The Street SoundsUK Fresh Reunion will take place on July 16th at London’s Scala to celebrate the 25th anniversary of UK Fresh 86.
With performances from Newcleus, Captain Rock, Arthur Baker and The B Boys f. Chuck Chillout, the night promises to be a celebration of electro, hip hop and street culture. Mixmaster DJ Mirage will be on hand, dropping tunes from the 80s all the way up to the modern day providing the soundtrack to B-Boy battles and much more.
In the foyer bar will be a Street Sounds memorabilia and graffiti exhibition to walk around and enjoy as well as a special lino area for those who want toshow off their b-boy/breaking skills.
Tickets are available now at £35 going up to £40 on the door.
The London producer’s new record Rapping With Paul White, is his first vocal album and features a number of great guests including Guilty Simpson, Danny Brown and Jehst and will be released on the brilliant One Handed Music label. Check out the tracklisting below and get excited, this one’s big.
1. Intro: We Make A Lot Of Noise
2. Right On
3. Trust ft. Guilty Simpson
4. Run Shit ft. Marv Won
5. One Of Life’s Pleasures ft. Danny Brown
6. The Doldrums
7. Life Is Flashing Interlude
8. Stampeding Elephants ft. Moe Pope
9. Rotten Apples ft. Tranqill
10. Thirty Days
11. A Weird Day ft. Homeboy Sandman
12. African New Wave
13. Indigo Glow ft. Jehst
14. Dirty Slang ft. Guilty Simpson
15. A New Way
16. Evasive Action
17. Wily Walruses ft. Nancy Elizabeth
18. Outro: We’ll Never End
The Anticon producer will release his new record Fever Dream on August 30th. The beat-maker, who has worked with the likes of Tarsier and Deep Puddle Dynamics amongst others, has also announced the tracklisting for the album:
Goinswimmin
Wanna Let It Go
Revi Is Divad
No Choice
Dahorses
Lady Lambin’
Talk in Technicolor
Feverdreamin
Boom Boom Boom
Tagine
Sugarpeeeee
Wrap
Thanks to the rise of blogs, there are so many rappers that have peppered the web in the past few years yet it’s nigh on impossible to keep track of them all. So we have decided to give you guys the heads up on rappers that are coming through that you definitely need to keep an eye and ear out for. Sometimes all it takes is that one track to hook you, getting you to press the rewind button so you can learn all the words straight away and sometimes it’s more of a slow burn, letting the music wash over you, submersing yourself into it before something clicks and you declare yourself a fan.
The list below is by no means gospel, but amongst all the names that you’ll be hearing sooner rather than later, there are some rappers who stand head and shoulders above the rest, and they can be found here. You won’t see any mention of the likes of Tyler the Creator or Jay Electronica because they’ve already grabbed the mainstream’s eye but hopefully there will be someone below that will get you interested!
So, without further ado, here is a list of the top five rappers you need to get into:
Yelawolf is certainly the best new rapper out there at the moment. He’s not hit the mainstream quite yet, but with the ink drying on his contract with Eminem’s Shady Records it can’t be fair off if the talent he showed on his Trunk Muzik mixtape [and it’s re-released with additional track half-brother Trunk Muzik 0-60] is anything to go by. He can switch up to double-time at the drop of a hat or he can run it slow like he does on Pop The Trunk below. Lazy journalists will no doubt refer to Catfish Billy as “The New Eminem” but pay no attention to that, he’d much rather rap about Chevys and getting drunk than murdering his Baby Momma. Alabama is well and truly on the map thanks to Yela. Get involved.
Already one album down, Fashawn is working hard on mixtapes having recently released Higher Learning 2 and Grizzly City 3 before releasing his sophomore effort. The Fresno MC might not be the brashest of rappers, but his smooth flow and beat selection are top notch. His debut Boys Meets World featured production by Exile, who provided the perfect backdrop for Fashawn to go in over, from sunny melodies to songs about suicide. If he continues the way he’s going, like he has over J. Cole’s beats, there will be a hell of a lot more people smiling their way down the street. If the track below doesn’t get you bouncing, you’ve got no soul.
Maryland’s Phil Ade has burst onto the scene in the past couple of years through his stellar Starting on JV and The Letterman mixtapes, showcasing his ability to rap over a diverse selection of beats before his Twitter-friendly #PhilAdeFriday tracks, which were released for free through the social networking site every Friday came to prominence at the start of 2011. He’s now put them into a mixtape of their own, with some tracks featuring him rapping over famous beats from the likes of Ice Cube and Mobb Deep and will be dropping his new album A Different World on July 12th. Check out the track below for some early LL Cool J influenced shit.
LA’s TiRon is another rapper who gives the listener a big beaming smile, he just seems to be having so much fun when he raps and it’s that infectious positivity that grabs the listener. From songs declaring his love for food or trainers to tracks discussing the importance of having a Wingman when trying to bag a chick at a party, TiRon [and his running mate Ayomari] delivers perfect call-and-response style tracks which bump along nicely whether you’re in the mood to get hype or whether you want some beats playing whilst you’re cleaning your flat. The track below is a perfect example of what to expect from the guy that brought the world his MSTRD and Ketchup mixtapes as well as T&A, the prelude to the debut album Sucker For Pumps which is a collaborative effort with Ayomari.
Ohio rapper Stalley could have been a high-standard basketball player before injuries curtailed his sporting career. But the NBA’s loss is hip hop’s gain. He has got a fantastic flow, progressing from a backpacker delivery to straight up fire and back again with consummate ease and his beard shouldn’t be underestimated. His latest mixtape Lincoln Way Nights (Intelligent Bass Music) is the best example of why he’s such a competent and impressive MC, showing his dexterity over a number of different styles whilst all the while maintaining his own voice across the entirety of the 16 tracks. Check out Hercules below, the beat will get you immediately and once that’s hooked you’re in.
Rick Ross has achieved near-God like status of late in the US, named as The Source’s Man of the Year 2010 and gathering together his Maybach Music label with the signings of Wale, Pill and Meek Mill. His return to London’s Forum saw a packed venue drenched in sweat welcome him with open arms, chanting his name before the big man had even appeared on stage. When he did, gun fingers shot up in adoration, howls of support echoed all around and the party had well and truly started.
Ricky Rozay has many, many hits and whilst his set wasn’t the longest [something those who had paid £35 complained about] it was certainly one of the most entertaining rap shows I’ve witnessed in a long time. Without a hype man on stage with him, it could have been hard between tracks, but he was ably supported by his DJ who stood behind the decks on a pedestal that bore the legend “Rick Ross / The Boss / Maybach Music / Kiss The Ring Tour” and made sure the crowd’s response to his calls were nothing short of deafening.
Running through his bangers Hustlin’, B.M.F. and MC Hammer whilst bellowing out his guest spots on Meek Mill’s Tupac Back and Lil Wayne’s John, he allowed the crowd to be as much a part of the proceedings as he was, nodding his head at the choruses being chanted back at him, wiggling his ample frame to the beat and generally exuding an aura of total control and enjoyment. He even made sure the locals [who had been told to rep their hood] were looked after by bringing out Estelle for a track, though her mic hardly allowed her voice to flourish.
By the time the show was over and the steam was rising from the crowd, there was little doubt that the man who threw his shirt off for the final track, showing off his huge belly much to the surprisingly large delight of the women in the crowd is exactly what he refers to himself as: THE BAWSE.
Waiting six years for an album isn’t ideal and with every passing year, the expectation of being underwhelmed grows tenfold. Such was the trepidation that came with opening the new album from Jehst, the best rapper in the UK bar none, but thankfully the wait was well worth it as this is a serious contender for album of the year.
When it was revealed that he wouldn’t be producing the entire album itself, another seed of doubt was sown, but having heard the album, it’s clear that the beatmakers he’s working with know exactly the style Billy Brimstone needs to work with whether they be upbeat bangers like ‘Thinking Crazy‘ and ‘Old Number 7‘ or the laid back vibes of ‘Camberwell Carrots‘ [shout out to my place of birth!] and ‘The Illest‘. A perfect balance is struck between the two, allowing the rhymes of the MC to take centre stage.
Jehst has always been something of a genius with his words. Not only does he deliver quotables in every line, he raps them in a style that is completely his own, often changing pace or structure mid-line whilst still not missing a beat and this is something that appears in spades on the new album. Whether he is talking about killer rap zombies or introspectively dissecting his feelings, Jehst’s confidence and untouchable delivery exudes brilliance throughout the album.
Standout track ‘England‘ is a real tour-de-force and harks back to his 2001 EP Return of the Drifter, it’s dusty beat laying under his diatribe about the state of the country he lives in, opening with “You gotta stack chips and that’s the way it is yo / living in this city is turning Billy schizo phrenic / it’s a blood money epidemic / kids rock Academiks but they’re not academic” before finishing up with the boldest of all full stops, saying “It’s hardcore but that’s life in England / And it goes for the whole United Kingdom / And I still got love for the place that I’m living / But right now there ain’t nothing Great about Britain“.
Six years is an age to wait for an album, but when it comes as complex, deep and enjoyable as this, it doesn’t seem quite so long.
Fast becoming one of our favourite new rappers here at Crossfire, Phil Adé has dropped a new mixtape.
PhilAdeFriday is a collection of the free tracks he put out every Friday and sees him going on over classic beats by Lords Of The Underground, Ice Cube, Mobb Deep and more, showcasing his lyrical talent and verbal dexterity. It’s free and it’s great, what you waiting for? Click hereto grab it.
Need an example of the dopeness? Just check out the video below.
With the smell of weed grappling nostrils are soon as the doors to the Forum opened, it was clear that Wiz Khalifa isn’t just all mouth about his love of green. The Pittsburgh rapper, who has shot to prominence since Crossfire last saw him live, at Soundset in 2010, has developed a large following thanks in no small part to his break-out hit Black & Yellow, as a very full Forum readied itself for a night to enjoy.
Despite his wiry frame, Wiz fills the stage thanks to his huge grin and boundless energy as he and hype man Chevy Woods took the room by the throat from the very start. Slamming out tracks from his new album Rolling Papers and recent mixtapes Cabin Fever and Kush & Orange Juice, Khalifa interspersed his tracks with shout outs to his weed smokers, something which garnered no end of response from the crowd.
His medley of Kush & OJ tracks were a highlight, with In The Cut, Still Blazin and Waken Baken given the live treatment on a sound system that, for once, made hip hop sounds great at the Forum, a rare occurance indeed. Lex Luger produced bangers got the crowd going with Taylor Gang ramping the noise levels up another notch, the call-and-response reminding everyone why live hip hop is such a joy to be involved with.
Wrapping things up with On My Level, Roll Up and Black & Yellow, Wiz topped off a show that had far exceeded expectations. Even the tracks on the album that are essentially filler sounded great amongst the impressive light show [instructing the crowd to ROLL UP with his own-brand Wizlas] and scratch-happy DJ. I wasn’t smoking last night, but I certainly came out of the venue on a high, unlike the nerd filming half the show on his iPad!
The world’s best hip hop festival is back once again and the Rhymesayers guys behind theSoundset have dropped a preview video for the event which takes place in Minnesota on May 29th.
Taking in tunes from De La, Atmosphere, Big Boi and more, the visuals by the homey Adam Garcia come to life and make our resident rap fan Abjekt very excited. As per usual, Crossfire will be there to report on what’s going down.
Remind yourselves what went down last year by clicking right here.
The Street Sounds UK Fresh Reunion will take place on July 16th at London’s Scala to celebrate the 25th anniversary of UK Fresh 86.
