U.K STAND UP!!!

SO... Last week we aimed 2 give our UK heads a bit of the rest of the world... NOW it's only right that we're giving the rest of the world a bit of the U.K...

I've been listening to only two albums back-to-back-to-back on constant rotation since last Monday (01/06/09) and if you dunno what these are, I'll gladly tell ya but we'll get to that a lil later! Well me personally, I had been looking forward to Monday, the 1st of June 2009 now for a very long time... It was the release date for albums from two of the biggest names in UK Hip-Hop at the moment (actually 2 of the biggest names PERIOD!) & the wait over the last few months had become unbearable with every 'straightfyre' record that got leaked on radio & on the internet in anticipation for 01/06/09... Anyway I went out and bought these albums & I've listened, I've listened again... & again & again & the only conclusion I could & have reached is... IT'S G.O.O.D.M.U.S.I.C... & its obviously ALOT!!!

OK I've always respected this 'Former Bus Driver' ever since his 2004 mixtape 'Ur Mum Volume One' as a very dope emcee BUT I became a big fan after his 'The Chupa Chups Mixtape' which boasted scorchers such as 'Big Love' featurin Scorcher (Yes really!), Narstie & Rahma Ali & a lil snippet of the record (now Street Anthem) 'Black Boys' that would in 2007 propel Ashley Thomas aka Bashy into deservedly stratospheric heights... Check out the colossal remix here (& raise your fisted hand up in the air 4 BLACK power)!!! Anyway his debut album , 'Catch Me If You Can' dropped last Monday & WE LOVE IT!!! Let's check out our fav cuts right after the jump...




That right there is my fav track on the album, it's called 'Living My Dreams' and it features Sirach Charles with production from the Truth Movement. The keyboards on this start of sooo soulful (you already know I'm a sucker 4 the soul food) & the best thing bout Bashy's lyrics on this is its SO real, he takes you on that journey with him & the way he lays down on the track, even if you weren't @ them house parties round the West London parts, you can defo relate to the grind & appreciate the come-up!!! Are you feeling that one? How's bout this one...




I'm SOOO feelin the trumpets on 'Before Before' BOI!!! Hol Tite Naughty Boy (He produced Black Boys and Big Love as well), Ya Large! Now this is the first track on the album & its followed by the debut single 'Who Wants To Be a Millionare?' SO you already know it doesn't start off on no low key thing... 'Catch Me If You Can' is guaranteed to grab your attention from the off... We Plug G.O.O.D Music loves it! Another ridiculously heavvvy tune right after the jump...




WHAT??? BASHY? SCORCHER?? WRETCH 32??? & NAUGHTY BOY on the decks??? PLUS the concept on this is sooo brilliant... creatively speaking, not many UK acts can bring it like this! (Note to self - Don't get caught in Totty!) On the reals though I really CANNOT wait for Ransom Part 2 (Bashy make it happen I beg U)... This record here puts the bar way up there 4 UK Hip-Hop... Plenty careers are gettin buried with this one & that's real talk!

The simple verdict is this... You need this album in your library! Its as simple as that! Its 17 tracks of pure brilliance... Its G.O.O.D.M.U.S.I.C, its witty, its funny, its deep, its interesting, the flow is on point, production is on point... Its a hell of ALOT & Bashy does the business on this! Buy it... Go Out & Buy It... Buy it HERE now.... Do whatever you do, jus buy this record!!!

& As a parting gift to set you on your way to owning one of the best UK albums of '09, I've got this for ya...




A feel-good track from the Bish Bash Bosh featuring Loick Essien & the ever delectible Jamelia (I love this woman btw)... it's funny how most of my favorite records on this album all have Naughty Boy on production! 'We Can DO Anything' is no exception, Bash speaking that postive message on this one too... 'Catch Me If You Can' is beautiful music & its 'We Plug GOOD Music' CO-SIGNED! SNM + you should check out the Attaca Pesante produced 'Day Before I Die' & the Joe Buddha 'What About Me?' if anything... You know what? Jus buy the album mehn!!!

& From Hip-Hop in North-West London, we're taking a lil trip to that real Grime sound up in North London... It's former D.J, Renowned Producer, Meridian Rider, Co-founder (along with his brother JME) of arguably the most well known collective in the grime scene, Boy Better Know, Grime veteran & Self-Acclaimed 'King of Grime', Joseph 'Skepta' Adenuga! (Yeah He's Nigerian, don't get excited lol!) OK I have to admit, I haven't been very much up on my knowledge of Skepta... the first record I heard of him was 2006's classic 'Duppy' & then there was 'In A Corner' off of his 'Greatest Hits' debut album, that was a BIIG tune still! In 2008 though, Skepta owned the scene... from club classic 'Rolex Sweep' to the Boy Better Know Remix of Jay Sean's 'Stay' to the futuristic sounding 'Sunglasses At Night'... So his sophomore album has been amongst the most anticipated for a hot minute now... It dropped last week Monday aswell... Our fav cuts right after the jump as per usual!!!




'Reflecting' is the first track on the album & its one of the more calmer records 4 Skepta who is a GRIME artiste through & through! He still stays true to his grime sound but this one has more of a hip-hop feel to it & I love this record... it sets you off nicely to sit back and marinate this album! The production is by Skepta himself & he shows off his production skills nicely all over the album... One reason I love this track is its one of them 'zone out on the track' ones, no chorus... jus him & the beats & he absolutely kills it!!! 2nd fav track on the album... Listen 2 my personal fav after this jump...




Boom productions comes hard on this I swear down!!! & like Giggs says 'SN1! Boy Better Know! You DONE know!' cos there's really nothing you can say bout this, its Urban UK at its finest... a fine mesh between one of its Hip-Hop's finest & one of its Grime's heaviest!!! & I dunno whether its cos Hollow Man comes through heavy on the track but Skepta brings it HARDER on this record than he does on the rest of the album IMO... well asides from 'Reflecting' cos that track there is jus on another level. What do you honestly think on this one? Is my madd respect 4 Giggs clouding my judgement here or am I right in saying this is straight street heat!!!

& I might be wrong but I reckon you'll enjoy this one... let's listen!!!




'We Need Some More Girls in Here... There's TOO Many Man... Too Many Many Man!!!' & don't even front like you aint skanking out to this BIG tuune! If there's anything Skepta knows how to do, it's this right here! His ability to churn out club banger after club banger is undeniable... He did it last year with 'Rolex Sweep' & now with 'Too Many Man', he & his BBK cohorts are running wild on the UK club scene for another year running!

Now the only beef I have with Skepta's 'Microphone Champion' and any Skepta fan will have to feel the same way, even a lil bit, is this... a few lyrics on this album, I've heard Skepta say before & its not a hell of a big deal BUT I just thot I'd point that out before you take a listen & come @ me for not bringing it up... So you will hear a bit of his BET Cypher freestyle on the Chad Jackson produced 'Skepta' BUT at the end of the day, you don't get to become a BET Award nominee for nothing... Skepta is B.I.G! You don't believe me? Well let the man tell you himself...




SO whats the verdict? I'll letchu decide this one... so get the album HERE or download HERE & come back & tell me whatchu think! We're not gonna try & sugar coat 'Microphone Champion', it is what it is... it's a GRIME record & if you don't like Grime, you won't like what the 'King of Grime' brings on this 18-track L.P BUT like he says on 'Reflecting', 'Everybody who likes this, come this way, Everybody who likes that, go that way!' & it's really quite that simple! We Plug G.O.O.D Music is staying this way by the way! I will say this though, the two most outstanding tracks on this 'GRIME' album are the only two times Skepta ventures into his Hip-Hop side!

Until the Next Time...

We Still Pluggin Tha G.O.O.D.N.E.S.S x

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