ABU July Podcast 2013

Yes, it's the summer shutdown but I went ahead anyway with the end-of-month ABU show last week. Albeit in a live style and fashion.

This month there's a selection of West Coast electro, East Coast boom bap, hip hop beats, smooth funk and rough as arseholes funk, a bit of BBC Radio 2-influence going on for good measure (haha).

Enjoy!

July 2013 ABU Live Podcast

Tracklisting is below in the Comments.

Grange Hill Kicks

Just found this scan I did last year. It's from my Grange Hill Annual (1985, I think...).
Look at those prices..... I wish.

Graffiti Rock 30th Anniversary Campaign

 Can you believe it - 30 years?

This piece of video history should be as revered in the hip hop connoisseur's dvd collection as much as say, Wild Style or Beat Street.
This was a great attempt at creating the world's first hip hop television show and featured such stars as Run DMC, Kool Moe Dee and Special K of The Treacherous Three, The New York City Breakers showing their carefully constructed moves as well as many others in the scene.

To commemorate this milestone, show creator Michael Holman wants to re-release a beautifully remastered version including a full-length documentary; Graffiti Rock: The Untold Story. There will also be many behind the scenes paraphernalia, photos, interviews, articles, press releases that until now have been locked away from the public.

The way this is all to be achieved lies with us - the good people of this culture. Michael wants to obtain a specific amount of cash to make this work - $50,000 to be exact - and he is doing this by creating a 'Kickstarter' campaign.
Go to the Kickstarter page here and you will see all the details of what will be yours if you contribute to this fantastic cause. Anything from a special Graffiti Rock postcard sent straight to you up to obtaining 'Executive Producer' status with your name in the credits including private dinner, personally signed special edition 7" vinyl by Kool Moe Dee and much more.



The way I see this is that $50,000 is pretty small potatoes when you're a big-name rap star such as Jay Z so he could peel off a couple of notes and make it happen in an instant.
The way these Kickstarter campaigns work is that they have only a specific amount of time to run before they end. At the moment there is only 8 days left to raise another 30k. Will it happen? I really hope it does.

Mike Allen Design Homage

Big thanks to Steve who sent these to me "in honour of Mike".

Beat Street 'SPIT' T-shirt Design from Style Warrior

There's a new tee on offer from the wonderful Style Warrior.

This UK brand as you should know is headed by Martin 'LG' Lovegrove who has been putting in work for a number of years now and continually puts out some great stuff.
The latest one is a nice throwback to the still-watchable Beat Street movie from 1984 and has that SW twist. Damn, lousy SPIT!

Available in either white or green and in a range of sizes to suit all, head over to the website here and order yours now - they are always in limited quantities and once they're gone, they're gone.

And speaking of LG, check out his great interview on the HBA Music Archeology Show (#61) where he plays some cool tunes and talks of the early days, Electro 7, his dear old mum, 4our Pillars and Mr Soft. Not to be missed.

Pour One For My Homie

I learned the sad news earlier that fellow Blogger and mix-maestro supremo, WARZ, is now bowing out of the scene.
After leaving an indelible mark ON society with his brilliant Style Warriorz Revenge blog and subsequently his already legendary Takeover shows on Disco Scratch Radio, he is dipping out of the blogosphere and silently drifting off into the sunset.

Reading between the lines I think that this is just the end of the line for the name WARZ and no doubt we will see him return under a new guise in the hopefully not too distant future. Hopefully.

I have grabbed a few gems from SWR (Shadow, battle breaks....etc..) over time and truly cherish these. Thank you for bringing these for us all.

Keep in touch, homie.

Reepz

My personalised burner by WARZ

Style Warrior Tee - Hammerite

Mr LG has a new design up for your vote on his Style Warrior site.
As you can see it's along the same lines as his previous CarPlan t-shirts in that again this design is strictly for the old UK graf heads.

For more details visit http://stylewarrioruk.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/vote-smooth-hammerite/ and vote for it to get it in to production. It'll cost you approximately the same as a couple of issues of Viz Comic, a few beers and one deluxe Planet Poppadum takeaway. Probably.


Nb, don't forget that LG will be doing another of his Takeover shows on Disco Scratch Radio NEXT Thursday (11th July).

WARZ is Back On Disco Scratch Radio This Week

It's true to say that when Style Warriorz Revenge's own WARZ first appeared on Disco Scratch Radio with his initial Takeover show things did tend to get a bit out of hand.
We, the audience, were pretty much gob-smacked into a sense of surprise and wide-eyed amazement as the manic introduction got under way. And that was just the beginning.
Now I'm not saying that WARZ has a lot to live up to, but he DID set the barometer higher than Snoop Dogg at an All-U-Can Eat Chronic Outlet.

This Thursday, people. You know the score, 9pm - 11pm.
And be there in the chat to witness the fitness of m'man, WARZ.

http://discoscratch.co.uk/radio 

Beattrix - Take It Back to Bring It Forward Album Review

Now. I must explain that I don't review albums very often and that is down to either laziness, bad product or laziness. My inbox groans from idiots sending me links to their latest album which not only sounds like a whiny-voiced twat-monkey rapping over beats produced by his cat but the fact that most of the time I can only hear 'samples' and not the full thing.
You must understand that this blog is for people that appreciate the old school of hip hop and the entire ethos of that culture. So don't send me albums, or rather links to an album that barely contains any element of music that I would even consider 'hip hop'. I'm old and cranky and have no wish to start becoming a fan of you if you don't even have one track that contains a dj scratch.

So, with that initial rant over I can get on with this. The new album Take It Back to Bring It Forward by Beattrix.
First off, this is a proper album. What I mean by "proper" is that it is not a 'mix album' nor is it some cheaply-made piece of tat (although there can be gems in tat) but in fact is a talent-filled slab of 14 tracks-worth of dopeness with a plethora of emcees on hand to give emphasis to the beats.

Boom-bap is the name of the game with each cut designed to keep you either nodding heads, wriggling toes or spazzing-out over beat-driven goodies such as the Mykes-collab Spin That Wax or the solo Fun Times with its' horn-led percussive b-boy beat.

Whilst listening to this album I was really feeling the production. Take a track such as Look Around which features Mykes again on vocals and the layered samples begin to take on a life of their own, from the Quest vocal snatch to the bluesy harmonica tone that provides the chorus.
In all begins however with the intro track which is Beattrix himself demonstrating his scratch and beat skills with a Tricky Tee rhythm and copious amounts of samples stacked on top to show us in the age-old and always mesmerising manner of a hip hop dj why props should be given with a quickness.

Whenever I listen to a song it is always the beat that catches my attention first with the lyrics being second place. Always has been. So that's why Take It Back to Bring It Forward is such a nice listening experience, whether it's the party groove of Can't Do It Like Me or the proper funky breaks in Lines You Walk.

The track Verbal Diarrhoea seems to have been cooked up in the grand groove oven and served hot and smoking on a plate accompanied by funky potatoes and veg with assorted soul food filling up the remainder. Anyone with an interest in those DJ Format / Abdominal collabs would do worse than to check this cut out.

Overall, a solid album with emphasis on the beats and a nice choice of vocalists.
It's from the UK, it was mastered by No Sleep Nigel, it's dope and it's available on iTunes for under a fiver so nip over there and get yourself a copy!

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/take-it-back-to-bring-it-forward/id374103444

ABU Podcast #31 June 2013

So here is the ABU Podcast for June 2013 and it's number 31 for all the collectors out there!
Listen to it right here or right-click and save it for later.
Tracklisting as ever, is in the Comments below.

The live Disco Scratch shows are now over for the summer but there are plenty of Takeover shows to come in the meantime. This Thursday (4th July) is the very welcome return of Warz. If you heard his initial Takeover recently then this needs no introduction. All you need to know is that this boy knows his stuff and is a fiend on the edits - my kinda style!
The following week (11th July) sees LG in the mix. He had a really great Library Breaks & Beats show last time so really looking forward to anything he provides.
Then after that I will be doing a live show (18th) and who knows what happens in the coming weeks..... we shall have to wait and see.


www.sonicity.co.uk/Resources/31_Ageing_B-Boys_Unite!_Podcast_-_ABU!_DS_Takeover_Show_(DSR127)_June_2013.mp3