Rapture and Verse powers through the go-slows of January blues with a no particular order hotchpotch to dive into headfirst. Let’s go snorkelling, starting with much touted grime to primetime candidate Dot Rotten, steaming through with ‘Are You Not Entertained’. It sounds a bit like ‘Chip-Diddy-Chip’ but not as, well, sappy, over a classic hip-hop drum break and Rotten with a flow that will set many a laundrette alight. Loads of support all round for this one, and watch Dot put this in the pipe of rock-rap naysayers.
Speech Debelle makes her Big Dada comeback: you can’t argue with the timing of her reintroduction with femcees hot property right now, but the Londoner has points to prove. ‘Freedom of Speech’ is the follow-up to Mercury prize winner ‘Speech Therapy’ that proved more millstone than milestone, but combining ever more a flow between C-Mone and Bahamadia, it’s a confidently understated follow-up for long late nights, more than making up for lost time.
Childish Gambino, whose name, as you might think, is a result of playing with an online Wu-Tang name generator (and a wee bit more interesting than real name Donald Glover), already has the ultimate feather in his cap: starring in Tracy Jordan’s ‘Werewolf Bar mitzvah’ in 30 Rock. Delivering a Lupe Fiasco/Drake-style tone of confession, some are claiming he “represents the future of hip-hop”. An inflated prediction perhaps, but ‘All That Shine’ is a cool and smoothed out, slightly paranoid Californian soul on ice from the Comedy Central stand-up. And while we’re dealing with shall we say, slightly eccentric mobster handles while keeping out in the heaviness of the rap wilds, Fatal Lucciauno drops some proper Seattle gangster slickness for ‘Big Bro’, with the vibe of Raekwon meets The Game as someone who’ll always be watching you. Ahead of a free Jake One-paired EP, go check the freestyle.
Tying in with Clash’s recent Stones Throw feature, the befuddling Dudley Perkins in his Declaime guise shows he’s still a smart cookie where the joke is on everyone else. Back in tow with Georgia Anne Muldrow on production, Declaime runs rings around a queasy, twizzly, innocuously addictive beat under another alias Dr Shrooman for ‘Ship’s Doctor’, taken from the pair’s latest LP ‘Self-Study’. Plus it’s the best example of eating fruit when on the mic since LL Cool J’s ‘Doin’ It’. Also be on the lookout from your preferred mp3 emporium for a Stones Throw 2012 preview mix from J Rocc. Edging towards the left, Boston’s BeFP (keeping it initialised, he’s one half of rap-duo BFPSP) has an instrumental mini-album doing the rounds on the worldwide web, that going by sneak preview ‘The Bridge’ should be full of electro-bitten beats and glitchy hemispheres, and making complicated wire-crossing sound cosy and calm in ‘A World of My Own’.
On the rumour mill, the hawkers of hearsay have got Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell hatching an LP together this year, and that an NWA biopic could be on the way, with the intriguing selling point being that the leads are to be played by the offspring of the world’s most dangerous group. More mongering of gossip has regular jailbird and canine campaigner DMX on the verge of unrevealing two album’s worth of previously unheard material, as well as spearhead a Ruff Ryders reunion tour – Swizz Beats and Drag-On already on the tour bus, so rumours say. Shiny oversized denim and quad bikes with ridiculous hydraulics, welcome back.
Turntable legend QBert and beatbox top boy Reeps One are bringing their ‘Bass Bizarre’ tour worldwide, including stops in Birmingham, Manchester and London this month. Get to bassbizarre.com for more on a potentially eye and ear popping revolution in hip-hop essentials. More direct drive damage has Jabba tha Kut getting his fingers working to Olympian levels of stealth and skill with the Chess Move Cartel – chessmovecartel.com – for ‘Intricate Moves Volume 1’.
For some homegrown experience, Paradise the Prolific from esteemed UK collective 57th Dynasty is scouring cyberspace, and Demon Boyz’ Million Dan is plying his trade with breaks troublemakers DeeKline and Ed Solo on a spot of summer D&B. Five-track freeness from truth-seeker Genesis Elijah, ‘Painkillers and Pilkington’ – not quote what ‘An Idiot Abroad’ will do to a rational man, though Gervais does pop in – is good gristle to educate yourself with, superbly ripping up Lana Del Rey’s ‘Video Games’ as he goes with help from the right honourable Pastor Dutchie. Jimmy Screech’s ‘Yard Food 2’ is a snappy mixtape refining the shared dancehall lilt of Roots Manuva with some up and at ‘em bangers, accomplished mic-strikes and The Odd Couple theme tune to fill yer boots and belly with.
In concluding this month’s mixed bag, the Gangrene sophomore was as tough a chin as anticipated , ‘Vodka and Ayahuacsa’ backed by a clever yet unsettling YouTube campaign in the run-up and proving a deliciously toxic cocktail to knock back over and over. Take heed of forthcoming newness from Pos and Dave of De La Soul (verdict, better than you may think, and the concept album isn’t dead) and the welcome return of DJ Format (verdict, doing what he does best). Rounding off, some UK nitty gritty from Rax, E.gle, Mrvl and Danny Graft beats those Americans at their own game, while the perpetual Hieroglyphics crew have Pep Love showing that the show must go on with some easiness on the ear.
Words by Matt Oliver