There’s something of the summer in Mo Kolours‘ debut EP; he seems to project the gently fatigued contentment of the school holidays. As its title telegraphs, the music is largely drum-led, with steady grooves that recall J Dilla and ?uestlove’s production and instrumental work for Common’s Like Water for Chocolate. Biddies in particular, with its balance of pulsing bass and shakers, is compellingly reminiscent of the above; albeit with the rapping replaced by a mix of breathy vocals that gesture towards polytonal African singing.
Yup, that’s right kids, for a limited time only you can read all back issues of your favourite art design and music magazine (or ‘a fucking hip-hop guide book’, according to Raekwon) online at Issuu.
We enjoy wasting the day away on the Internet whilst pretending to do work as much as the next person, but Bonafide is essentially a print magazine and in order to keep it that way we need to sell it. And to encourage you to buy it we’re giving away a free album from the legendary BBE records with every 2 issues ordered via our online shop. And that’s what we like to call bullshit free marketing. …Read More.
Dan Medhurst, Bonafide go to photographer and all round top guy, is holding his first solo exhibition at the City Arts and Music Project this February.
East of My Youth and the West of My Future features images shot during a six month trip that began in the Far East and ended in America’s West Coast. The exhibition takes its’ title from a line from Jack Kerouac’s legendary beat novel On the Road, and documents Dan’s journey along off-beat tracks and forgotten spots and his meetings with eccentric characters. And in keeping with the old-school adventure feel, Dan documents his experiences using an old Nikon 35mm SLR.
The exhibition starts on the 3rd February (and runs until the 2nd March) and the opening night features another Bonafide favourite in the Kidkanevil, who will be creating magic on the ones-and-twos. A show that should wow both visually and aurally, if you are about checkit out.
Chopped Herring as an organisation is difficult to introduce. The website is a mish-mash of subterfuge, where facts, fiction and jokes merge into one. Indeed this tongue-cheek approach, matched by a passion for music, is why the label and head honcho, Pro Celebrity Golf, came up on the Bonafide radar. The record that acted as the calling card to the output was Three Sinister Syllables, an epic, crate digging delight that took over two years to produce, and for underground heads (I’m talking those that run on deep, forgotten subway routes rather than your fairweather Kings Cross to Picadilly Circus lines) and vinyl fiends, cemented Chopped Herrings reputation and underlined Pro Celebrity Golf as a person who lives and breathes hip-hop, from when he wakes up in the morning until he collapses over his decks in a sampling filled reverie.
He says he loves to write and rarely gets to do, so hopefully this interview will give him a platform to school us in the world of the Herring.
Featuring appearances from the likes of Asher Roth, Travis Barker, Little Brother, Black Milk, Dwele, Joell Ortiz, Snoop Dogg, Mayer Hawthorne and more, this is the debut album from the Virginia producer / rapper Nottz. This album has Nottz’s trademark hard beats to bang your head to aplenty. …Read More.
Fresh from your dirty laundry basket comes Kashmere AKA Galaktus’ latest video, BANG! SPLAT! Put together by the very dope Ed Grace, the video draws on some seriously X-rated themes, with Galaktus flowing over a trademark Jazz T & Zygote sounscape comprising murky comic-book bass notes and speakeasy jazz keys, nevermind snare drums and shakers cool enough to agitate a Lil’ Brother production. Kash is, as ever, sharp as fuck on the wordage and though the subject matter might not be the most revelatory, his inimitable cadence has got us here at Bonafide HQ hitting the replay button like a… well, you know what. Get involved peeps, Galaktus is the solar system’s answer to Kool Keith, believe.
Last year Metabeats and Associated Minds passed us this excellent bumpin mix. Fast forward 12 months and Metabeats is back like the Candyman, cherry picking some of hip-hops more dark moments and brewing some next dimension digital sizzle.
Only a few days left on this beauty but well worth a post. DJ Shadow drops in to play unheard gems and long-lost vinyl classics with fellow digging fiend Gilles Peterson.
The opening two tracks are worth the license fee alone. Superb stuff as you would expect from individuals who between them own zillions of pieces of vinyl.
Bonafide is produced by people who care. It’s crafted outside of our 9-5s as something that we’d like to read and know there are a loads of people out there who like it too. Our aim is simple; provide original coverage on where hip-hop has been, is at and where it’s heading. For issue 03 DaM FunK and co. are here to set our musical, artistic and fashion frequencies to 2010 and beyond.
For this issue we some how managed to convince one of our favourite, and modern music’s most imaginative art directors to design our front cover. And Jeff Jank (Stones Throw records) certainly comes up with the goods in this comic book-inspired cut-up of a Strong Arm Steady/Planet Asia/J Rocc image – dope to the power of a gazillion. …Read More.
After listening to some snippets of the futuristic soundscapes featured on EL-P’s new album Weareallgoingtoburninhell Megamixxx3, I can’t help but feel like Deckard about to interview a replicant. My apparatus is set out on the table. My phone is resting on my trusty old pen and pad and alongside it, my laptop, which is poised ready to record the call I’m about to make, like it was the Bladerunner’s Voight-Kampff test. I dial his number on my mobile, then set it to speaker phone with a bleep, which triggers of the software’s sound wave. It’s followed by a flat hiss…then the sound wave leaps to life as the phone rings…
Mo Kolours
