Hip Hop and Breakz

It was late 1995 and the Hip-Hop world has firmly in the grip of Wu-Tang fever. We had been listening to the original 9 members for almost two years and the affiliates were starting to appear; Sunz of Man, Killarmy, Shabazz the Disciple, Dark Skinned Assassin and of course L'a The Darkman. Their 12"s were of varying levels of quality but all had that Wu Tang sound despite hardly any of them being produced by The Rza and most being produced by one of his many proteges; 4Th Disciple, Mathematics, True Master and Bronze Navareth. Some of them were even lucky enough to have one of the original 9 dropping a verse or at times just a chorus. This 12" here is one of them. I picked this joint up in the fantastic but long since gone Deal Real record shop in London's west End (the first and real one, not the recreated trendy one off Carnaby Street but the true one on D'Arblay street) I probably paid about £6 for it and it would have been picked up with other simil...

This one here is for my old mate Ricardinio, I hope I got the right 12". This 12" was on constant rotation in mid 1998 and even now it is still a heavy 12". So this was released under the pseudonym The Giant which anyone can easily tell is AG (Andre The Giant)from Show & AG fame. The reason for the use of the pseudonym is because these two track aren't produced by Showbiz but produced by DJ Greyboy. Greyboy is often described as an Acid Jazz producer although he did produce tracks for OGC (Originoo Gun Clappaz)and Main Flow of the group Mood he was more on the Acid Jazz side of things. Originally hailing from California he has released a number of compilations most recently 15 years of West Coast Cool in 2008. The A side is Hidden Crate and starts of with a De Niro Taxi Driver sample before moving into a deep guitar loop laden beat over a jaded drum with some flutes in there. AG demonstrates his usual skills in his trademarked laid back flow. He drops ...

This is the first in a series of Random Late 90s 12"s that I thought I'd up for you guys to enjoy, I'll try and keep it regular but I can't make any promises. This is a 12" that I bought from HipHopsite.com in 1997. I remember playing it a lot during '97 and dug it out again recently and still enjoyed the piano laden beat and the funny hip hop lyrics. Colored Section are a tight 2 man project from this left coast act. Smooth beats combined with the the mellow rhyme style of Coke (formally of Madcap) and Che'ski equals a solid album. This is a fun 12" with incredibly clever lyrics which pays tribute to the pioneers of the game. The group itself did drop an album however I never managed to get hold of it at the time but did grab it a few years back from some download site or the other. I found it to be a fun and enjoyable album with no social commentary or deep lyrics but just an enjoyable fun album. It also includes a West Voast remix of this t...

As requested by reader Dredwerkz here is a re-up of an earlier article with a new download link I was never a big Lord Have Mercy fan, to me he was always a hype man for a rapper who didn't need a hype man. But when this bootleg 12" came out in 1998/99 I was a major M.O.P. and I still am to this day so I had to pick this because of the fact that it co stars lil' Fame and Billy Danzene. This bootleg was picked up in Uptown records in London's west end for about £8. It is produced by Nottz and it was originally recorded for Lord Have Mercy solo album 'Thee ungoldy hour', but that album never came out. However a track as dope as this rarely gets left on the cutting room floor and finally made it onto M.O.P.'s 2000 classic 'Warriorz'. Home Sweet Home could almost be a Premier, joint like the majority of the 'Warriorz' album was, but its Nottz who created this funky joint. Its made up of some nice horns as well as an off kilter piano loop wit...

Copywrite is an  underground hip-hop  artist from  Columbus, Ohio .  Copywrite emerged onto the independent hip-hop scene in 1998 along with his group "MHz" with a debut single on the legendary Fondle 'em Records, entitled "World Premier".  Since then he has worked with the High and Mighty,  Royce Da 59, Dilated Peoples, Inspecta Deck, Sean Price as well a heavyweight producers like Jay Dee (J Dilla), RJD2, Jake One and J-Zone.  He is a talented emcee who has worked with a cadre of UK artists including Mystro, Rhyme Asylum, Loudmouth Melvin, Skillit, Sarah Love and Sam Khan.  This is his first full length since his 2010 release The Life and Times of Peter Nelson and is released on Man Bites Dog records on the 13 th of June.   Its seventeen tracks long with only one interlude and a whole host of emcees and producers on board.   In fact every track features a number of other emcees and a variety of producers. ...

El-P – Cure 4 Cancer At times Hip Hop can be a genre of music bereft of innovation, where tried and tested formulas provide almost risk free investments for both artists and labels.  Where there is innovation it either avoids the mainstream or like Kanye floods the market and is no longer innovative.  The steady formula of three 16 bar verses split with either a chanted or sung chorus with maybe a little generic scratching has kept Hip Hop going for years now.  Yes you do have legends like DJ Premier and Pete Rock who stick to that formula and yet still manage to create a unique sound but the majority of the mainstream Hip Hop is simply boring and safe.  El-P however is one of those rare producers who is prepared to break the mould.             Emerging from the NY indie scene in the mid 1990s was Company Flow, which El-P handled the production for and also rhymed in.   Their sound bore ...

Killer Mike made his debut on Outkast’s legendary Stankonia album back in 2000 before appearing on one of my favourite Outkasts track a year later ‘The Whole world’. Since then he has gone on to release five solo albums on the Grind Time Official label. To some he is an Atlanta legend appearing on tracks with Outkast, T.I., Bun B, Young Jeezy and other Dirty South legends. He has often presented a more eloquent view of rapping touching on such diverse subjects as politics, religion and the plight of the poorer members of our society. Although I usually would not take more than a passing interest in most of Mike’s catalogue, apart from a few of the more interesting songs, I immediately became interested when I heard his latest album would be produced entirely by El-P. The reason why this made it an interesting project is that although El-P and Killer Mike are from different sides of the Hip Hop landscape. However over time the Indie NY scene and the Dirty South ATL scene have ...

There have been rumours doing the rounds for the last few weeks but yesterday HMV finally made it official and notified ticket buyers that they would be getting a refund minus the booking fee of course(robbing bas**rds). It was announced back in January and immediately seemed to good to be true and then in Feb MC Shan started stating that it wasn't going to happen, then Masta Ace saying it was and then last week DJ 279 said it wasn't going to happen. Now HMV, owners of the Venue have officially started giving refunds.

On Monday the 9th of April the Juice Crew comes to London's HMV Forum in Kentish Town. Tickets are £30 each from HMV tickets.

I understand that De La Soul’s Plug 1 and 2, Pos and Dave, are doing their own project together without Maseo, Plug 3. For the purpose of this concept album they will be First Serve. Pos n’ Dave have created the character aliases Jacob “Pop Life” Barrow and Deen Whittier for the forthcoming self-titled album. The album is a collaboration with French producers team 2 & 4, it charts the story of two Queens NY teenagers who spend their time in a basement dreaming of making it big in Hip Hop. Check out the trailer above which sees our heroes deep in character and listen below to “Pushin’ Aside, Pushin’ Along”. A new track which samples the opening piano stabs of the Thomas the Tank engine theme. I look forward to this project; Pos and Dave are always good value for money and its nice to see them trying something new although I am unsure if I am happy about Maseo's absence but any De La is better than none. Now would it be too much to ask for that third installment of the Art o...