REVIEWS HIP-HOP
Ugly Duckling
I Won’t Let It Die
NEIL KULKARNI,
Q
QUICKIES
UICKIES
UD
Rapper Big Pooh
it’s salivating at the sight
The Comeback of a bag fulla dough. They just won’t will they? For all of you
White Label
Intriguing shit from New who have been frowning at hip-hop’s
Orleans. Investigate. deterioration since 1989, for those of
RBP slips the Little Brother you damn-fool enough to think rap is a
8
1 Cr
leash and gives us some- Royce Da 5’9” music that has to stay still for fear of dy-
osbie R thing better than most
Shake This
ing, for all those happy for folk to mask
Koch
of the LB stuff I’ve heard their mediocre rhyme talent behind
oad, Co
recently. Nicely rotating a welter of dated beats from an ever-
beats and scruffy loops
Premo again, here proving
shrinking crate of the bleedin’ obvious,
make this a winner.
just what a compelling
Ugly Duckling are here to save the day.
v
entr
producer he can be — the
For who god knows, from what bugger
y
Joell Ortiz
rub and rush of this is just
only knows. Ignore.
, CV5 8FX
Mornin’ exquisite, too good in
Koch
fact for it to get anywhere
Jabrjaw & DJ Dee Dubs
mainstream. Who cares. Cut Creators
Great vocals, and decent Seal it in your heart.
Footwork4Self
beat from this veteran
Latino rapper — el mejor Flo Rida And on the other hand we have a doozy
con tode de Joel!
Touch Me
— entirely dated, entirely confi ned in
Poe Boy
all the ways that so affl ict UD, but here
Jay Electronica
thrown together with a supastoopid
Swagger Jackson’s A club track — mean-
fresh sense of fun and fi nesse that
Revenge
ing that it is annoying,
White Label
makes the whole thing totally convinc-
magically makes assholes
ing. ‘Cut Creators’ could easily be a
dance, you can’t hear a
Funkdoobiest b-side but a damn good
This track is living proof
fucking word he’s saying
one, and that sounds like pure liquid
that just ’cos it wends its
and after a few minutes
gold to these ears. Diggit.
way from the South doesn’t
you will feel like throwing
mean it has to sound like
up. Fire!
Skinnyman feat Deadly
Hunta
Ballistic Affair
Food4DaBrain
Strictly middling until Deadly Hunta
steps to the mic — after which all bets
MONE
Y
are off. The way he ignites Show ‘n’ SHO
T!
Prove’s fucking ace production backdrop
Jyager
is stunning, like he’s the wicked villain
Eyes Open
YNR
in an am-dram panto that Skinny has
barely been holding together, coming
in packing a fl amethrower and several
Jeez, this has got to be illegal, sound seething with livid black waves, practically
home-made incendiaries to torch him
oozing down the street devouring everything in its path through a combination
some fun. Great video as well. Because
of acid saliva and corrosive blood. Not healthy, not hopeful, but compellingly
apparently that matters these days.
true — and Cee Why keeps the sound rudely pumped full of dread — Jehst,
Cobane, Smurf, Dubbledge lacing the whole with diamond-hard cameos, another
Krumbsnatcha
essential purchase from YNR’s increasingly mandatory roster.
Feeling/Mind Power
Mind Power
hard-drives and fuck-all between the TF and Sway whisper confessions, accu-
‘Feeling’ is numb with narcotics, the
ears. For hipsters’ iPods and bastards’ sation, analysis, assertion and gallows
sound of your own heartbeat slowing
Blackberrys. The rest of us should avoid. humour, the bass occasionally lurching
DJ GONE
itself into a scarily reptilian sloth as
KUNG FU
into scarily upfront relief. The Emalkay
your world folds itself into a nothing-
Jelluzz re-rub adds diffracting keyboards and
ness you can’t escape. Yeah, tons of fun
Hold On
01. ILL BILL ‘Society Is Brainwashed’
Cybotron-style shimmers and shafts of
Uncle Howie
by my book. On the fl ip ‘Mind Power’
Big Deal
From one of the most slept-on albums of ‘08 — ‘The Hour Of Reprisal’. synthetic light perhaps best heard in
revs itself out of the traps and rattles
02.
instrumental form. Engrossing shit.
KYZA SMIRNOFF ‘Rules Of The Game’ Klinik
down the middle of your day belching
A track you might just ignore were it
Typical genius from the man who brought you ‘Fight Club’.
pure fi re — it has the same unhinged,
swimming through the city dusk from a
Lord Finesse
03. STATIK SELEKTAH F MOP & JADAKISS ‘For The City’ Showoff
precarious-yet-blasting feel of Guilty
passing window, a track you might fl ick Keep The Crowd Listening (DJ
From the essential ‘Stick 2 Da Script’ LP.
Simpson’s best.
over on Channel U, a track you might
Premier Remix)
04. MYSTRO ‘Live & U Learn’ Lowlife
dismiss as too half-arsed should you
White Label
From the ‘F.D.T’ EP — this is a highlight.
Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip
hear it coming out of a teenager’s head-
05. BIG DEAL & DJ DOUGH ‘Sun Up To Sundown’ Stackin’ Cheddar
feat Pos Plug Won
phones. Proof we sometimes need to
Much internet bitching about whether
Names to watch in 2009! Great track. Thou Shalt Always Kill (De La
Edit)
listen again, on your own headphones
Premo has fallen off — it’s not the
06. LUDACRIS ‘MVP’ DTP/Def Jam Sunday Best
with the right combustibles this is
guy’s fault that every shite no-mark
Throw a grenade in your mouth, nigga bite DOWN!’ A great Premo produced track.
stunning, synths and beats riding your
producer without their own ideas keep
07. SKINNYMAN FEAT DEADLY HUNTER ‘Ballistic Affair’ Food4DaBrain
We grew seriously tired of ‘hip-hop for
mind’s prairie out beyond amazement-
on plundering his. This re-rub has noth-
Can’t wait for the second album.
people who don’t like hip-hop’ a long
gulch and all the way home. Corkin’.
ing to do with the contemporary, but
08.
everything to do with the usual blend of
RAMSON BADBONES ‘The Countdown’ White
time ago. What’s far more worrying is
Another name to watch in ‘09 — this track kills it. Two Fingers
fantastic sources and steely, suggestive
the growth of ‘hip-hop for people who
What You Know atmosphere. Great beat, wonderful
09. HELTAH SKELTAH ‘Everything Is Heltah Skeltah’ Duckdown don’t like not-being-a-cunt’. ‘Thou Shalt Big Dada
Da Incredible Rap Team come correct as ever.
riffs, and when the whole track seems
Always Kill’, in all its incarnations, is
to double itself up the jazz-heads at
10. BLAK TWANG ‘96’ Abstract Urban
a City & Guilds media-studies lecture
Nice, nice beat — a rippling, sinewy roll your party will appreciate the swing and
Still a unique voice in hip-hop.
delivered by dudes with seriously cool
of controlled Congo-tronica over which surge. Go get.
www.djmag.com 087
DJ470.hip_hop.indd 87 19/1/09 22:04:26
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