Just Jam 5th Anniversary

Now THIS is a true-school old-school homage.

Just Jam began as most things do, small. It was a modest b-boy event which took place each month in the North-East of the UK catering for anyone who was into the whole hip hop ethic, from the dancers to the dj's to the mc's to the writers to just about anyone who was just down.

Being as Just Jam was preaching from the Book Of Bambaataa and playing musical treats that would light up the dancefloor then it was only a matter of time before this cauldron of fiery funk would bubble up and out.
And so it was that its popularity deemed it necessary to move to a new venue because quite frankly, Just Jam had a lot more tricks up it's sleeves and was begging to stretch it's crazy legs.

Now the Just Jam crew cater for EVERYONE who wants to be involved. For those that want to see a b-boy battle or get on the mic and freestyle or if you just want to immerse yourself in the whole vibe then you can get with this.
There is even a hip hop theatre!
This is truly a doowutchyalike experience and it's here in the UK.

You see the poster above? Look at that. See what they've done to recreate the classic Wild Style poster and you can just guess how much love and respect this lot have for the old school.
I put this photo up on the ABU! Facebook page and it caused a lot of interest. And none moreso than ABU!'s own original NYC b-girl, Patti Astor who loved it and was chuffed in the choice of her new replacement!

Now. Have a gander at this video. If you thought that was fresh...bust THIS!
Oooooosh!


For more information check these links:

Main Website

Facebook Group

Follow Just Jam On Twitter

The event is held on Saturday and Sunday 27th-28th October 2012.
The main website has details of accommodation also.

DOPENESS!!

Jive Records 1988 Showcase

Big shout to my man, Irish Craig for sourcing this.
It's a promotional showcase for the Jive/RCA Records company from 1988 featuring Steady B & Tat Money, KRS-One, Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince and Kool Moe Dee.


For historical purposes alone this is great.
And for seeing Moe Dee lose his rag, professionally, is great, too haha.

By the video evidence at the end it looks like The Skinny Boys were on the bill as well but not included here. I wonder who else from Jive was missed off?  The Classical Two? Schoolly D? Too Short? Samantha Fox?? Backstreet Boys???

How Clubbing Changed The World - Tonight

Tonight I'll be in front of the box as there's a couple of programmes that might be worth checking out.

“There’s games beyond the f*cking game.”

First off at 10pm is Idris Elba's How Clubbing Changed the World on Channel 4.
Now. You may remember there was a so-so programme last year featuring the same above British actor (Stringer Bell from The Wire) which had a countdown of the 10 best moments in hip hop's history.
It was bad. It was wrong.
However, I'm a glutton for punishment so I'll be seeing how clubbing history will be twisted this time.
I'm expecting to see a hip hop section and will also expect to see Kool Herc driving around in his convertible with speakers in the seats, Jazzy Jay cutting up out in the street with a guy doing the Caterpillar on some cardboard and also, I will be disappointed if I don't see that footage of the school hall jam with Bam, Herc and Red Alert in attendance with a ZULU NATION piece freshly sprayed.
These are the stereotype and stock footage of ANY factual tv programme doing a piece on hip hop's history. No?

So, as I'll be still sitting watching this, I will then be excited to see the next piece of entertainment right after at midnight, same channel.
House Party is an unprecedented "live six-hour dance music event" with no ad breaks and will be featuring dj sets from Grandmaster Flash, Radio 1's Annie Mac, "Ibiza favourite" Erick Morillo, R'n'B collective Soul II Soul, London quartet Horse Meat Disco (who?) and Canadian exponent A-Trak.

"Has it been spelt right? I can't bloody well see it"

Obviously Grandmaster Flash's set will be eagerly awaited. Hopefully he will bring some of that old school flavour to the show although if recent reviews of his dj sets are anything to go by then be prepared for anything from Tinie Tempah to Lady Gaga.
Soul II Soul I think will put on a better set being that Flash just seems to depend on his name to pull crowds rather than his choice of records. Jazzie B is a connoisseur of the groove so I'm expecting good things.
A-Trak, if memory serves, was that kid who took the DMC's by storm a while back. However I heard he was behind that Barbara Streisand record the other year, too. Hmmmmm....

It is hosted by BBC 1Xtra's Charlie Sloth.
No. Me neither.

Anyhoo, Channel 4 have stated that they will not repeat the programme on 4oD (although it is on Channel 4 +1) so you will need to catch it live.

There's a trailer of the House Party show here.

Strictly Coolin' And A-Rulin'

Strictly running things in the East, strictly keeping the sound hard to the core and of course strictly dropping some lovely stuff on our collective ageing b-boy bottoms is the Strictly Business crew once again.

Now That's What I Call A Dope Website Logo #76

My homeboy Ric Flair has put together another collection of rather brilliant songs from hip hop's yesteryear with the emphasis being on dopeness. Just one look at the tracklist and you know just why you LOVE hip hop, want to MARRY hip hop, want to SLEEP with hip hop and have little hip hop babies (but we know what happened when 'House' flirted with hip hop and they moved in together for some snuggles and created the bastard off-spring hip-house. Never again).

Best thing to do is download the collection and then listen while reading Ric's comments on the page. It's like a mad version of one of those old Star Wars read-along books except with less Jar Jar Binks and more fruity language.

Check the tracklisting for Strictly Gems Part 3 - yes, there's two others available!

Aaron Dee & C-Nice - Dissasemble The Beat
Busy Boys - Classical
Captain G. Whiz - Go G. Whiz
Charlie Brown & The CB Girls - You Can Make It
Cobra MCees - The M Go
D.Moet & X-Calibur - Dance to X-Calibur
Deuces Wild -  Hard Is Hard
Divine Sounds - Me & My Posse
Fat Boys - Fat Boys Scratch (Remix)
Gangstarr - Movin' On
His Majesti  -  Armed & Dangerous
Juice Crew All Stars - Juice Crew All Stars
Kay Gee The All - My Record Is Hot
Legion Of Doom - Live Bait
MC EZ & Troup - Get Retarded
MC Shan - Juice Crew Law
MC Tony Rone - I'm Just Rappin
Ministers Of Black - Step Into My Office
Phill Most Chill - That Girl
Roxanne Shante & Kool G Rap - Deadly Rhymes
Stereo Crew - She's A Skag
Supreme Force - Handling Things
TDS Mob - Crushin' Em
The DOC - It's Funky Enough
Top Choice Clique - Peace Of Mind
Tuff Crew - Let it Rip
Ultimate Force - I'm in Effect
Versatile Sounds - Like This
Witchdoctor & The Dominating 3 MCs - Rock The House

Sounds appetising, yes? Grab the collection HERE.
But before you do, visit the source first HERE. In fact you'll need to because that be where the password is.... bwahahaha....

Class Az from off the telly an' everything!

But that's not all. Strictly butter, strictly butter, baby.
The SB crew are too cool for school and have to unleash their metaphorical musical member and stick that flavour in your ear. In other words they are having a shindig on 17th August in north London.
If you are a Facebook Fag then CLICK HERE. If you aren't then go and smack yourself 20 times with Professor Griff's Kaoss Theory Wizard Of Oz Dominic Littlewood or whatever the funk it was called. Then LISTEN to it over and over for 20 times. Yeah. Do that.

Alternatively here's what it says on the Facebook Event page anyway.
Soz for the Griff thing. LOLZ.
BBQ action ensues as well! That's got to be worth getting elbows-deep with the Camden hipsters, hasn't it, no?

North London’s new monthly Hip Hop night is back to bring you the best beats, rhymes & baselines this side of the river. No barriers, no beef & the best bar staff in the world. And boy… have we got a show in store…
==============================
[STRICTLY BUSINESS] >>>> NON-STOP HIP HOP
==============================
9pm-4am -£5.00 / BBQ from 7pm
...

/// LINE UP \\\

->THE CLASS AZ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK_WFKdKY5E

Irish Hip Hop has always been somewhat of a hidden genre, eclipsed by its English & US counterparts - however, Redzer, Terawrizt, Liam & DJ Mo-K (stars of the recent BBC doc ‘Irish Rappers Revealed’) are set to fly the flag for their hometown. Catch them here whilst you can.

-> IVY FEED

http://www.ivyfeed.co.uk/

Turntablist, Remixer, Mashup DJ, Cut-up composer- brace yourself as the DMC female finalist brings us back to the beat – BIGTIME.

-> ELLIOT FRESH & EVOLUCIAN

http://cantstopfanatics.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/elliot-fresh-and-evo-lucian-are.html So fresh and not so clean… check out their Livestock EP for a sneak preview. Im hooked. It’s going to be HYPE.

-> OBBA SUPA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM5dA4HQ3h8

AKA Technical Development & Hey!zeus. Expect deep lyrics, dope beats and droplets of jazz.

-> SIYO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nioz8awdgkA

Well known Dublin emcee Siyo hit 2012 hard and fast with the new video for his track Shinobi Flow.

-> DJ EVER

UK Hip Hop & 90s US Classics

-> ALEX DCAT

Raw Hip Hop & B-boy breaks

-> RIC FLAIR

http://strictlybusinesshiphop.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/ric-flair-leave-it-to-drums.html

Ghetto blast from the past.

-> SONNY DELIGHT

http://www.mixcloud.com/sonny_delight/sonny-delight-strictly-business-dj-set-havana-norwich-28th-may-2011-hip-hop/

Strictly Dusted Classics and Surprise Instrumental Business

-> Big Al

http://soundcloud.com/dj_bigal

Old School, New School, True School

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Strictly Business Blog -> http://strictlybusinesshiphop.blogspot.co.uk/

***Join this SB event group to keep up to date***

Stay tuned....

Strictly Business 

So. There we go. Now you know. Ya gotta flow, Joe. Tic Tac Toe. Ho ho ho, open up yer do'. Hawaii Five-0. God only knows. Will You Love Me Tomorrow. Whoa! That's English for stop a horse! Don't steal my mojo. Hip Hop Horraaayyyy, Hooooooo. Should I Stay Or Go. Let it flow, let yerself go, slow and low, that is the tempo.

Bosh.
We out.
REEPS.

Repo - With Music This Good The Title's Irrelevant

This is a brief (17 minutes) mix I put together a couple of years ago.
I used some of my favourite cuts, a few Golden Age goodies and mixed them up with a bit of scratch here and there all under my old guise of DJ Sureshot. 
Not sure if I've posted this before. I don't think so, but then I'm not the most reliable blogger in the world.....

Enjoy!

Repo - With Music This Good The Title's Irrelevant

With Music This Good The Title's Irrelevant by Repo136 on Mixcloud

DJ Format Meets Jonny Trunk!

I'm still on a high after witnessing DJ Format live on the wheels of steel at my regular monthly hip hop pub night in Norwich.

Big shouts to Chrome and Just-1 (Sureshot Productions) for organising the most consistently brilliant hip hop night in the city and also IllInspired, Bit & JimCee, Hayhooooooe, Mr Eps, Jediwayne and everyone else who was in attendance.

I found this great interview featuring Format as well as a guy who I have been a fan of for a few years now, respected weird-music collector and creator of the Trunk record label, Jonny Trunk.
It's two hours of Format in conversation and his selection of library music - a genre which I have become more accustomed to in recent years - which is great entertainment.

I'm sending this out to my homie, The Grand Imperial Ramses as this'll be right up his street.

Click to play the show just below.

http://podcasts.resonancefm.com/podpress_trac/web/9724/0/Ost-30thJune2012.mp3

Source 

The Deadly Art of Survival (1979)

 If you are a fan of  the film Wild Style then you should know it's director, Charlie Ahearn. If you know Charlie Ahearn then you may know his earlier flick, The Deadly Art of Survival.

This was a very small-budget, totally guerrilla-made almost art-flick which set Charlie on the road to making the legendary follow-up.

I haven't seen it yet but I have found a copy of it for download if that's your bag. I'll give this a watch soon as this is a film I've read a lot about but still don't know a great deal of.

Peace,
Reeps

Pt1
Pt2

Zephyr - 51 And Still Getting Up

This brief report into legendary old school NYC graffiti artist, ZEPHYR aka Andrew Witten who is still tagging at the age of 51 truly inspiring.
If there's anyone with a more memorable tag-style then let me know!