Wish Master & Datkid – Bris Life
New track from Wish Master and Datkid is raw! Lyrical murkage from both MCs and rugged production from Leaf Dog. ‘Bris Life’ is lifted from the Wishmaster E.P, available now. Cop that here!
New track from Wish Master and Datkid is raw! Lyrical murkage from both MCs and rugged production from Leaf Dog. ‘Bris Life’ is lifted from the Wishmaster E.P, available now. Cop that here!
We caught the London leg of the Confessions Of A Crud Lord UK Tour a few weeks back. The new album from Datkid & Leaf Dog is out now and available here. Check out the live performance of the opening track ‘Fire In My Belly’. More info on tour dates here.
Confessions of a Crud Lord is out now. To celebrate the self confessed crud addict drops a fresh visual courtesy of This and That Media for ‘Cook Book’
Get the album here
If there’s one man in Britain who can truly claim to not give a fuck, it’s Datkid. The Bristol emcee has made a career out of saying the unsayable and throwing two thoroughly pungent fingers to convention. Now back with his third album, Datkid is ready to cement his reputation as the king of crud.
Despite being regularly touted as ‘one to watch’, Datkid has been earning accolades as part of the Split Prophets crew since 2012. Since then he’s dropped two fire LPs (including the instant classic Teeth Ledger) and guested on some of the dirtiest tunes of the past five years.
The rapper’s persona is built on pushing boundaries, and he delights in spitting the most outrageous flows possible. Look beyond the shock value, however, and you’ll find a man at the top of his game. As you’d guess from the album title, Confessions of a Crud Lord is gritty, grimy and grubbier than a McDonald’s toilet at 3 am. Bars land like a rusty shank between the ribs. Tracks like ‘Eyes’ (with some reliably insane bars from NY heavyweight Conway The Machine) and ‘Heroin’ leave you reeling like a tightrope walker with vertigo.
Even considering the lyrical deftness of Confessions, the secret ingredient here is Leaf Dog’s reliably slick production. The album hangs on Datkid’s effortless delivery, but the soundscapes composed by the Four Owls’ producer make it. From the Mediterranean-infused instrumentals of ‘Hoes’ to the rapid-fire bars of ‘Myth’, Leaf Dog’s presence propels Confessions from another quality Datkid release to a thing of (admittedly cruddy) beauty.
So sure – it’s fair to say that Datkid doesn’t give a shit what you think, but it would be unwise to assume he doesn’t care about anything. His verbal dexterity and gloriously depraved lyrics single him out as a master of the craft, and he’s clearly striving to carve out his own corner. With Confessions of a Crud Lord, Datkid has proven if something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. After all, as he says on ‘Blank Page’: “What’s the point in living if you’re just surviving?”
Confessions of A Crud Lord drops on the 17th of May on High Focus Records. Grab yourself a pre-order here.
Another massive UK x US collab from the High Focus stable! This one sees Datkid and Leaf Dog combining forces with NYC veteran Roc Marciano. ‘Scheme On’ is yet another unsurprising indicator that the forthcoming Confessions of a Crud Lord LP is going to be strictly fire.
Second single from the forthcoming ‘Confessions of a Crud Lord’ LP from Datkid & Leaf Dog set to drop on High Focus next month. ‘Eyes’ comes correct with a heavyweight feature courtesy of Conway the Machine. Pre-order Confessions of a Crud Lord now
Latest addition to the High Focus roster Datkid drops the first single Crud Addict from his and Leaf Dog‘s forthcoming LP ‘Confessions Of A Crudlord’. Filmed in New York by Craig Capone
Return to Stoney Island dropped today, courtesy of British stalwarts Brothers Of the Stone and RLD records. The trio consists of label mates and two of The Four Owls; MC’s BVA and Leaf Dog. The production is carefully constructed throughout by the multi-faceted Illinformed. Bringing forward an effort that we have come to expect from the two early members of the High Focus family and one of the most prolific and influential UK Hip Hop producers at present. Soul and jazz samples mixed with British humour and lyrical dexterity, solidly place RTSI as one of the best releases in Britain of recent years.
Bubbling with British passion from start to finish., each song flows across your ears, slapping your eardrums and forcing your head to nod to the cold cuts and slick word play. The two MCs completely own their craft. ‘On a Roam’ is the perfect example of artists who completely understand who and what they are. Not to forget the sick accordion sample Illinformed throws in. Picking the best songs off an album this good is a hard task. Each track posses something individual to the record. If I were to pick my “favourite track” it would be a toss up between ‘Overseers’ or ‘Everything’. Or the title track or maybe ‘On a Roam’… This could clearly take a while!
The weight that British Hip Hop carries today is evident through the respect it gets from our friends over the Atlantic. Brothers of the Stone’s first album included guest appearances from Vinny Paz and the legendary KRS-One. Return from Stoney Island continues the cross-atlantic collabs. This time, including features from Young Zee, MOP and Wu Tang Clan‘s very own Inspectah Deck.
RTSI dishes out social commentary and quick puns with every track. The tongue in cheek lyrics cut over slick beats show that Return to Stoney Island is a true compliment to the British Hip Hop scene. Check it out here!
The first visual from the forthcoming Brothers of the Stone sophomore album Return to Stoney Island which drops on RLD Records on 04/12 ‘Overseers’ featuring Inspectah Deck, visual courtesy of Daly Operation.
Pre-order Return to Stoney Island here
OK, so this could verifiably apply to last year, the year before that and every year going back for a decade, but 2018 has been an absolute banger for UK hip hop. The last few years have given us the first spate of glassy-eyed nostalgia-fest biopics of American hip hop legends, but on this side of the pond, the legends are still making waves and pushing the scene forward.
For proof, just look at the new album (and first full-length collab) from Res One and Illinformed. A Dog’s Dream doesn’t exactly push the boat out in terms of new styles but does serve as a perfect illustration of the phrase “If it ain’t broke”.
Res One & Illinformed Ft. Joey Paro – People You Know
The album also comes hot off a number of other projects by both artists, and there’s no scrimping on the bangers. A Dog’s Dream plays host to some familiar faces, with fellow Split Prophets‘ Datkid and Joey Paro making regular appearances. First single ‘People You Know’ rounds up the local characters of everyone’s hometown and tops it off with some solid gold bars courtesy of Paro, while Illinformed labelmates Verb T and Leaf Dog close the album out with ‘Closing In’.
That’s not to say the album doesn’t also play host to some leftfield guests. Hospital Records veteran emcee Inja pops up on the swing-infused stomper ‘C’est Bon’ while French DJ Charly Cut provides some sweet scratching on hazy jazz number ‘Mr Contemptious’.
Above all, A Dog’s Dream just confirms that to push the genre forward doesn’t require going all Kanye and trying to reinvent the wheel – sometimes it just means making straight-up, sublimely-produced hip hop.
Res One & Illinformed Ft. Inja – C’est Bon
Dropping on Bristol-based label Green Brick Records, A Dog’s Dream confirms Res-One and Illinformed as legends in the making, but it also solidifies 2018 as a new pinnacle for the scene. You want the golden age? Brother, we’re living it right now.
A Dog’s Dream is out tomorrow 27/09 on Green Brick Records. Click here to pre-order it on iTunes, or get it on Bandcamp here.