The third single from a fantastic album.

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Calvin Harris - The Girls


Kate Nash - Foundations


Example - I Don't Want To


Hadouken - Liquid Lives


Pharoahe Monch - Body Baby

In no order...

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

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…

How old does Grime have to be, to be considered classic?

Welcome back Reggie!!

Available at UK Record Shop...

A few years back P.Diddy, clad in shiny suit, decided to announce that he invented the remix and dropped an album of Bad Boy re-workings. Typically British, you won't be hearing any boasts of the sought from Example, who builds anticipation for his debut LP 'What We Made' with his own collection of remixes on this must have mixtape.

Click here to read more...

I'll post a better quality video when I can find one, for now enjoy it for the song...

Mark Devlin – Tales from the Flipside

Private jets, getting drunk and glamorous women flocking round are just some of the few things that spring to mind when you think about the life of those superstar marquee name DJ’s. For the small minority all this and more is certainly true but outside the Premiership league of DJ’s the lifestyle is very different.

Blues and Soul writer and DJ for the last 14 years Mark Devlin lifts the light on what reality is like for the vast majority of DJ’s in his book Tales From The Flipside. As any clubber knows the real nights specializing in R’n’B, Hip-Hop & Dancehall are not in a vast supply and thus the world of a DJ in this arena is very different from those dance DJ’s who can enjoy bigger fees, more opportunities abroad and become household names in half the time.

While you may think that after a few chapters Devlin is moaning perhaps too much about a career many would do at a drop of a hat and he could easily go get a 9-5, realize that the guy like many others in the urban field have put in years of graft while still having uncertainty and repeatedly annoying scenarios while out playing.

This book serves as an eye opener for those who think that a DJ’s job is merely turning up to a club and throwing on a few records. Equally entertaining as insightful Devlin lets the reader in on a day in the life of a DJ and all the circumstances that come with the job. Stupid requests from pissed-up clubbers, dodgy promoters and everyone’s hated people, bouncers, all get taken to task while lifting the light on a career you wouldn’t expect your careers teacher accepting back at school.

From his own personal accounts to anecdotes of major players and friends in the scene this book is as equally as important as Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton) to anyone that is passionate about music. If you want to DJ and believe it’s all money and no problems, then ignore this book and keep daydreaming, but if you want to be told how it is pick this up now.

The UK’s finest Yungun has teamed up with Guru for the ultra funky Too Slick. The Gang Starr man’s next installment in his Jazzmatazz series is about to drop in the coming months but unless it’s a bonus on a UK edition it doesn’t look like it’s made the cut judging by the track listing below. One UK man that does make it is soul man Omar, but with regards to the Yungun track head to his myspace to check it out and keep an eye out for any release.

1. Cuz I’m Jazzy – feat: Slum Village
2. State Of Clarity – feat: Common and Bob James
3. Stand Up (Some Things’ll Never Change) – feat: Damian Marley
4. Look To The Sun (Solar)
5. Connection – feat: Kem
6. Fine and Free – feat: Vivian Green
7. Wait On Me – feat: Raheem DeVaughn
8. International – feat: Bobby Valentino
9. This Is Art – feat: Ronny Laws
10. Fly Magnetic – feat: Dionne Farris
11. The Jazz – Style feat: Omar
12. Follow The Signs – feat: Shelley Harland
13. Universal Struggle – feat: Brownman
14. Infinite – feat: Blackalicious
15. Kissed The World – feat: Caron Wheeler
16. Living Legend – feat: David Sanborn

Last year I posted a short clip I found of JME, Skepta, Tinchy Stryder and DJ Cameo at the Isle of Wight festival. This weekend while bored I was having a butchers at a load of myspace videos when I found the actual full length documentary. The guys were performing in the Strongbow Cider rooms alongside the Heritage Players in a grime meets instruments mash-up. Take a look...

Isle Of Wight Documentary

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Like Cameo says, Grime just doesn't have to be about Playstation beats...

Calling all budding female emcees! 2007 sees the 4th year of the Phuturehype female mc/rapping competition. Each year the competition has grown bigger from just 7 people turning up to the first ever audition in 2003 (one of them was Lady Sovereign) to last year where they cut and shot the first video for the single Phuture Journey, featuring the 2006 finalists. Along the way the competition was featured on Channel 4’s Chancers and 2006 finalist VdoubleE on Music Cool. The first stage of auditions takes place in May with all the details below; those that are interested should contact the brains behind Phuturehype Denise Destini (denisedestini@phuturehype.com).

Phuturehype on myspace

Phuturehype auditions-Sat 5th May @12.30pm
05 May 2007, 20:30
157-163 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1, London and South East WC1
Cost : nothing!!