We Plug to You... Ed Sheeran - No. 5 Collaborations Project

Earlier today (January 9th), UK-based singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran officially released his latest project, 'No. 5 Collaborations Project' on iTunes, an 8-track EP of Folk, Acoustic, Grime & Hip-Hop infused good music featuring some of the best & his favourite rappers in the UK Grime/Rap scene and we had to make sure you don't miss out on this kinda goodness BUT if you're reading this and wondering who the hell Ed Sheeran is (as some of you might), then lemme introduce you to one of the BEST & brightest fast-rising artists in the UK!

Ed Sheeran is an emerging UK Folk singer/songwriter who came into much prominence in 2010 after appearing on UK Urban media outlet, SB.TV and since then, has become somewhat of an 'Urban Cult Classic' here in the UK with the President of Universal Records, Monte Lipman flying him out to New York for a showcase back in the Summer and none other than US R&B star Jamie Foxx co-signing Mr. Sheeran while out there. His gigs in 2010 have all been sold-out & he was a support act for Exmple on his UK tour but let's not be fooled, Ed Sheeran is NOT entirely the new kid on the block. He's been hard on his musical grind for well over 5 years now, with his début album coming as far back as 2006 and 5 EPs under his belt since 2005. Ed Sheeran was at the TOP of my 'new' artists of 2010 list and with the 'No. 5 Collaborations Project', I think he shows you just why he is & should be kind of a BIG deal but I'll spare you the rhetoric and let the music speak for itself!

What you just heard is a track titled 'Radio' which features UK Grime veteran, JME on the verses and Ed Sheeran along with long time co-producer Jake Gosling providing the amazing musical backdrop for this song (as with all of the EP). Can I just say that I LOVE this song and it's gotta be hands down my favourite song off of the EP. On this, JME & Ed Sheeran (hook & bridge) painstakingly & beautifully let us in on the perils of 21st century mainstream radio and the power of the greatly sought after 'radio playlist'. It's a beautifully crafted song and JME pours his heart and frustration out eloquently without ever sounding preachy or fake. I just LOVE it... A perfect 10!

This one's called 'Goodbye To You' and it features emerging grime artist, Dot Rotten. I really really like this song and I've got it on repeat for the longest time. Now typically I doubt that I'd ever actively seek out to listen to Dot Rotten as I'm not a huge fan of his but on this song, he is the epitome of sheer brilliance! The deep, retrospective style of his verses draw you in to the realness, pain, remorse & truth his words embody. Something has to be said about Ed Sheeran's songwriting and music-making ability, he crafted out each of these songs with each rapper/emcee in mind and it's NO wonder that Dot Rotten does brilliantly on this, the song feels and sounds like it was made for him and him only but let's not take anything away from Dot Rotten, he brings this song to life with his emotionally-drenched verses & serves as a beautiful closing track to the EP... 2 for 2 on amazingness from the 'No. 5 Collaborations Project'

The final song I'll be sharing with you is 'Little Lady' featuring emerging UK Hip-Hop artist, Mikill Pane. If you knew Ed Sheeran before this then this song already sounds familiar to you as 'Little Lady' is the remix of Ed's 2010 smash single 'The A-Team' off of the very beautiful 'Loose Change' EP. On this, Mikill Pane adds his EXCELLENT story-telling skill and ability to an already brilliant song and dare I say, makes it BETTER! Mr. Pane brings a new dimension to this song and when I first heard his verses over this (especially that 3rd verse), I was close to tears and that goes to show the realness of his lyrics. The detail in his story-telling and his carefully crafted choice of words bring the song to life and it's as if you're right there in that room and you wanna do something, you really wanna do something but you can't... Beautifully told!

'No. 5 Collaborations Project' is beautiful music! The more you listen to it, the better it gets and the fusion of Folk & Acoustic music with Grime/Hip-Hop music is genius and serves a real delight but some traditional fans of Ed Sheeran and those who fell in love with the 'Loose Change' EP may be weary of this EP and the direction it takes but I will say that they should trust it's creator because he's poured his heart & soul into this which shows from every side of this EP and it looks like his fans agree with me as at the time of publishing this, 'No. 5 Collaborations Project' seats at #9 on the iTunes UK album chart and at #1 on the iTunes UK Singer/Songwriters chart. On the other hand, staunch fans of Grime will flock to this and absolutely love it as Ed succeeds in showing some of it's (Grime) usual suspects in a new and different light, in a more accessible way if I may be so bold. 'You' featuring Wiley as well as 'Lately' featuring Devlin stand out also as foreseeable favourites amongst Grime fans.

This EP works & all in all, the 'No. 5 Collaborations Project' is a very GOOD body of work filled with amazing vocals, musical backdrops to die for + hard-hitting emotional lyrics and it's worth every penny... You really need to get this EP!

Purchase: Ed Sheeran - No. 5 Collaborations Project (iTunes)

Until the Next Time...

Peace, Love & Good Music

Y.O.U Be The Judge On This One!!!

On this here 'We Plug G.O.O.D Music', we've got some pretty dope music for you but don't just take my word for it... Let us examine the evidence!

WHat do you get when you mix a University of Oregon graduate with a bachelor's in sociology (the producer) & an ex-con (& a quarter of the Hip-Hop Collective Seventh Science) having spent over five years in prison in Oregon (the emcee)??? Well I'll tell you... a 7 track E.P that is guaranteed to renew your mind & if anything, remain on your playlists for years... it's one of the best things I've heard this year and it certainly will be a shoe-in for our E.P of the year... 'Where's the music then?', do I hear you scream at me? Well here it is...




What you just heard is called 'When I Forget' and it features the amazing voice of Nafisaria and its my favorite track off the E.P, it's such good music, it's almost unreal!!! The whole E.P is a definition of what GOOD music should be!

& Talkin bout what GOOD music should be, let's get back to this right here... This next record is entitled 'Coulda Been Me' and production on this is so graceful and yet thumps heavily with the hip-hop essence, Randa Smith who takes the chorus laces it with that Neo-Soul feel to it... Check it out.




You can call it what you will... Conscious hip-hop? Backpack hip-hop? Or whatever other labels you get outta your bags to throw out... BUT I call this opium from Luck-One (the emcee) & Dekk (the producer) from Portland, Oregon quite simply G.O.O.D.M.U.S.I.C and that's all it has to be! They call their debut E.P 'Beautiful Music' and we're putting the 'We Plug GOOD Music' co-sign stamp all over this one... WHat's more is you can download this colossal E.P for FREE HERE!!! How can music this good be oh so free? I dunno mehn I dunno! What's that thing they say again? THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE? Yeah that's it!

The simple truth is that I could easily feature all 7 tracks of this record on this blog (EASILY) because it is that flippin G.O.O.D and I cannot run outta nuff good things to say about this 'Beautiful Music'... Very Big shout-outs to Corey Lewis & Timmy Haywood from 'A Hip-Hop Lover's Delight 4 Lyfe' for puttin me unto this record, it's changed my life lol... aight not really but it's definitely guaranteed to remain on constant rotation in my life's radio for years!!! OK one more track yeah?




If 'The Coolax' (the title of the track you jus heard) doesn't get you then you must not have a soul! Jus feel the real talk... '... So at this moment, existence is a miracle and even breathing can leave you feeling like you're invisible so when I spit, I give it all that I got.' & so you should in all that you do my brothers & sistas! Plus Dekk on the beat gives this track (& the whole project) that flawless cohesiveness and genuine musical feel 2 it. Him & Luck make seamlessly G.O.O.D Music together period & Beautiful Music is a masterpiece.

P.S Luck & Dekk are good people too cos this project is aimed at raising the awareness of poverty in Haiti (the western hemisphere's poorest country) and all the proceeds of the sale of this record are going towards alleviating that plight... YES its free HERE but if you wanna be a part of the good thing, buy the Beautiful Music.

**exhales heavily*** what do you think of Luck-One & Dekk's Beautiful Music???

Ok that was quite a trip but we gotta move swiftly on... I however don't envy the act we're to feature after that but I reckon they'll handle the pressure jus fine... It is afterall only G.O.O.D Music that we showcase here so let's get right into it, shall we?

Last week this M.Et.Al chic brought my attention to this new R&B/Pop (I hate that word 'pop' by the way, its sooo industry, sooo radio-friendly, sooo commercial, sooo NOT COOL lol) artiste called Dipp and she asked me to listen to his debut single 'Dangerous'... Needless 2 say that I wasn't impressed at all & that's saying the very flippin least! The M.I feature on that tune could not even save it IMO! And as you would, I let her know of my displeasure but she convinced me to listen to the other records she sent my way & let's jus say...DiPP = Certified G.O.O.D Music (bar that first single though, SORRY!)... And the soon to be released debut album which has been 4 years in the making is called 'The Future Is Now' so look out for it yeah... Let's get into the music!




That one's called 'Jeje' and I'm not even gonna lie, I love this record and after listening 2 dangerous, I wasn't even gonna give this artiste the time of day but damn fam this record got me! The harmony on this is almost priceless, his vocals are crisp & the lyrics are proper sweet plus the production doesn't disappoint with its slow melodic tempo, thumping drums & claps... This is official 'baby making music' straight outta Naija, feel it! & Get it on your playlist for the next time that dimepiece (or fyne boi) comes over to yours! Gwan sing it out loud 'Let me love you jeje, jeje, jeje, jeje, jeje, jeje!!!' and oh 'Jeje' means 'slowly' or 'with care,' you know one of them ones lol!

We've got one more record from Dipp and it's wittingly titled 'Kosoronmbe' which means 'there's nothing to it' or suthin like that and it features an emcee named Mo who sounds sooo like Young Jeezy on the record... Listen.




It took a couple listens for me 2 start liking this tune but it is a good record. I like the infusion of yoruba into his lyrics like when he goes 'to ba fe jo ko sii nu bentley? kosoronmbe!', I love that although I dont quite get some of the lyrics on here though, ok I get them as in I understand em but I dont get em as in are they really necessary & I dont even know how 2 spell what he says but its the reference to the 'Nike' brand in the first verse but asides that, I've got no beef with 'kosoronmbe', it gets me vibing from left to right on my seat! And on the hook when he proper gives it that harmony right before Mo comes in, it's pure magic... & please enuff with the P-Square comparisons, ok yes they both sing and they both dance but thats bout it! Do you think DiPP is decent enough though, what do you really reckon?

... Usually When you think of UK Hip-Hop and the North London Grime scene in particular, names such as Bashy, SKepta, Northstar, Wretch 32, JME & Chipmunk come straight to mind BUT a little over a year ago, two young emcees straight outta North LDN, Skribz & Poet (one half of Da Clique) came out with this underground CLASSIC (Yeah I said it) that oozed life into the grime scene, atleast for me and a few other heads I know who were feeling a lil disillusioned with the movement (or rather the changing sound of the movement)! We loved this tuune (still do) cos it stayed true to the essence of Grime (the youtube video still gets comments to this day, it's that BIIG!)... check it out here




BIIIIG TUUUUNNNEE ladies and gentlemen!!! Seriously BIG TUNE!

And Skribz and Poet have gotten together again with the rest of 'Da Clique', Smiler & B.O.A.T for their debut promo E.P tagged 'Call It What You Want' droppin on the 4th of May. Make Sure you cop that from Itunes yeah. We hunted B.O.A.T down for their debut single 'Best They Know' which is currently gettin serious video time on Channel U (now channel AKA) and on constant rotation on the pirates... & you know how we do, we've got the record especially for your listening pleasure... so let's listen




What do the Jury make of this collective from North London? Naaah I'm asking you init! YES you lol! Well while most UK grime acts have switched their style to the traditional Hip-Hop moniker over the years and not that we are mad at any of em (cos it has brought out some of the best music outta the U.K), Da Clique still keep it grime and that's why I like em. I cannot wait to hear the E.P though, I hope they come with that G.O.O.D Music and you know we'll be pluggin it right here!!!

Aight people, that's all the music we've got for you this week so let's get them comments coming, don't hold back yeah! We need you to be as candid as you possibly can, let's spark some conversations up in here too... So what's the verdict??? But before I go, permit me 2 do some shameless plugging (the only shameless plug you'll read here ever lol). Its our facebook group - We Plug G.O.O.D Music! Join us for all the first-hand information and music as and when we get em yeah...

Until the Next Time... I Rest My Case x