Welcome back to your weekly dose of Hip Hop goodness; we saw some gladness and some sadness this week, as well as a whole heap of new music for your headspace. We have picked only the finest selection taken from the last seven days so you don’t need to check anywhere else for your UKHH fix, check in every week for more of the best in class.. right, now let’s get on with it…
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VIDEO
Kakarot just dropped the visuals for ‘Close Encounters’, taken from the freshly released The Holy Armour album, a haunting King Kashmere production, peppered with punchlines by the pugilist pro, the album also features C.o.N vers, the legendary Chino XL, and has velvety cuts from Jazz T, not to be missed.
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ALBUM
Leaf Dog continues to release more (and more) material, he is a beast! and with When sleeping giants wake and Anything is Possible (both released within a week of each other) he continues to deliver a satisfying selection of punchy production and inventive word craft, he does his usual player-manager thing and is joined by stablemate BVA, Smellington Piff and wait for it… Busta Rhymes, Havoc (Mobb Deep), Xzibit and the late-great Sean Price and Nate Dogg, clearly some gold he had lying around the archive.. how and wow!?
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TOUR
We celebrated 50 years of Hip Hop last year, which is still sinking in, it is such a huge milestone for the music, but the party is not over yet!
During the last couple of weeks the UKHH team has been travelling up and down the country as part of the “5 City Tour” (aka Hip Hop at 50), we have filmed the events in London, Manchester and Birmingham, and there are still two more cities to go!
Hip Hop is coming to your town on Sunday 21st Bristol and Sunday 28th Leicester, make sure you come down and be part of it, you can get tickets here.
David J, Mell’O, Funky DL, Mynature and Harry Shotta speaking at the ‘So you want to be a rapper’ discussion panel (part of Hip Hop at 50) at Roundhouse, London.
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DJ 279 lets you know what to expect when you come to ‘Hip Hop @ 50’.
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GRAFFITI
Video for ‘falling slow’ by bboy documents for ‘the sindecut & ijeoma’ EP Early.
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Musings and mentions from the social pages..
PICK YOUR POISON
In celebration of Skillit’s recent album “Love, Time & Heritage” bare witness to a straight bar-for-bar onslaught featuring The Quaranteam and a handful of the Poisonous Poets, pure fire… also call your Mum.
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TRIBUTE
It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of the Sunshine Coast’s home grown legend Koaste.
As well as an accomplished solo artist he had featured as part of The Menagerie, The Benjamins and 360 Physicals (among others); who had recently released ‘Style Crown‘, a collaborative album that saw Koaste’s seasoned wordplay blend with the likes of Killa Kela, Jonny Virgo and Cristo Cannes, which
inadvertently became his swan song, make sure you have a listen. We sadly bid him farewell, a Hip Hop legend, RIP Koaste.
TAKE A MOMENT
Take a melancholic, reflectful trip with Bugzy back to the ends, where he laments friendships and old times, a soulful injection over warm building beatwork, great track.
This one if for my old friends, the ones I left behind.
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SINGLE
Keeya Keys drops some solid bars over heavy bass, definitley more on the drilly side, but still. He also lists the full lyrics of the track on the YouTube page, good to actually see the wordplay written down… I am not sure I see that often, nice to see the inner workings, have a listen.
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WHEN IT RAINS
April Showers is the third drop from Mercston, produced by MARCUSBEATZUK, some great lyricism laced over a pulsey (is that a word?) beat. The end result is an effortless display of how to deliver bars for days, could be my pick of the week.. could be.
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STORY TELLER
Leeds based Oliver Rees releases the visuals for ‘Another Fool’ a high production music video with full cast directed by Damian Palli, impressive. There is a great guitar sample on this one and the bars are smooth, make sure you add this one to your playlist… we did.
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See you next week for more of the best in class, if there is something we need to hear, share or sample get in touch.
Words by Theo Specone