Edumacation

ABU 2015 coming back stronger than ever.
Peace & respect to ALL crew and longtime-supporters.



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Grandmaster Flash in Norwich

Tomorrow evening (Thursday 13th November) I shall be extremely ecstatic whilst simultaneously feeling extremely bored and pissed off.
Why? Well, I shall be in the same room as Grandmaster Flash, one of the godfathers of hip hop - something I have never experienced before. However, from almost everyone I've spoken to about Flash these days I seem to hear the same sentiments, "don't waste your money", "he's a sellout/nob/diva"....etc.
I've seen and heard him in interviews and whilst he does come across as brash and maybe a bit too over-confident he has been in this game for a long, long time. Attitudes change as do his audiences and he has to adopt his musical range to accompany that. Maybe. Or does he genuinely love just every style of music?

I'm not attending this gig expecting to be blown over by his talents but rather just to be able to tick a personal box on my virtual hip hop wishlist off. The Message was the first 12" I ever got (via my dad who bought it for himself) so this means a lot to me.

The warm-up acts are Chrome and DJ Format who are no strangers to playing in Norwich and will get a big crowd response I'm sure anyway.

Review afterwards.

No Half Steppin' November with WAXER

Yes folks, it's almost time for this month's No Half Steppin' in Norwich and we are lucky enough to feature the UK hip hop flag-flying, ghost-hunting, otter-enthusiast and long-time supporter of ABU, WAXER from Disco Scratch as this month's special guest DJ.

Together with DJ Just-1, Chrome, Illinspired and myself, this Saturday is a guaranteed sureshot. Kicking off as always at 8pm in The Rumsey Wells pub (downstairs), this free event should not be missed.
Waxer has a massively eclectic musical knowledge and has stated that he will not be just playing the crowd-pleasing favourites but a good selection of 'Marmite' songs, too.

Come on down and say hello!

R.I.P. Big Bank Hank

Big Bank Hank

We've lost yet another one of our pioneers of our culture. One third of The Sugarhill Gang, Henry Jackson aka Big Bank Hank has sadly passed away yesterday at the age of 58.
I don't need to tell you all about his history as you wouldn't be visiting this blog if you weren't aware of the Sugarhill Gang.

What I will say though is that a lot of people seem to think Hank 'stole' his lyrics to Rapper's Delight from Grandmaster Caz ("Check it out, I'm the C-A-S-A, the N-O-V-A, And the rest is F-L-Y"). This is incorrect and Caz has stated on more than a few occasions that he happily gave Hank his rhyme book and told him he could use what he liked.

Regardless, Rapper's Delight is still a great song I think and sounds fresh even today.