While Brooklyn’s !!! has us in a cold sweat, photographer Tom Oldham hits the streets of London to reveal who’s rocking the underground scene of UK grime, and then to Kingston with production team Bobby Digital and Calibud. We give you the definitive guide to digital downloads, labels, MP3 players, and more. Also featured: Andy Mueller, ESPO‘s Coney Island project, Pal Joey, Luciano, DKD, Dizzee Rascal, Trevor Jackson, M.I.A. , I:Cube, Deadbeat, and more.
Old Man feat. RZA and ODB
1976
Stephanie Cooke Everything
The most striking thing about the debut album from this New Jersey native is its depth. What seems like an r&b album on first listen actually evolves into a hybrid of jazz club-styled tracks and soulful vocals more attuned to house music. Add her gospel choir delivery (on tracks like “I Thank You”) and suddenly the myriad layers of this album come into sharp relief. For Cooke, good music isn’t about honing all her energy into one specific strength. It’s about gathering together superb vocals, skillful song craft and a damn good house beat into an aptly titled debut album.
Insight Evolve EP
Boston MC/producer/photographer Insight keeps DJs and conscious hip-hop heads in mind on his new EP. With three jazzed-out tracks (plus instrumentals), DJ tools and a scholarly spoken word interlude, Insight shows reverence to traditional hip-hop while innovating the genre. “Evolve,” “Daily Routine” and “Inventors (Black)” are all compelling edutainment jams. With more than 20 releases under his belt and a dope-ass web(sight), insight.fm, it’s time to pop a No-Doz and wake up to this huge talent.
J Sweet Gutter (Alias Mix)
Plain and simple, grime is the UK’s crunk. It’s loud, abrasive music that parents hate and politicians blame for societal woes, which means it’s the best music on the planet right now. J Sweet joins Wiley and Youngstar as a shot caller in the London underground; pirates ‘luv di mon and shops like Big Apple can’t keep his whites in stock. But better than J’s electroshock beats is the way that Alias uses a sample to shout himself out on every freakin’ remix he does. Now that’s gully.
The Solution Bit*H
So the feminists don’t get the title twisted-The Solution (Amad Jamal and Brisk-One from 1200 Hobos) scratch Chuck D’s famous line, “Once again, back is the incredible,” letting you know that the acronym refers to “back-in-the-*-house.” And back they are: Brisk straps dynamite to his classic soul 45 box and blows it into shreds of boom, bap and melody, with precise cuts like DJ Revolution. Defari joins the team for “Regardless,” while “The Oath” is more Stax-hop goodness. Another great New England label emerges.
Soulstice The Melody
SoulStice, here’s your hip-hop report card. Lyric Delivery: A-. Your complex wordplay is impressive. Have you been studying with Akbar? Beats and Production: B+. Why? Well, you sampled Quincy Jones’s “Summer In The City”-and nicely-but it’s been done, plus the tempos of “Sleepwalk” and “The Melody” are lethargic. Overall style: A. You had the class’s heads nodding and deserve a teacher’s merit for your attention to detail. I see you graduating from Chicago and on to global greatness.
Jon E. Cash Battle
UK-chart topping Cash splashed down at Miami’s Winter Music Conference this year with his bleak and sinister grime sound, countering the city’s coastal sunshine with his brutal mechanical beats. Surely he rattled some skulls at the Transatlantic party with his two recent cannon blasts “Kettle” and “Battle”. Fans of Dizzee and Wiley will be stuck like 3M adhesive to Cash’s brash synth workouts. “Battle”‘s typewriter snare clicks and thunderclap accents could fire up an entire Marine battalion before an assault. War music for a war era.
Nucleus & Paradox Think About It
Is it ’94 or ’04? These days it’s tough to tell, but that’s not always a bad thing. Take the extra-classic rolling drum break of the James Brown-produced “Think” by Lyn Collins, a d&b staple that gets sampled again by N&P and thrown in their atmospheric, Photek-tasting soup. “Soul Message” sounds like jazz drummer Art Blakey trying to shoo away a huge bumblebee buzzing in his studio-talk about scattered snares!
