The Orange Beanie

Jermaine Lamar Cole. One of my favourite artists ever, dropping some of the best hip-hop anthems and stories I've heard in recent years. He's managed to climb to the top and has harnessed support and praise from his peers, which is more than deserved. However, he's not always been the story telling, platinum with no features, long-dreaded don that he is today. He has actually had a mad turnaround that saw him ditch his Drake copycat persona into a unique and distinctive artist that has put him at the top of the game. A turnaround so impressive that it needs to be broken down and looked at further, imo.  2009. The rise of "soft rap" was everywhere, with Drake being at the forefront of this after signing with Lil Wayne, exposing the world to his wannabe street G lyrics and songs, even though he came from a fairly wealthy family and lived in the suburbs of Toronto - hardly a struggle. As this sound was taking over, it is no surprise that the up and coming rapp...

Eric B and Rakim started the trend of collaboration album, and we've seen many throughout the years (some very very good, some absolute shithousery that should never have graced the human ear) but there is still a lot of teased projects that are yet to come out, some rumoured and some purely based on fantasy. Here is some I think NEED to be made -  ASAP Rocky & Tyler, the Creator For the last three or four years, these two have shown their obvious chemistry both on tracks and off them. From what started as an initial Twitter beef between ASAP Mob and Odd Future, has blossomed into a genuine chance of a project between these two, which first was hinted at on Tyler's cover of Kanye's ' Freestyle 4' titled ' WHAT THE FUCK RIGHT NOW' - which was just a video that featured Tyler spitting a version (which is much better than Kanye's) accompanied by Rocky in the studio. Rocky assisted Tyler again on Scum Fuck Flower Boy on the track ' Who Dat Boy...

A little later than promised, but my review for Jay Rock's 2018 album Redemption is here: His 3rd studio album, following up 90059 in 2015, released in June last year, competing for sales and listens with the likes of Kanye, Kids See Ghosts, Pusha T and Drake to name a few. To build up the hype for the album, he released WIN and The Bloodiest as singles, with the latter being the first in the track-list, so let's start there. The Bloodiest Jay Rock, who is a former Blood member, fills this track with detail about his days cruising around Watts looking to get into as much trouble as possible. While the hook is admittedly fairly weak, he is able to paint a vivid picture of life in the streets over a co-produced beat from Jake One & Allen Ritter. It is more of call back to his older music, which were heavily influenced by his time as a gang member, except this time his rhymes are sharper, his delivery hits harder and he shows how he can switch up his flow acr...

No posting for over a week, slacking behind smh. Last Monday, east-side Johnny McKenzie aka Johnny McKenzie aka Jay Rock blessed Brixton with his presence for the European stretch of The Big Redemption Tour. I was fortunately not too crippled by University work to go and TDE's original member did not disappoint. But before we got to see the man himself, TDE vlogger and and apparent DJ Mackwop came out on his own to get the crowd extra pumped for the opening of the show, admittedly in quite a cheap way by playing a lot of Kendrick's DAMN (which is a guaranteed buzz for anybody there) thrown in between other turn up anthems like Mo Bamba (which tbh i don't like but when it is loud af and you're amongst a crowd of people it does slap I must say) before the moment we were all waiting for arrived and Rock stepped onto the stage. His entire set was an almost faultless track list, with him bringing his top songs and even a few of his best feature verses that also ...

After letting one of many many Spotify playlists shuffle on through the other day, I realised that feature verses is something that is an immediate priority to talk about. In this post I'll be listing just some (could honestly note hundreds and hundreds down) that I feel steal the song, and is worthy of skipping immediately too. Some of these will be very well known, other less established but still just as deserving of your ears.  Ultralight Beam - Kanye West ft. Chance the Rapper  I am by no means a fan of Chance, in fact I have tried multiple times to get into his music but I just can't hear the attraction that others praise him for. With a new album out this year maybe that'll change, but his feature on Kanye's TLOP was one of the standout moments of the album. His soft Chi Town voice fits perfectly with the gospel infused production in the song and it is actually very very good.  1Train - ASAP Rocky ft. Kendrick Lamar, Joey Badass, Danny Brown, Yelawolf,...

Last night was the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, a night that usually has big performances and expensive outfits yet always is slightly overshadowed by the decisions made by the panel of voters who decide who ultimate takes home the prize.  Controversy at the Grammys dates back to the first ceremony, but no category sees a more over analysed and opinionated fall out than the Rap category. With Cardi B taking home the award for Best Rap Album, it begs the question - What actually is being accounted when deciding who wins? Cardi was up against some big albums: DAYTONA - Pusha T ASTROWORLD - Travis Scott Swimming - Mac Miller Victory Lap - Nipsey Hustle Comparatively speaking, is Cardi the best rapper out of that list? No. Did she have the best album in terms of song writing, concept, message, production etc? No. Is she the best rapper out of that list? No. So the Grammys system is clearly flawed and has little to do with the raw ability to just rap. Obvio...

Hundreds of rap projects were released last year, with big hitters like ASAP Rocky, Nas, Drake (lol yeah like he counts) Pusha T, Travis Scott, Kanye and many more all putting out their latest releases. With all these albums it is easy to miss to gems of the industry, some of which is nothing short of SLAP ANTHEMS.  Below is a list of songs that I feel have gone under the radar that are more than deserving of your attention: Royce Da 5'9 - Cocaine Royce has some of the coldest bars I've ever heard and as an artist in general he is massively overlooked and underrated. This may be because of his duo group Bad Meets Evil with Eminem with Marshall overshadowing Royce in terms of popularity and often lyrical ability, not to Royce's discredit. His album The Book of Ryan , it's his most personal project to date, with the standout track Cocaine being a must listen. It is a well told out story, structurally very easy to follow, simplistic but powerful lyricism with a mes...