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.

Linkage 7: Hilarious Tim Westwood Sound Generator

Do you remember those crappy little key ring things with all the Mr T samples? They were fun when you bought them but just proceeded to make all your mates want to cave you head in within the space of a few hours.

Turns out the BBC have put together one for the world's most unintentionally hilarious DJ, Tim Westwood.

It's called the Tim Westwood Soundboard.

Auto-Tune Piss Take

For anyone that thinks Kanye's new material is a bit on the wack side.



Link courtesy of Miss Info

Cardiff City Kingz Report

B-Boys from across the country descended on the Cathay's Community Centre last night to battle it out for the crown of Cardiff City King. The event was held in aid of the community centre which has long held a place as the heart of Cardiff’s b-boy scene as a practice venue, but this was the first jam to be put on there.

It didn’t take long for the event to get going, with the first round of battles in the four man crew contest seeing the demise of several worthy competitors. Blitz Boys from Newport forced a tie break before being knocked out by fellow welsh crew, Electric Footwork.

H2O were among those knocked out in the first round of the competition, but they weren’t left without anything to look forward to as crew member Flypz was busy cutting up competitors in the individual competition, whist never letting the smile fade from his face. He would go on to, deservedly, take the crown later that night.

The crew semis were held between Breakstation, Aesthetics, Electctric Footwork and Bristol’s Physical Jerks. Breakstation cut through Aesthetics to take them into the final. After which Physical Jerks knocked out local crew Electric Footwork, throwing some comedy camp moves in with the fast footwork, to set up an exciting finale to the group competition.

The crew battle final went down to the wire with both crews turning up the heat and slicing up the floor, as the classic tunes span on into the night. There’s was skill and creativity displayed on both sides but in the end it was Breakstation that scored the judges vote.

Then it was time for the party to start. Those that had and those that hadn’t been competing hit the floor filling the room with the barely harnessed energy of pure Hip Hop. Host Slammo hit the mic inviting a succession of rappers into the cypher and it was well into the night before the assembled masses needed to turfed out onto the streets.

Cardiff crews will hope that the good turnout and high standard of braking on display will pave the way for future jams of in the centre.

4on4 Final


H2O v Physical Jerks


Electric Foortwork V Physical Jerks


BreakStation V Sex on Legs


Breakstation V Aesthetics

Independent music distributor goes into administration

Pinnacle Entertainment, a major distributor of UK independant Hip Hop labels has gone into administration.

The company which distributes such UK Hip Hop labels as Boy Better Know, Dented Records and YNR Productions is said to have been affected by a sharp downturn in the economy.

The company also handles the distribution for US titles such as the up and coming EPMD album We Mean Business and Wu-Tang's 8 Diagrams.

You can read the full story over at the BBC.

Linkage 6 - M.I.A. gets Grammy Nomination plus Ruffstylz, P-Brothers and a Welsh Hip Hop Mix

Musical Marmite M.I.A. has been nominated for record of the year at this years US music back slapping contest, the Grammies. Lil Wayne gets the most props with eight nominations for drawling into a vocoda.


Ruffstylez dispenses some positive mental attitude on the Cardiff scene when being asked a few questions by Choose the Sword Magazine.

Also Chrome Kids now have their recent Hip Hop mix for Radio 1 up to download and keep forever.

Over at Unkut.com they've got a very interesting interview with Notts boys the P-Brothers.

Image by Darek_Smid

Louis Theroux, Philadelphia and The Roots: How you should enjoy what you got

"Look I'm a part of that, downtown Philly where it's realer than a heart attack." spits Black Thought, merely a couple of lines into Game Theory.

Last night i had the rare pleasure of seeing one of the best bands working the global circuit today; The Roots. For two hours they tore down Bristol Academy with beats and hooks tighter than their Def Jam marketing budget. Not one member of the band let the side down and in something of a rarity for bands in the UK, they looked like they were loving every minute of being up on stage, no stone-faced indie fops here, not on this night.

Where does that attitude come from? It just struck me that there are a few too many acts out there that see being on stage as their god-given right. Kanye West, although his show in London that i saw a couple of years back was excellent, he gave you just that, a show. Perhaps this should be expected form a guy who's new direction involves releasing an album of him singing, in spite of the fact that he obviously can't sing. Still the arrogance of the man is astounding. The Roots by comparison have a sense of humility which is refreshing.

The genesis of that humility may well be routed in their home city. It's easy to forget, partly because The Roots have been on the scene for more than a hot minute, that Mr Thought's lyrics relate to the here and now. After all his commentary has been articulating similar sentiments for the last 15 years.

Watching Louis Theorux Law and Disorder in Philadelphia the other night I was reminded that in those 15 years little has improved in a city which has doesn't exactly seem to be rolling in the American dream. The programme painted a picture of neighbourhood of people with little hope, receiving little government help so caught up in survival that progress was way down the list of priorities. The reality (as Black Thought puts it) of the place is startling. To come from that, as i understand the Roots front man did, to playing shows across the globe is enough to make anyone look back with humbling thoughts. It could have all been so different.

For those acts that didn't however they could do a lot worse than taking a long hard look at themselves and asking; how lucky am i to be doing what I'm doing and making a living from it? The alternative for many is a lot worse.

Image by Nirazilla

The 5 characters of your average hip hop gig

1. Too Cool For School Guy: This is the one dude in the jam who's totally impervious to heat. He's probably rocking teflon jocks. You can catch him standing at the back of the dance floor, cap down low, hands in his pockets and a thick goose down puffer-jacket on his back. Some how he's not even sweating. There's no dancing from him and he makes sure he shows a healthy level of disinterest in what's happening on stage. You're probably wondering why he's here, it's usually just to be seen.

2. Yo-yo Girl: There's always a small gaggle of these and they insist on getting as close as they can to the front, only to find it's way to hot up there and come rushing back towards the bar. They do this in a line holding hands pushing past you and spilling your overpriced beer all over your nice new trainers. They'll repeat the process at least three times thorughout the course of the night.

3. Bullshit Bar Fly Guy: Always drunk, he'll happily chew your ear off while you wait to get served, dropping more names than The Game's entire back catalogue. He'll regail you with tales about the band on stage, which you either know or are of questionable origin. You'll probably wonder why if he knows so much is he not rocking a back stage pass and if he's as great a guy as he says he is, why is he alone this evening?

4.Geek Boy: Standing off to the side there's a pasty looking dude watching intently every move the DJ/keyboardist/samples guy makes. He won't notice you he's tring to read the fine print on the Akai sampler at 20ft in dim light. He can probably do it to. He wants to know what that 45 that just got plucked from the crate is. He doesn't need those glasses they just magify the record labels so he can see them. Years of this mean he doesn't even need a pad to write it all down any more. Just don't say hi to him unless you want to spent the next 45 minutes discussing the relative merits of the latest MPC model and what Mike gee was sampling in 1989.

5. Trendies: Always rocking clothes that just look plain uncomfortable and with an exclopedic knowledge of acts you probably always thought were a bit wack, they're strutting round looking good being everyone's friend. Showing enough interest to look into the music but not enough to break a sweat in their limited edition 50 quid T-shirt. They're wishing it was 1985 again so they could actually claim to be alive when their shoes were made.

Image by ElekTro4

Cardiff City Kingz

This Saturday will see Cathays Community Centre play host to bboys and bgirls from up and down the country as they battle it out for the crown of Cardiff at Cardiff City Kingz.

The event will include crew and individual battles, music from hometown hero DJ Killer Tomato and will be hosted by Dan Jose and Slammo. Cardiff crew H2O will be among those representing the home crowd and it looks sure to be a good chance to check out the best of up and coming breaking talent.

If the action inside gets a little too hot and sweaty for you, you can step outside to witness the guys from Oner signs throwing up some paint in a live graffiti jam.

May the best man slice up the vinyl and walk away with the crown.

Mongrel - The Menace

Am i the only person that thinks that this may just be an Ok song that has just missed out on capturing the zeitgeist by roughly 5 years?



Props to Certafied Banger

What Chinese Democracy means for Detox

I’m still in a state of shock that Chinese Democracy is in the shops. I’m not sure I’ll even believe it until I walk into a record store and actually see it for myself. Amongst the rock crowd’s collective gasp Jimmy Iovine may have hoped the news that Hip Hop’s most anticipate, Detox, wasn’t going to drop this side of Christmas may go unannounced.

The good Dr. would do well to take a note of the reception that Chinese Democracy has received. I’ve not heard it yet but the reaction across the net seems to be one of resound mediocrity. Not something you would have ever associated with G’n’R in the late 80s. Nor is it something that anyone wants to hear from an album 14 years in the making. You want spine tingling, head nodding, juice flow inducing sounds. Can he (or more accurately the team of beat makers and ghost writers he surrounds himself with) really supply this?

Of course we’d all like to think so but the fact is that with every year that passes the bar gets higher. You simply cannot keep an audience waiting for a decade and expect them to cheer you when you hit the stage. This is the lesson that Mr Rose will be learning as he leafs through his press.

In Dre’s defence, unlike Axl Rose, he has played the waiting game before and with great success. 2001 redefined the sound of Hip Hop and for several years the west coast rapped in its shadow. But if he comes out with anything less than diamond edged excellence it will be a let down on an astronomical level.

It’s a gamble between taking an unprecedented step into the history books for reinventing Hip Hop on three occasions, or being painted as the sort of crazy ego-maniac that records for ten years to merely attain average. Either way, we’ve had enough waiting, the time has come for Dre to roll those dice.

Image by jereon020

Why can't Hip Hop be high culture, Boris?

You won't find me saying this a lot but for once I think I might just agree with Boris Johnson. Today he has called for an end to young people being talked down to and patronised by government arts programmes and for a greater emphasis on high culture not Hip Hop culture.

It's a noble ambition and not one without merit. No matter what segment of society you come from broadening your horizons is rarely a bad idea. Boris feels that too much money is spent on more street level art programmes than on trying to get young people into the traditional art forms. You might describe it as, ballet instead of breaking, Gauguin instead of graffiti and Bach over breakbeats (actually that might sound good).

The point that Johnson has missed is that all this would be fine if anyone felt that it was a choice between equals. It's not. Hip Hop and its culture have consistently been rubbished by the media and the establishment for decades. Not so long ago Johnson's own party leader was making a name for himself amongst heads for blaming Hip Hop for knife crime. Hip Hop has done its time as the politicians whipping boy of choice for all of society's ills.

In reality the culture as a whole and most likely its popularity will not be affected too heavily by Johnson's removal of funding. Although no doubt there will be some artists that suffer.

Many government funded productions often seek to capture a wider audience than traditional Hip Hop heads. It is this slight that is most damaging and all too familiar. Rightly or wrongly it will be perceived by many as further stripping Hip Hop culture of its legitimacy and will most likely only serve to alienate the very audience Boris Johnson aims to capture.

To think I was so close to agreeing with you there Boris. Better luck next time.

Image by minifig on flickr

Linkage 5 - Riz MC speaks the truth and a banger from up North.

It's impressive how much truth Riz MC manages to fit into one single.

This song is dope, simple and simply dope. Props to FatLace for the heads up.

Cappo and Stylee C - The Unwritten Rule

Linkage 4 - Xmas wackness ahoy

Christmas cash-in alert! No self respecting rapper is going to leave his fans without something to waste granny's HMV tokens on. Ghostface is no different.

Now for something for the Welsh lasses out there. If you've got a bit of spare time, and junk in the trunk, you can sign up to set gender equality back a few decades in the name of Hip Hop here.

Linkage 3 - Quoting Big Daddy Kane

One of the greatest to ever do it, Big Daddy Kane, can be seen in rude health live at his 20th anniversary gig right here.

It’s a shame no-one has yet made tear off daily calendars using this idea yet.

Linkage 2 - Cardiff graff goes digital

Rmer One of the Cruel Vapours crew has just started a blog specifically for Cardiff graffiti. It's sure to see a lot more images go up over the coming weeks, so keep checking back for your fix of technicolour aerosol art.

Rmer is also looking for contributors so if you have a camera, legs and live in Cardiff it might be worth getting in touch.

On a less fresh note, the Cardiff street art Flickr group has geo-tagged a number of it's images so you can look at them on a map. Which is geeky but fun.

Swn line-up change

According to these fellas Chipmunk has had to pull out of Friday night’s festivities and has been replace by Baby J. Not that that's anything to get too upset about as J is clearly one of the UK's top talents and should make for an entertaining show.

This has since been confirmed by the Associated Minds camp.

Linkage 1 - Chrome Kids and Videos

Just in case you miss them over the weekend, early Monday morning you can catch Chrome Kids mixing up the Welsh Hip Hop on Radio 1.

El-P's crew have uploaded a bunch of audio visual pleasures to their YouTube Channel.

Finally Ill Bill's rather nice new animated video. Thanks to Spine Magazine for the link

Swn Hip Hop Digest

Why trawl through the extensive list of acts on at the Swn festival to find your Hip Hop fix, when we’ve done it for you.

On Friday at Tafod, Chrome Kids host a UK legend so dope no prison can keep him in for long, Skinnyman. He’s scheduled to be on at 1.00am and is proceeded by local boys Dead Residents earlier in the evening. There’s also King Cannibal for those who like their beats-per-minute a little faster.

Saturday night head to the Associated Minds and Aperture bash at The Point where Metabeats, Beatbox Fozzy and the fresh faced Chipmunk will be laying down something to make the heads nod. It’ll all end furiously when Hospital Records’ High Contrast hits the stage at 2.00am.

Then rap up the weekend with an afternoon at The Point for a touch of Rob Da Bank and GLC. You can also say goodbye to welsh language crew Genod Droog as this is reported to be their last ever show.

Bring on the beats, Brains and B-boys.

Image by .digitale

Digg This

Another year, another Slam Jam

It seems that the decision to work in partnership with the Millennium Centre at this year’s Slam Jam didn’t damage turnout. There was a healthy crowd throughout the day and they succeeded in getting extra vocal for the final battle between Elemental Force and Trinity Warriors.

Co-hosting the event was Cardiff veteran b-boy 4DEE who said, “It’s really good see. It’s an eye opening experience for a lot of people who don’t understand the culture I grew up in.”

In the day’s last battle The Warriors threw down some slick steps in front of a Cardiff crowd clearly routing for the home team. Elemental force stood up to those loft expectations however with a few well oiled routines of their own. One b-girl in particular even earned herself a shout out from one of the Warriors who jumped on the mic when the action stopped.

Rivalries throughout the day caused a few harsh words between B-Boys but in 4DEE’s estimation the event was still wicked. On the tensions he said that any rivalry should be left on the floor and that they were trying to promote a positive message.

Certainly the positive, along with DJ Jaffa’s breaks, filled the Millennium Centre yesterday, you only had to look at the faces of the next generation to see that.







More Videos here.

Slam Jam 08

This coming Sunday 9th November the breaks will be banging round the Millenium Centre as Slam Jam 08 takes place. Hosted by local crew Elemental Force it should be one to check out. I'll be popping down to get some pictures from as close as i can get without getting hit by feet from those pulling headspins. Hope to have those up here soon after.

Image by Rodgrigo David on Flickr