August 2012
2 posts
July 2012
1 post
June 2012
16 posts
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Hip Hop is a culture and if you think you can come and go as you please depending on your circumstance or your peers opinions then its not really speaking to your soul. It's not materialistic, its conscious , its about the greater good. Its about community and love and life. Anything other than that isn't Hip Hop. Rap is poetry, like design, it is Art made for a purpose, expression with a direct understanding. Since its been taken away from its Art foundation for capitalist reasons it has lost its way. It is being used to exploit women and 'black' people and reinvent the meaning of Hip Hop. Its become a lucrative Art form. For example compare Soulja Boy to Mos Def or Iggy Azalea to Lauryn Hill. Thats Rap vs Hip Hop. think of the content and the way it's being showcased. And please think before you casually disregard peoples culture for your entertainment. Its rude and heartbreaking. If you dont get it leave it alone. Teiko I. Lee aka Ambivalent Twin
Refreshing Beats, Rhymes and Bars
Alright, this isn’t really linked to what I push and discuss on this blog, but its not the first time I’ve posted a music video.
I just feel that this is a true testimony of the power of this growing culture called UK Hip Hop (UKHH). You all most likely would know that this is my favourite genre in music as it gives me a feeling just under my chest bone, of excitement, that feeling of wanting to scream. When I hear the boom cah of the drums under the finest lyricism and wordplay in existence.
No Sleep produced by Smasher has a range of UK artist featuring the likes of Loudmouth Melvin, Black the Ripper (aka Samson), Wretch 32 and the soulful sounds of Maverick Sabre. These listed artist are the firepower of this genre, if we look back a year we can just see the progression, Maverick was on the cusp of making a huge dent (that is still being created), having just released his first single ”Let Me Go” showcasing a voice beyond his years. Loudmouth and Samson both would be asserting their authority on the scene with plentiful mixtape releases full of witty, thought provoking and socially conscious bars. And of course, Wretch 32 having just released his second album; Black and White and also gaining mainstream success from a little known song named ‘Traktor’. Quick word on Loudmouth, I been listening to earlier mixtapes such as ‘The Freestyle Sessions’ with fellow Quaranteam band member Pyro Barz, and although his wordplay has been consistent if not improved his delivery has come on leaps and bounds.
Another element that sets this video above a lot of other releases is the way its shot. In its POV style this gives the video a fresh realistic look and allows the everyday view to relate, as the content is also almost mundane, as in morning routine, getting your car unwillingly washed by someone trying to make some money, doing leisurely things/ work and then meeting friends. You could be Smasher, the lead in the video.
Production as expected, top quality, bars perfect, video shot to the highest quality, I’m not even too offended that Maverick and Wretch couldn’t make it down for it!
So enough of me rambling on check it out for yourself;
Twitters: @smasherofficial @loudmouthmelvin @BlackTheRipper @Wretch32 @MaverickSabre
Cant sleep? Think of the children in Gaza with Apahce helicopters and F16's flying over their ears. Right now as I write this.
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A collection of photos from the most beautiful place on Earth
But who do we have to fear?
“No walls, no ghettos”
This phrase applies to Gaza and Palestine, it extends to the ‘Peace Wall’ in Belfast (even though I thought peace was about breaking down walls, so it seems stupid to call a wall a peace wall). The locations I have mentioned are all in a literal sense. The phase has great metaphorical presence in unwalled ‘ghettos’ from those in the richest cities in the world such as New York and Marcy projects to Los Angeles and Compton/Watts, through to the great Favelas in Sao Paulo, Brazil and stretching over to Soweto Township in South Africa, which incidentally has huge similarities to the Palestine/Israel conflict in terms of apartheid. There is an invisible wall surrounding every ghetto in the world but there are ways through it, as some notable figures have demonstrated, every wall has a hole, a gap, a weak point.
These photographs are the mark of the extraordinary photographer Ahmad Mesleh and are taken from the Palestinian photographers FaceBook page: https://www.facebook.com/eyeonpalestine2011
Tiny little side note, there are many photographers in the world, there are also many kids posing as photographers with a Nikon camera. Personally I think the mark of standout photographer is that ability to capture an event not in the 2 dimensional, but in the 4 dimensional, in that you don’t just see an image but you feel the emotion, you hear the photo, you can taste the atmosphere. Few photographers such as Verena Stefanie who is the mind behind Kids of Grime, Ben Jackson a budding artist and Iara Lee and activist and filmmaker from Brazil, have managed to master this
Forgive me for swearing on here. But ‘Fuck My Life’ (FML) yeah?
Well no actually, at least your not drinking water out of a petrol canister
I got angry because it rained today, but its all this boy dreams about
“Freedom is never given by the oppressor it must be demanded by the oppressed”
This is not MTV cribs with the whole opening the fridge door thing.
I live in a world where I look in the fridge and see this, what goes through my head?
Theres nothing to eat!
Actually I remind myself people through the country, we don’t even need to look at the world for this, live on much less than what you can see, in a week.
