is FINALLY in the UK shops! we had ALL MANNER of production delays on this one, but now that Dutty Artz has turned on, we can safely say that we’re gonna keep sprinting for a long time to come.

you can cop the 12″ at Boomkat and many other fine shoppes

here’s the Boomkat review: “Two of our favourite rhythm and bass scholars Matt Shadetek and DJ/Rupture join forces to present their new imprint Dutty Artz, dedicated to dubstep/grime tempo bangers with a four track disc rammed full of primed dancefloor winners. Matt Shadetek brings up the A-side with ‘Can’t breathe remix’, taking advantage of his outsider position within the scene to draw a number of significantly heavy strands of plasticky synth ridden grime styles with R’n'B styled vox and a killer conga pattern reminding us of Skepta’s crazy ‘stageshow riddim’. The real shocker on this side is the insanely effective ‘Girlfriend rmx’, obviously inspired by the ghetto house styles currently ruling sections of African dancefloors at the moment and spilling into Grime and Funky London styles, Matt kills it with a charging batty wriggler riddim with heavily autotuned vox and stupid fresh bass for a cut that is guaranteed to liven up any floor.

Cauto keep up the pressure built on the A-side with an mean update of Shy FX’s classic ‘Original nuttah’ augmenting the original vocals and licks with a dubstep/breakstep riddim and freshened bass rubs that will be demanding a lot of attention very soon. ‘Bona vida’ leaves us on cool dubbers tips, structuring a forward thinking dub riddim in the finest Disrupt style, before adding some angular breaks to wipe any dancefloor dilettantes, rough styyyyles. This is definitely an imprint to be keeping a close eye on in the future, and a definite must buy for any fans of Werk, Hyperdub, Hot Flush, Heatwave, or any of Ruptures legendary mixtapes. Well recommended!!”

This has been floating around for a little while…

Courtesy of Versetti

I recently came across a slew of grime mixtapes/street albums, or should we call them road albums? In less than two weeks, I had about a dozen new mixtapes in my HD, not having enough time or attention to really listen to all the materials—ranging from artists such as Ghetto, Riko, Ears, Killa P, Jammer, Kano, Trim, and the not so grime, but definitely grimey garage crew Road Side Gees.

Jammer – Intro (to Are You Dumb, Vol. 3)

Produced by Rude Kid

Pre-album fire from a grime luminary. I feel funny about calling Jammer grime, now – especially after he states in that intro, “I make music, F grime / I make music, F crime / I’m not a lame, man, F a nine…”?

$$$

Ghetto – Mountain

Produced by Lewi White & Smasher

This one is off Ghetto’s new mixtape Freedom of Speech. Ghetto goes hard. Looking forward to his album.

heavy stones still skim. uk hip hop 1998-present. occasionally condensed / unobtrusively mixed. non-exhaustive. mostly from SE LDN. hold tight Penge.

a brief uk hiphop mix 31 mins

Blak Twang – 19 Long Time (blue print)
MC D – Priceless (produced by Deckwrecka) (ronin)
Skeme & Seanie T – Survival (produced by Keith Lawrence) (beat oven)
New Flesh – 186000 Miles (Skitz Remix) (big dada)
Extremists – No Tears (produced by Skitz) (titan sounds)
Genesis Elijah feat. Klashnekoff – Jah Bless (produced by Non Slick) (dominant 3rd/country boy)
Seanie T – Muzik Ed Special (produced by Keith Lawrence) (muzik ed)
Roots Manuva f/ Fallacy, Rodney P, Blackitude, Big P & Skeme – Witness the Swords (produced by Lord Gosh) (big dada)

—-

sketchy victorian dinosaurs, crystal palace park

Seeing as there’s been such a good run of either important biz promotional or thoughtful, conversation provoking posts on here I thought I’d just throw this in the mix and bring the level of discourse down a little. It’s a cat biting a theremin, making funny sounds.

Shameless reblog from prancehall.com

It’s early and I’m still groggy but the internet is awake and buzzing. Go Round Payola, the ‘single’ from the EP, produced by me, (do EPs have singles? our’s does) is up on the DA Myspace, The Fader’s blog and JD’s myspace. Listen, skank out in your yard in your underwear, add it to your profile, tell your girl, whatever. Already I’m getting requests for the instro from people to do more versions so there’ll probably be another vocal or two before this is all done. However, remember when I said ” We’re calling it New York Tropical, before someone comes up with an even stupider name.”? Well, whoever’s blogging over at the Fader is trying to call it Trancehall. Yikes! Ouch! My dignity! They’re lumping us in with Ricky Blaze, which is great, I love Cut Dem Off but Trancehall? No. TROPICAL. Still, big up to them for the promo love. Also I stole their blog pic. I think it’s from when Jah D went to Africa with DJ Child last year.

The Dutty Artz family is VERY pleased to announce that we’ve just finished the first artist release for DA, Jahdan Blakkamoore’s EP entitled “We Are Raiders”. Jahdan is a Brooklyn local hero and has been doing his thing for years. From providing the ragga verse on Smif & Wessun’s hip-hop classic Sound Bwoy Buriel to singing the chorus on my tune Brooklyn Anthem (known in the hood as the Craziest Riddim) Jahdan has done a lot. Now, the next phase. Me, Rupture, Geko and Jah D have been labbed up for the past 6 months in the depths of Brooklyn recording his album for Dutty Artz under the working title Buzzrock Warrior. The album is crazy, it’s JD continuing the grimey direction he and I started in with Brooklyn Anthem and branching out in others as well. Dubstep is present, Cumbia is in the building, mad digital Dancehall is there and a lot of stuff that I don’t even know what to call it. Reggae? Sort of. Hip-hop? mmm, yeah. R+B? Kinda.
We’re calling it New York Tropical, before someone comes up with an even stupider name. When we put some audio online you’ll be the first to know and you can stick your own labels to it. In the mean-time, here’s the 12″ art. The four track 12″ will be out first followed shortly by the CD which adds the instrumentals.

Do you ever see that stuff that be
when it get cold that is that shit you can’t see?
See that shit happens sometimes.
Yep, black ice…

some classic videos, choice quotes (italicize, without speech marks), + tunes from one of the greatest Southern rap groups (sheet, they were the first to use the words Dirty South to describe the music they create– in mid-90s ATL, Georgia.) There’s a rumor these guys were getting back together. Well, a little far-fetched, but imagine how many late-nineties rap-nerds/fan-boys/girls this reunion will make happy.

From 1995, Soul Food.

“Cell Therapy”

My mind won’t allow me to not be curious
My folk don’t understand so they don’t take it serious
But every now and then, I wonder if the gate was put up to keep crime out or to keep our asses in.

—

From 1998, Still Standing.

“Black Ice” feat. OutKast

Who’s that looking over the shoulders of those writing dreams?
fiendin’ for the taste of menthol, missed class, stayed in the hall
Looking for a squeeze play, better yet a holiday…

—

also,

From 1998, Still Standing.

“The Don’t Dance No Mo’”

I couldn’t find the video for the last one, but if you ever see it look for Sugar Lo, commonly known as Cee-Lo. He’s wonderful.

—

I first came across Goodie Mob in 1997/98 while I was in Guinea watching music videos from France via satellite TV, around the same time Sekouba Bambino released Kassa. I was 15 & in musical heaven.

Mama’s Gun is one of the sexiest albums I have in my CD collection. I know, it’s a little strange. The album deals with horrific, unsexy nightmares and things like police brutality (Amadou Diallo), mental imprisonment (plus, the high rate of incarceration for black males). A large chunk of the album tackles self-esteem issues and breakups. Anyway, Miss Badu’s music is not always joyless and serious/militant/political. In fact, she’s more playful and introspective than most hiphop singers.

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This one is haunting and amazing. Produced by Madlib, it is from her new album New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) – Only Badu can present something like national delusion in such a phunky manner (“Amerykahn Promise”).

dead prez said it’s bigger than hiphop. Killah Priest said all religion ever did was divide… Erykah sez hiphop ain’t dead yet, regardless of what Nas said. hiphop is alive, uniting cultures, races, all around the world. While I don’t think hiphop could ever be bigger than religion, she might be onto something with the government part, and her gospel in general that together the ants can conquer the elephant.

& coming soon, New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh)