Record Review - Haynesy Dope Beat Biz Volume 1

Haynesy aka DJ Cue Tips, returns with a fully-fledged album with help from some stalwarts of the UK rap scene.
At first glance one look at the tracklisting makes you involuntarily rub your eyes and do a double take. The calibre of artists on the cover seems like a wishlist rather than those on an already completed project as this actually is. It reads like a who’s who of current UK rap with artists such as Whirlwind D, Blade and Chrome.
Did I say Blade?
Yes, the underground master of the British scene is included here and seems well at home. This is not an old cast-off vocal that’s been hanging around on a floppy disk from 1995 either - it’s all new.
The content on this album is fresh in all senses of the word. Production is taken care of by the boom-bap brother himself, Haynesy in this follow-up to his Hip Hop Advocate debut from last summer.

There is a strong return from Scorzayzee (who was ever-present on the previous collection), taking up a quarter of the album beating fellow HHA alumni Dweller, who comes correct with a couple of cuts himself.
The production is really quite strong with nice slappy snares and deep, punching basslines. The fact that Haynesy is happy to use from familiar sources gives the album a real feeling of intimacy. You don’t have to be a nerdy trainspotter to recognise some of the audio steals and this makes it rewarding when you place where you’ve heard the music before.

What I noticed upon my first listen through of the album was that there is a solid pattern that emerges. Each track follows a simple formula; scratch intro, verse, scratch chorus, verse, scratch outro. And Haynesy has employed the turntable talents of South Coast maestro of the mix, JabbaThaCut, to keep this important element omnipresent. Jabs scratches everything that isn’t nailed down in the cut. In fact he even cuts up Chrome in the last bars of his own track, Start The Panic. It’s like he can hardly wait for Norwich’s boy wonder to finish spitting before he mashes up the place with Chrome’s own vocals.
The overall tone of the album is mainly positive vibes which are indeed helped by the upbeat production. The scorching sun outside my window whilst I listen to this really does help to elevate the experience, it has to be said. Certainly it would not sound out of place at a BBQ either.

In hindsight I would loved to have seen a DJ track purely to show off Jabba’s talents.
Also to offset the largely vocal volume of the album, an instrumental cut might have been a nice idea to break up the flow midway through perhaps. Haynesy shows he is more than capable of delivering a killer soundscape and a chance to spotlight his undisturbed beats would be more than welcome.

So who is this collection of tunes aimed at? If you’re reading this then you are more than likely the target audience. Whilst it would be fantastic to get a new, younger crowd on board I think it’s pretty unlikely as this type of hip-hop would sound as alien to them as most modern day stuff does to our own ears. Unless you’ve been feeding your kids a regular diet of the realness then it’ll be mostly down to us dad-aged, balding, waistline-expanding, sofa-enthusiasts who will be heading to Bandcamp to procure this album.

With nine different artists across 13 tracks there is guaranteed to be something for everyone here. You’ll soon be able to digitally download the album (from 06/09/2019) on Bandcamp (http://fatman.bandcamp.com/album/dope-beat-biz-volume-1) and a vinyl release is also set to follow after this date.

Who’s on the album?

1 Put Me On - Geebag & Neek The Exotic
2 Trained Assassins - Scorzayzee
3 Back In The Day  - Suspekt
4 Use Your Head - Blade
5 Jungle - Dweller
6 Pioneerz - Scorzayzee
7 Pick It Up - ddubble
8 Tri Polar - Scorzayzee
9 These Days - Dweller
10 Now & Then - Whirlwind D
11 Start The Panic - Chrome
12 Evolution - Scorzayzee
13 W-E-G - Weg




See also:
https://repo136.blogspot.com/2018/07/haynesy-hip-hop-advocate-album-sneak.html

https://repo136.blogspot.com/2018/02/new-from-haynesy-feat-ddubble-ddubble-ep.html

72 ABU Show August 2019

Hey freaks!

Big shout to whoever is still checking out this dearly-departed, shell of a once-thriving communication hub.
Ahhh, ABU. The blog. The place that once connected me to so many of you. Sadly Facebook came along, took me to a bar, we got chatting and before you know it we were knocking boots. And it's been that way ever since. I cannot turn away from that sultry siren, my meandering mistress.

And so here I am, cap in hand. Foolishly trying to explain that I still have feelings for all of my faithful readership even though I've been playing away. I feel as if I need to apologise to you but it's a two-way street. Not to sound like a bad Cliff Richard song but it feels like we don't talk any more.
It's okay. I understand. We all lead busy lives so I guess we have different places we need to be nowadays. We can't stay in the past, awkwardly tring to rekindle those feelings we had at the beginning, can we?
Just know that I, Mister Reeps, will always be here for you.

That said, here is the latest ABU Podcast. It's show number 72 and tends to feature a bit more 1985 business than usual - no problem as far as I'm concerned, it was a great year.
There's some seldom-heard album tracks from BDP, Eazy-E and Beastie Boys as well as a nod to the recent UK Fresh 86 anniversary (its' 33rd actually - wow!).
I've been listening to the majority of the available (on the t'internet at least) radio shows featuring the World's Famous Supreme Team lately so have included some nice excerpts from them. One of them features a caller who tries to swear down the telephone but Just Allah The Superstar has razor-sharp reflexes!
We also focus on British composer and jazz pianist, Roy Budd who came up with some brilliant film scores over the years. Three songs are evidenced on the show which capture just how funky he was.
Plus the usual off-the-wall spoken word drops and crap scratching from me and that concludes the show.

Remember if you have any ideas, requests or a mix (30 mins max) for upcoming shows then get in touch by either leaving a comment or flinging over an email to ageingbboys@yahoo.com




(or go straight here https://hearthis.at/repo136/72abushowaug2019mp3/MJi/)