Dr. Dr. I feel like a fool...

Get this. The department of law & pensions have sanctioned benefits to be given to a man with more than one wife. When I read that I nearly chocked on my weetabix. The last time I checked bygamy was illegal in the uk. So why the hell have they let that one through. Apparently its the same reason that our 'current' archbishop doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. Sorry Dr. Williams but implying that something is 'unavoidable' is perhaps not the best way to start a discussion. Maybe the words 'we need to discuss...' would be a much better alternative.

The uk is already the most cosmopolitan country on earth. The amount of different cultured we can fit on such a small island is astounding and probably why I just can't bring myself to up sticks & leave. But being accepting of other cultures & bending over backwards for them are two different things. Now i'm not talking about the UK as a nation as we should always welcome law abiding people who are going to contribute to our economy with open arms. I also believe that our government should afford them the same opportunities as everyone else. But making changes to accommodate 1 particulicular race is ridiculous. Technically these men are breaking the law when they land at Heathrow. What they should do is tell them so & give them the chance to live within the law. This change also implies that muslim men are exempt from the bygamy law. Am I therefore allowed to become a muslim & follow suit? Any other country would laugh it out of contention & government leaders the world over must be laughing their arses off right about now. There is a saying that I use quite a bit that goes 'Only In America'. I'm now changeing that to a new one, 'Only In Great(?) Britain'.

And before you ask a silly question. I am not dissing muslims & would never consider doing so. The people in power who for one reason or another can't get their act together are who i'm aiming at.

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These 3 albums are nice. I've given the peoplw some tasters:

Logic aka Cigol - The First Stage Of A Gaberlunzie (Selection)

Reveal - What Estate You From: Extended EP (Selection)

Redmaster - I'm Right You're Wrong (Selection)

Phat Tapes

I had never heard of Sloppy White until about 2hours ago. He has put together 3 mixes over the last 5 years that a lot of people in the know have been raving about. Thanks to Know Good Music I have seen the light. Besides they're free so there's no excuse.

Download Them Here

Everything Remains Raw

I thought i'd throw this at the good people. I have put together a collection of tracks from the Rawkus 50 artist series. 1 track from each album i have. 20 tracks in all including: Cy Young, Kaimbr, Hasaan Mackey, Scanz, The Smile Rays, Roddy Rod, Willie Evans Jnr, Together Brothers, Spokinn Movement, Kaze & more. Get it while it's hot folks.

Rawkus 50 collection

I Was Always Good At Physics

Sometimes I stroll through a record store & i'm not actually looking for anything in particular. I just scour the hip hop section reading the back cover looking for something to buy, since i may have a spare £20.00 to get myslef 1 or 2 musical treats. I read the back cover of  metabeats album, Metaphysical, took one look at the supporting cast (Ralph Rip Shit, Pergyl, C Minus etc) and bought it. I do this fairly regularly & for the most part it pays off. However, I wasn't prepared for the quality of this guys stuff. Metabeats is a supremely talented beatsmif. No half steppin' on this one & dare i say it, not a single weak beat on the album. From the dark yet discofied (?) intro right through to the outro, Meta has created a superb backdrop for his people to get busy over. The Coming ft. Quiet Poison, Live & Let Live & The Wu-Tangish Meta's Cypher are the standouts. But to be honest the whole thing is that good i had to reach to pick those out. If you've been following this blog from its inception you would have already read about my trumpeting of Ralph Rip Shit. He lives up to the billing & continues to teat through tracks at will. Pergyl is also surely going to get a solo out sooner or later. I will definately get anything with this crews name on it (Associated Mindz) safe in the knowledge that of ot's as good as this album i won't have to worry about wasting my tenner. Check out the tasters.

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Metabeats - The Coming ft. Quiet Poison

Metabeats - Meta's Cypher ft. Kusha, heckla & Joe Blow

Ralph Rip Shit - Best Name EP

Hassaan Chop!!!

Every album i have gotten from the Rawkus 50 series as been nice. some artists i've heard of (Cy Young, Dynas, Roddy Rod) some i have been schooled on (Red Clay, Scanz, Bekay...). Hassaan mackey is one of those that belongs in the latter of those 2 catagories. Someone put me on to him a few days ago so i got 3 tracks from iTunes. 2 of them were produced by Kev Brown & the other by Illmind. Once i heard these i got the rest asap. This album is real real nice. featuring tracks also produced by Young Cee (who's beats remind me of DJ Scratch), Keelay & Quarterpound this is an album that floats from one neck snapper to the next. Starting with the deep bass and spacey guitar loop of the title track. I'm not sure if that's Bilal on the hook or a really talented sounalike but it fits the track perfectly. Onto the Kev Brown conconted Simone which follows a similar formula but Kev's slightly laid back vibes shows through to great effect. Fit For Nuttin' just had my neck continuing where it left off on the previous tracks. Track after track of bass heavy jazz infused goodness. From Feel it, with it's jazz guitar & piano chops, to my personal favourite, Cuda Browns Revenge. Young Cee uses a funky latin sample & a couple of kiddies lalala's over a drum pattern not too disimilar to Busts's Get Out!!! beat. The albums ends as well as it begun with another joint by Young Cee called Boom & finally Illminds solo contribution (which i have been nice enough to supply below. At 10 tracks it is kinda short but thats not to take away from the quality of the album as a whole. 

Now, I was about to start complaining about not being able to get hold of an original hard copy of these Rawkus 50 releases. But having thought about it , I have to commend the Rawkus peeps for their forward thinking. Too bad the major labels aren't quite there yet. Let the lop sided marketing & lack of CD sales continue until they learn their lesson.

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Hassaan mackey - Cuda Brown's Revenge (lalalala)

Hassaan Mackey - Stand Up Get Up ft. Emilio Rojas (Raks One)

We Real Kool

I'm a fan of 9th Wonder, I'm a fan of Little Brother (before & after 3 became a crowd) & I'm a fan of the North Cack sound (do they know that cack has a whole different meaning over here). Just thought i'd get that out of the way before i continued. I came across this on Wake Ya Daughter Up. MC's Tab One, Charlie Smartz & Rapsody, producers Foolery & The Synopsis, & DJ Ill Digitz found each other at university & have been spars ever since. The music is as the title suggests with its soulful vibe & summertime sprinkled head nods. I wanna is probably the best example of this. The beat uses Stanley Clark's 'I Wanna Play For You' to create a nice summer cruiser. Back Home is another cello powered head nod where the group reminisce about there hometown. 9th Wonder also tips his hat by contributing 2 tracks to the EP. There You Go is a laid back groove showcasing the male & female perspectives of trying to chat to the object of your affections. Water, is the standout track on the album & features fellow NC cohorts Lazarus & Edgar Allen Floe. But the scene stealing duties on this cut belong to FeMC (geddit, i like that one) Rapsody. You may have heard her on the interludes of 9th's Dream Merchant 2 (go listen again). This Lady can spit & apparently she has a solo in the works too. Water, along with the bonus cut Rainy Days are my personal favourites. As always i have to be impartial & point out my gripes, which in this case is the hook on track 2, Kool With It. The hook on there reduces Rapsody to a corny hook which in my opinion undermines her talent. But At 9 tracks deep including an interlude this is a very solid release & i look forward to more of the same. By way of a bonus i have included a link to a free download of Kooley High's Mixtape, Raleigh's Finest, as well as the bonus cut off of the EP. Enjoy.

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Raleigh's Finest Mixtape

Kooley High - Rainy Days

Kooley High - NC Shit

Stamp This isht Out!!!

They say that over here we are ore tolerant.

That racism is more overtly prevalent in the US

That we Europeans are finally starting to get to get the message...

This picture tells me otherwise.

Lewis Hamilton, The reason young black people now regularly watch Formula 1, suffered ridiculous racist taunts & chants while he was testing his car in Barcelona. Lewis himself says that he expected some kind of backlash after his feud with former teammate Fernando Alonso (who is spanish). But the level of abuse was upsetting. I hope he didn't mean that he expected some kind of racist abuse. He says that he was simply protected his position in trying to win a championship & that his reputation in Spain has been severly damaged. Why the hell is he sounding so apologetic towards these people. I can understand him not wanting to fan the flames but there comes a point where you have to just say This Is Wrong.

But the bigger question is, if these idiots walked in to the circuit looking like they do in the picture, why weren't they stopped before entering. If they did in fact get themselves ready once they entered the circuit, why didn't someone stop them then. If nobody realised what these idiots were doing until they started the chanting, why were they allowed to do it when hamilton walked out to start testing & when he went back to his team base after he had finished some minutes later. The security personnel let them get on with it & the people around them did the same. That means that they must condone what was going on, which makes them racist too. Then Formula 1 chiefs come out with a statement saying that if it happens again Spain will lose it's Grand Prix. Again, what the hell do you mean if it happens again. There comes a point where you simply cant tolerate this kind of behaviour. I suppose the money & logistics involved in moving a Grand Prix so close to the start of the new season is just too much for these guys. Yet i suspect that if there were 5 or 6 black drivers in Formula 1 & they all made the right noises something more substantial than cheap talk may have come to pass.

My mother was going to start a business with her partner in Spain. She is black & her partner is white. They are no longer going to do that because of the abuse we suffered over there. We had cab drivers taking our money then calling us dogs as we got out of the cab. People pointed at us like we were weirdo's. There were some really gracious people out there but some are the most outwardly racist people i have ever come across. I thought that some of the things i have experienced went out with the black & white TV.

When Englands football (soccer) players suffered racist abuse the spanich football authorities were only given a paltry fine of a few thousand pounds. This is not a deterrant. If you're going to get tough, The 'Kick Racism Out' campaign (as good as it is) is not enough. If The powers that be really want to Kick it Out. Fines would be the least viable option on their punishment list.

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& for your listening pleasure:

The Herbaliser - Nahmean Nahm Sayin (Platinum Pied Piper Remix ) ft. Jean Grae

Secondson - We Got That Raw Shit ft. Lewis Parker & Jehst

Dub Pistols - Peaches ft. Rodney P & Terry Hall

Re-Up Gang - Good Morning

Quit Bugging Me!!!

The man pictured above is Sadiq Khan. He is the man in the middle of a parliamentary storm here in the UK involving possible terrorist plots & Al-Qaeda connections. Conversations between himself & one his longtime friend, Babal Ahmed,  were being bugged by the Metropolitan Police Service. As it transpires the police were suspicious of Ahmed's activities so the recordings had allegedly taken place in 2005 & 2006. They were made while Khan visited Ahmed in prison as he is awaiting extradition to the US. There is now a government probe into the matter because there is a code of practice known as the Wilson Doctrine that forbids conversations between English MP's & there constituents from being bugged. 

First of all, why the kcuf not!!! What the hell makes English MP's so special that even if there is strong suspisison that they themselves may be involved with crime that they cannot be bugged but the rest of us can. You may have noticed that i am only including english MP's as i write. This is because any Scottich Parliament members or members of the Welsh Assembly are allowed to be bugged. Whats the bloody difference. Just to clarify, I don't give a damn if the suspects are muslim. Whether you are white black brown yellow green blue or purple, if you're being investigated like the rest of us, there is a possibility of a crime taking place or if there is a threat to our national security there shouldn't even be a question to answer. That the MP's are even upset about this in the first placxe is ridiculous. What they are basically saying is that there could be a mass murderer or a rapist or someone with the power to start world war 3 in there midst and there could be strong evidence to suggest any of those allegations. The fact of the matter is that the government would rather let that slide than have the criminal element among them bugged & caught. This disturbs me.

We've already had the situation with Tory MP Derek Conway. It was not exactly a serious criminal offence but if these things can go on for so long before being discovered, what the hell else is going on that we don't yet know about. It's just another example of one rule for them & another for the rest of us. How do these so called guardians of cour civil rights expect us to trust them when all they do is undermine us at every turn. The possibilities of wrongdoing is endless but as usual it is going to take something drastic to happen before people start to take notice. Let's see how long that takes shall we.

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& for your listening pleasure

Life - Bush & Blair/Bush & Blair Remix

Rhymefest - Real Nigga Quotes (Produced by DJ Premier)

Heltah Skeltah & Originoo Gunn Clappaz (Fab 5) - Blah

I Used To Love Alphabetti Spagetti

Why is it that positivity in Hip Hop is considered different. Is the world such a bad place to be that when someone tries to shed a little light on the darkness people in certain quarters derise it as some kind of faddish oppurtunism. Forgetting that commercialism always wins and some people do this just for their love of Hip Hop and life in general. Luvolution is a project that accentuates such positivity and Mohammed Yahya & Iron Braydz are superb at what they do. You'd be hard pressed to find a more original opening 2 tracks on a hip hop record than the 2 these guys provide. The 'Intro' to the album is a near 6 minutes of amazing spoken word prose by Sukina Abdul Noor (of Poetic Pilgrimage). It's that good I had to rewind it twice before i listened to the rest of the album. African Rhythm with its thundering kick & african (obviously) percussion make for a unusual, but equally great, opening song. Iron Braydz (great name) laced 15 of the 18 tracks on the album & overall, bar one or 2 nicely placed diversions, they are really nice head nod's. From the Thumping kick & lighthearted flute of 'Nice Day' to the dark piano loop of Conctete Lands. Change, Shahadah, Luvolution V (featuring an ill verse from ShakaRa) are all had my head bouncing. But for me the superb 'Hammer' & 'Hopeful' are my standouts. Especially the latter, which sees beatsmith Jnr. Sas (big ups bruv) use a mesh of vocal samples to great effect, while M1 is his own rebellious self on the guest spot. A great album & a positive one to. Not only is it immediately apparent that the message is sincere but the non preachiness just makes the whole demeanor of the album all the more accessible. The only let down for me was Luvolution 1, as this is the only time that spacetalk (as i call it) lyrics & delivery make it onto the album. That aside this a great album & has been on my regular playlist for quite a while & will continue to be. A great debut that i have left a couple of tasters for.

Blind Alphabetz - Intro ft. Sukina Abdul Noor

Blind Alphabetz - Hammer ft. Sean Price

In The Nic Of Time:

The Producer/MC duo is practically a steadfast tradition in hip hop. Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, Kool G Rap & DJ Polo, Eric B & Rakim, Pete Rock & CL Smooth. These names are all legendary and it will be hard for any new jacks to better what these guys achieved. But the perception & meaning of such duo's has changed. The evolution of the internet means that Board Buccaneers & Microphone Mechanics can collaborate from different sides of the world and often to superb effect (Blu & Exile anybody?). Thus Nicolay & Kay join these ranks with Time:Line. Kay, of Hip Hop MC duo The Foundation, has long been blessing us with his brand of thoughtful lyrics fused with soulful boom bap. Nicolay, producer extraordinaire has a slew of critically acclaimed albums (Foreign Exchange - Connected) & production credits to his name. Both are superb in their professions so why was i a little apprehensive about this project. I refused to listen to the sample & waited instead for a chance to listen to the full album. Now Nicolay is my favourite producer of the last few years but I was fairly underwhelmed when i first heard 'Here', so perhaps I was preparing myself for a bit of a let down. But Nicolay has returned to his spacey, soulful, crispy boom bapping best. From the moment the album opens with a funky uptempo groove of an intro that Dangermouse & Cee-Lo would be real jealous of, my complete faith in the man was restored. Yet by the next track, Blizzard, i was practically salivating. With it's hard hitting snares & kicks, being ridden by a a nice guitar loop, showcasing Kay waxing lyrical about overcoming adversity to get to where you want to be. Inspirational lyrics over a banger of a track. With each following track i was just as enthused. When Connected came out i called it the embodiment of beautiful hip hop. When Nicolay made This album he must have been in the same zone. The Light, featuring The Strange Fruit Project & Nicole Hurst, sonically continues right wher connected left off with the spacey electro keyboards & background vocals, while Kay, Myth & S1 lament on the what's where's & why's of Hip Hop shows. Brilliant. And then Stockley Williams lets rip over the piercing snare & floating rhodes of 'Through The Wind'. Then the understated snare, jazzy hat & lovely keyboard of 'I've Seen Rivers' kicked in... and i was gone. What A Tune! I know that we've only just hit february but i think that this song will definately reach the business end of my top 30 tracks at the end of this year. Other highlights for me (on an album of nothing but highlights) are 'As The Wheel Turns'. A quite lovely mellow boom bap and smooth keyboard driven combo. 'Grand Theft Auto'. The other straight neck snapper on the cd. Plus 'When You Die' with it's gospel organ and muffled horns that fit Kay's sing songy, almost Andre 3000 like hook perfectly. I could go on in the same vain about every track talking about how Kay does his thing big time & how the backdrop Nicolay provides borders on genius and how the fact that the album is almost entirely sample free only makes it even better. But i will end with this. Connected fans buy this album. Hip Hop fans buy this album. Everybody buy this album. Beautiful Hip Hop Lives On.

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Nicolay & Kay - I've Seen Rivers

Nicolay & Kay - As The Wheel Turns