TALK TO 'EM, 'PAC!

*Apart from the infamous Soho scene from Jerzy Skolimowski's Deep End:

R.I.P Trigger

Generally, Brits making Rap music fills me with the same weirdly-conflicted sense of pity that I feel when watching the Paralympic games. Fair play, though, because I do have a bit of a soft spot for Giggs since his trademark wooden flow is a glimpse into what woulda happened if Paul Barber had been cast as Trigger instead of Denzil in Only Fools And Horses.

"Alright, Dave?"


As an occasional Giggs fan, ya host was stoked when the tagless version of Monsta Man finally turned up as a bonus track on the deluxe version of his third album last year. Pretty apt that Giggs has described Monsta Man as "that London bounce" because the song's priapic theme & 8-bit beats predate one of the biggest Baton Rogue anthems in a similar style of recent years: Lil' Cali & Mouse On Tha Track's Dat Dick.

Giggs - Monsta Man (no DJ)
(From When Will It Stop album; 2013)


Rest in peace to Roger Lloyd-Pack. You went out on a high with that Ruthless Records-to-Only Fools And Horses analogue Bradley & I came up with last year:

The Rap & Bullshit Karl & Susan Kennedy

Generally, I like to post the video of Mary J. Blige & Grand Puba doing What's The 411? on YO! MTV Raps at least once a year because it's probably my favourite Rap-related TV performance off all time. Mary & Puba have fun with the song's structure by adding ad libs and giggles in moments of previously dead space, their onscreen chemistry as they exchange zings as a form of foreplay is comparable to any of the sizzling scenes between Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall in To Have Or Have Not, and the bit where Mary walks down the stairs to join Puba onstage is my generation's version of Ursula Andress coming out of the water (no Weezy) in that James Bond movie. Plus, Puba ALMOST makes jhorts and a visor look acceptable:


Whilst it's an absolute tragedy that Grand Puba & Positive K only rapped together on the same song once, it's a crying shame that Puba & Mary only recorded two songs together as the Rap Game Mickey & Sylvia, though I like to pretend that Tiffini Davies' crooning on Puba's It Is What It Is is Mary as heard though the slightly-shoddy Babygrande studio equipment.

BTW, to avoid any accusations of "Rap Bro Internet" sexism from dudes who care so deeply about Female Rappers™ they never once bothered to write about any of them last year, I've added a new member to the Martorialist team to help me keep abreast of chick-Rap in 2014. What the job needed was someone who's in-touch with their feminine side and sympathetic to the various intricacies of urban America, so ladeez and gentlemen please welcome the only man capable of such a task: Will High!

In a Rush like Simmons

I wrote about ZMoney's Rollin' and Vange by Agallah for Deep Cuts on Complex this week. Now it's the turn of the 3 former SoManyShrimp all stars to put the ruger on, put the luger on. This shit we write about, it's more than a song.

Can we kill any indie dewd blogger who earnestly compares TREE to fucking Tom Waits?

After 8 plays in succession, Probably Nu It is my favourite song of 2014 so far and TREE is now two-for-two this year. Who'd have ever thunk Mr. Soul-Trap would sound so good doing drunk-uncle-with-a-Woodbines-habit sanging over such an ol' Dun Deal soundin' ass beat?

TREE - Probably Nu It
(From The @MCTREEG EP; 2014)


I think I'm gonna consider this as TREE's official remix of Stoner, and I mean remix in the old fashioned sense that he's had his wicked way with the song and recreated it in his own image rather than he's just rapped over somebody else's instrumental and/or added a few Junior Reid "WHOOA-OOAH" vocal samples.

Cold ass Swiss account so you know my coats is Tuskan

Courtesy of Pell Rell's Hot 99, here's the best song I discovered on somebody else's 2013 list. I'm assuming Here I Go by Hustle Gang & Mystikal must have been somewhat of a thing stateside since the video has a couple of million views, but I never saw anybody on teh Rap internet mention it last year. Praise be to Allah that we got a Grand Hustle posse cut retooling of a Mystikal classic featuring the Man Right Chea himself which wasn't ruined by verses from B.o.B or Iggy Azelea:

Hustle Gang ft. Mystikal - Here I Go
(From the Hustle Gang Presents: G.D.O.D. (Get Dough Or Die) album; 2013)

Belated tribute to a fallen legend

Brief thoughts on ZMoney's The Mobb Tape compilation

For a while now I've been attempting to convince anyone who'll listen that ZMoney's former fidus Achates Bandman Kevo was the real mastermind behind 2013's magnum opus Rich B4 Rap, and backing up my seemingly-ridiculous claim with the irrefutable evidence that Kevo's Who Is Dat? is better than anything ZMoney has dropped since he & Kevo stopped collaborating.

There are a couple of songs on ZMoney's new The Mobb Tape compilation which either halt this decline on account of their catchiness (Rollin') or are so good that any of their problems become temporarily irrelevant (the single Let You Know), but all my issues with his post-Rich B4 Rap work are otherwise evident in abundance on there: ZMoney now comes across like he's either trying too hard or not trying hard enough, when he once made music which sounded spectacularly effortless; Bandman Kevo's presence has been replaced by an interchangeable string of ZMoney's IRL friends who can barely rhyme and/or have the personalities of burnt candles; ZMoney's sly sense of humour and slight eccentricities have now all but disappeared in the absence of Kevo; his music now just sounds like yer typical west side Chicago-Rap, whereas Rich B4 Rap contained songs like Lackin' and Ferragamo which were anything but regular.

Rumour has it that there's a deluxe no-DJ version of Rich B4 Rap due out in a few months, so if it does come to fruition then Bandman Zevo really needs to get an official credit on the front cover because he's as essential a component to the album as Ghostface was to Only Built 4 Cuban Linx or Raekwon was to Iron Man. The new cover could look a lil' sumthin' like dis: