Jehst and Soweto Kinch on sax combine for another high grade joint lifted from Farma’s £10 Bag. The vinyl has already sold out and its not on streaming platforms so if you want to hear the entire Farma G produced project its available for digital download HERE.
Dubbledge – AKA Jerry Ilé – has been around. Since the release of The Richest Man in Babylon on Low Life Records back in 2007, the Watford Wordsmith has been upending expectations and trouncing tradition.
From his work with UK hip hop stalwarts like Micall Parknsun, Foreign Beggars and Jehst to his time in supergroup Problem Child, Dubbledge has made a point of doing things his way. And through that commitment to originality, he’s been able to carve out his own corner in the scene.
Now, he’s back with his best album to date. But there’s a twist to this timely instant classic; Ten Toes Down was originally written and recorded over a decade ago.
So why is he releasing it now? And what does an album of ten-year-old material have to say about contemporary Britain, hip hop and the man himself? To find out, we sat down with Dubbledge.
Q. You held off on releasing this album for 10 years. Why have you chosen to release it now?
I blame Dabbla and Illa mostly, with a little dash of Sumgii for flavour. We were recording all the Problem Child tracks and they knew about the album from a few years back.
From the moment they heard it they have been breaking my gonads to just stop sitting on it and put it out there. I finally caved to peer pressure.
Q. How did the initial idea for the album come about? Was it a deliberate attempt to move away from the concept album style of Dubbledge vs The Boondocks?
TTD was just very organic, it just happened. I had some Chemo beats and every time I wrote to one, I heard another one that just inspired the next song, and the next song and the next.
He’s got some crazy variety and the sound is unique, it has its own vibe to it. It’s so long ago it’s quite hard to remember but it may have started with the ‘Ur mum’ rhythm. Just had some random fun on it and then I believe the other tracks got birthed from there.
Boondocks… is actually one of [my] favourite bits of work. Looking for soundbites, I ended up absolutely rinsing those episodes, there are some real classic lines in there.
Q. The Boondocks album was a cool concept. Is there any other TV show or film you’d be interested in doing a similar concept for?
Nah, Boondocks just done it for me. I fell in love with the first and second seasons. I haven’t seen anything since that has really grabbed me on that level with enough content for a whole EP.
Having said that – and it’s not a program – but a friend planted a seed that is growing somewhere in the back of my little head. As I’m a hypnotherapist now, (www.youspiritually.com), I’m generally finding that so many people’s issues always end up as some form of anxiety or its older brother depression; worries about the unknown future or the horrors of the past.
If I do jump back on the music, my next concept EP could well be some therapy tracks. I mean we all subconsciously memorise lyrics and end up with songs we can’t get out of our head after all, so the lyrics and flows – if done correctly – could work like a mantra. I’m pretty sure I could put two or three tracks together that could shift someone’s mindset just by putting a few tracks on repeat and chilling.
I’d even add a meditation/hypno session at the end to ice the subconscious cake. Not sure what the tempos would be, but the seed has been planted and answering this question just watered it.
Q. You touch on topics in Ten Toes Down that are really pertinent for 2022, even though the material was written ten years ago. What do you think that says about where we are in the UK right now?
It says my psychic powers ain’t nuthin to f** wid! (Wu-Tang voice).
X-man potential aside, I guess it means I was either ahead of my time, or just doing me and ignoring any influences in terms of what was popular at the time. TBF I’ve never really cared enough to follow trends; it just so happens that the subjects and social programming I was concerned about at the time are sadly currently being fully actioned.
Q. You say you were “ignoring any influences”, but is it possible you were inspired by topical news when you wrote the lyrics for TTD? These tracks were written right around the time of the murder of Mark Duggan and the UK-wide riots that followed.
It was also around the time Wikileaks revealed a litany of criminal acts in Iraq and Afghanistan by the US and UK governments. While government-sanctioned fuckry has existed since the dawn of civilisation, tracks like ‘Chess’ feel like a direct response to these events. Is there anything in that?
That’s a clever connection, and I wish I could say that it was based on that level of intelligent enquiry, but honestly, I wrote ‘Chess’ before the Mark Duggan issue and subsequent riots. However, I did use footage from those incidents in a montage vid I done for the track, which was originally on a Chase & Status beat that Tinie Tempah smashed.
Truth is, as you wisely said, ‘government-sanctioned fuckry has existed since the dawn of time,’ so you could likely play this tune in another 10, 20 or 30 years and it will still relate to the events of the day unless we wake up and contemplate political agendas e.g. How are things being handled? Is it conducive to growth or destruction? Do we live in a positive climate or are we slaves to a negative one? Are we gaining more freedom or less? Are we happier or more stressed? Simple questions, when we look around is their leadership improving our lives or is it getting worse?
Q. How did you end up working with Forest DLG, (FKA Chemo)?
Chemo’s a Don, it would have been rude not to!
Q. You’ve linked with so many great artists (including, on Ten Toes Down, Kyza, Micall Parknsun, T-Bear and Tha 4orce). Are there any other collabs you’d be interested in doing with some of the new generations of emcees or beatmakers?
I love them brothers! New music, well the therapy EP’s is in my head now which might require a completely unique type of beat, something very musical, so I’m leaning toward beatmakers that can produce outside of the box, rather than collabs.
Q. Some of the beats feel very much of a specific time (the electro-stylings of ‘Soopa Gangsta’, for instance). What was the process behind choosing the beats?
I literally just picked the beats that pulled some kind of emotion or energy out of me, whether it was jump up, women, artistic violence or deep thought. I like it when the beat does the work and leaves space for the artist to be just another instrument, and Mr Forest has just got it like that.
Q. You’ve always had a knack for adapting your flow to different beats, but did the sheer variety of different beats on TTD inspire you to experiment with some new flows?
Yes, I got to play around, like ‘Awkward’, was just… well awkward. It’s quite a psychedelic type of beat so the flows are all over the place. I think the flows may be different on every single tune, as they’re all completely different in terms of vibe and tempos.
Q. You wrote and recorded these tunes over ten years ago. Was there an element of nostalgia listening back to them?
Yes, fully. Mostly due to it standing the test of time, the electro sound of it was just different at the time and still is, so it has that element to it that is hard to date. I’m proud of it, so many different vibes. I mean we literally made ten tracks and there were no throwaways, all keepers, all with their own unique patterns, flows and elements.
Q. Have the last ten years changed your outlook on the topics you cover in Ten Toes Down (government overreach, systemic racism, technology damaging relationships), or reinforced them?
[It’s] completely reinforced them. When I listen to the album I feel like I have no excuse whatsoever to have not been better prepared for these ‘interesting’ times we’re now in.
I should have brought a farm, raised some chickens and gone off-grid lol. The world really looks like it’s lost the plot, it’s like watching all the stuff you hoped you were wrong about slowly coming true.
Q. Do you think that’s because we’re heading towards the end times, or just that we’re all more aware of how crazy humans are, with instant access to almost all the events in the world through our phones?
I’m not a believer in the end times, in an Armageddon biblical level nightmare. We’re all gonna face hellfire sense. I more so believe [in] the end of empires, the end of this particular time so a new time can enter, a new season.
And yes – with our instant access – we all have front row seats to this madness with algorithms that will happily only show us the one side of the story we are most focused on. So it’s all very polarising, which is why I’m optimistic but I’m not blind.
Right now, the climate feels like the powers that be are throwing everything they have at us, it’s almost like panic on their part. Like they know their time is up, so are just throwing all their players into the box, even Vaxx the keeper, just in case they can get a last-minute win.
I think their actions will polarise humanity, no more grey area, no more sitting in the middle on the fence, either comply or goodbye. And by goodbye I mean you go and find a way to become self-sufficient, independent to some level, although I imagine lots of communities starting to spring up with a focus on some form of off-grid living and trade, hence the “When that mark of the beast comes in, and they try and put the microchip under your skin, your gonna need to get some diamonds to bloody trade” lyric in ‘Chess’. So in short, new times rather than end times IMO.
Q. Will this be your last album? If so, what are your plans if you’re not doing full albums anymore?
Hard to say, music is a force of nature, it has its way of seducing you. Sometimes you just can’t help yourself, so maybe not full albums, but as the days go by, the flames slowly warming to the idea of writing a few more lines, and there’s still verses sitting on various producers’ hard drives that could still see the light of day.
Dubbledge has never been one to do things according to others’ wishes, and touring is no exception. When I ask, as a parting question, if he’ll be touring this album, he’s vague but doesn’t rule anything out.
“No dates or venues yet, but we are thinking about doing some Dabz and Dubbz dates in the near future so…”
In other words, you’ll know when he knows. And that could be tomorrow, or ten years ago.
Heavy single from the imminent album Strange Planet just landed. ‘Planets Realigned’ has prolific producer Tom Caruana on fine form along with pillars of the scene Jehst and Jazz T. Watch out for the LP touching down on March 4th via Tea Sea Records.
Viral marketing is a style of promotion that uses social networks to spread information quickly and relies on an audience to generate the message of a product or service. Marketing would be considered ‘viral’ when it reaches a point where this audience is sharing on a grand scale, rather than just the initial target audience it was intended for. If done correctly it can result in thousands of shares and views but sometimes a message can unintentionally go viral also…. but what happens when these techniques are applied to UK Hip Hop?
The following are five great examples of UK Hip Hop that used viral marketing either intentionally or unintentionally and are collectively responsible for nearly 2.5 million views on YouTube, as well as countless likes and shares.
“Jehst is the man. Terrible that he still has to work. Most lyrically talented uk rapper ever.”
YouTube Comment
‘Jehst is my Postman’ (part one) generated nearly 33K views on YouTube (at the time of writing this article). Then a part two of the video was uploaded on 5th April 2011, a gap of nearly 2 months was left after publishing the first part, allowing for the video to be shared and commented on numerous times.
‘Jehst is DEFINATELY’ my postman !!’ aka the music video for ‘Starting Over’ shows Jehst once again going about his business delivering the post, when suddenly just as you think the person filming is going to open his door and have a word with one of his heroes, it actually opens onto Jehst’s brand new music video (at the time) for “Starting Over” taken from the ‘The Dragon of an Ordinary Family’ album. This video generated nearly 443K views on YouTube and has to be one of the first of a kind viral marketing Hip Hop videos seen in this country.
“one of the best marketing campaigns ever this, the videos of him delivering the post, posted to all the hip hop forums”
YouTube Comment
2. Def D Fire’s ‘Operation Zombie Nation‘ aka ‘OZN’ campaign was a live music event in London held on the 21st October 2011 at an undisclosed location on Great Eastern Street. It used the guise of an impending zombie apocalypse to promote the launch of DefDFires’s (DDF) new album (at the time) “O.Z.N.”. In the weeks leading up to the live music event a series of emails and videos were released which offered ‘sanctuary’ from the approaching chaos of the zombie virus, it asked for anyone seeking refuge to come to the ‘stronghold’, a ‘safehouse’ which had been secured by DefDFires, there would also be ‘morale boosting musical entertainment’ on the night.
All potential survivors would need to do is simply contact DDF requesting a place in the bunker and for any additional places for loved ones but ‘space is limited, we only have so much tangfastics and tea’, it also requested that people bring torches. As well as videos and emails, a ‘real’ newspaper the Evening Slander bearing the headline “London to be Evacuated” was placed at various tube stations around the capital promoting the event, both referring to the zombie apocalypse as well as the live music.
“London is on the brink of chaos, a catastrophe approaches unlike any we have previously witnessed”
A few days before the event anyone who was lucky enough to secure their place in the bunker was contacted with it’s location. On the night of the 21st there were zombies walking around wearing ‘The End is Nigh’ billboards herding survivors into the venue for the night’s music and ultimately the survival of the species!
The combined series of apocalytpic videos were uploaded by defdfires and Emerging Species and have over 30K views on YouTube.
The videos, emails, newspaper, team of zombies and the actual music event made for a fantastic concept piece, a great example of viral marketing, probably one of the best in regards to a live UK Hip Hop event seen thus far.
“DESPITE OUR GOVERNMENT’S ATTEMPTS TO COVER IT UP, SIGNS OF THE UNDEAD VIRUS ARE NOW EVERYWHERE, THE FURTHER FINANCIAL CRASH, HUNDREDS OF CITIZENS REPORTED ‘MISSING’, DAPPY REACHING NUMBER 1 – THE END IS NIGH…”
3. Harry Love’s “Records” feature in an IKEA promotional advert and sees the legendary DJ talk about his love for vinyl, in particular some of the storage issues he has housing all of his sound equipment and records, even the toilet is not out of bounds! The challenge that is illustrated by the advert is the need for creating a separation between music and family in the home.
This is a charming video that sees various pieces of IKEA furniture used to store Harry’s equipment built to his own soundtrack and cuts, for instance they use shelving units for the vinyl, coat hooks for headphones, cutlery tray for disks and shoe racks for keyboards, it’s all very clever.
Although this video (uploaded by IRF Industries) only has a couple of thousand views, the advert was shown on British television in 2013, so the reach would’ve been fairly broad at the time and the discussions/social posts that followed would’ve pushed this into viral territory. There is also a series of beats produced by Harry Love especially for the Ikea advert, that you can listen to here.
“Make room for your life”
4. ‘Rapper proposes to girlfriend during rap battle‘ has a whopping 1.9 million views on YouTube and was uploaded by Don’t Flop Entertainment in 2013, Don’t Flop is the largest rap battle league in the UK. The video shows Mos Prob proposing to his rap (and life) partner Rapunsell during a doubles battle against Eek and Enigma, the full battle can be seen here but in comparison only has 65K views on YouTube. It just goes to show that the spectacle created whilst proposing during a battle can garner far more interest than the battle itself, not to take anything away from the Don’t Flop episode as 65 thousand views is nothing to sniff at.
Over the years we have seen similar gestures but never in a UK Hip Hop forum like this, so this is the first of a kind and a highly unlikely setting for a wedding proposal, it’s a lovely moment captured on film.
“I guess a simple “No” would’ve been the best rebuttle ever”
YouTube Comment
5. The ‘MysDiggi “Food Dancing” Sainsbury’s advert‘ was a FAB Award finalist and featured on British television in 2017, it shows Sainsbury’s workers and families dancing whilst making food against the highly energetic stylings of MysDiggi. This advert had massive exposure during it’s television run time and socials were constantly sharing this content, viewers happy to hear a ukhh legend on an advert for such a quintessentially British brand like Sainsbury’s.
MysDiggi also featured in Subway’s ‘Wrap Battle‘ where he raps his food order to Truemendous and Truemendous recently featured in Pepsi Max and McVitie’s commercials, so it’s good to finally see bigger brands notice and feature some of our beloved UK Hip Hop artists on such a mainstream platform. The stage is definitely set for more of this but MysDiggi seems to be the first to test the waters.
What were your favourite viral Hip Hop moments and did I miss any? Let me know if you have more examples where UK Hip Hop went viral and tweet me your thoughts.
Words by Theo Specone
Photography credits for header image: Mike Massaro
Jesus H Titty Friggin Chriiiist. There aren’t enough open-mouthed shocked emojis for this absolute fire alarm of a tune. Last minute contender for hardest boom bap from UK shores in this shit-plague of a year. Sleazy F Baby has been on a mad one of late but this takes the cake. Likewise Jehst has been busy reminding everyone that he’s still one of the all time greats in 2020 and seemingly along the way seems to have solidified status as an honorary Blah affiliate. Which is a good extra look for the YNR kingpin.
And oh yeah. The beat. Hats off to the producer. Pro P on the buttons has outdone himself.
Arguably the most viable crew in the UK hip hop scene to have yet reached the heights they’re due (we’ve been ranting about this for a while), Voodoo Black are not playing with their long awaited debut LP. Collectively Sparkz, Dubbul O, Ellis Meade and DJ Cutterz have been some of the hardest working humans in the game for close to a decade. On top of dope solo efforts from all of them that are well worth checking with spare COVID isolation time, the three spitters have massively contributed to highly regarded and lucrative releases by The Mouse Outfit and have been putting out music under the guise of Voodoo Black since their first self titled EP back in 2013.
If you were to try and differentiate the sound of Voodoo Black versus Mouse Outfit up to this new decade, to massively oversimplify; you could say that efforts with the mouse mob were more funk, jazz and soul influenced and Voodoo Black have been more concerned with crafting hard tunes for hip hop purists. Sitting At The Table sees the lines blur to a middle ground that’s sublime.
Everything that has made the collective dope since day is alive and well on Sitting At The Table. There’s a new edge to SATT though. Cutterz and crew steer the production more in the direction of the kind of funky, mellow melodies underpinning rhythmic grooves that catapulted tracks featuring the VB roster to a wide following in collaboration with the Mouse Outfit. All while still staying true to the Voodoo sound. Manchester’s unique hip hop influence is in full effect alongside stylistic nods to US golden era sounds. Flows from all 3 MCs throughout are flawlessly on point. Both warm and hard hitting, what’s most striking about verses from all 3 is the fact that there is literally no weak link. For 3 artists with their own unique sounds, the level of stylistic cohesion that maintains a distinctive soundscape on all tracks is something that can only be built though a creative partnership and friendship over years. Flows blur into one another on every track in a way that’s barely noticeable.
Singles ‘Know Broke’ and ‘Fizzy’ are exemplary of the kind of consistent sickness found permeating through tracks 1 to 10. ‘Fizzy’ sounds like an after hours lock in at a jazz club. ‘Know Broke’ edges in with similar dulcet musical stylings, followed by hook from Sparkz phasing in seamlessly to a trap-esque drum line that instantly converts the track to a certified head-nodder peppered with effortlessly complex rhyme schemes on every bar.
The calibre of the sparing features on the project is telling in regards to the standing in the scene that the crew deserves. The group’s Manchester home ground is represented in style with soul-hop queen LayFullStop‘s appearance on the super smooth ‘In The Mood’ and under-hyped mistress of melody EVABEE on ‘My Medicine’. As the LP has lyrical talent in abundance from the crew, its not surprising that its not heavy on the guest spots. The two remaining spaces go to UK heavyweights Leaf Dog and Jehst. Banger ‘Abracadamting’ features the ever-returning drifter bringing his A game. Likewise Boom Bap anthem ‘Fall Back’ has Leaf coming equally hard on the first verse. The fact that both MCs drop Voodoo Black tributes in their bars is testament to the fact that whether or not VB have still to reach legend status among parts of the hip hop fanbase, they already hold that accolade among the scene’s leading names.
Formerly members of the Room2 family, Voodoo Black have transitioned to Village Live for this project. As cross pollination to different demographics can be advantageous for acts trying to get their name out to new heads and the Village have their own dedicated following (and exclusively release fire), this could prove to be a smart move. DJs: Cop this shit on vinyl for guaranteed smooth party grooves. Everyone else: Cop the format of your preference HERE.
Second single from the forthcoming Pitch 92 album 3rd Culture set to drop later this month on High Focus. ‘Kingdom’ Ft. LayFullStop, Jehst & Sparkz
We’re going to be dropping regular guest mixes throughout 2019, first up is the legend DJ 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
Jehst Drops a new visual for the self produced opening track ‘Billy Green’s Theme’ from last year’s brilliant Billy Green Is Dead. Fitting visual courtesy of Monsta Animation. Limited clear double vinyl available here
To mark the release of his debut release on High Focus, Lost In Space EP, Pitch 92 drops a visual for the title track featuring Jehst and Confucius MC. Pick up a copy of Lost in Space here.