Month: July 2010

Hired Gun never fails to surprise me with his quick delivery and excellent flow. Combining his talent with Rabbi Darkside and Zajazza makes the “Skillz To Take Brazil” even more amazing.

You’ve been waiting on this record for what seems like an eternity, and finally, it is here. The brand new single from the most uncompromisingly brutal lyricist in the biz, Stig Of The Dump has arrived, complete with a punch so hard its already knocked out five postmen on its way to your doormat.

Kicking off 2010's UK events, the UK DJ Final and Battle For UK Supremacy took place at the 02 Academy, Islington on Thursday 15th July with the winners going head to head, battling for a place at the World DJ Championships on October 17th and 18th at KOKO.

Five years ago the UK hip hop landscape changed with the arrival of The Doctors Orders to the proceeding. Named by Time Out as being “the kings of the capital's hip hop scene”, they have been responsible for throwing some of the biggest and best hip hop parties from London to Plymouth and not forgetting the famous Brighton beach parties and weekenders.

After an amazing year of touring with The Prodigy, the video for Contact reaching over a million views and smashing it at a load of shows all over the world the Foreign Beggars are proud to announce they have been nominated for Best European Hip Hop Act at the Urban Music Awards. The other nominees are Ken Ring (Sweden], Roots Manuva [UK], La Fouine (France], Tinie Tempah (UK) and Professor Green (UK) so the competition is big.

Method To The Maadness is Kano’s fourth studio album and his most accomplished, heavyweight offering yet. In addition to the razor-sharp yet caramel smooth vocals of its star the tour de force also features a sterling supporting cast, including; Hot Chip, Chase & Status, Boys Noize, Wiley, Vybz Kartel, Damon Albarn and Diplo. The tracklisting and artwork are included below.

Spin Doctor has made an eclectic selection taking in everything from Hip-Hop and classic Soul to Jungle and Reggae to display the great range of tunes that have been keeping The Doctor's Orders dance-floors packed for the last 5 years.

When outside observers think of Hip Hop, they tend to think of thugged out posers, so aggressive and in your face that it ends out intimidating and fake; or battle rappers, who, although superbly creative, are so intent on destroying the opponent that negativity reigns; or the abstract poets, imagination second to none, but so out there that only they ever know what theyre rapping about. There is a definite lack of social consciousness and, at the end of the day, just some good positive creativity.

You would have to have been living under a rock recently to ignore the ever-growing presence of the Don’t Flop Rap battle League in the UK scene, so I recently caught up with Sensa, one of the league’s top MC’s, to pick his brains on the subject.

Recently recognized for the Closer Love EP he released alongside Miles Bonny (Melting Pot Music), A.C. Layne aka TE1 follows up with The Onederful, Vol.1. As a producer, TE1 has an ear for different types of music: he's been producing everything from soul, r&b, hip-hop to house. Now that he launches his own label, Esoteric Soul Records, the man is finally able to release anything that comes through his mind.