This blogger has moved

I confess I’ve been a fraud. For the last five months I haven’t even lived in Cardiff and it is for that reason that I can’t go on posting on this blog.

Instead, I have set out my digital stall over at From the Streets of the Sticks. Over there I’ll be posting all the usual fluffy goodness from the Hip Hop-iverse, along with a few additional gems from time to time.

The only thing that remains is to thank those that have helped out or made this possible or have been accommodating and helpful in hooking me up, you know who you are. See you on the flip side. Peace.

Ghostface on Jimmy Kimmel

The intro to this video captures what is wrong with commercial US TV vision. I mean, how many names do you need to drop these days to introduce one song? But at least it's nice to see Bez is still getting work.

Oner Signs calender competition

Cardiff's long standing graff spot Oner Signs are running a competition for local artists to get your work in their 2010 calender. Anything goes from full colour walls to exquisite sketches as long as it includes the word Oner and you get it over to Ronnie and the guys in store on Cardiff's Church Street.

The deadline is November 27 so you best get down there to get some paint if you want to be one of the 12 in print.

Image of Oner's roof by courtesy of Walt Jabsco

Brett Domino's comedy stylophone beatbox mix

I have posted this because Hip Hop needs more hair parted to the side.

Google map: Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind

If you've been wondering what Hov was chatting about for that three minutes while you waited for Alicia Keys to pop up in the mix, then wonder no more because someone has mapped out the whole of Empire State of Mind for you. At the time of writing guided tours were not yet available.

Watch this space because my good pal and Hip Hop heretic @weekspotblog is threatening to make one for Orinoc Flow.


View Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" in a larger map

Brad Strut Interview

While i might have been neglecting this place i have still been working on a few things. A little while back I caught up with London based Australian emcee Brad Strut for Stealth Mag. Here's a little of what he had to say.

The UK seems like a harder place for an independent Hip Hop artist to survive?

A lot of people at home have this fantasy ideal that British Hip Hop is just as big as its own and probably bigger. The scene here has its moments but Australia is probably a better place for an independent Hip Hop artist to be.

It is a healthy scene over here. You don’t have a national radio station over here or one that is as prolific as the one over here and knowing that if you get a song on the Js [Triple J] then you know that a lot of regular people might have that on in their cars and boom you’ve got a profile.

I haven’t actually got play on that shit at this point. I do get splashes or moments where they push one of my singles for a few weeks but it never really gets on rotation. The Hip Hop Show has always been a supporter and Triple J has as well, but they have a particular style of music they want to play and I’m aware of that in the studio. I’d like to think that as an artist I have the range to make a song that they couldn’t not play but at the same time I’m in this for Hip Hop. I’m not about to go and sucker out for want of an 80s or 90 term.

You can read more on Stealth Mag

Image courtesy of Stealth Mag

Uexpected collabs Vol. 1: GZA and Devendra Banhart

Yeah, you read that right, apparently the liquid sword tongued one has hooked up with wyrd folk sensation Devendra Banhart.

The unlikely pair met at the Coachella festival where GZA was watching him form the sidelines. They got chatting and before you know it GZA has recorded a freestyle to Devendra's new single Baby.

What the shaloin warrior will be rapping about is anyones guess but my bet it that it's all really about the wonders of organic knitwear.

You can read more on how they got together at Clash Music.

Image courtesy of DG Jones

Foreign Beggars ft. Noisia - Contact (Video)

Exactly as it says on the tin really. This track comes from their upcoming new album United Colours of Beggatron.

Kyza, Dubbleedge, Fozzy and Metabeats @ The Globe

Perhaps the best thing about the slowly closing in night of autumn is that they get swiftly filled with top class music as everyone rushes to promote their fourth quarter releases. One such disc doing the rounds this year is Kyza's Shots of Smirnoff mixtape/album (no one really seems to know where to place this one in the HMV Hip Hop racks).

So the Globe's Hip Hop heavy inaugural year continues on October 17 with support for Mr Sayso coming from other top class cat Dubbledge and homegrown talent from the Associated Minds boys Beatbox Fozzy and Metabeats. The whole event kicks of with Chrome Kids for the 8:00pm drinkers.

Bonus material: Mystro on AMTV



Image from Kyza's Myspace

Why you should watch the X-factor

You wouldn't normally catch me advocating watching the manipulative circus of human tragedy that is the X-Factor but this year the UK Hip Hop heads have someone to root for. Last night in amongst the usual collection of Jacko impersonators, tone-deaf dish washers and Celine Dion wannabes was Foreign Beggars collaborator and Mama Said member, Graziella.

It'll be a couple of weeks before you get to use up your free text message allowance rabbidly voting for her but I have no idea how long it'll be before ITV viewers get to see her spit a verse like this one.



In the mean time you can catch more of her brand of Hip Hop soul over at Miss Pink's blog where Mama Said vinyl spinner DJ IQ previews some of their new material.

Image courtesy of stevegarfield

Kanye interrupts Obama

Nice to see those on capital hill and I agree on the quality of Beyonce's promos.



Link couresty of the well dressed folks at ATCN

Saluting Speech Debelle

Last night Speech Debelle won the only major music award worth winning, the Mercury Music Prize (not least of all because it gets you actual cash). I can't comment extensively on the album as i don't have a copy other than to say that all the tracks i've heard has been sounding fresh.

You can watch the whole thing on the BBC iplayer.

No doubt it'll be a great boost for her and the ever strong Big Dada label. Lets hope her career now mirrors previous winner Dizzee Rascal, in it's levels of success and not Mercury alumni, Ms Dynamite.

Image courtesy of Bandstand Busking

New Foreign Beggars

That disparate crew of like minded misfits have been working on their new record 'United Colours of Beggarttron' while the rest of us were sunning our hides this summer. Here's a sneak preview of what to expect. Link courtesy of UK Hip Hop peddler Disorda.



Bonus material: Orifice and Metropolis get down with Hydroactive for the BBC at Maida Vale, earlier this year.

I live, eat and sleep Hip Hop

...And so can you, with the Hip Hop bed frame from Bensons for Beds. Slick Rick duvet cover not included.

Design a logo. Please

This blog has been going for just over six months now and it’s not about to go away anytime soon. In that time I've completed my diploma, spent more time in London than I'd have liked and expanded by burgeoning trainer museum ten-fold. But there remains one problem. The top banner is still as uninspiring as it was on day one.

So, seeing as my skills with the coloured pencils are comparable to those of Morph himself rather than Tony Hart, I put this plea to you - please design me a logo.

No doubt all three of you visitors to this page will be falling over yourselves to help me out. But just in case I’m not inundated with entries could you put the word out as well, or else I might have to pick up the paints myself and that might risk getting paint on my nice new trainers.

Doc Brown Interview

It has been a good few minutes since Doc Brown was last on the UK Hip Hop scene. In that time he has been ripping up clubs not with his rhymes but with his wit.

I caught up with him to see why he left us all out on the cold and what happened to his elusive album but in the corse of our conversation he hada few things to say about the music industry and the state of Hip Hop to.

"The internet has changed the music industry. Every type of music and every type of musician is suffering to a different extent. You know, a couple of years ago a Robbie Williams album came out, I think it was called Rude Box, on EMI and they sold so few that they actually had to destroy a load of pre-orders. I think it was one million pre-orders had to be destroyed before they were even delivered. They were made in Beijing and they stayed in Beijing and they crushed them and used them to form the basis of roads in the provinces of Beijing.

When I read that story in the newspaper I did start thinking, ‘Jesus if Robbie Williams can’t sell records then how the hell are we going to do it?’ I realised that the internet had really changed the way people were experiencing and enjoying music. A lot of artists get really angry about it, and sometimes it makes me angry but at the same time I can understand. You know no-one’s got a lot of money, so why would you risk forking out some money on a rapper [where] you don’t really know if the album's all going to be good. You might just pick your favourite song and roll it from there, if you don’t want pay 79p on iTunes for it then you can probably find a way to copy it from somebody else. It doesn’t seem like a crime that would affect anyone but we are the victims, obviously. Rappers are the victims.

It’s so natural now that people don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. Even now I get people emailing me, emailing my website, asking how they can download my stuff for free. Even on my videos on YouTube all the comments are talking about how to get my songs on LimeWire or how to rip them off youtube, as if I wouldn’t notice or mind. But the fact is that it’s happening to everybody and I think it’s increasingly hard for people to sell records.

To me the music industry has shifted to its original way of reaching the public when popular music came out in the fifties, which is the live circuit. So live music is massive again now because music as it was has become faceless. What I mean by that is everything is a downloadable MP3 or is copied from someone else on a blank CD there’s no liner notes there’s no artwork. People are enjoying our music for free but they’re not getting to know the artist anymore, so ultimately they can enjoy their pirated music for a while but if they really enjoy it at some stage they want to connect with that artist on a deeper level.

If you look at the upper echelon or artists like at contemporary stuff, not the Bruce Springsteins of this world, but the Lily Allens. They are making a living now not through selling records but through the live circuit. It’s real and actual. You have to gig like 300 days of each year to really make your money back. It’s gigs and merchandise now which is massive.

In the UK rap game, which kicked off from vinyl and then moved on to CD and briefly had a resurgence of income through legal downloads, now it’s tough because rap gigs have never really been a big deal. Rap gigs are coming back in the States now but even like ten years ago in the States rap gigs weren’t that big because promoters didn’t want to risk it. They felt there would always be some sort of street element attached to a rap gig and we’ve always had that problem here and so rappers can’t even get paid gigs."

Read the rest of the interview and find out why the Doc left Hip Hop.

Social scientists waste time and money on Hip Hop

For a totally different purpose I was leafing through some electronic journals when I came across an entry from the January 2009 edition of the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, which is an American publication. The study in question was called Controversial rap themes, gender portrayals and skin tone distortion: A content analysis of rap music videos, an informative if less than catchy title. I thought it might make for interesting reading but then the abstract went like this:

"A content analysis of rap music videos aired on BET, MTV, and VH1 examined the occurrence of controversial themes, gender differences, and skin tone distortion. The results of this study found that current rap music videos have placed an emphasis on themes of materialism and misogyny. Additionally, men and women in the videos differ in their portrayal of these themes. Specifically, female characters are significantly more likely to appear as objects of sexuality. Men and women also differ in their appearance with more African American females appearing to have Eurocentric features. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed."

If any over-payed American professors want to pay me for sitting on my ass watching MTV and eating Cheetos in exchange for a few insightful notes, get in touch.

Image courtesy of ricardo.martins

BNP vs The EMCEE

Until now I've avoided getting all political on here but a situation has arisen which requires some action and Hip Hop is the perfect vehicle.

I, like many others across the nation this week, received this BNP leaflet through my door promoting their cause for the European elections on June 4. As much as I have a deep seated loathing for racist criminals I don't think you can ever censor these people, they have to be countered with coherent critique.

That's where we stumble upon a problem and I think it's a problem for UK Hip Hop in particular. While there's been plenty of critique in the media, much of it comes from politicians, who lets face it aren't exactly in everyone's good books. That's bound to turn many off the subject straight away.

This is a situation whereby Hip Hop can step up to the plate and make a contribution to exposing racism and hatred and motivate positive change in ordinary people as we so often like to claim whenever someone criticises the culture. Remember Blak Twang on This Morning? Instead what do I see? Nothing. There's no Hip Hop blogs picking-up on this issue, no hastily recorded freestyles about Nick Griffin drinking tea with the Queen and no discussion.

Well, it is just music after all. But it's not is it? One of the things I've always loved about Hip Hop is it's ability to encompass more that just the music it's a culture and that extends to a consciousness about society. How many raps have you heard about prejudicial police stop and search policies, knocking the war in Iraq or widespread poverty, drugs and social deprivation? Thousands. But it seems recently we've dropped the ball.

This silence is a bit too reminiscent of Cameron's outburst over the evils of Hip Hop a few years ago, a speech which only Rhymefest (who's from Chicago!) addressed. Then there was Boris Johnson's belittling of Hip Hop last year which again seemed to go unnoticed. Where were emcee's as voices of the people and keepers of the culture then? Come to mention it what is K-lash up to these days? He seemed pretty pissed about this sort of stuff before he dropped off the radar. Or Skinnyman for that matter? He was quick to jump up about his right to smoke in public.

I'll make it easy for you, the BNP candidates for Wales are Ennys Hughes, Laurence Reid, Clive Bennett and Kevin Edward. Surely we can find a few rhymes in there somewhere? I'd do it myself but we all know that wouldn't be pretty. If you're not from round here you can look up your local mob over at the BBC.

Now I'm not one to try and tell people what they should do with their art, time or money. If you're a rapper and you simply don't care that's fine, you can't be what you're not that's not what Hip Hop's all about. I'm just saying it would be nice if someone gave a shit.

Photos courtesy of Mia!

Two more music magazines close

Following on from the print demise of Hip Hop Connection, two more British magazines which covered Hip Hop, amongst other musical forms, have gone out of print.

Drum and bass centric magazine Knowledge has taken the decision to go online only after its final issue is published on 12 June. In a statement on the magazines website they said, "We've been busy building our new website for some months now and we were initially planning to run it alongside the magazine but the further down the road we've gone with the site, the more potential we have seen for the magazine online."

The new site will contain a Hip Hop section complete with regularly updated content.

Hipster music magazine Plan B has also folded after five years on the stands. The magazine which has previously featured Wiley, Roots Manuva and Lycra-clad hipster favourite MIA on the cover is reported as saying it would have to compromise on frequency, size and quality to stay in print which it was not prepared to do.

Whether the illegibility of both their brand logo and cover-lines is a factor in not gaining enough readers has not been confirmed.

Image courtesy of Rainsoaked

In anticipation of the new Kyza record

When Mr Sayso left Terra Firma I was guilty of thinking that it was all over for the dude. His album had some great tracks but I was still yet to be convinced he could hold his own without Klashnekoff, especially given that his album was stronger from top to bottom.

Since then though the world has gone through a few rotations and things have shaken out in a way that reminds me of the Brit Pop battle of Blur and Oasis. Those cheeky southerns suffered a bloody nose and lost the battle but histories are not written in a day and years after it was clear they were the only band with their credibility in tact.

Getting back to the Hip Hop, where's K-lash? He's been absent without leave since his last release, not so much as a guest appearance or, so it seems, a live one. Kyza on the other hand has been popping up on other people's records with the frequency of Jadakiss in the late 90s and is very much be on his grind. What's more it seems he's better than ever now he's doing his own thing. I've long believed that hard work wins out over talent every time and while I'm a fan of both it always seemed K-lash was the more natural emcee. Kyza though as carved himself a style and a niche and is working it well.

So with that here's the real reason for my excitement Kyza and Wretch 32 (who I'd not really rated much until I saw this but granted the guy's no slouch, even if he does mess up his first chomp of the beat), on the Big Dog's 1xtra show last month, which I have to thank DJ MK for bringing to my attention.

Lakers beat the Rockets

Oh yes, it was a good day when, "The Lakers beat the Houston Rockets," to misquote Ice Cube. With that tenious Hip Hop link i'll leave it with a couple of videos.

First the series highlights...


Then my personal favourite...

Mos Def back on top?

Remember when Mos Def made decent records and wasn't just the budget Don Cheadle? Well those days could be back if this new track, which has been doing the rounds like a ADD milkman, is anything to go by. Or, will it be a big let down opening the inevitable slurry pipe of forth quarter releases?

This the first glimpse of the official video, tastefully understated it looks kind of like some sort of Apple ad.



Link courtesy of FatLace

Hip Hop's career advice

Now you could well be forgiven for thinking that the only career advice you could learn from rap records is the intimate details of how to be successful at rapping, how to (as Biggie put it) "sell more powder than Johnson and Johnson", or how all government's are bad and out to screw you over. Maybe if you're lucky you might pick up a few tips for the ladies from Too $hort, but that's about it.

Hip Hop career advice ain't for the everyman right? Wrong. There are many things the average Joe can take away from the world of Hip Hop to advance their own careers, you've just go to know where to look.

1. Do one thing well

Ghostface has been schooling you all to this his whole career. He makes sure to remind you on every album he makes. As soon as his raspy voice starts crooning in his usual mock soul stylings you know he should just stick to what he does best. If you're still in doubt check out that deleted scene from Ironman.

2. Don't give your mates a job
If there's anything that you should take home from a Memphis Bleak record this should be it. Rappers have been filling up label rosters all over with guys who used to be their security guards and it doesn't make any of you look clever.

3. "Even if you've only got 1 target aren't you better off with two darts?"
J-live breaks down having a back-up plan. No jokes.

4. Don't know how to do something? Blag it
The rap careers of The Beatnuts, J-Zone and Lil Wayne are just some of the examples of how you can get around not being very good at something as long as you carry it off with enough swagger, you'll be fine. And you best believe it took a bit of blagging for a couple of college kids to build the biggest label in Hip Hop. Note: This does not apply to heart surgery.

5. Get your mates to give you a job
Just because you're not going to fall into this trap is no reason to not trick some of your more gullible circle into hiring you, at the end of the day it's not what you know. Think Estelle would be huge in the US without a Kanye verse, unlikely. Sad but true.

Image courtesy of Steve and Sara

Video: Brad Strut - N16 Remix

I've got quite a passion for the Hip Hop of those dudes down under and Brad Strut's up there with the best of them.

This new joint is produced by Simplex and comes of his new album which also features the UK's own Beat Butcha. It seems Brad has stepped up his game quite a bit as well since his last LP Legend Official, everything's just that bit title on this ode to his home post code.

Top 5 NBA Name Drops

So for those that don't know the NBA play-offs are well and truely under way and Kobe and my boys are looking good to take it deep into the finals, provided they start playing like they did a few months back.

In honour of this I've compiled a little list of the best NBA related rhymes I could find. Just to quickly explain the arbitrary ranking system here, points are awarded for originality, accuracy and quotability. Then promptly disregarded based purely on which one I like best.

I've also kept it quite current so I don't want to hear any cries about why i left out some unheardmix tape rhyme of Bushwick Bill comparing himself to Muggsy Bogues, OK?

1. "Money long like arms on Alonso Morning" - Dice Raw on The Roots' Here I come
This is made 100 time better by the fact that it comes in the middle of a verse of some of the most random boasts imaginable. The next line is, "Vampire chicks suck from dust till dawnin," brilliant nonsense.

2. "Ni***z will pull heat longer than Shaq's shoes" - Black Milk on Losing Out
I'd like to point out that when it comes to rappers dropping Shaq's name into a verse they're always very clear never to do so by comparing their mic murdering ability to his.

3. "I ordered the Kobe beef like Shaquiel O'Neal" - Kanye West on Back like That (Remix)
Another appearence for the big deiesel here. Only Yeezy can really pull off a line that seems this obvious and then round it off with "When we walked in the whole room got stil/I Dunno how to put this but I'm kind of a big deal." Post-South Park Kanye would be appauled.

4. "When i come back like Jordan, wearing the 45" - Jay-Z on Encore
Ok normally Jordan is about the laziest basketball reference point you could ask for but this is so far off the mark it's painful. Having retired for 5 minutes Jay did come back and his comback album, Kingdom Come, was far less spectacular than his Heirness's return to his former team in 1995, where he was the difference maker in getting them to the conference championships. Instead Jay's was al imp bloated set of selfindulgent toss, with the exception of the title track, which was a certified banger.

5. "So we rock it like Tracy Macgrady" - The Game on Too Much

It'd be disrespecting The Game to do a top five of name dropping and not include him even if this lines pretty played out.

Now, the only thing I'm left asking is, "Where's all the British rappers referencing basketball flopster and 'only gay in the NBA', John Amaechi?"

Image courtesy of  Shaun Wong

Where i've been at...

Ok, so it's probably not a surprise to anyone who's been checking this that I've not been blogging even half as much as I'd like these last few months. The simple fact is that my course (I'm a student by the way) and other commitments have meant that I've been pretty busy.

I do intend to keep on coming back to this blog and writing as much as possible but it's not been possible in the recent months to post as much as i did in the first few and I've never been as prolific as Certified Banger.

But I've not forgotten to plug a bit of Hip Hop wherever I've been over the last few months indeed I've managed to work it into a couple of unlikely places and I'm hoping to have a couple of interviews up other places soon too.

I'll try not to leave it so long next time.

I f*cking hate rappers!

If you've ever though, "What the hell are you on about?" when you listened to a rapper in an interview, felt cheated by long track listings which are low on quality or wondered why the new section of rap cats don't show enough respect to the old school, then chances are you'll want to get your hands on one of QN5's "I f*cking hate rappers!" t-shirts.

To promote their cause PackFM and the boys have put together this video of a whole host of hip hop's great and the good coming off like BBC2's Grumpy old men.

Karl Hinds returns

Probably best known for his take on Big L's Ebonics, where he flipped the UK slanguage dictionary with supreme style, Karl has been missing in action for around three years now. That's all changed though as he steps back in the booth to spit once again.

If you came to British Hip hop like i did when Blak Twang was blowing up then Hinds was one of the dependable go-to guys of the scene who you always knew was going kill the tune whenever he stepped on it. So it's with a big smile that I'd like to welcome him back.

Over at his MySpace he's got three new tracks up for your perusal all with a proper club vibe. Here's hoping he makes it back on the live scene and over the sunny Cardiff.

Props to Bare Beats for the heads-up.

Mudmowth - Skullcrackology Video

Lyrical terrorist Mudmowth has a new video out to promote his much lauded Circus in the cemetery EP. It's looking pretty nice to, with the dudes at Associated Minds continuing to punch above their weight in the productions quality stakes.


Mudmowth - 'Skullcrackology' in HD from Associated Minds on Vimeo.

Linkage 9: Wordsmith, Q-Tip and The Punisher

Underrated UK emcee Wordsmith is set to release his long awaited album In pursuit of Harmony on 2 March and has a song floating round the internets for the purpose of promoting that called They don't seem to care.

It's a nice piece of quality UK fare and has me for one excited in anticipation of his new album. Link courtesy of Pepa.

On the other side of the Atlantic meanwhile Q-Tip has been breaking down his recent label woes and how he expects to survive beyond them. Link courtesy of Spine Magazine

All Hip Hop is also reporting that everyone's favourite dead, obese, wife beating, Pueto Rican, rap god, Big Pun, is to get the silver screen treatment in a documentary about his life.

New UK Hip Hop Movies

You'd have to be hidden under a rock that's impervious to Hip Hop to not know that Notorious has, this weekend, been release in the US to a luke-warm reception.

It got me wondering what UK Hip Hop artists might make for a good biopic. So I'm thinking about pitching these to Film 4 for some free cash.

Title: If I make it to the morning...
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Staring: Gollum

The drugs convictions, the battles, the release woes, the politics. Skinnyman's story has got drama sewn through it, and the man's got charisma that just jumps out of the screen. Obviously Golum will need a bit of tidying up and some fresh threads before he looks the part, but that's just a case of moving some pixels around. Then it's just a question of him rocking that middle earth flow.

Title: Glimity Glamity
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Those dudes from Cool Runnings

What could be more compelling than the story of three young dudes shooting to relative stardom and changing the face of British music on the way. That's the Demon Boyz for you. It's like a rags to riches tale, without any real riches.
Danny Boyle, as Slumdog Millionaire proves, is great at capturing the essence of a time and place. The dudes from Cool Runnings had all the youthful swagger required and we already know they're great at accents.

Title: The Big Dawg
Director: John Woo
Staring: This Guy

Is there any less likely candidates for a rise to Hip Hop stardom than everyone's favorite vicar's son from Lowestof? That's the things that great cinema are made of.

Image courtest of worktheangles

Cardiff Twestival

If your reading this there is a good chance that you're into two things. The first is Hip Hop, the second is web 2.0 technology such as blogs, social networking sites and Twitter.

In Cardiff on 12 February there is set to be a big meet up of Twitter heads in the Funky Buddha Lounge, with entrance money being used to raise funds for chairty: water. Their looking for entertainment to make the night go off with a bang, nothing in my opinion does that better than a few funky breaks. So this is a chance for the Cardiff Hip Hop community to show them what their made of by participating or just coming along (assuming you're on twitter that is).

Twestival is a global event and there will be similar parties being held across the globe at the same time in 105 different cities all to raise money for the same charity. The idea was originally started by a group of tweeters in London last September and has rapidly spread across the globe becoming an Internet phenomenon.

If your interested in playing or helping out with the organising of the event then you can get in contact with cardiffwebscene, who are organising the Cardiff event, through their twitter account or their webpage. They are also planning to meet on Monday 19 February at 6.00pm in the Funky Buddha Lounge, so if your about you could stop by then.

Linkage 8: Scorzayzee, Cappo and Styly Cee

Over the past month Nottingham veteran Scorzayzee has been uploading a shed load of material to his new youtube channel scorztv. It is just the kind of quality you've come to expect from one of the North's finest. If you were in any doubt why he is so celebrated just watch the video below of him acapella at Kung Fu.



Sticking with the Nottingham theme, Disorda at Suspect Packages has posted a video of Cappo's freestyle when Styly Cee and Caps dropped in to do an interview on Suspects Radio. They were promoting their excellent H-Bomb EP which is a true slice of quality banging Hip Hop if ever their was one.

Rappers on Twitter

If your into your web 2.0 gizmos and like to stalk famous people, you might want to check out this handy resource to follow all your favourite emcee's every move. Rappers on Twitter displays all recent tweets form a veritable who's who of modern Hip Hop.

However I'm not too sure about the authenticity of some of these accounts especially given that Biggie seems to have found the giant broadband connection in the sky.

Search for the best independent music store

Clash Music is on the hunt for the best of the UK's independent record stores. Here in Cardiff we are blessed with both Spiller's Records and Catapult which serve up a fine slice of independent knowledge (along with the music) for fans and DJs respectively. Not to mention the beat digger's haunts in Cardiff market.

Clash argue, quite rightly, that much of the pleasure of shopping for and networking around music has been destroyed by the dominance of chain stores and Internet shopping.

If you a fan of truly independent music and value to experience of buying records along with just listening to them than give them a shout and show some support for Cardiff's independent streak, or your own local favourite.

Image courtesy of taurusaficionado

Inroducing Wales tonight on Radio 1

Chrome Kids member Kaptin will be hosting a mash of of Hip Hop, dubstep and electro on Radio 1 at midnight tonight. He is sure to be dropping a few home town heros tunes along with the likes of Lowkey and Shystie.

The set will also feature a session from Newport hipster rap duo The Binary Kids presumably featuring more derived from confectionary adverts. Their MySpace page says they are supporting Sway as well so if you miss them their you can always catch them Live at the Barfly in February.

Image Courtesy of The Rocketeer