Hip Hop and Breakz

A sick mix by my man DJ Diablo AKA Rebel Eye, check the tracklist below. Tracklisting 1. Intro 2. Weave And Dread Off 3. Beat It Featuring Gappy Ranks 4. My Life 5. No Long Talk 2011 (Kush Riddim) 6. Have To Make It 7. Hello, Good Morning 8. SupaTugg (Diablo Refix) 9. Tug She Want 10. Hold Dem Ya Featuring Singer J 11. Final Burial 12. Fi Dayz 13. Dem Say War Featuring Shabba D 14. Bazooka 15. Inna Real Life Featuring Ruddy Irie 16. London Anthem (Diablo Refix) 17. Public Service Announcement 18. Anything Mi Say (Criminology) 19. Tuggy Shot Ya! 20. Serial Killer 21. Request To Di Farmer (I Swear) 22. Fallen Soldiers Featuring Dean Chohan 23. Outro A sick blend of Hip Hop and Reggae from one of the London's dopest DJs. Check him out on the FunHouse alongside DJ MK, Mr Thing and Harry Love. Download the mix here

Strong Arm Steady, often referred to as SAS, have been bubbling under the surface of California's underground hip hop scene for sometime now and most serious hip hop fans will be aware of them. The act consists of members Mitchy Slick of San Diego, California, and (both of Los Angeles) Phil Da Agony and probably the most visually distinct member, Krondon. Originally an amorphous collective of at least eight, formed as an alternative to the gang-focused productions of West Coast rap's then-dominant Death Row Records, SAS pared down to four members for recording in the studio and performing live, with Xzibit as the frontman. Since he left the group in 2006, the three remaining members have been a stable trio. Talib Kweli signed Strong Arm Steady to his Blacksmith Records label in 2007. In 2009 the group announced two albums for late 2009 to 2010 release: The first is a collaboration with producer Madlib, In Search of Stoney Jackson, with a roster of guests including Kweli, Plane...

DJ premier, easily in my opinion the Best Hip Hop producer ever has finally given us what we have been asking for The Year Round Records Presents: Get used to Us album. The album features a whole host of underground Emcees and is produced by Premier part from two tracks; one produced by Show and the other by Brenks. Some of the tracks on the album have been heard before and some haven't. Check the track-list below 1. Blaq Poet-”Bang Dis !” 2. NYG’z-”Policy” 3. Nick Javas-”Opportunity Knoccs” 4. Khaleel-”Hot Flames” 5. Dynasty-”Epic Dynasty” 6. MC Eiht-”Fine By Me” – prod by – Brenks 7. Young Maylay-”Temptation” 8. Krs-One (f. Grand Puba)-”5%” 9. NYG’z (f. Lady Of Rage, Bumpy Knuckles, Royce da 5’9″) – “Ya Dayz R #’D” (NYGemix) 10. Joell Ortiz-”Sing Like Bilal” (Version 3)(Bonus Track) 11. Tef (f. Styles P)-”Married 2 The Game” 12. Nick Javas-”Not A Game” 13. Blaq Poet (f. MC Eiht, Young Maylay)-”Ain’t Nuttin Changed” (Remix) 14. Tef (f. Saigon, Papoose)-”Lifetime Membership” 15....

MF Doom recently paid a rare visit to these shores where he rocked up to the Brixton Academy (I refuse to call it the O2 Academy) and with Help from the fantastic Herbaliser put on a fine evenings entertainment. The man in the Mask dropped favorites from his Doom, King Geedorah, Madvillain and even KMD albums. Check the Video below for a sample. Major props to my trusty cameraman, Mr Anderson for this fine HD footage.

Just a quick post to say that last weekend a power surge took out my iMac and it is currently with Apple getting a new power supply. Once that has been done and it has been and it has been returned to my posts will resume.

My man Jabbathakut has released his first album on his own label, Infekshus Records and its 25 tracks of dope UK Hip Hop that requires immediate listening. The album features a whole heap of sick UK underground artists including; Stig of the Dump, Swift, Mr Thing, Mikey T, Wordsmith, Genesis Elijah, Lyrical T, Supar Nova amongst many others. Jabbathakut handles the production duties as well as the majority of the cutting & scratching and he demonstrates some serious skills behind the boards and on the decks. Whether it be soul tinged Supar Nova joint "All alone" or the bangin' LDZ and Stig of the dump joint "Tear da roof off" which gets extra points for being the only hip hop song I've ever heard use the line "Maybe I'm just crackers, I'll kick you in the knackers" the beat is sick and the lyrics match it perfectly. You can get it through Bandcamp by following the link below. High quality 320k MP3, FLAC or any other format you coul...

M.O.P. perform Ante Up at the Jazz Cafe August 26th 2010 I have this list of Hip Hop artists that I have to see before I die and although I have been lucky enough to cross a lot of names off that list including Run DMC, The Beastie Boys, KRS ONE, Gangstarr, De La Soul, Co Flow, Mobb Deep, Wu Tang, Snoop, Cypress Hill and The Roots. Until recently one of my favorite groups ever were still sitting on that list, M.O.P. but last week I was lucky enough to see them in London's Jazz Cafe a venue that really allowed them to put on a sick show and engage with their fans. Lil' Fame and Billy Danze came on stage at a professional 21:10 which was a refreshing change from those artists that wander onstage after leaving the crowd waiting for hours. They immediately jumped into a hyped show pausing occasionally to give members of the crowd plastic cups of Hennesey or Vodka, a nice touch. They played all the tracks you would want to hear at an M.O.P. concert; Fire, Four Alarm Blaze, Downto...

Rodney is back this time with his contribution to the forthcoming Ninja Tune XX twentieth anniversary celebrations. It's a brand new tune entitled 'It's On'. It's a dope track and RM shot a video for it, too. Returning to Dungeness (where the cover images for the 'Run Come Save Me' campaign were shot), Rodders wanders about in suit and glasses referencing Ingmar Bergman, Malcolm X, live manga and a nice sports car.

Jay Electronica recently played Cargo in London's Shoreditch. Jay kwpt the crowd moving to his insightful lyrics and dope beats and half way through his massive hit Exhibit C he even jumped into the crowd where he finished the song off. Jay also showed his support of GURU's family and real hip hop fans everywhere by wearing one of the Stickupkids 'Fuck Solar' T shirts. He wore one of them throughout the show much to the crowds appreciation. Afte rthe shopw Jay showed his appreciation of his London fans by staying around for autographs and photos with them. The GURU Battle Lyrics and Fuck Solar T shirts are still available from the Stickupkids website , as Redman once said Pick it up. ---------------- Now playing: KRS-ONE & True Master - Knowledge Reigns Supreme via FoxyTunes

It was 1999 and although we had heard rumours of this entity called Quasimoto and even heard him on the Lootpack album we were unsure of what exactly he was. Was he a rapper in his own right or was he Madlib on helium ? The names Quasimoto and Madlib have been linked since the Soundpieces album that we first heard him on. Yet they’ve never been seen in the same room together. In fact, Quasimoto’s never been seen in the same room with anyone – he’s The Unseen as his debut album's title told us. But you can hear him - and there’s no mistaking his voice. The rumour goes that Peanut Butter Wolf first heard him on a dusty old tape, one of Madlib’s infamous beat tapes – the kind he’d make to listen to himself or pass around to the Likwit crew. Madlib and Quas had been up in Oxnard, CA, making music for years without the slightest intention of releasing it to the masses. Wolf got it out though – after some begging and pleading, and after signing a contract with Quas vowing not to revea...

After the success of Raekwon's Only Built for Cuban Linx Part 2 and the untold amounts of leaked track that never made the album it was only a matter of time before a deluxe version was released. The Deluxe Gold version is currently only available on the US iTunes store but will hopefully make it over to Europe soon and maybe even get a vinyl release sometime in the future although I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. Below is the listing of the extra tracks the Deluxe Gold deluxe version; About Me (rmx) f. Game Broken Safety (rmx) Penitentiary (Travis Barker Remix) Never Matter to You f. Bun B New Wu (rmx) Rock Stars f. GZA & Inspectah Deck Check the link above for the MP3 of the New Wu remix. I like the idea of these extra tracks but surely he could have just combined them with some of the earlier bootlegs, mixtape joint and that rare purple 7" of Flawless Crowns to make Cuban Linx 3? In fact you can check out a number of these bootlegs...

It was 1998 and although the name Madlib had been known to underground heads since Tha Alkaholiks superb Coast II Coast album where he had produced the smoking WLIX no one had even the slightest idea how Madlib would go on to become a musical Juggernaut who would drive through genres with more aliases than Carlos the Jackal over the next decade. He went on to produced on the Alkaholiks' follow up album, Lkwidation in 1997, he secured himself and the rest of Lootpack a slot in the Likwit crew. But it was The Lootpack's debut album in 1998; Soundpieces: Da Antidote that really allowed Madlib to show just how creative he could be. The album was a success and allowed Madlib to introduce his style of bass heavy, Jazz and obscure sampling production. Not to mention a certain Quasimoto, my favorite of all his aliases. It was a long album, 22 full track to be exact and 2 or three interludes. Although Stones Throw had already shown themselves to be the best indie label on the Left C...

If you are in London this Friday the only place to be will be the Doctors Orders Birthday Bash at Fabric . Westwood will be dropping a 90s only set followed up by MK, Harry Love, Shortee Blitz, Chris P Cuts and Spin Doctor with a Live performance from Guilty Simpson. Goldie will be dropping some Drum and Bass in the 2nd room alongside Klute and Storm amongst others. This promises to be another dope night.

Its crazy to thing this came out over 13 years ago and that to some younger hip hop heads this is Old Skool. This is another Rawkus gem also picked up from Deal Real in 1997. In fact I think I may have bought this the same day that I bought the Universal Magnetic 12", a good day indeed. I remember going into Deal Real with only enough money for one 12", £6.50 at the time and struggling to decide which I should buy. In the end I paid for one and got the other on tick and paid for it the next week. I had heard of Hi-Tek before as I had picked up the terribly underrated debut album, Doom by Cincinnati duo Mood. Hi-Tek had handled the majority of the production on that album and I had been impressed with his Tribe influenced sound. I had not heard from Kweli before this 12" but was immediately impressed with his intelligent and easily understood lyrics that coupled iwth the guest appearances from Mos Def and Bush Babees member Mr Man made this 12" a must have. Th...

Heres a sick new joint from the Legendary Bun-B produced by another Legend DJ Premier taken from Bun-B's new album Trill OG which drops the 3rd of August. The track is called Let em Know and starts of with Bun-B paying homage to Guru. Premier gives Bun a sick beat and Bun provides some dope lyrics to accompany the dope beat. With lines like " First on your Baby Mom's Bucket list" you can see why Bun-B is a legend. The beat is mid tempo and features an orchestral strings loop and some impressive scratching from Premier. If you don't' have any Bun-B in your collection or any UGK then this is a good starting point but go back and grab some of those UGK albums soon. Check the link for the track it make not last long. In the right game

I remember buying this record in Deal Real Record in London's West End, just off Oxford Street. They played the track for me and I immediately had to buy it. It was so refreshing and new, the beat was reminiscent of Tribe and the lyrics reminded me of De La Soul in that they were light hearted and humorous. This was my first introduction to Mos Def and I was very impressed. I went on to follow Mos's career closely and just months after buying this 12" I saw him do a live in store with Kweli at Deal Real and he was dope but more importantly a regular nice guy. A year or so later I saw him perform with Kweli and Co Flow at Subterania and his freestyle skills were very impressive. Mos was at the time so innovative and charismatic whilst not taking the whole indie backpack scene to serious, I have to say that I don't feel the direction he's taken of late is'nt my kinda thing but this is about 1997 not 2010. The A-Side is produced by Sean J Period and uses the...

For the 9th part of my random 90s 12" series I have chosen an often overlooked Method Man 12" from 1995. This is a pretty dope 12" featuring Mr Meth over a couple of disjointed Rza beats but more importantly this 12" marks a turning point in Method Man's lyrical style. Prior to the release of this 12" Method Man's flow was more fluent and of a higher tempo. You could often hear Meth on 36 Chambers and Tical having to take breathes in between hectic bars. It was almost as if he had too much too say and was struggling to take breathes in between these lines. He sounded hungry, trying to prove himself over the other members of the crowd. Remember for a lot of people Meth was the first member of the Clan they ever heard. An example of this style can be found on the original version of Meth Vs chef where Meth wrecks the track "for Dolo", check the link below. However on the Riddler 12" Meth debuted the style that he would utilise for hi...

This album appears to have come out of nowhere, in fact I wasn't even aware that legendary UK producer/rapper Lewis Parker was working with MF Doom cohort John Robinson. To be honest until 2008's album with MF Doom I had never even heard of John Robinson however when I heard 'Who is this man ?' I began to instantly dig his style and choice of beats. 'Who is this man ?' was entirely produced by Doom and featured well written, interesting and mature lyrics from Joh Robinson. When I saw that Lewis Parker, one of my favourite UK hip hop heads and the man behind the fantastic Masquerades & Silhouettes (1998), was handling the beats on this new JR project I knew I had to listen to it. Apparently these two worked on a limited edition 10" earlier this year called 'The Unseen Trap' which I haven't heard but will no doubt track down soon. This LP is 13 tracks long and features production entirely by Lewis Parker and John Robinson handling the emce...

The Extended Players are Shortee Blitz, Dj Mk, Harry Love and Mr Thing, the finest collection of Hip Hop DJs the UK has to offer!! Between them they've won countless DJ titles, toured the world over, produced hip hop classics of their own, won MOBO awards and so much more, not to mention Mk & Harry Love’s online stream show the Funhouse the latest hit to come out of the Extended Players camp! So join us as these turntable masters show you exactly how to rock a party playing the best hip hop related music in the finest way possible. This will be a sick jam not to be missed and will bring back memories of other London Hip Hop nights like; Gullyvers, The Hop, Kung Fu and the like. If you are in London on this night you need to be there. 8pm – 3am // FREE before 10pm, £5 after. http://www.westburybar.com/ http://www.ustream.tv/channel/thefunhouse

Heres a new Redman Joint and video for it paying tribute Michael Jackson, Lookin Fly

MF Grimm is back with a new album, You only live twice: The Audio Graphic Novel. This album is his first since 2007's The Hunt For The Gingerbread Man and is entirely produced by Twiz the Beat Pro who is on the same label as Grimm, Day by Day Entertainment. The artwork for this album was done by artist Jim Mahfood who is also doing a 13-page comic book based on the album. You can check out a track from the album which is due to be released on the 8th of June and is well worth picking up. Support some real hip hop and grab this album. Angel's without Wings

Technically this isn't really a random nineties 12" as it came out in 2000 but I was going through my record collection and realised that I had yet to convert this to MP3 and I figured there may be some people who check out this blog who may apprecaite this dope 12". DJ Cam is a dope DJ and Producer from France known mainly for his instrumental hip hop albums which heavily sample traditional Jazz. By the time I picked this 12" up in 2000 I had been listening to DJ Cam since his second studio album Substances in 1996. Substances could easily sit in the same category as Shadow's Endtroducing using dark jazz loops and break alongside strong hip hop samples creating a melancholic but enjoyable soundtrack. DJ Cam has steadily produced albums since the early nineties with his last release being 2007's Lost and Found. This 12" features a fantastic DJ Premier remix of a track from a strange enhanced CD project called the Loa Project volume 1 which only had t...

A crew of London designers have got together and come up with two T-Shirts dedicated to the late, great Guru and one dedicated to that bitch-ass Solar. The designer of the T-Shirts, Morgan said ""The range comprises of three T-shirts with two dedicated to Gurus lyrics and one created solely for that punk Solar. We have gone through our whole collection of Guru tunes which killed it because when you think, ok, we have enough a next one comes through and smashes it!:) We carefully chose lyrics to create the ultimate battle T which consists of Gurus hardest lines spit (in our eyes, I'm sure this will bring on a new debate!). We have also created the Inspiration T, which has his most insightful lyrics, which we feel elevated the way people thought about their actions. We also done a straight up FUCK Solar T, which needs no explanation. We are looking to get the inspiration on ready buy the end of next week, we just have to sell some more of the first two to get funding for ...

Back with a new design and some more dope tunes for you all to savour. Kicking off the new site is a return to the Random Nineties 12" series with part 7 coming from one of the late nineties underground stars El da Sensei along with a whole gang of indie emcees including; FT, Mike Zoot and fan favourites Pharoah Monche & Prince Po (also known as the legendary Organized Konfusion). For those who are unfamiliar with El Da Sensei he is a talented Newark, New Jersey emcee who was one half of the influential mid nineties group the Artifacts along with Tame One. The Artifacts' most popular single "Wrong Side of Da Tracks" paid special homage to graffiti art, as they were graffiti artists themselves. They released two albums; Between a Rock and a Hard place (1994) and Thats Them (1997) both on Big Beat (Atlantic). They split up shortly after their second album although they did release a dope 12" on Rawkus under the name Brick City Kids. Following on from his ...

Damn two legends from different eras together on one track. This is a remix of the track NY is killing me from Gill Scott Heron's new album I'm new here with Nas dropping a couple verse alongside Gil Scott battle scarred vocals. The beat is quite raw and it works with both artists voices especially Gill's. Check the link for the file. Lord have Mercy NY is killing me

The Wu-Massacre album has leaked and although a little bit shorter than I expected on the whole its a dope album. I'll be posting a review in a day or so when I've had a few real good listens. However as with any Wu album there is of course at least one track that was leaked that hasn't made the final cut, its a Raekwon solo joint so it could well have meant to be on Cuban Linx 2 or just one of those strange Raekwon joints that makes it onto the net either way here it is for y'all to enjoy. Pioneers

Meth, Ghost and Rae have dropped another dope joint from their new album. The track is called Dangerous and can be bought from iTunes , if you live in the US that is. For those of us not residing stateside you can find the joint to DL if you know where to look. This album is sounding better and better with each leaked joint, lets hope theres a vinyl version. What's the science?

The Summer of 1996 was a special time for me; I had just become a father for the first time, I was living away from my family and a new job had given more money to spend on music than I had ever had before. One of the biggest tunes I bought that Summer was Camp Lo's Luchini. It was so different to everything out at the time, a hyped up fun summer track where the emcees didnt take themselves too seriously. I picked this 12" up from Deal Real in London's West End which was where I was getting most of my music at that time. The 12" had Luchini on the A-Side and Swing on the B. Both tracks were produced by Ski as was all of the album, Uptown Saturday Night. Theres a radio edit, instrumental and a capella of Luchini and radio edit of Swing and and instrumental too. For the next section I have to say thanks to Mr Thing for putting me onto the break for Luchini. The break is taken from a track called Adventures in the land of Music taken form the 1980 album of the ...

Heres some more new joints from the upcoming Wu-Massacre album due out by the end of March. The first one is called Miranda and is classic Raekwon and could have come straight from either of the Cuban Linx albums. It features a dope piano loop and a cool vocal sample running through the whole track with Raekwon, Ghost and Meth dropping nice lyrics all of the tune. I have no idea who is behind the boards on this joint but its nice. The second track is Youngstown Heist f. Trife Diesel, Sheek Louch & Bully and is produced by the underrated Scram Jones. Its a dope track with a ice cymbal loop over a almost marching beat. All of the emcees drop nice short verses over the vocal samples that make up the background of the song. Its a decent enough track although not as good as the others we've heard so far from this project. I have also upped the dope Meth Vs Chef part two which is also from the album. Although the original version of Meth Vs Chef from the underrated Tical was...

Today marks the thirteenth anniversary of the death of Christopher George Latore Wallace aka The Notorious B.I.G. aka Biggie Smalls aka Frank White so pay respect to one of Brooklyn's, if not Hip Hop's Finest. Lets hope the next year brings some justice and closure to this scandal so that Biggie's family and the Hip Hop world as a whole can move on. Follow the link below to an amazing Biggie mix by my man DJ MK. Christopher George Latore Wallace May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997

Whilst looking for a particular 12" in my garage, where I keep the records that I don't listen to on a regular basis or have already converted to MP3s I can across this Counterflow Recordings 12" from 2004 and thought I'd share it with Y'all. I had totally forgotten I had even bought this joint back in the Summer 0f 2004, I had picked it up in HMV on Grafton street, in Dublin whilst on holiday for £5.99. The A Side is produced by Hi-Tek and is a light bouncy track with a strings loop, very reminiscent of Mos Def's Oh No joint from Lyricist Lounge Volume 2. The emcees on this are a lyrics fanatics dream come true, Rass Kass and Pharoahe Monch. Two emcees who can drop intricate metaphors and similes with ease. Generally a dope track although without the two emcees it would sound a little generic and quite similar to a lot of other indie tracks released around that time when there seemed to be a new indie label out every week, most of which no longer even hav...

Following the two leaked joints form the upcoming Method Man, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah album, Wu-Massacre I was already looking forward to what seemed like a return to form for the three Wu heavy weights and now to top it off they have leaked Criminology 2.5 from the new album. Obviously the first version of Criminiology was first released on the double A-Side 12" back in 1995 with Glaciers of Ice on the flip. This was the first 12" from the legendary Only Built for Cuban Linx. Upon hearing that 12" I began hunting for the break that Rza had flipped so magnificently and you can read about that here , it was of course the fantastic 'Why Marry' by The Sweet Inspirations. But Criminology became more than that with Raekwon performing it with the amazing jazz band the El Michaels Affair and then later making a Criminology Part 2. Criminology part 2 was supposed to be included on Only Built for Cuban Linx part 2 which of course dropped last year to very strong...

On February 28, 2010 Guru suffered a cardiac arrest and is currently in a medically induced coma although is recovering from from surgery. Earlier today DJ Premier tweeted, "Good news: #guru surgery was successful, keep sending him love." He later added, "#Guru still in a med induced coma, he's breathing with machine help. And please reporters, don't copy without care. #Pray." As one of the greatest and most consistent Hip Hop acts ever Ganstarr dropped easily some of the best albums of the late eighties right up until the early noughties Albums No More Mr. Nice Guy (1989) Step in the Arena (1991) Daily Operation (1992) Hard to Earn (1994) Moment of Truth (1998) Full Clip: A Decade of Gang Starr (1999) The Ownerz (2003) However in 2005 GURU (The name Guru is a backronym that stands for "Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal" and the less often used "God is Universal, he is the Ruler Universal") said the group had ended and not broken up. Al...