Month: July 2008

It's been a while since I dropped my last show so here finally is the next installment. As always, you can check me at www.myspace.com/analogueonthecut for the latest developments, including information on new night Middle 8 which I'm co-running monthly at the Elbow Room, Leeds.

Fresh for you surfers is something pretty darn special. The latest release on the prolific, consistently dope Dented Records (Foreign Beggars / Skrein / Stig), comes this highly anticipated CD. "Trading Standards" is entirely comprised of original material, and features the country’s most talented emcees including Mercury Music Prize Nominee and MOBO Award Winning Soweto Kinch, Foreign Beggars, Jehst, Stig Of The Dump and Kashmere.

Minnesotan hip hop producer K Salaam's album 'Whose World is This?' is out now. It features some of the most prolific characters from the world of hip-hop and reggae including Trey Songz, Young Buck, Sizzla, Buju Banton, Dead Prez and Talib Kweli. Using their own distinctive style, this musical forum addresses politics, poetics and peace, exploring a variety of solutions and topics to formulate an answer to K Salaams thought-provoking question.

Since we first featured Bradford based Tapestry he has been a busy lad. In less that a few days he has hit us up with a quick freestyle (check the britishhiphop.co.uk namecheck) and a new track called This And That produced by Charlee Brown.

Freddie Foxxx is an enigma. He keeps redefining himself as others desperately try to pin him down and label him. Ruffian. Hardcore. Gun-Wielding. A bygone legend, limited to cameos and guest appearances. Industry Troublemaker. Foxxx is all of these things and none of them at once. A past marred with distrust and hard-breaks has molded Foxxx into a chameleon and one of the most respected emcees out there.

Fourteen years overdue, Freddie Foxxx, aka Bumpy Knuckles, is finally ready to step back into the spotlight with the official release of his 1994 demo tape, Crazy Like A Foxxx, as a two CD set on July 29th via Brooklyn-based record label Fat Beats. The album is a veritable time capsule from the early 1990's, with guest spots from legends such as 2Pac, Chuck D and Kool G Rap.

As I'm sure most of you know, Strong Arm Steady is a West Coast super-group consisting of the cream of California’s underground hip-hop scene: Phil the Agony, Mitchy Slick and Krondon. Over the years, Strong Arm Steady has toured relentlessly and pounded the mixtape circuit, independently distributing over 200,000 mixtapes worldwide.

As ever Footlocker are coming up with tasty exclusive designs. Here they are running with Nike again for a remixed TN series shoe. The Olympic TN10 trainer is an update on the classic TN10 style; updated with an innovative graphic design illuminated by the bright colour palette. The Olympic TN10 is only available exclusively at Footlocker and is in stores now.

With the up and coming release of Modulok & Bare Beats 'Two Cities', Beats is dropping a free promo CD & digital download of some exclusive tracks and remixes. Eight tracks deep, this mini album is straight up head nodding magic, Beats keeping it raw & gritty as always with all the mc’s fitting the project tightly.

Canadian engineer and producer Marco Polo now resides in New York. Coming up through his internship at the Cutting Rooms where he engineered tracks by Talib Kweli, Fat Joe and Carl Thomas. At this time he was working with Jean Grae, Block McCloud and Pumpkinhead. He then connected with Master Ace for the ‘Do It Man’ beat on ‘A Long Hot Summer’…