My steady drift away from the Leeds Hip-Hop Scene continues apace.
For those of you who are not yet aware, I've now formally agreed that I won't be doing any more shows for HHBRadio.com and will also officially cease writing for
Traffic magazine,
britishhiphop.co.uk,
Leeds Hip-Hop and indeed any other outside sites or magazines in the immediate future.
I feel this is a positive move on my part as I've pretty much exhausted what I have to say on the subject of the local scene. I also currently need to focus on other areas - work, personal life and believe it or not I'm currently studying Mandarin Chinese. It's the right time and the right decision to let what was for a long time the centre of my life become less so.
This does still leave the question of what writing I will be doing. I'm thinking of continuing in some form but probably not with the same attention paid to music. The idea of starting a new blog elsewhere has crossed my mind - just to provide a clear cut-off from Straight Out Leodis which, despite the frequent diversions, has Hip-Hop at its heart.
In the meantime, I'm pleased to report that I'm finding myself able to enjoy music in a much more relaxed and satisfying way. With the pressure of to immediately analyse, describe and act upon a tune, I can listen in a different way.
If anyone's interested, I currently have the following on steady rotation:
Zed Bias - "Sound Of The Pirates" Mix CDZed Bias is now often cited as one of the fore-runners of the DubStep scene but this CD from 2000 predates all that. It's a mix of more or less entirely UK Garage, with varied tune selection and the mixing spot on throughout. This would be my number one response to anyone who make the wholly unfounded claim that Garage in its many forms is entirely or predominantly cheesy and unsubtle.
www.myspace.com/zedbiasDJ Revolution presents Malcolm and Martin - "Movement Music" Free Download MixThis can be yours for free by hitting up Rev's Myspace blog
here.
The mix is an interesting combination of turntablist re-chopping of classic breaks by Rev with freestyles and full tracks from new-on-the-scene MC duo Malcolm & Martin. As their chosen name (think "...X" and "...Luther King Jr" if you didn't get the reference straight away) might suggest, this is intelligent and politically motivated rap, but done with a degree of confidence and individuality which belies the looming "backpacker" stereotype.
I particular recommend the track "Lunchroom Cypher" which will be on their forthcoming album "Life doesnt frighten me...".
www.myspace.com/malcolm&mlkmusicwww.myspace.com/djrevolutionQueen's English - "Full Limit"I still seem to be on the promo list for every damn UK head with a CD to promote and while most of it fails to excite me, the reams of good press quotes seem reasonably justified in the case of QE. This single promo track I've been sent is Hip-Hop from the UK rather than UK Hip-Hop (in fact the production is Swedish!) and all the better for that.
www.myspace.com/queensenglish