This week sees two musical heavyweights step into the ring looking to find their form and titles again.

First up Massive Attack look to expunge the dissappointment of 100th Window with Heligoland. With the pressure solely on 3D to deliver the goods I found 100th Window creak under the weight of expectation. The sound was stripped too far back, with the vocals masked by the bleeping electronica. Horace Andy, father of gawd knows how many kids, has never sounded so impotent.

Heligoland, like 100th Window, contains a few eye-brow raising guest vocalists but, with Daddy G back in the fold, initial hype suggests that Massive are back on track and nearing Mezzanine’s heights again. Fingers crossed this is the case for one of the UK’s most original and influential groups.

Meanwhile across the pond and sitting in the red corner is Gil Scott-Heron. The grandfather of rap, Scott-Heron has spent years in the wilderness slipping into a hedonistic lifestyle at an age when most artists are going clean. Indeed he’s has been in a strange position where the tales of despair, loss and alienation he was documenting in his songs in the 70s, were actually foretelling his own recent troubles.

Gil Scott-Heron is where it all started in many people’s eyes and, like the Massive Attack album, I will be purchasing I’m New Here with a mixture of excitement, hey they could be starting a revolution again, and apprehension that maybe…

Filed under: Rap, Rap Celebrities, UK hip-hop, Uncategorized by J.G.
No Comments »

Freeway slipped off the radar for a while but is back with this banger, Know What I Mean, featuring production by Jake One. The Stimulus Package is out on Rhymesayers Entertainment later this month. Cop the mp3 here.

Filed under: Rap, Video by D.K.
No Comments »

Brainfeeder goes global. The indie imprint set up by Flying Lotus in 2008 has signed a promotion and distribution deal with Ninja Tune using the London based record label’s “infrastructure to establish itself as a label with a global reach.” The statement goes on to add that ‘Brainfeeder remains autonomous…and Ninja is excited to be working with such an excellent label”

Brainfeeder housed many of Flying Lotus’s early recordings as well as those of the inimitable underground LA beat scene around him. The label’s output has further blurred the lines between progressive hip-hop and electronic music to devastatingly good effect, with a roster that includes Lorn, The Gaslamp Killer and Samiyam. But it is LA veteran Daedelus who will be releasing the first globally distributed Brainfeeder EP, Righteous Fists Of Harmony. A concept album/soundtrack to the Boxer Rebellion, the failed native uprising of a secret society of martial artists against the expansion of the British Empire in 19^th Century China. Full-length albums by Samiyam, The GLK and a Brainfeeder compilation are expected to follow.

Rickshaw, below, offers a taster of what to expect and is part of the super limited Bleep x Give Up Art collaboration pack, North/South/East/West, of which we have a copy to give a way. Check out a few new beats and pieces over at our nascent Soundcloud account.

Flying Lotus, Rickshaw by Bonafide Magazine

Filed under: Artists, DJ/Turntablism, Electronic, Rap by D.K.
No Comments »

Introducing a new monthly column shining a modest sized spotlight on all that’s good, bad and downright awful in the crazy world of music blogs, and anything else that I can just about get away with including.

I’m a bit of cynical wanker who moans a lot but it’s a new year, the UK’s easing it’s way out of a crippling recession ( 0.1% economic growth, yeahhh boyyee!) and Arsenal are still, somehow, in the title race so I’m going to begin on an optimistic note…

Starting with L-Vis 1990, a name so ridiculous it could only belong to a plug in or a Mad Decent affiliate, it’s the latter, of course. United Groove has been smashing dancefloors for a while now and has rightly been given the remix treatment from Buraka Som Sistema, MJ Cole and this particular offering from Kingdom, a deep, hypnotic groove that gets under the skin. It’s good, if a little surprising, to hear and see the renaissance of MJ Cole in 2009 and from one og(arage  head)to another, Donae’o releases his new single Riot Music in March via Shy FX’s Digital Soundboy imprint, complete with remixes by Skream, The Nextmen and his label boss where sharp digi d+b stabs, aggy snares and sirens juxtapose nicely with Donae’o’s soulful vocals. The video’s pretty basic yet effective, utilizing that most stylistic example of cinematic despair, Mattheir Kassovitz’s masterpiece La Haine. Check it.

Someone I’m not particularly feeling from the Mad Decent stable despite blog hyperbole is Gucci Mane. Dude sounds like he’s got a glob of snot stuck at the back of his throat in a rap style not dissimilar to YouTube phenomenon, Rehdogg. But make your own mind up about the Southern jailbird here.

From one phenomena to quite another, Drake was the undoubted success story for mainstream rap in 2009 and fellow Canadian A-Trak has given hit single ‘Money Loonies to Blow’ a typically trendy club remix via Fader. Closer to home and a little more taxing on the bandwidth comes Mos Def making a rare press appearance on Benji B’s Radio 1Xtra show, well worth a listen as Mos reveals some of his own musical influences including Frank Zappa, Shuggie Otis and John Coltrane.

A lot of people keep asking whether the new issue of Bonafide is available in physical shops and the answer is a resounding yes! If you peer to the right of this page you will see a list of ‘Stockists’ but if you’re finding my words to engrossing to look away the new issue is available in all Carhartt  UK stores, Magma, Fopp, Noise lab in Manchester, Rough Trade and ‘all good record stores’ and if it’s not ask your ever so friendly record store clerk to stock it. Or you could buy a copy from our online shop, just saying.

Filed under: Celebrity Rappers, Free Downloads, Rap by D.K.
2 Comments »

If you are interested in any combination of the following; hip-hop, punk, distortion, blues, reading and the apocalypse then you really must check out Mike Ladd and his excellent Majesticons x Infesticons project. The trilogy’s final recording, Bedford Park, is due for an April release on Big Dada and you can download the comeback single Kick Anthem here.

Filed under: Rap by D.K.
1 Comment »

Came across this at the terrifyingly good Its Nice That. It appears to be an archive of old-school flyers. Scrolling through the visuals, and there are a lot,  is a bit like entering a different era. The flyers are basically a historical documentation of the birth of hip-hop. Also, from a design point of view, this gold in terms of inspiration. Likewise, if you are looking for an authentic old-school moniker visit this site!

Filed under: Artists, Graphic Design, Rap by J.G.
No Comments »

..did he ever leave us? Possibly going on an epic journey through the Himalayas in-between releasing The New Danger in 2004 and this years Ecstatic while finding time to churn out the underwhelming True Magic in a wooden studio shack on a mountain somewhere in-between. Well, no, probably not but it makes for a suitably striking headline. Mos Def appears galvanised after releasing the excellent Ecstatic earlier this summer and if this sampler of 24 Hour Karate School from Kanye West’s blog is anything to go by the creative juices are still in full flow.

And check out the new video for Supermagic, also proving that Mos isn’t averse to sporting a sartorial favourite amongst 80s terrace casuals, the Fred Perry polo. Nice.

Filed under: Rap, Rap Celebrities, Video by D.K.
No Comments »

Will the Weathermen’s eagerly awaited The New Left LP, see the light of day in 2010? This years free download Reports of a Possible Kidnapping follows teasers such Left It To Us off Cage’s Hell’s Winter album, 5 Left in the Clip and The Conspiracy mix, that have left fans in a Pavlov dog states of saliva and excitement. N.B. The Conspiracy has aged like a highly sought aged wine and stands firm as a pure example of NYC self myth-making. Highly recommended and surprisingly available on i-Tunes.

Named after the 60s and 70s American political left-wing group that railed against the incumbent political power structures, the Weathermen have a similar militant and un-comprimising outlook. Consisting of Def Jux affiliated talent - El-P, Aesop Rock, Cage, Tame One, Yak Ballz and Breeze Brewin - this, quite simply, is a hip-hop supergroup prepared to blow a cold wind over what passes for hip-hop. The passing of member Camu Tao has re-focused the crew’s efforts and we can only hope that the release lives up to expectations; the gestation period for The New Left has been (too) long and the growing cult is hungry.

Filed under: Free Downloads, Rap by J.G.
No Comments »

What could be a better than spending Halloween learning to beatbox with tutor and kids entertainer Biz Markie? Gotta love the Biz purely for his ability to make his audience to go WTF.

Filed under: Beatboxing, Rap, Rap Celebrities by J.G.
1 Comment »

As Halloween comes to the boil, what better than to feature a man who is a magician with words? Sage Francis vocabulary goes all the way to 11 and he proudly flies the flag for the outsider.

I first came across Sage Francis at a gig he performed with Buck 45. It was a kinetic and hilarious set and subsequently Personal Journals became one of my favourite hip-hop records ever. Blurring the line between rap and spoken-word, Sage deals with diverse subject matter flitting between being disarmingly personal to polemical - his Healthy Distrust record is a potent anti-war record and that condemns the military and political apathy - to goofing around - his freestyle sparing with Apathy is a real gem. Go back in the day and listen to Sage when he was starting out by downloading his True School Session podcast.

Filed under: Free Downloads, Rap, Uncategorized by J.G.
No Comments »