Figment/Mash - Up Productions = Jay-z; The Motown Album

This post is one of my own projects which i did around the time that the internet was flooded with American Gangster mash ups and i decided to do a Black Album mash up since the onslaught of those had died down.

I sampled all tracks from the classic Motown label to create new beats for Jay's Black Album acapellas.

Semantik, administrator for the excellent website Crate Kings had this to say

"With all the American Gangster remix albums popping up lately; we tend to forget about all the previous joints that Hov blessed us with. Figment of Mash-Up Productions drops a gem on us with the release of The Motown Album, which combines Jay’s Black Album with classics such as “If I Were Your Woman”, “Neither One of Us”, and “Love Hangover.” It’s no doubt that the Figment was successfully able to take a handful of Motown joints and provide just enough grit to what I originally considered to originally be a lackluster and overproduced release. I have to admit that I was surprisingly impressed with his attention to detail, especially with the restyled organ sample featured in the remake of “Public Service Announcement."

Download it HERE

Amede & The Soundsmith - The Underground

The Underground is a new free digital release from London pair Amede and The Soundsmith described by the duo themselves as "a new phase of their musical journey pulling away from the soulful vocals for a while and exploring their unhealthy addiction to beats!"

Inspired by The London Underground system, and intended to give a sense of progression and journey into the future - it does just that with a mix of breakbeat style drums, a nice low bassline and some ghostly key chords which break up the digital sound nicely.

I found it a welcome change to see a group brave enough to release an instrumental single, but the track is good enough and as an insrumental in a musical world currently governed by pop parafenalia and one hit wonders it does well to hold the listeners attention for the whole 3 minutes and 44 seconds. From the minute i pressed play the edgy drum loop and sub bassline had me nodding my head and i could easily imagine an artist like Roots Manuva or Kano on it which displays a tremendous example of versatility, echoed again by the "about us" section on the website "We just want to make good music, whether it's short raw beats, vocal based, down-tempo, or hip hop soul."

In conclusion, the track is a heavy beat sure to break up the monotony of the tired contents of ones Ipod and get heads noddin straight away. I'm eager to hear more from Amede and The Soundsmith in the future and i highly recommend you download anything this pair offer - particularly as this one is FREE!

Download it at - www.amedethesoundsmith.co.uk/theunderground
MySpace at - www.myspace.com/amedethesoundsmith
Website at - www.amedethesoundsmith.co.uk

Evil Ed & Conspicuous "The get Together"

The dynamic duo that are Evil Ed & Conspicuous have blessed us with a the new album "The get Together" and let me be the first to start the standing ovation. Its what UK Hip Hop needs at this time...pure fire! Ed's is one of the most consistent producers for 15 years now and never lets the listener down when their looking for a proper Hip Hop beat. And Conspicuous spits the rawest like a bulimic after eating sushi.
With top notch guest spots from a fine aray of talent from all over the UK.
I really hope this doesnt get slept on like some of the other classics out over the last few years.
Check out the track BBQ and the youtube vids for a little taster of what i feel has just moved into the top ten UK albums of all time.

Check the track listing:

Evil Ed & Conspicuos "The get Together" (Ottomanelf Music):

1.81's Favourite Son
2. BBQ feat. Seanie T, Doc Brown, Konny Kon, T-Bear, Broke N English (vuts by K-Delight)
3. Marvelous feat. Ric Branson & Grimlok
4. Don't Worry
5. Big Headed feat. Willo Wispa, Mudmouth & Apollo (cuts by Evil Ed)
6. The Get Together
7. Ill-Out feat. Shabaam Sahdeeq, Jehst, Swave Sevah, Dubbledge & L.I.F.E. Long (cuts by Eddie Skratch)
8. Where Did We Go Wrong (skit)
9. You & Me (Never Could Happen)
10. Time After Time feat. Cobane, Shameless & Sir Smurf Lil
11. Sinister (synth by AH Fly)
12. The Night feat. Willo Wispa, Iceman & Yung Blud
13. Forgive & Forget feat. Cal-I
14. Outro (Goodbye)
15. BBQ (remix)


Taster tune BBQ - Grab it HERE
evil ed & conspicuous feat. willo wispa 'the night'




evil ed & conspicuous feat. cobane 'time after time'

Dr Syntax 'N' Elemental are The Menagerie – Wild Kingdom

Tom Caruana, Dr Syntax, Elemental and Nick Maxwell are The Menagerie and they want you to have and enjoy their acclaimed and fun packed debut album 'Wild Kingdom'from 2005.
The supa crew was made up of 3 emcees, 2 producers and a deejay..all head and shoulders abover most.
Please trust me on this...its one of the most solid albums i've ever heard!

Grab it for free HERE

Theres more freebies from Elementals myspace HERE

And Check out 'The Menagerie' HERE

Ozmosis - Wizard of Oz mixtape

For those who were having issues downloading from the original link in the previous post, here's the new link - Click here to download 'The Wizard of Oz' mixtape by Ozmosis

Ozmosis - The Wizard of Oz mixtape

Here's something new from UK emcee "Ozmosis," entitled - 'The Wizard of Oz mixtape.'

I first heard of Ozmosis a little while ago when he hit me up on Myspace for a beat (which features on this mixtape for the track 'We Get Em') and i was impressed by tracks on his MySpace - 'Imagine (the dreamer)' which sampled the John Lennon classic, and his remix to The Arctic Monkey's track - 'You Look Good On The Dancefloor.'

The mixtape does what it's supposed to. it's a dope mix of tracks over original and previously featured beats from the likes of Fort Minor, DJ Premier and..erm Blur and The Arctic Monkeys. In my eyes - a good mixtape shows an emcees versatility, adaptability and ability to shine on any type of beat, and Ozmosis does just that. Rhyming over The Arctic Monkey's 'you look good on the dancefloor' is enjoyable to listen to and a few pace changing bars over 'Zorba The Greek' are a small stroke of genius.The overall theme of the mixtape is well done and the short soundbytes from the movie throughout help to string each track together.

As i said - this does what it's supposed to, and it does it very well - it shows Ozmosis' lyrical capability and that he's comfortable on a wide assortment of beats.

My advice to you is to download it first - HERE

Then add Ozmosis on MySpace HERE

Video for 'Imagine (The Dreamer)' -

Gunshot - Mind Of A Razor (REMIX)

A personal favorite of mine..a tune i use to put on my walkman and do my badman bounce down the road to...TURN IT UP!

Check out this video: Mind Of A Razor (Video)

Hidden Identity ( Evil Ed ) - Blunted Bumpkin Buskers

Back in 93/94 i heard a tune played on Kiss FM that made me nod my head like the Churchill dog and smirk like chesser cat on lsd...it twas a tune by a group i had never heard of called Hidden Identity, i was hooked and needed to hear more.
Lets let Evil Ed tell you more...


As I was involved in this E.P. as one half of Hidden Identity (DJ & Producer) alongside MC Mistima I thought I'd add a few notes about the record...

This is the 2nd EP on the Pure Rudeness label. The first I don't even have a copy of anymore, but it featured MC Undercover from Hackney and Handsworth's MP Rawality (a female MC).

The Hidden identity E.P. was recorded and mixed in a few days back in 1993 in a studio in Oswestry where the Pure Rudeness label honcho Tee used to work. Me and Mistima had made very loose demo versions of the tracks and we had all our samples and cuts ready, Mistima brought his rhyme books and just pieced various lyrics together there and then in the mic booth.

It was fun getting Mistima to do the back-up's, there's one scream he did that me and Tee made him do around 20 times until he got it how we wanted.

It says on the label 'Produced by Tee' although I did the production, if you can call it that. Apart from 'Pure Rudeness' all the samples are jacked from other records. Pure Rudeness is my first proper production on wax ie. an original sample over a drum loop. We also used a sound bite from 'Made In Britain' as the intro to that track. Skinny man used the same film for vocal skits on his LP more recently.

I also rap on this track and regret that now as even though I was never the best MC out there I had really bad flu when we did it and it sounded very poor.

Tee engineered the tracks with me live. We sat for hours at the mixing desk experimenting with EQ & Efx and every time we made a mistake ie. forgot to drop the beat out or add delay we'd have to go back to the top of the track.

Before the vinyl was out the tracks "Big Hed 4 Da Dred" & "Return Ov Da Red Eye" were played by DJ 279 on Choice and Max & Dave on Kiss FM. They played it off a cassette tape every week for months before the vinyl was out and it eventually dropped on wax around May 1994.


This is a UK Hip Hop classic...


Tracklisting:
A1 Return Of Da Red Eye
A2 Big Head 4 Da Dread
B1 Pure Rudeness
B2 I Tink Were In Trubble

Get it Here (rapidshare link)
Or
Here (sendspace link)

Gatsby The Great - Falling Up

Gatsby The Great is a writer/director/emcee from South Jersey.



This album is incredible.

Although it sounds more like a collection of songs, more of a mixtape than an album - the lyrical quality and consistency of the rhymes alone prevent it from being labelled something as plain as a 'mixtape.'

Right from the intro, it's clear that Gatsby is a very talented and hungry emcee, spitting one verse over a head nodding beat that sounds like a hip hop version of Lawrence Of Arabia.

Although some of the beats, samples, or drum sounds sounded familiar it really is the lyrical precision and attention to detail which shine through especially on the title track 'Falling Up,' which also happens to be one of the albums best, in respect to both the beat and lyrics. The track is basically a list of contradictions, but done in a very clever way that has you rewinding every bar to double check.

Another thing i liked about the album was the variety of hip hop on display. A nice old school feel on 'The Rythm' with a catchy hook, pure underground ferocity on the Intro, and a more mainstream accessible track in the form of 'Feelin Good.'

'Falling Up,' definitely deserves a good couple of listens through and Gatsby desrves a Myspace add, so i suggest that if you don't have the album or you don't have Gatsby as a friend on Myspace, you solve both of those problems here and now -

Get the album HERE

Add Gatsby HERE

Gordon Bennet Records - Promo Mixtape

Gordon Bennett Records is an independent label based in East Anglia, in The U.K specialising in Hip Hop & Electronic music. The label was created in mid 2007, and as stated on the lables Myspace - "has been influenced by many labels & artists from the days when, not just Hip Hop but all music was striving, to today where Hip Hop is supposedly "dead." Many still push to keep music alive, others do not. GBR wishes to help bring it back & reignite the positive energy and provide lots of different sounds from different artists. With a positive yet comical outlook we hope to release some great music from some exceptional artists, with future plans to branch out to some other genres of music."

Up for download in todays post is the labels 12 track Promotional Mixtape, featuring tracks from resident artists -

Crow Stick, Raptilian, Purple Turkey, The Lounge Lizard, Chuck Dangerfield and Diagnostik.

Standout track for me is 'Take The Sun Away' by Diagnostik, a more than ample lyricist over a head nodding beat with a dope bassline and a free flowing hook.

Overall, the beats and general collection of tracks featured fuse nicely and yet are different enough to play to the label of 'mixtape.'

Instrumental tracks courtesy of Lounge Lizard break up vocal tracks nicely and leaves the listener waiting for what's coming next.

An impressive album showcasing this labels blatant talent, can't wait to hear more.

Get it HERE

Gordon Bennett Website

Gordon Bennett Myspace