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NEW IN THE PLAYER THIS WEEK….
Prince Paul and countless Friends ’'Beautifully Absurd’
There’s a new Prince Paul LP due in late April, and once again he presents a mixture of concept album, comedy skits, underground hip-hop and the best lyricists in the game. This features rising name W.Ellington singing over a sweet background of strings, a plucked acoustic and a big fat bass drum.
Royce da 5’9’’ ’Malcolm X’
Ex-friend of Eminem, Royce disses everything to do with Slim, laying into D12 especially hard. I don’t know, I think some artists' best work is done on diss tracks. Royce normally sounds like lazy and uninvolved; he’s certainly got a temper on him here. Though why he compares himself to Malcolm X is totally beyond me.
2pac and 50 Cent ‘The Realest Killaz’
Leaked before its mix tape debut, this is another beyond the grave 2pac collaboration. Joining him, the hottest MC of the moment who ends up playing second fiddle to Pac. I was never, and am still not convinced after 123 eponymous bootlegs, that Pac was the soul of Hip-hop. But even dead this shows his passionate flow wins out against mumbly mouth 50 Cent. And that’s even though it’s a recycled verse already used on Scarface's ‘Smile’ track. Ironic considering Scarface just released a diss track against 50 called ‘Snitch Nigga’. Play nice now.
BACK IN THE PLAYER THIS WEEK….
Method Man ’Mr Meth’
The soon to be huge star again, Method Man is shaking my flat floor this week. A rare cut dredged up from the early years of the Wu. Not a RZA production by the way, thank fuck.
Slick Rick ’Children’s Story’
Is there an MC who has ever been as original and unique as Slick Rick was when first came out? His storytelling, nursery rhyme flow is the antithesis of most hip-hop around today, nice jazzy production here too. Nas and Snoop can do good impressions, but you can’t beat Rick the Ruler.
Dead Prez ’Know Your Enemy’
A few months old from the 'Turn off Your Radio' LP and guaranteed never (ever) to be played on radio or TV in the Good Ol’ US. It’s brutally honest in it’s telling of the 911/Afghanistan situation and America’s legacy of brutality. I’d love to quote lyrics here, but I don’t have the space. So go here instead.
NEWS
Daz Dillinger has one of the biggest mouths in hip-hop, but luckily he’s a brilliant MC, producer and label owner too. He’s about to drop one of the most anticipated (and brave or stupid) records in hip-hop's history. ‘Tha Row Killa" is a whole LP and DVD dedicated to dissing Suge Knight and Death Row Records, and is due on April 21st through his DPG Recordz. It’s been scheduled for a long time, but Daz brought it forward just to annoy Suge and counter the recent Death Row release the ‘Dysfunktional Family’ OST. Snoop and other Dogg Pound affiliated artists are said to have made an appearance too, as well as many others who have fell foul of Death Row. Daz must have balls the size of ripened grapefruits.
Saturday 26th April sees the worlds first ’Human Beatbox Convention’ to be held in London. The peculiar venue for this is the Imperial College and it runs from 2:00pm to 7:00pm. With rumours that it is set to feature around 150 vocal percussionists, best to avoid the front row without your waterproofs. Tickets are available for £16 and you can get these and more details from at this site.
You can find snippets of new Method Man tracks on a copy of the new J-Love mix tape ’Mr Mef’ which has been released to promote the forthcoming LP, ‘Tical 0:The prequel'. He’s also secured Mary J. Blige for yet another duet on his LP.
