Generic list post: March 2016

Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when civilised society was happy to see the unexpected return of a Concentration Camp.

The Firm - Firm Biz (World's Famous Explicit Remix) (1997)
Jackie Chain - Oh Yeah (2007)
Jackie Chain - Shawty Freestyle (2007)
Young Chop & Rado - Migoz N The Hood (2015)
Ezale - Day Ones (2016)
Kokane ft. Snoop Dogg - Don't Go (2016)
Kendrick Lamar - Untitled 08 (2016)
Max B ft. Wiz Khalifa, Alpac & Joe Young - Silver Surfer (2016)
Young Thug - With Them (2016)
5th Ward Weebie & New Breed Brass Band - Whatcha Workin' It Fa (2016)
5th Ward Weebie ft. S 8ighty & Big Choo - Club Luv (2016)
Kwamz & Flava - Takeover (2016)
Moelogo - Pénkéle (2016)
The 1975 - The Sound (2016)

You say there's money on my head, do I fear that shit?

"Guess again, man - them muthaf*ckers bleed like me
If they plan on sneakin' up they better breathe lightly
Or be like he who last tried to take my life
Who I never think about unless I wake in the night
Maybe you right, maybe I'm a threat to me
Perhaps a bullet from an enemy will set me free"

A-Wax - Tha Streets
(From ???; 2006)


A-Wax videos were so much more entertaining when they were mini-movie realisations of his fantasies about kidnapping Husalah. Since 'Wax now takes out such frustrations on his Mob Figaz bête noire by clowning him on Instagram for shopping at Nike discount outlets, his videos have consequently suffered by becoming an interchangeable string of yer standard rap video cliches: walking in slow-motion, blowing smoke wistfully into cameras, standing on inanimate objects doing rap-hands. What A-Wax music videos need in 2016 is less posin' and more poison.

Updated my Rap Songs That Aren't On YouTube But Really Should Be playlist

It's ya boy Gyles Bandwidth back to f*ck up your monthly data plans this Easter weekend. Tracks by Schoolly D, 5th Ward Weebie, Diddy, Legit Ballaz, Swishahouse, Camp Lo, AZ, Jiggs & Cheeks, TREE, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Grip Plyaz, Black Sheep, Smooth B, Jackie Chain, pre-LOX Jadakiss & Sheek, Lil' Chris, N.O.R.E & Peedi Crakk, MobStyle etc etc.

New York - ya out there?

A video posted by GRATEFUL🙏 (@kwamz123) on Mar 17, 2016 at 10:22am PDT

One of those instances where an Instagram video really does capture a song's essence more succinctly than words could ever hope to - writing about music isn't like dancing amongst architecture or sumfink. Kwamz & Flava bustin' moves to their own shit in Times Square gotta be the first good thing to happen in everyone's least favourite part of modern New York since Max B touched down from jail to buy johnnies there.

Kokantelechy Vs. The Doggy Dogg Syndrome

Sucks that Luvin' A Pimp didn't make Kokane's new album because the song is his best collaboration with Too $hort since Rhyme Slow in 1999 and the most convincing replica DJ Quik & Robert Bacon production you'll ever lay your ears on. Never mind, though, because album highlight Don't Go is the archetypal Clone Of Dr. Funkenstein every Kokane fan dreams of. Technically, Kokane's wobbly bizarro world Nate Dogg crooning and Snoop's Sway In The Morning freestyle-type verse belong in different postcodes, yet here they coexist on the same song as 2 thumpasourus neighbours. Like David Cameron nearly told Jeremy Corbyn today - we're just one nation under a groove.

Kokane ft. Snoop Dogg - Don't Go
(From King Of GFunk album; 2016)

Schoolly D was a phony, a fake, a secrete hair-metal fan?

On record, Schoolly's stance was "all you long haired faggots can kiss my ass"; in reality, Schoolly's manager was some Robert Tepper lookalike contest reject with a poodle-perm mullet:

This, of course, is the very same Chris Schwartz who later founded Ruffhouse Records with Joe "The Butcher" Nicolo in 1989. Can't even break out the "mountain climber who plays an electric guitar" zingers here because Schwartz is a top 5 dead or alive hesher rap mogul offa Cypress Hill's first album and Illmatic alone.

Late pass!

Rap internet M.V.P Rey swung through the comments on my recent best of Mr. V.I.P playlist and upped a lost pre-Rollin' Jackie Chain mixtape from 2007 that'd been mysteriously wiped from the 'net, possibly because it borrows its title from a movie by a certain Chinese actor? Oh Yeah is a mere 42 seconds in length but it woulda been the first song on my playlist if I had any idea this Who Am I 'tape existed. The petition to get Jackie to record a 3 minute version starts belatedly right here, right now.

Jackie Chain - Oh Yeah
(From DJ Burn One & Jackie Chain's Who Am I mixtape; 2007)


Bonus Martorial Elegance: Jackie's current single Mucho is barely a 6/10 song, but that spaghetti western bandito clobber he wears in the video is a bona fide 10/10 outfit. Bruce Lean is dead, long live the Mane With No Name!

Who's Ghana take the weight?

A brief compendium of things Kwamz & Flava's Takeover has made "go gaga" since I first posted it back in january: "the mandem" foreal, the duo's motherland of Ghana, borks from all across continental Europe, Black History Month tributes in Canadian schools, Men In Black in Indianapolis parking garages, Irving Plaza in New York, BBC1Xtra's playlist, YouTube's million views mark, the music channels on Freeview now the official video is here. Gotta respect a group who perform their own syncronised dance routines even though they've got the whole planet shakin' a leg to their song.

Kwamz & Flava - Takeover
(From Takeover single; 2016)



Bit ironic that a duo who formed after their joke freestyle session about bread went Facebook-viral should begin to flourish creatively and career-wise as they expunge the rapping from their music, but the citizens of this soggy island have always made better tunes when they use rap as a flavouring in the hotpot rather than the main ingredient. Pour out a lil' Bisto for Betty from Corrie.