Ramson Badbonez – Face Down Floating
New Animated video for the Jazz T produced ‘Face Down Floating’ lifted from Ramson Badbonez‘ forthcoming album Mic Day 13th – set to drop on High Focus on 31/01/19
Harvs Le Toad – ‘Chicks and Tikka Naans’ Review
Back in April 2018, Harvs Le Toad and Yogocop dropped the short but dope Garlic Mayo Vol. 1 – a solely Le Toad produced EP showcasing a selection of cunningly crafted beats (featuring vocals from assorted Yogocop mates) that made Harvs stand out amongst the scene as a producer.
Kicking off 2019 correctly with Chicks and Tikka Naans, Yogocop brings the return of Harvs’ signature curious lyricism as he steps away from production on this album and brings us a worthwhile reminder of his effortless flow. The 10 track album is a solid representation of Harvs’ progression as an artist. The album features the likes of Dirty Dike, CW Jones and production from heavyweights Mr Slipz, Dustfingaz and SaulTheSame to name but a few.
Opener, ‘Some days’, features Benaddict (originally meant for the remix) on production. With drifting piano and vocal samples sounding predominant on the beat it’s no surprise that Harvs’ flow is a natural fit on this one, delivering a slick beat reminiscent of early Low Life vibes.
Second track ‘Crabman’ ft Dirty Dike is a stand out on the album. Forming the premise behind the insane artwork by Kellyman (Jack Kellythorn), ‘Crabman’ welcomes production from no other than legendary producer and Yogocop inhabitant, Mr Slipz, who directly demolishes the beat. Sammy B Side comes correct with the cuts and the two bring us a skilfully crafted, sly and haunting beat. Harvs and Dike pretty much destroy this track, both giving us flawless flow and lyricism. Let’s hope this is the start of more collaborations between these four.
Another sick team-up comes in the form of the first single to drop off the project ‘Do All Remain Real’ featuring Yogocop donny Benaddict again, this time on vocal duties. The jazzy diss to snakes and fake friends is produced to perfection. Skip a few tracks forward… I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping for a collaboration between CW Jones and Harvs Le Toad in the near future and ‘Fool in love’ has not disappointed. Blues supplies a beat with the most tranquil of vibes for the pair to grace.
Dustfingaz is enlisted to create the beat for ‘Foggy on her doorstep’. The track features Salmon Hands (otherwise known as KLB), who compliments Harvs’ spitting style with a slightly sleepy tone to his voice which resonates through the track. The two bring a witty vibe and opposing nature to the story they are telling to the dreamy beat, a trademark when it comes to Harvs’ style and delivery.
For another track that seems to have been weaved from moonlight, check Sunken Eyes, complete with driving bars from the Toad providing pace over a horn sample that sounds like it’s been plucked straight from beneath the only street lamp on some midnight ghost-road.
Harvs described Garlic Mayo vol.1 as the condiments on the table before your main course and after repeat plays of Chicks and Tikka Naans, it’s pretty clear to see the development in creativity as an artist that Harvs was saving to dish out as the full meal. The MC’s first full album boasts skilful lyricism and well thought out features and production throughout.
Landing 31st Jan, Chicks and Tikka Naans is a clear indication of talent and yet another reason why you should not be sleeping on Harvs Le Toad! Pre-order here now.
Lazy Eyez – Icarus
Lazy Eyez drops the first single from his forthcoming solo album Coastline to Cityscape which will be released on Green Brick Records next month. The Ed Zilla produced ‘Icarus’ see’s Lazy go back to his hometown to pay homage to the people fundamental to his upbringing. Captured perfectly by This and That Media.
Roughcut Collective – New Dawn
That new illy from Roughcut Collective aka Twizzy, Ambush Tactics and Producer Afire! Visual for ‘New Dawn’ folds a cityscape into a mesmerising kaleidoscope. Beat from Afire sounds like distilled sunrise and hopeful bars from Roughcut barsmen mean this is another strong move for the outfit.
The Lions EP is available to buy now here.
For more on Roughcut Collective check out our article on the group and their previous single ‘Lions’.
Harvs Le Toad – Do All Remain Real? Ft Benaddict
So much love for this! Harvs Le Toad and Benaddict take aim at various snakes in the grass for the first drop off the debut album from Harvs, Chicks & Tikka Naans. Sick bars from both Yogocop MCs, lazy chill-funk instrumental produced to perfection and a jokes video by Brothers Of The Mud.
Chicks & Tikka Naans is available for pre-order on vinyl and cassette here.
UKHH X DJ LoK – 2019 Mix 01
We’re going to be dropping regular guest mixes throughout 2019, first up is the legend DJ Lok.
Follow Deejay Lok
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Tracklist:
1. Mysdiggi – Where Do I Begin
2. Res One & Illinformed ft Joey Paro – People You Know
3. Micall Parknsun X Mr Thing – I’m So Glad ft Essa
4. Brothers Of The Stone – Overseers ft Inspectah Deck
5. Verb T X MoreOne – For You
6. DRS – Irreplaceable
7. Pitch 92 – Lost In Space ft Jehst & Confucius
8. Mysdiggi – Skull Island
9. The Foot Clan – Pump Like A Piston
10. Seanie T ft Roots Manuva – Warning
11. Dirty Dike – Permanent Midnight
12. Jam Baxter – Mask ft Rag N Bone Man + OG Roots
13. Chester P – Melancholic Flowers ft DRS
Lord Apex – SSV2
Sensei AKA Lord Apex AKA green light loiterer AKA the fisheye visionary came through this Friday with heat in the form of Smoke Sessions Vol. 2 aka ‘SSV2’. We were too busy playing it on repeat to post this then but it’s Sunday now and if you haven’t heard it yet you’ve been sleeping. Issa vibe, get listening.
Jay Prince – Beamlight
Latest from Jay Prince is powerful. Coming smooth as ever with the vocals but with a more pensive edge over a melancholy piano sample and pounding kick that serves as a nervy heartbeat to match some bleak cinematics. Apocalyptic monochrome visual for ‘Beamlight’ by Filmawi is something unnerving in a beautiful kind of way. Guaranteed wheel ups for this one.
Skrabl – Wood For The Trees
Skrabl is back with a banger! Powerful flows from the lyricist and absolutely savage beat by Oozhe. ‘Wood For The Trees’ is lifted from the upcoming album of the same name to be released on Wordplay Records on 25th January.
Evidence Speaks on Making of Weather Or Not, European Tour and Future Plans
We were lucky enough to be invited down to The Jazz Cafe for a chat with Evidence before the last show of the Weather Or Not European Tour. After a quick lesson on how to hold the mic, and the promise of making it difficult… We got the newest member of the team and Evidence super-fan, Rudy, to conduct his first ever interview.
What’s up? It’s Rudy, UKHH.com. I’m here with none other than Evidence, Dilated Peoples, Rhymesayers. What’s up? We’re in London, you’re about to rock the Jazz Cafe.
Yes sir, I hope so…
It’s the last show of the tour, we’re pretty privileged to have it here in London, how was it? How did the tour go down?
Really Good. A lot of it was from a tour I was supposed to do last year. One of my first tours I cancelled, for personal reasons. I’ve been dealing with a lot of personal shit, so I really wanted to get back here and make good on it, you know? I was surprised by the amount of people that waited. It was a mad blessing to see that happen first hand. Most of them sold out, and then we did a whole week in France breaking in to new markets. Those were all really good shows, feeling like you building something new.
Have you noticed anything different from the crowds in Europe and the states?
I think a good show is a good show across the board. Like when you have your audience there and everyone is there to see you, and you got a lot of like minded people, the language barrier becomes the biggest thing, but a lot of them are still saying the words on queue, you know, which is super humbling. Thinking English is not their language and they’re still taking the time to learn it. Certain things i don’t expect as much, maybe talking between songs has been cut down a little bit, in France, me speaking English or in Poland, you know what I mean. I’ll cut that a little bit, but I think a good show is a good show. Maybe less cellphones in the air, is one thing i noticed.
Oh really?
Yeah more people in to the show than filming it, you know. LA or States, it feels like this is a prerequisite. I’m not mad at it, but yeah I saw less of that which was kind of tight.
I couldn’t help but notice it was almost all sold out from your Instagram posts and that.
Yeah, there was a couple that weren’t, but those were like Toulouse, and Strasbourg and like places i haven’t built up as a solo artist, even if I had been there with Dilated.
Now obviously you’ve got a massive fan base here in the UK, is there anyone from here you’d like to work with?
As far as UK artists, I’m still doing my homework. I don’t actively seek them out, you know its like when something is making waves, you’ll hear about it, so I’m usually a little bit late to the party. Can’t forget my man Da Flyy Hooligan… Hopefully Murkage, hopefully I can get a chorus, that would be fucking crazy. So yeah, those are the two right now probably.
So with the album, Weather or Not, many of the tracks you produced yourself…
I think I did about 3 or 4 of them.
Alongside Alchemist, Babu and various other producers, mad sick other artists rapping on it. How did the album come together, how long did that take?
The album probably took a couple of years. Like I was saying, been going through personal stuff, having a son, you know, my son losing his Mom to breast cancer, it was probably the most turbulent couple years I’ve ever had. So this album was a little tricky because I kept making music, but i wouldn’t gain momentum, I would stop. I think making music is a lot like maybe going to the gym or doing something where the repetition of doing it over and over is what leads you to the good product. So if you are in the gym and you’re bench pressing this much after working out for a long time, you can’t just take months off and expect to go back to bench and lift that much again. It was the reps and everything else that got you to that point. So that was the hard thing with this album, it kept fucking with me in a sense that I couldn’t gain momentum, and so what happened is it led to me making a lot of songs, like 30 instead of making 16 songs, and you hear 16. This was the first album where I had to like kill babies, and try to fit a puzzle together because I had so much time to make it. So it was confusing, but when it came together, I felt like I had the good stuff. Having friends like Alchemist and Babu like you mentioned is super important, because sometimes when you’re too close to the painting they’re stepping back looking at it, you know what I mean? So they were telling me like, no you got what you need, trust me, cut this one out, keep this one, helping me with the sequence, everything. It takes a team sometimes.
The albums been out for the best part of a year now, and it’s been greatly received, worldwide and stuff. Whats next on the agenda then? You taking some time off or…
No. I want to make another solo record right away, because I got a lot to talk about, got a lot to say. I did like 7 or 8 videos for this album, and touring Europe now feels like the completion. Like I’ve completed my vision for this album, so another record sooner than later would be my goal.
Lastly, Graffiti, I wanted to ask you about graffiti, I’ve seen loads of your posts, you got mad crazy handstyles.
Ha! Yeah old school handstyles, uh yeah, it’s part of my upbringing.
You painted?
Yeah I did a lot of graffiti, but, not as much anymore, but its still part of everything, you know, the way you do graff is the way you make a beat, it’s the same thing. A lot of symmetry and highlights, finalising and you know, making an idea come to fruition. So yeah, graffiti is important.
Fantastic man, thank you for everything you’ve done.
Thank you my man.
Glad that the albums gone so well, glad that you’ve had a good time, Europe is very happy, all the best for the future and safe travels home.
My man, appreciate you, You got an interview under your belt…
Massive shouts to Evidence for taking the time to talk with us, and putting on a dope show after weeks of back to back shows. Thanks to Rhymesayers, and Andy at Steaming Kettle PR.