UKFF Hip Hop Thread

[wandshogun09]

The Sheik likes a bit of Freddie Gibbs 😂

And while I’m here, I know I keep posting 38 Spesh stuff in here but he’s been a real highlight for me this year. His EP ‘1995’ produced by Green Lantern came out on Friday. It’s not a full on album (that’s coming on Christmas Day titled ‘Interstate 38’) it’s just short tracks/verses over classic beats from 95. I really like it though. He’s chose some of my favourite instrumentals here and the whole thing only lasts 16 minutes; 

The 1994 version is worth checking out if you haven’t as well. That one’s longer and has a bunch of features rather than 38 himself rapping. Both really good though. 

[wandshogun09]

Some good stuff was released yesterday. The highlight for me being the Nicholas Craven produced Ransom project ‘Crime Scenes’. This is one of the standouts from it for me - ‘Hell Or High Water’;

That Planet Asia/Musalini EP I mentioned before ‘Pharoah Chain’ came out as well. Here’s the title track, again produced by Craven;

And Conway released the deluxe version of ‘From King To A God’ with 5 new songs added to an already strong album. ‘Raw Oysters’ being one of them;

Oh and Eminem did something. Haven’t listened to it but seen some of the lyrics floating around on social media and, if they’re legit, they’re comically bad. 

[SuperBacon]

"You heard of Kris Kristofferson? Well I am Piss Pissedofferson" 

Eminem, retire bitch. 

[SuperBacon]

Nothing new to report really, but have spent the past week revisiting some of the Wu solo albums for something. 

I have decided that Ghostface Killah-Supreme Clientele is the best one. It's really well structured, has a good variety of songs (Mighty Healthy to Cherchez Le Ghost for example) and features the best Juju beat in One.

Ghostface is at the absolute height of his lyrical skills on this album as well. Absolutely batshit mental. 

Apart from the obvious albums (and they're obvious because they're brilliant), I really enjoyed going back to Raekwon's Immobilarity and Inspectah Deck's Uncontrolled Substance, which are both great.

I'm also including Redman and Method Man-The Blackout which is quite frankly just a joyous album. RZA Bobby Digital In Stereo is still one of the worst albums I've ever heard though and definitely the worst album I've ever bought. RZA is, a couple of decent verses aside, a horrendous rapper.

I've always loved this off GZA-Beneath The Surface as well, and forgot how much I loved the beat at the time. 

It's been a slog, and I'm happy to not hear any of the Wu again for a good while. But there are some stone cold classics among their ranks. Also, is this the best Wu affiliated song by a solo artist? I think it might well be. 

 

[wandshogun09]

So Styles P might be my neighbour one day.

While I’m here, been listening to a lot of Prodigy/Mobb Deep lately because why not? This is an old favourite. Prodigy and Nas’ best collaboration by far for me. Both kill it and the beat with the Exorcist theme sample is amazing.

’Self Conscience’;

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by wandshogun09

[SuperBacon]

I can't believe this. I'm fucking numb.

 

[wandshogun09]

No way! Any word on the cause yet? Only 49.

EDIT - He died in October apparently but his wife’s only just made it public. 

 

Edited December 31, 2020 by wandshogun09

[Merzbow]

I just saw it posted on his Instagram, fuck. He gave us so, so much amazing music and King Geedorah was that one album that got me right back into hip-hop in the mid 00's.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJefkDalNYo/?igshid=jojfrkanfmdb

[Chest Rockwell]

Fucking hell. 

[Kaz Hayashi]

That has hit really fucking hard. Jesus Christ this is so shit.

[LaGoosh]

Yeah I don't really get affected by celebrity deaths but this one hit me hard. A true legend.

[Jazzy G]

I just saw om Facebook. I was a new arrival to his work, having only really discovered it in the last year or so, but I loved it. If things were busy when I was helping one of the guys on another department at work we'd just throw his stuff on and smash through it. He was our favourite. Stunned. Can't help but be impressed that they managed to keep it quiet for that long though.

[wordsfromlee]

This is massively gutting news. One of the most unique voices and producers in all of hip hop. There will never be anyone like him again. Extra sad as well seeing as his young son died only a couple of years ago too. Keeping it quiet for two months is a very DOOM thing to do as well.

Seeing the joy on Earl and Tyler's faces in this video really made me smile.

 

[wandshogun09]

I’ve slept on it and I still can’t believe it. One last kick in the bollocks from a rotten 2020. 

[SuperBacon]

What I've always loved about hip hop is the tangential nature of it, and the figuring out of what things/people/places mean in lyrics if you aren't from the US (I still don't quite know what a Jalopy is for instance). Off you go on a tangent, and then you find a new artist/song etc and that's the web it weaves for me, and this is one of the things that attracted me to it being a bit of a geek.

So when I first heard Cage-54 and his lyric "Watch me put two rocks in Kurt Loders head for Sub" I had to find out who Kurt Loder, and who was Sub. Through "underground hip hop message boards" (just cringed so much I violently shuddered) I learnt that this referred to Subroc who was part of a group called KMD with his brother Zev Love X. This was my introduction to him.

The other thing that attracted me to rap was the subversive nature of it, and the fact that a lot of it just wasn't intended for me. That when Public Enemy said "Too black, too strong" they weren't talking to a little white kid from Hounslow, but that added to the allure of it. 

But I remember being genuinely shocked when I digged into KMD and read about their pulled album Bl_ck B_st_rds and saw the cover art, and the fact that it led to them being dropped off Elektra. I don't think it was years later when I finally heard KMD and Mr Hood, and it is a fantastic album, with a lot of early Native Tongue-era vibes and lyrics. They could easily have been as big as Tribe, De La etc

It was even longer before I heard Bl_ck B_st_rds, and to be perfectly honest, I don't think it's as good as Mr Hood, but it does include Plumskinnz which is one of my favourite songs of all time.

But before I heard that album, I was already a massive MF DOOM fan as Operation Doomsday was released at exactly the right time. Being a massive indie rap backpacker nerd and comic book fan(line up ladies and gents), the fact that there was a man rapping in a mask and pretending to be a superhero was well in my venn diagram.

If anything was on Rawkus, Def Jux, Stones Throw or Fondle Em (which Doomsday was), then I was buying it, so this would've been another blind buy.

Interviews and reviews just added to the attraction, and for me Operation Doomsday is his best work. Reading about him over the last 12 hours or so of him recording it in Stretch Armstrongs house makes perfect sense. It's so raw and dusty, and a complete anecdote to what was happening at the time.

It's also completely accessible to anyone looking for an in to his work (Doomsday could be a Brand New Heavies song), and at the same time completely different to what was happening (the same song features almost constant cuts in the background of the track). "Ever since the womb until I'm back where my brother went". Fucking hell, that hits different now.

Tick, Tick is my favourite off the album though. Hitchcock hip hop, it sounds like it's playing in about 50 different tempos at the same time. It's really disorientating. 

Mm...Food is another absolute classic, with some absolutely off the wall samples, but Madvillainy is on another fucking level. 

A lot of this has to do with the Madlib production, but listening to it again this morning on a walk, it struck me as just what a rich, deep album it is. If someone said to me "What should I listen to first to see what MF DOOM was about", then this would be it. It's fucking incredible, I cannot recommend it highly enough. I have to say though, Sickfit is the best thing on the LP, even though it doesn't feature any of his rapping.

Listen to this on a bassy system and tell me this ain't the absolute shit.

Anyway, I'm conscious that this might be a long ramble with just a load of YouTube links, but my hope is that maybe people not as familiar with his art can be introduced to something they might not have known about. 

I could post a hundred over songs and talk about all his other albums (An aside, I love that @Merzbowgot back into hip hop through the King Geedorah album; very fitting) but I'll save you all from that (It's helped writing though)

For me, MF DOOM came into my hip hop listening at a very important and impressionable time, and I always loved that he was a genuine one off. In a genre where so many are obsessed with "keeping it real", he kept it surreal, and danced to his own drum.

He gave absolutely zero fucks, but wasn't DOOM for no reason. There was thought and meaning behind everything he did. It wasn't like he thought "Well wearing a mask would be funny". His explanation of why he was DOOM made perfect sense.

This dude took the tragedy of what happened to his brother and KMD (which would've been a legacy in itself), and became the most enigmatic rapper of all time. Did you see him live? Think again. Did you interview him? Not likely. Just an absolute artiste in the truest sense of the word.

"Living off borrowed time, the clock ticks faster"

One last thing, and probably my favourite thing that he's ever done, this performance brings me so much happiness. I bet even De La were absolutely shocked that he turned up...or did he?

Absolute joy. 

Just remember, ALL CAPS when you spell the man name.