You may have heard Child singing sensation, Soulja Boy’s latest track ‘Kiss me thru the phone’ blaring from someone’s mobile at the back of the bus. Although the sound quality is probably too poor to hear any of the actual words, you may have noticed him dishing out an Oldham phone number.
Unfortunately for his Lancastrian fan base, ‘Mr. Superman’ has not relocated to the Greater Manchester area. In the same vein as the rest of his music, he simply wrote down the first numbers that came into his head. Unfortunately for Gerry Matley (54) and his wife Catriona Howard Smith (52) the random number that transferred from S. Beezys brain via his crayon to his jotter just happened to be their phone number.
They now receive in excess of 60 calls per day from what can only be described as optimistic half-wits hoping for a friendly chat with their favourite wannabe thug. See what Gerry and Catriona think on the BBC website.
Homecut’s new album is out now and it’s seriously seriously on point. Coming with the fresh sounds, ‘No freedom without Sacrifice’ was five years in the making and is causing quite a buzz. Producer/lyricist/vocalist Testament (he’s also a sick beatboxer – you might have caught him with Shlomo & the vocal orchestra) and his band have managed to do a very rare thing. Combine live instruments with the essence of hip-hop without it sounding corny. Yea, that’s right, not even a little bit. It’s refreshing to listen to a band show the necessary restraint and understanding required to create music that compliments the vocal talents of an MC. And compliment it does. Everything comes together like melted butter on a hot crumpet.
Check the new video for “I don’t even know” featuring Corinne Bailey Rae & Soweto Kinch above.
The album features an inspired selection of guests including Corinne Bailey Rae, Soweto Kinch, J-LIve, Andreya Triana, John Ellis, Kidkanevil and Ty. And it’s out now on First Word records.
Seriously dope Cold Chillin’ T shirts available from Stones Throw. In conjuction with Biz Markie, photographer George DuBose (see Bonafide issue 01 for an in-depth feature), Soul-Cal and Traffic Entertainment Group, they have released a whole range of fresh Tees featuring the original Haze designed Cold Chillin logo, Biz Markie and the legendary Juice crew. All OG photography from the legendary DuBose for this seminal hip-hop label.
No, not that naff film starring the Fresh Prince but a week long celebration of independent record labels at the ICA. Featuring showcase ‘club nights’ (apparently) throughout this week by Rough Trade, XL, One Little Indian culminating in a Friday night spectacular with electronic maestros Ninja Tune, our favourite deejaying Dandy, Daedulus will be headlining along with an AV set by DJ Food new Ninja signee Grasscut and more.
Bonafide favourite Kidkanevil, the Tokyorkshire Terrier, has recently uploaded the free ‘18th Samurai mixtape’ on Soundcloud in support of his freshly dropped remix album ‘17 Samurai: Kidkanevil remixed Vol.1′Click Here to listen and download. You can also check out his ‘Guava Juice Sunshine mix’ too for some laidback summer dopeness.
‘17 Samurai’ features remixes by the likes of DJ Vadim, Jehst, J-Star, TM Juke, Mr. Thing, Fulgeance & more. It is out now on First Word records and can be downloaded on iTunes. Big Tings!
Check out these Graffiti bars from Chocolate Bar NYC.com. Hmm… To eat or not to eat? 10 different chocolate bars with 10 different designs by 10 all time great New York City Graffiti legends including Lady Pink, Dondi White and the recently deceased Iz the Wiz (RIP) to name but a few.
Iz was the All time All City King of New York City Subways and the longest reigning all-city king in NYC history, taking the title many times throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He sadly passed away in June at the age of 49 after struggling for many years with kidney failure, ironically as a result of using toxic aerosol products without a protective mask.
A portion of sales from the graffiti bars go towards the children’s arts organization All Stars project
So whom is this enigmatic hell-raiser getting a generation of myspace junkies and facebook-philes all hot up with his digital reggae madness? Well, you know how we play at Bonafide, here’s the low-down; Major Lazer is a Jamaican commando who lost his arm in the secret Zombie War of 1984 and had it replaced with a lazer by the US military. He fights vampires, monsters, parties hard, has a rocket-powered skateboard and makes big tunes.
Major Lazer recently enlisted the help of good friends Diplo and Switch in support of his debut LP, ‘Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do’, which came out this week. Check the video to forthcoming single, ‘Zumbi’, here. It’s baddd (meaning good).
