Dawn of the dawdler

Idiots are officially on the rise...

We knew that anyway but yesterday confirmed it. I was taking a stroll down a sun drenched Oxford Street, on my way to meet some friends, when it really hit home how incredibly dumb people have got.

We have to be assaulted by signs of all different magnitudes telling us what to do, what to think, what to BUY and where to go as well as what not to do, think, feel, etc, etc, etc (King and aye!).

We have to pay other people to shop for us (well, not me or anyone I know) before having our driver and personal assistant take it home for us.

We have to have everything dumbed down so that the world slides into a funk of lowest common denominators.

But do you know what irked me the most? Well besides how long and full of imbeciles the journey home afterwards was.

Those people that have no concept that anyone else exists on this planet outside there immediate vicinity. The type of person who stops suddenly in front of you. The sort of person who although having their back to everyone else suddenly moves from a stationery position to the perpendicular taking out everyone within a 6 ft square of pavement. The sort of person who walks hand in hand with their (usually grim looking partner) blissfully unaware of having caused a wake of destruction in front and behind (although that wouldn't really be a wake, would it?).

Arrgh!

The worst of it though, is despite me hating them enough to fantasise about committing terrible and slow punishment for their crimes, I'm too nice for my own good and usually turn around and say sorry to them even though its their fucking bags that have knee capped me.

Mouth breathers, I tell you!

Beat digging

Yeah, yeah I know crate digging is an artform in its own right and the secrets should be kept beyond the grave in a producer/beatsmith omerta like fashion.........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Sorry I bored myself then.

Seriously though, I love the undiscovered gems you find as much as the next man. I know that it should be closely guarded as to who samples who/what (mainly if we are honest out of fear of being sued) but there have been times that I've been driving myself and others insane trying to find out what was pilfered on a particular jam especially its its a fairly obvious-should-know-it-but-can't-place-it type moment.

That's where cool little sites like whosampled.com come in handy. Admittedly not always earth shattering but good for some good clean type fun. Its also good to compare the original and the new tracks side by side to see what the producer did with it (or not in the case of Mr Diddy, lol).

Check out The Holy Book of Hip Hop and The Sampling Dictionary for some more beat digging/sacrilege goodness too.

Whilst I'm on the subject, I watch a fair amount of TV and advert music drives me insane too, usually some leftfield shit that I've never heard of that piques my interest. Well, tvadmusic.co.uk gotcha back. I used to go to commercialbreaksandbeats.co.uk but that appears to be down at the moment.

Shhh, just don't tell anyone else, kay?!?!

Youtube mash up

Cassette boy vs the Apprentice.

This is genius.

How dope is this......?

More incredible music from 1960/70's Italy!

Back to '83

If like me you got into Hip Hop in the 80's, you'll probably appreciate how important the Streetsounds compilations were to the UK. It brought us not only the best in US Hip Hop talent but also amazing Electro as well.

I'll freely admit I was terrible at breaking' but I'd still polish up our crew vinyl floor mat and strike a B-Boy pose as other people bust out their hopping windmills, backspins and flares. Having a go was part of the attraction of Hip Hop for to be honest.

Eventually I took a backseat with the breaking as I took up other elements of the culture, which I'm sure broke the Rock Steady Rock and New York City Breakers hearts, lol. However I never lost my love for Electro and the Streetsounds ethos.

So I was well excited to hear from the man himself, Morgan Khan, that there was going to be a relaunch of the label starting with Nu-Electro Volume 1.

When this double CD dropped through my door it was like greeting an old friend but my reservations rose to its relevance to today's twatter/MP3/mass media exploitative world. I mean, 1983 was the first comp and seeing as most of today's identikit indie band, souljah boy ringtone rapper or goth-lite like emo loving kids have as much regard for 1983 as I did for 1963 I struggled to believe that this could be nothing more than a trip down memory lane.

As a quick aside for anyone reading this that was born after 1990, Electro is not House music, Electro is not cheesy pop. It's 808's, 303's, Jupiter 8's, DMX's, the odd 909 and a DX7 thrown in for good measure.

So anyway the CD is well mixed (by none other than the legendary Freddie Fresh) and contains some great new tracks that give more than a nod to the old school but maintain a creative and innovative take on the scene.

The first CD wanders into more Dancey/Minimalist stuff towards the end but starts off with two cracking tracks by the B-Boys and Egyptian Lover.

Now the 2nd CD is the best in my opinion as it has the real rolling hats, deep kicks and slapping snares you come to expect with some driving basslines to make you bust out the robotics. My only criticism is that it occasionally seems to veer into what is at best; hat-tipping and at worst; Pastiche. But i'm probably quibbling a bit.

So in short this CD is a welcome, long awaited return of the King.

Now where's my Puma Clydes?

Wooord - Discount time!!

Far be it from me to come over all capitalistic and what not but buying stuff is good for the economy, right?

Right, therefore it is your right....no, your duty to spend those hard earned ducats on sneakers and ish.

That'll help kick the recession into touch and leave you looking fresher than a dentists breath in the process.

Legendary trainer site; Crooked Tongues is having an enormous 75% discount sale. Go cop that ill shit now.

Stephen Fry on MP's Expenses

Very wise words on the hypocrisy in the media. MP's have abused the situation but then so have the very journalists who jump up and down inflaming us with rage and venom towards these imbeciles.

Check out this link: Stephen Fry on MP's Expenses.

Hits. The. Nail. On. The. Head.

Duke Nukem developer goes bust

3d Realms is no more....


From BBC News:
Veteran games developer 3D Realms has closed down because of a lack of funds.

Founded in 1987, the firm popularised the concept of shareware gaming and published the seminal Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein 3D first-person shooters.

The company was working on a follow-up title, Duke Nukem Forever, which after being in development for 12 years has become the object of industry derision.

Publisher Take-Two says it will no longer fund development of the game but retains rights to the title.

"We can confirm that our relationship with 3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever was a publishing arrangement, which did not include ongoing funds for development of the title," said Take-Two's Alan Lewis in a statement.

There has been no official comment from 3D Realms, other than a forum posting from the company's webmaster, Joe Siegler, who said: "It's not a marketing thing. It's true. I have nothing further to say at this time."

Other companies with links to 3D Realms or the Duke Nukem series were quick to distance themselves.

In a posting on Twitter, Apogee Software said it was "officially not affected by the situation at 3DRealms".

"Development of the Duke Nukem Trilogy is continuing as planned and further announcements about upcoming games will be made in the near future," the statement added.

Guardian newspaper games writer Steve Boxer said it was astonishing 3D Realms had not finished the game after more than a decade of development.

"It would have been nice to see another Duke Nukem game, but given they had more than 12 years it's just incompetence of the highest order.

"3D Realms made some great games in the past, but they got overtaken by the 21st Century.

"Sadly, Duke Nukem Forever was the most aptly named title in the history of games. Now, it's just Duke Nukem Never."

I used to love that game when it came out. "I came here to kick ass and chew gum....and im all outta gum".

When they announced they were finally making the follow up on next gen, you just knew it was going to be one of those games that never saw the light of day. Shame though.

Also on the subject of gaming, wtf!?!?! Ghostbusters is going to be a timed release exclusive for Sony? Why now? I can understand doing this with titles at the launch of a console as you try every thing you can to get a head start on your competitor but the consoles been out for a long, long time now. Guess I'll have to carry on playing my exclusive Fallout 3 and GTA IV DLC.

Balls.

Check out this video from Lowkey

Hard hitting, spitting the truth and still dope as fuck.

One of the UK's very best and also an important part of The Peoples Army.

Slept on albums part 2

Kurious - Constipated Monkey

In some bizarre early 90's Hip Hop Bermuda triangle, there emerged three emcees of note at the same time who had some affiliation with 3rd Bass. Each of them went on to have differing levels of success,

Nas (With the help of MC Serch) released one of the greatest albums of all time; Illmatic and then seemingly conquered the world whilst trying in vain to recreate that perfect joint,

Zev Love X (who would be reborn as the legendary MF Doom) was going through a highly controversial and later tragic time with KMD; Black Bastards causing a storm and his brother, Subroc, getting killed in a car accident,

And finally, Kurious Jorge, the Cuban/Puerto Rican brother from Harlem had some minor success with the singles "Walk like a duck" and "Uptown Shit". The album dropped to what should have been an adoring crowd who dug the jazz infusions of the Beatnuts mixed with dope guest spots and abstract wordplay from the man himself. However it never really took off despite having some dope cuts on there.

My favourite at the time was without doubt "I'm Kurious" which laced the dopest Blackbyrds sample with the "Don't change your love" drums as used by (everyone at that time) Naughty nature and Domino.



"Tear shit up" features two of Hip Hop's finest of all time; Biz Markie and Rakim over a sick, sick beat.

"Leave ya with this" is a fitting tribute to the fallen Subroc and "Top notch" features the eternally unfortunate Lucien of ATCQ fame.

The beat for "Walk like a duck" still sounds phat as fuck even after all these years, Damn they knew their way round those kicks and snares.



"Uptown shit" carries on the dopeness, even changing its title for the radio and video channels doesn't diminish its charm. That is some serious Jazz Hip Hop as it should be made along with a chorus built for crowd participation (why don't we still do this, it was great fun?).



A great album that was sadly missed by a lot of people possibly being wrongly tagged as leftfield or alternative due to some slightly off the wall lyric ideas.

The good news for his fans is that he is making a comeback. Constipated Monkey has been re-released in anticipation for the release on Amalgamated Digital. For details on his comeback album check out Bouncemag

Assault is back

If you love Sneakers/Trainers/Kicks (delete as appropriate) as much as me, you'll be literally bursting at your Air Force 1's to hear that Tim Easley (founder of the legendary Crooked Tongues website) is back with a bang. http://www.iamassault.com is the phat new website showcasing his incredible talent.

Check out some of his work, it's as sick as a sty full of Mexican pigs. While you are there check out the store and support an underground artist with a seriously def sneak addiction/fetish.

Here's his story in his own words:

I am a self taught designer & illustrator from London in the UK, who likes to do quality work for nice people. I'd always had an interest in design & illustration from an early age, but had ended up dabbling in other things before finally returning to what I had always enjoyed the most.

In 1999 I founded the now hugely successful sneaker website Crooked Tongues while working at Unorthodox Styles in London. I then went on to do various freelance projects before working in Tokyo for a while, getting involved in design & layout for magazines and print. It was at this time that I took on the name Assault, selling sneaker based prints via my website and stockists worldwide. As Assault, I have been featured in publications all around the world and have done collaborative work with companies such as Maharishi & Puma. In 2004 I joined Unorthodox Styles again for a brief period, working on projects for Adidas, Nike, Puma, New Balance and various other companies, before leaving to pursue my freelance work and personal projects.

I am currently available for design & illustration work, so get in touch if you like what you see!

Go there people and behold the trainer goodness