it's the shiznit

news, reviews and banter on r'n'b, hiphop, garage, grime, bassline, soul, electro and house. standard.

Simian Mobile Disco - I Believe...

Published by Warren Dell under on Friday, June 22, 2007


The third single from a fantastic album.

Lethal B - Jump...

Published by Warren Dell under on Friday, June 22, 2007


Lethal gets his shamrock on, make mine a Guiness and a potato salad. Ok enough with the stereotypes.

That legal crack...

Published by Warren Dell under on Friday, June 15, 2007


For years Red Bull has owned the energy drink market despite the fact that it tastes like the horrible medicine you used to have as kid and the taste is left in your mouth for hours afterwards. While cheapskate bar owners stocked poor imitations of the drink it's taken until now for Red Bull to be challenged in this market.

Relentless is Coca-Cola's take on the energy drink but instead of some slimline can they go the whole hog and pack a whole pint of caffeine tasting goodness for you to consume. Not only that but it tastes nicer and is better value for money than red Bull, with some supermarkets selling it for as low as 89p!!

For those that haven't tried it, you get a bigger buzz than Red Bull and it makes you think that it has to be illegal to serve that much caffeine in a can. This drink can only be described as legal crack. Before long you are wondering where your next Relentless kick will come from. The fact that it's only sold in a few places at the moment as well adds to the addiction. I heard someone say recently that they hadn't seen any in three supermarkets, perhaps there is a dry spell. These conversations don't happen for energy drinks, only drugs!!

What I've noticed though over the course of consuming plenty of the stuff, is that some cans seem to have more of a kick than others. I think at the factory where they are made the standards are very poor for qaulity control and so sometimes you get a can with extra caffeine than the standard amount. It's like a game of Relentless roulette with the uncertainty of what sort of kick you're going to get.

It seems to have become an underground, cooler thing to drink and is already being co-singed by the likes of JME and Example. The latter mentioned the drink in his blog and was sent crate loads by their PR company. Don't be fooled by the terrible, unreadable design, Relentless is not to be taken lightly!

Wiley the CGI star...

Published by Warren Dell under on Friday, June 15, 2007



Big Dada have got their special effects people working overtime on the Wiley project. Just when it loked as though there would be no video promo action for his album we get two videos. The first is for 50/50 and the second for My Mistakes with a clip of Gangsters thrown in at the end.

Blood Red Shoes - It's Getting Boring By The Sea...

Published by Warren Dell under on Thursday, June 14, 2007


The best thing I’ve heard so far from the duo Blood Red Shoes. Good live too.

Mark Ronson - Stop Me (US version)...

Published by Warren Dell under on Thursday, June 14, 2007

This is the US version for the Smiths cover of Stop Me which actually features both Mark Ronson and the tracks vocalist, the hotly tipped Daniel Merriweather. Not sure about the cartoon tears though.

Maths & English + Playtime Is Over early thoughts...

Published by Warren Dell under on Monday, June 11, 2007



Commercially Dizzee is going to take this one, but I think we would all be happy if half the people buying Maths & English picked up a copy of Playtime Is Over.
Because of the more commercial sounding tracks, big name guests and well known samples Dizzee will be labelled a sell-out, not in touch with the grime etc. from some quarters.

Despite this, the album doesn't sound as bad as people have made out who are well into their grime. After two albums and exposure around the world, can a person be begrudged for switching up their styles?

Wiley made the cohesive sounding, full on grime effort we knew he could do without any label interference. But after finally getting with a label who understands artists that offer that something a little different and understanding what a difference it makes if you put in the promotional effort, has he relinquished any chances of doing what Dizzee has done now, in a few albums time?

I’m not going to choose one over the other, but I will say these are two excellent albums from two excellent artists in music, not just in grime.

Brighton Hip-Hop Festival in doubt...

Published by Warren Dell under on Monday, June 11, 2007
From the BHHF website...

BHHF NEEDS YOUR HELP!!! Brighton Hip Hop Festival (BHHF) is the UK's largest celebration of Hip Hop Culture.

Now in it's fourth year, the annual 2 week festival is attended by 100's of artists and 1,000's of people from all over the world.
Launched in 2004, the festival has gone from strength to strength and is recognised as a must attend event for all Hip Hop enthusiasts, as well as anyone with an interest in the many art forms that are comprised within Hip Hop culture.
Organised by KALA PHOOL, a multi-arts diversity led development agency, the BHHF exists as 'not for profit' to celebrate the richness, strength and diversity of Hip Hop culture, with many of the planned events free to attend.
Building on the success of previous years, the 2007 festival has programmed a fantastic line up of high profile events, designed to appeal to audiences new and old, it promises to be bigger and better than ever.

However, we've just found out that our major funder is NOT supporting us this year.

This is extremely bad news. Without these funds, BHHF will not happen. 100's of UK artists won't get the support and exposure they deserve, leaving a huge gap in the region's creative artistic and cultural landscape.

WE URGENTLY NEED YOUR HELP to realise the exiciting and varied programme of events we have planned.

OUR PLANNED EVENTS AND THEIR ASSOCIATED COSTS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

INDUSTRY EVENT - £500
FRIEZE BOX (live public art installation) - £3,000
DARKDAZE COLLECTABLE PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS - £500
GRAFFITI LEGENDS SHOWCASE - £3,500
FRESH STYLES FILM FESTIVAL (x3 film screenings) - £3,000
RAW (spoken word event) - £150
THE LIVE DAY - £23,000
INSURANCE / ARTIST & VOLUNTEER SUPPORT / DOCUMENTATION - £7,500


We will accept donations directly or if you prefer to deal with our suppliers this can be arranged. Donations of materials and loan of equipment is also required.
If you think you can help in any way please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Please email or ring Indy Hunjan (BHHF Director)
with your support:
E: indy@kalaphool.com T: 07977449052

BHHF07 hopes to run from THU 28 JUNE - SAT 14 JULY.

BHHF NEEDS YOUR HELP IF IT IS GOING TO SURVIVE.

Some videos for your viewing pleasure...

Published by Warren Dell under on Sunday, June 10, 2007
Calvin Harris - The Girls


Kate Nash - Foundations


Example - I Don't Want To


Hadouken - Liquid Lives


Pharoahe Monch - Body Baby

Artists i'm feeling at the moment...

Published by Warren Dell under on Sunday, June 10, 2007
In no order...

Wiley
Dizzee Rascal
Example
Kate Nash
Hadouken
Jamie T
Jack Penate
Ben Westbeech
Robin Thicke
Remi Nicole
Calvin Harris

A new era...

Published by Warren Dell under on Sunday, June 10, 2007
When I was growing up and first started seriously getting into my music, it was all about R’n’B. This was around about 99/2000 when I would start to put my pocket money towards buying singles and any magazines that would feature the beats I stepped to. As R’n’B relied more and more on Hip-Hop to add a little something extra to the music in way of more Hip-Hop sounding production and the addition of a guest verse here and there, I too started to seek out these artists. At first it was those rappers who leant towards the more commercial sounding and MTV played Hip-Hop. At the time this was all Base was exposing me too! But I developed a wider taste and soon fell to the words of a Mos Def and a Common, rather than the barking tones of DMX and Ja Rule. While those commercially sounding and skillfully lacking rappers provided an early introduction to Hip-Hop for me, I wasn’t some souped-up Nova driving billy boy and as such these weren’t an essential soundtrack to my life and were listened to less and less. I wouldn’t say I had turned into some backpacker as the term goes, but I was soaking myself up in the sounds of those Okayplayer namesakes. I would still nod my head to a 50 Cent song, in fact in my circle of Hip-Hop fans I was the only one who could see the point of a 50 Cent song when in a club full of girls on some Saturday. I’m not going to say the guy is a genius, but there is a time and a place to hear a Fiddy record and a time and a place to listen to Illmatic. This open-minded approach has never ringed truer than in the last two years when I’ve been listening to and going to gigs where the speakers don’t bang to the urban beat. Whether this is down to age or the fact that a lot of urban music has hardly been hitting the great heights of late I’m not sure. But it has meant I’ve listened to a lot of different music for the better. I could drive to work listening to the Arctic Monkeys but be rushing home reminiscing with some New Jack Swing, playing Black Milk while on my laptop but getting ready for a night out to some Soulful House mix by Wookie. Expect this to be reflected in the music I’ll be writing about from now on. There will still be plenty of helpings of urban music, but I’ll also be writing about other music too. Basically the philosophy is if it’s good music, it’s good and I’ll more than likely write about it. Never has there been a better time to be into music with so many ways for an artist to be heard. You don’t have to wait for Top Of The Pops or rely on daytime Radio 1 to hear who is big at the moment, you can log on to myspace and find out who is going to be big. Now all you need just a few songs and a myspace page to be known. This directness with music listeners may mean some of the mystery is lost, but the benefits are there for all to see. For me it means there will be plenty of updates to this blog for starters and hopefully I’ll have even designed a new layout by then. Stay tuned, it’s about to get real interesting…
 

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