List-orama '08

As the end of the year rapidly approaches it's self-indulgence time for bloggers the world over as we all try to shout loudest about our highs and lows in the hope that someone actually gives a shit what we think. Here's my contribution to that global conversation, limited as it is by my personal spending power.

Top 5 Albums
1. Million Dan - Spektrum
2. Q-Tip - The Renaissance
3. Ill Bill - The Hour of Reprisal
4. EMC- The Show
5. Black Milk - The Tronic
Honorable Mentions: Skreintax - Scene Stealers, Jean Grae - Jeanius

Top 5 Singles
1. Dizze Rascal ft. Calvin Harris - Dance Wiv Me
2. The Cool Kids - Black Mags
3. Cappo and Stylee C - The Unwritten Rule
4. Jake One ft. Freeway & Brother Ali - The Truth
5. Black Milk - Give the Drummer Some

Top 5 Bad Moves of 2008
1. 808s and Heartbreak
2. Auto-Tune
3. Endorsing Barack Obama when you've never used your publicity to speak on issues of importance previously
4. Pointless beef
5. Having decent producers give you their bargain-basement beats for your singles. I'm looking at you Flo Rider.

Top 5 Things That Totally Passed Me By
1. Why Lil Wayne is the best rapper alive
2. Why Kid Cudi is so great
3. Why M.I.A. is allowed on the radio
4. Why tight trousers on men are a good thing
5. Why some American voters appear to know nothing about what they're voting for/against

Image by Brittney Bush

Sledgehammer kisses and good natured disses

“He’s a c***,” says Mudmowth as a mischievous grin creeps across his face, before breaking into a laugh. He’s referring to friend, producer and Associated Minds label-mate Metabeats. While some might be offended, Mudmowth’s jovial jibes will come as no surprise to Metabeats who earlier in the week predicted this is exactly how Mudmowth would describe him.

This banter is indicative of a pair of artists who are totally in tune with each other. They met in Cardiff at the long running club night Higher Learning, six years ago and started working together a few years later. Having teamed up on Metabeats’ Metaphysical album and Mudmowth’s up-and-coming debut album, they found their working styles mashed so well it warranted its own project. As a result they are presently working on Sledgehammer Kisses a six track collaborative EP, due to be released in early 2009.However it wasn’t until much later that the pair started working together through mutual friends.

Needless to say having worked on many projects together they had quite a bit to say about each other.

Meta on Mud

Definitely the more subdued of the pair Metabeats has a relaxed personable manner. It’s almost difficult to imagine him playing off of Mudmowth’s brash vibes but then opposites often attract.

This abrasiveness was actually one of the things that sparked Metabeats’s interest in Mudmowth when he saw him years ago. “He sounded more American,” he says of Mudmowth’s early performances, “a lot more abusive.”

Although it was the punch lines that caught Metabeats’s ear the first track they worked on, Concrete Buttercups, confirmed that Mudmowth had hidden depths. “That sort of stuff was where I first heard him being, not just a punch line rhymer but a story teller and opening his heart up more,” he says, “it’s a lot more personal sort of stuff, which is exciting for me because I’d not heard him do that.” Mudmowth is, it would appear, a lot more versatile emcee than people think and not a guy easily placed in any one box.

Certainly he’s no joker in the studio as Metabeats praises his professionalism and enthusiasm to get going with creating material, a process which doesn’t take him long, “I can give him a beat and he can get it recorded within a week,” says Metabeats, “sometimes you have to wait months to get material off people, whereas our processes work a lot quicker. I think the energy of stuff works a lot better that way as well because things are happening quickly and the thought is still there. You can leave stuff for a month or two, or half a year, some people leave stuff too long and they lose the concept of what they were aiming for in the first place.” This quick work means the EP should see the light of day before Mudmowth’s already completed album even hits stores.

Mud on Meta

“Taking the piss out of people behind their backs, it’s the Mudmowth thing,” says Mudmowth before reassuring the other members of Associated Minds present, “I love you all really.” It seems that having some level of bile spit at you from Mudmowth with a knowing smile is just a sign of acceptance.

When it comes to getting down to business Mudmouth may not always be serious but then this is music, not heart surgery. “It’s not even work,” says Mudmowth, “work’s the wrong word, it’s a joy to do. It’s fun, we bounce off each other.”

A crucial part of that bounce is encapsulated in Metabeat’s bassbins, for Mudmowth they hit all the right spots from day one, “There’s a lot of people that try to imitate what he’s doing” he says, “but no-one does it as good as him. From going to Higher Learning you’ve always got producers chucking you beat CDs and Metabeats’s stood above the rest of them.”

That’s not to say that Mudmowth hasn’t seen Metabeats’s style develop over the past few years. Mudmowth explains that he thinks it’s important that with so many producers using similar drum patterns that anyone aspiring to make Hip Hop beats needs to try and carve themselves a niche. That’s why there’s a touch of pride in his voice when he says, “He’s got that sound now I can hear a beat and know it’s a Metabeats beat.”

That’s probably why Mudmowth is so optimistic about the prospects of the EP when it’s released next year. “The two tunes I had recorded before I even though we were going to do the EP, I knew how good they were,” he says, “not wanting to sound like an ego maniac, I knew if we could expand on them we should have an EP that would blow and I know we have. We don’t fuck around.” He’s not joking this time.

Mudmowth's top 5 emceeing tips

The Early Escapades of Willo Wispa

It's been a long time coming but finally Willo Wispa is set to have new material in the shops, but first how about we take it back to the old stuff. Associated Minds have put together a retrospective of his early work as is only fitting for the unique emcee that he is.

First time I ever heard The Colony was on Evil Ed's excellent album The Enthusiast. The thing that always stuck me about them was that here was a crew without one weak link in the chain.

In fact if there was any weak link it was simply that Willo Wispa has been decidedly slow in getting a solo debut in the shops, while Sir Smurf Lil has made it to his second album with many plaudits along the way. Well he need not be addled to that list any more as his album I'm assured is being prepped for an early 2009 release.

To proceed it the guys at Associated Minds have begged borrowed and stolen a whole bunch of old stuff and it's available at Amazon and iTunes for your downloading pleasure right now.

Holiday week

For anyone who reads this, you should know I'm on holiday for a week and so this blog will sadly not be updated until next weekend.

There are a few pieces in the pipeline in the coming weeks however, so check back for some niceness then.

Orange Unsigned: Only indie acts need apply.

Over a nice bowl of cornflakes yesterday morning I was treated to what seemed to be a horrendously unjustified dismissal of Pyrelli from Channel 4's Orange Unsigned Act show.

If Pyrelli hadn't put the work in and not given what seemed to me to be a pretty on point performance, this might be justified. But he did all that was asked of him. OK so the song he did was a little on the commercial side for my taste but it wasn't compromising his style and was a pretty good pick from his catalogue given the audience.

It seems obvious to me that the panel which is comprised of Lauren Leverne (a person whom I'm not overly pleased I share a portion of my name with), Alex James (former bassist of Blur) and Simon Gavin (the only one which actually does this for a living) really had no idea what to make of the man. In the 21st century it seemed like we have three supposed music experts who really have no understanding of Hip Hop, one of the biggest global selling genre's of the last ten years.

This was demonstrated by Alex James' criticism of Pyrelli for having scratching in his song because it was a barrier to anyone taking him seriously. It's 2008, is he really serious? He then proceeded to talk over Pyrelli's DJ when he explained that scratching is a central part of Hip Hop and indeed Kanye West has A-Track, one of the worlds best cutters, on his payroll. The guy was just not interested in hearing it at all.

Someone has to go each week, that is the nature of these completions. However the criticism's fired at the other competitors were a lot more telling than what they had to say about Pyrelli. Hip Parade were chastised for not taking the competition seriously after performing with a hang-over, SleeperCell were told their performance was just plain week and Klaus Says Buy the Record was told his work sounding unfinished. Yet these guys all made it above what was a top to bottom professional and tight performance.

For years i have listened to rappers complain on and off record about the burdens of making it in the established music industry, but never hard I witnessed it broadcast on national television. It made the years of whinging i have heard seem justified. I'm still aghast that music executives do not understand this culture after 20 years. IT has been shown to be popular, it has been shown to be marketable on a global scale and above it all it has been shown to make money and yet there are still, those who's position is big enough to get them on a national music show, that don't understand it on even a base level.

Ironically it will probably do Pyrelli's career no harm at all. Before this programme he was a fairly well known rapper amongst Hip Hop heads in the UK and this will only have bought him to a new audience. He has already released one album independently, with a little help from Dan Greenpeace's All City label and I would suggest to him that he continue to do the same.

The future of Orange unsigned however is to continue serving up bland indie acts in an already over saturated market. I hope that works out for them.


Image by Mark Tighe

Cardiff City Kingz Videos

It's been a long time coming but finally here are some videos from Cardiff City Kingz b-boy battle last weekend. There are still more to come which will be added to the original report. You can also view them all on my YouTube channel.

Westwood: "Think of me as a condom"

Serious messages given the unique Westwood treatment.