inducing vibes outs, there’s a whole mess of creativity from a very well realised producer.
BIG, BIG tracks full of bars and flows to set this apart from the majority of releases, “Freshly Skeletal” is a lesson in what top tier means and there are also dope features from heavyweights Lee Scott, Sox, Illaman, Ocean Wisdom and Orifice Vulgatron to bolster this already impressive album as well. When there’s so much good music coming out this shows the men from the boys and the ones meant to be doing this from the ones who just can, and that’s an important fine line that needs drawing sometimes. High Focus keeps dropping benchmark albums, and though not everyone is going to agree on anything the chatter speaks for itself and Dead Players add to this again, I have no doubt this will be in a lot of people’s top fives this year.
Words; Adam
Dead Players ‘Freshly Skeletal’ is available now from
After creating the Frequency Album, the Monosapiens & Conscious Route return with the frequency remixes. The first remix is brought to you by Rik Mono from the Monosapiens, the release also includes guest production on the other three songs by Audiosyncracy, Blind Digital and Synct. The release brings a diverse range of electronic styles of music.
Monosapiens are Rik & Simon Arbuthnot, they started in 2001. Between them they play guitar, bass, drums, percussion, keyboards, samplers, and whatever else they can find lying around to make a noise with!
Conscious Route is the front man for this project, originally from England (between Cambridge and London), he started out Mossman Skank, later abbreviating his name to Mosman. He is a founder member of now dispersed hip hop crew Fugaizrum, who later became a cross-over Hip Hop and Blues band. He started to write hip hop in 1998, being influenced by names like Talib Kweli, Pharoahe Monch, Wu Tang Clan, Roots Manuva, Black Twang, Task Force, Terra Firma, Triple Darkness, Dr John, Eek-A-Mouse, Michael Franti, and Bob Dylan, which in turn all shaped his flow.
Monosapiens & Conscious Route Feat. SoundBone – Frequency #Video
Monosapiens & Conscious Route – Frequency Remixes #Tracklist
1. Frequency (Remix) Produced by Rik Mono from Monosapiens
2. Frequency (Remix) Produced by Audiosyncracy
3. Frequency (Remix) Produced by Blind Digital
4. Frequency (Remix) Produced by Synct
Ska and reggae flavoured Hip Hop from Bristols FIRST DEGREE BURNS with the track ‘ESTEBAN’ featuring RES ONE of SPLIT PROPHETS. Directed by: CHRIS LUCAS Produced by: BEN BAIKOVITCH-FISHER Featuring: M.MIMETIC and J.WILLIAMS
The RedBull Thre3style competition takes us to Tokyo, Japan. With some returning and several new competitors in 2015, the stakes are at an all time high. With RedBull Thre3style’s global reach continuously expanding, Tokyo, Japan serves as the perfect host for this year’s army of competing DJs.
Along with previous champions, DJ Jazzy Jeff chronicles this year’s event and takes us on the inside of what it takes to be a world champion.
hiphoplifeandtimes 