Not-particularly-hot gossip this month begins with Riff Raff trying to start Instagram-related beef with hardcore thug Sam Smith, Billy Danze of well-known wallflowers MoP saying he’s sick of all the violence in hip-hop right now, Eminem suing the New Zealand National Party, and Kendrick Lamar finding himself in a bit of a sticky sample situation, possibly to the tune of a cool $1million.
A considerably hotter newsflash comes from Blak Twang, whose classic ‘Dettwork SouthEast’ album – an unquestionable UK hip-hop classic, considered lost for nearly 20 years – will get a proper reintroduction to the fold. Start raiding the piggy bank.
Once you’ve shaken the coppers from your coin jar, get Brian Coleman’s ‘Check The Technique 2’ on your shopping list as well. Another essential digest of inside stories and detailed analyses of all-time albums and iconic 80s/90s long players, career bests from Ice Cube, Mos Def & Talib Kweli, Company Flow, Stetsasonic and Jeru the Damaja are among the select band receiving Coleman’s prying ear and expert eye.
Capone N Noreaga are sure to spice up an autumnal Monday night at The Jazz Cafe on October 20th, and fans of Fliptrix will be bundling towards the front row for 12 dates up and down the land between the 3rd and 31st, starting in Camden and finishing in the Isle of Wight via Belgium. Mos Def already has November wrapped up, announcing a three-date, 15th anniversary tour of ‘Black On Both Sides’ bound to adopt hot cakes status. Run The Jewels start Christmas shopping in these parts with two gigs in December.
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Single syllables: “Walls got so much plaques, I gotta call a dentist”
The return of G-Unit – yep, all four of ‘em, joined by latest recruit Kidd Kidd – celebrates ‘The Beauty Of Independence’. Six tracks of chest-beating, chain-swinging and generally swanning about like they own the place, is just like the crew in their prime. Flying Lotus plus Kendrick Lamar = match made in heaven? ‘Never Catch Me’ is a jazz ascendancy busting a gut towards enlightenment. Curren$y’s ‘Saturday Night Car Tunes’ EP is freebie low-rider music, at times fluffier than a pair of rear view dice.
G-Unit, ‘Watch Me’
‘We Need A War On War’ declares Secondson, and his tactics would be five fine instrumentals whose calm consideration hides an emotional bruising. Another mellow fellow is Stan Forebee, giving you half a dozen ‘Reflections’ and letting pianos pat you down as jazz vibes unknot your tensions. According to Urban Click, it’s ‘Weed Season’, and they’ve got six quick headshots to celebrate with.
The DA share love complications, not sponge recipes, on the classy palm tree breeze of ‘Caked Up’, while Diamond District’s action-packed banger ‘First Step’ has the get-up-and-go to turn lazybones into superheroes. The ‘Melding of the Minds’ between Deltron3030 and Zack de la Rocha travels through multiple dimensions thanks to an evolutionary remix from A-Plus.
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ReaLPolitiks: autumn blossoms, classified exposure, and sacrilege
Homeboy Sandman’s ‘Hallways’ nominates itself as an underground classic for 2014. His pally chat and matter-of-fact decisiveness, stationed between slumping on the sofa and juggling the mic like it’s a hot potato, goes down a storm with the best offerings of Jonwayne, Oh No, DJ Spinna and a sound supporting cast.
Ras Kass sharpens his toothpick and works overtime on Apollo Brown’s street-saluting beats and soul stirred into boom bap. ‘Blasphemy’ features Pharoahe Monch, Rakaa, Xzibit and Royce 5’9”, and is an album speaking its mind and presenting the facts – ’48 Laws’ is one of those classic, rules-of-the-game countdowns, including a brilliant Puff Daddy burn. A resilient hip-hop tutorial.
Apollo Brown & Ras Kass, ‘Humble Pi’
OnCue’s ‘Angry Young Man’ vents its spleen. Overseen by Just Blaze, synthesized blockbusters (i.e., a lot of hot air looking for a pop transfer) and a plucky/foolish/on-trend sample of Thomas Bangalter courtesy of Hudson Mohawke, are tackled competently in a state of mild annoyance.
With the guile of a gentle giant, the individual force that is DELS converts the abstract into plain English and vice versa on ‘Petals Have Fallen’ – sort of like he’s doing leftfield for the common man. Continuing to read the Roots Manuva rulebook, sometimes he forgoes the adventurous for what feels right with a sense of time and space – ‘RGB’ is the emphatic exception. The songwriting slyly makes him look further than the underground, on a mostly studious effort.
Interlude – Nas, Time Is Illmatic film trailer
Selling you a second selection of ‘Bone Marrow’, Ramson Badbonez is back to shake your skeleton. He’s successful as well, bearing down on beats that bash brains in, reeling off rhymes made to both rouse you and rub you up the wrong way, and pouring out fuel for the headphones that’s good and feisty. “My mind is highly controversial, by the way I’m non-commercial” – and so say all of us.
If you feel gravel spluttering out of your speakers, it must mean Genesis Elijah is back in town. ‘Private Moments In Public’ is indisputable as ever in its fact-finding, husky wisdom and guttural blues rounded off with a monumental posse cut determining who’s ‘Underground King’. Pastor Dutchie handles the majority of production, getting fists pumped before going bare knuckled. Privacy that deserves respecting.
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Tape measures
Confucius MC and Chris P Cuts start the week in full gear for the ‘Monday Morning Mixtape’ series, handily joining Evil Ed, J Dilla, some R&B shuffling and a clutch of personal specials. Raz Fresco aims to be Toronto’s new favourite son with ‘The Screwface Tape’. Full of freestyles and fresh stuff strictly under a solo spotlight, Raz sounds like Big L hacking down Canadian redwoods. Over in NYC, The Breed look for a decent shelf life ahead thanks to ‘Last Of A Dying Breed’, the crew being mostly concerned with chummy, weed-assisted mic swaps that can come out fighting if needs be.
Ace Hood’s ‘Body Bag 3’ does the original rhymes over others’ instrumentals thing for a pretty intense half hour of Floridian fire (sidestepping ‘Don’t Tell Em’ and its ‘Rhythm is a Dancer’ chorus). Problem’s ‘354 Liftoff’ follows a similar route, using Disclosure and Iggy Azalea as means of conveying a tiring workload of street networking. ‘Hardcore 2K14’ has Lil Kim trying to reclaim Queen Bee ranking, with Jadakiss, French Montana and Cassidy part of a crowded campaign trail that plays to her strengths of sex and power.
Stranger Day keep it tight-knit (1), FloFilz reflects (2), The Acorns go undercover (3), L’Orange reinterpret a familiar love story (4), and Verb T uses his loaf (5).
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Words: Matt Oliver
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