Grime 02

Some mixtape cuts from the last four months for the hype-deficient.
A bit of everything, some pure aggy, some bashment skankers, skewed beats, 'the youngers'... sick productions this year. Track one is cheating (late 2007) but Skepta demands a rep. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeelll!!!!

>>Grime music in 2008 so far...<<
Tracklist -


1. I Spy - Skepta ft. Jammer
2. Rude Kid - Badness
3. Inside Looking Out - Trim
4. Switch - P Money
5. Skankin' Ting - Jammer ft. Skepta
6. Mayhem Freestyle - Griminal
7. Par (Sending for Griminal) - Tempa T
8. Sorry U Are? - Tinchy Stryder ft. Chipmunk
9. Mountain - Ghetto
10. Breathe - Frisco ft. Cookie, Chipmunk
11. Taliban - Eskiboy (Wiley)
12. Kill Off Killy Pt 2 - President T
13. Badman Ting - Doctor
14. Zumpi Hunter (Freestyle) - Double-S

Wiley's 'Wearing My Rolex' not included... Support the scene, get it off iTunes now are you stupes???

Ol' Dirty Bastard - Return to the 36 Chambers: the Dirty Version

Ol' Dirty Bastard - Return to the 36 Chambers (the Dirty Version)
link


For the next solo debut, ODB (so called because 'there ain't no father to his style') yanks us across the water to Brooklyn Zoo. Cousin of RZA and one of the Wu-founders, ODB is a one-off MC that needs little introduction - coming like a demented, drug-addled hybrid of rapper and soul singer.

RZA produces again, as he does for all the early solo projects, and the murky beats combine with the Drunken Master's off-the-wall, profoundly entertaining meanderings to produce a macabre banger. Tracks like the cautionary 'Snakes' and the minimal 'Cuttin' Headz' are haunting and almost prescient of events to come...

Russell Jones died in late 2004, after years of custodial sentences and eccentricities now bordering mental illness; an autopsy discovered a plastic bag full of coke and prescription painkillers in his stomach.

Method Man - Tical

When the Wu-Tang Clan signed their first recording contract for 36 Chambers in 1993 they made sure it covered the respective members as solo artists. This exemplifies the Clan's business-like approach and the creation of hip-hop's first franchise and dynasty...

This is real beats and bars, every verse saturated with the Clan's personal mythology; every beat, sample or malevolent instrumental touch riveted with Shaolin (Staten Island) and Brooklyn street corners. The heat bearing down, ever-vigilant, murky undergrounds, darkness begets dark deeds... All this permeated with the Clan manifesto - master yourself and enlighten the '85%' in darkness.

So, here is a whistle-stop tour of the Wu-Tang member solo albums that myself and generations of popstock believe to be essential mid-era hip-hop, in six parts. I will only be looking at the the first, universally acclaimed, slew of Wu albums unleashed on the industry; all pre-'Forever' (the Clan's 1997 sophomore double LP).

Turn it up and take heed.


Method Man - Tical (1994)
link


The first Wu solo album. The title? Let's say that 'tical' is to Meth as chronic is to Dre...
RZA is on the switches of course, steering Meth (the Clan's dynamic, versatile, substance-fuelled MC) through a dark and gritty soundscape that was responsible for kicking the Wu into commercial overdrive.
We're still in early Wu-Tang mode here, with 'Bring the Pain' being a classic example of the quickfire sampling and minimal beats; RZA still using relatively basic samplers and mixers to poisonous effect.