Free Download: Riton and Primary 1 - Who's There? (Feat. Wiley)

Good day grime fans.

A few days ago, it came to my attention that Wiley featured on a synth-pop track. Will's now done another collabo that my pitiful music knowledge doesn't cater for, so I'm blindly copying someone who's already labelled the track 'House/Nu Disco'.

Enjoy.

Stream:


Download: Riton and Primary 1 - Who's There (Feat. Wiley)


Primary 1 in a leonine hat/mask combo. Mudniss. (Picture from illegaltendermagazine.blogspot.com)

Who's There? evokes the fears that, looking back, you would have thought your conscious mind might have had the decency to suppress - ghosts hovering about on the landing, monsters creaking up the stairs. And all the shit that, in good time, you can perhaps laugh about with your buddies logic and rationalism.

Wiley is at his inadvertent-comic best here: half-sticking to the subject-matter, he's had enough by the end of four bars and, gates opened, he's 'been a genius since elementary' and all of that good stuff.


...knocking at the door with a different stylie

I was gonna say a little something about Wiley's content, and mainly that - despite the reception for 'Race Against Time' - lyrically it was far from Wiley's best. But hey. Here, Wiley's delivery has the presence and conveys the world-vision that nicely contrasts with all the paranormal wackiness.

I like Wiley on these tracks. I can get a bit more general music knowledge at the expense of the grime addiction for one thing. And it's so much better than all this 'commercial' bollocks.

Jammer Signs with Big Dada

Greetings grime fans.

After rumours about signs on dotted lines with Dirtee Stank, Jammer has signed a three album deal with Big Dada. The hip-hop label, an imprint of Ninja Tune which has released The Bug's collaborations with Flow Dan and Killa P, released Wiley's 'Playtime is Over' in 2007.

According to Big Dada HQ:

"Jammer nearly signed with Big Dada two years ago (and actually played at our 10th Anniversary party), so everyone here is very pleased to have finally persuaded him! After a series of acclaimed mixtapes, Jammer's first full-length album is scheduled for May 2010. First single, 'Party Animal', will be released later this year."



Perhaps errors were made with the promotion for 'Playtime is Over', but the album had grime integrity. In a deal that offers security, hopefully Jammer's will offer the same. The first of the three looks like it will be titled ''Return of the Merkle Man'.

Jammer has worked hard and deserves his chance. Good on him.

JME - Over Me

Over me, right this minute, is a white ceiling. There's also a hench spider, dangling about and crouched in a different position every time I look up; I don't really fancy it.

Quick ones today.

I hoped the wow bass of Silencer's remix for JME's Over Me would make its legs quiver, beating a hasty retreat into the corner. No luck so far, but I can always replay the tune. I have a few times already - I rate this.

JME - Over Me (Silencer Remix)


After the release of his debut album 'Famous?', JME has said:

"...this time around I'm focusing on releasing grime singles with class. Loads of them, each with their own video and strong theme so they are remembered. When I do my live show I will have lots of material to work with and after I've done 5-10 big grime tracks, then I will think about an album."

JME's approach is hardly novel but, given the overwhelming album/mixtape/free promo approach in grime currently, stripping down to singles gives quality more of a chance in its unremitting battle with quantity. Furthermore, by focussing on singles, the problem of picking singles from albums is made near-redundant, and the songs themselves are more likely to be stronger.

The issue of piracy is hardly novel either; it can't be stopped, music is more free than ever before. But piracy is back in the spotlight after Lily Allen started a blog rallying against file-sharing. James Blunt also threw in his 2p, so the Pirate Bay et al. should be expecting unprecedented traffic any time soon. But with good radio play and videos, consumers know what they're getting for their mere 79p and singles give artists more of a chance. Costs less than putting a mixtape together as well.

Perhaps a grime MC should try and get on that blog - it damages grime more than the mainstream artists because, even if they lose more money, at least they're still shifting some decent units.

Anyway, my eight-legged friend is getting closer. It looks like I'm gonna beat the hasty retreat.


JME - Over Me is now available on iTunes, Play.com, Amazon and all of those good places.

Dizzee Rascal on Wiley & Roll Deep

What's good grime fans.

I've just seen that Dizzee was on Radio 1 today. His album is out shortly and Jo Whiley went to the Dirtee Stank HQ to chat and that.

I don't know how but, as is usually the case when Rascal's the topic, Wiley was lingering. I heard him on a track called Tupac Robot Club Rock by the Filthy Dukes. Nope, I've never heard of them either, but Wikipedia cites they're a 'synthopop' band. Granted, Wikipedia isn't the most trustworthy source but, then again, I'm in a rush.

Tupac Robot Club Rock


I could well be quite late on this, but still I thought the track was pretty decent. There wasn't time to properly gauge opinion though since Dizzee talked straight after (about 1h 10 mins) about Kate Moss, Kanye West, and a deluded girl asking whether he's single at the moment. Christopher Reeve apparently once said that 'once you choose hope, anything's possible' and - fair enough - he did go on to become Superman, but a pint of cold realism for the lady over there please.

A chap from Gloucester asked if Dizzee would ever make a grime album again:

'Grime to me in the first place was me just putting all the types of music I like together, and I'm still doing that.'

There's a few grime-heads out there holding onto Reevesian hope. But to all intents and purposes, that looks like a no.

Why did Dizzee leave Roll Deep?

'The fact that I'd already made an album and that everyone was dilly-dallying around...the fact that wherever Wiley got his album (was) because of me'.

Wiley did alright on Tupac Rock Club. And he's a grown man now, making his own way. People would call him bitter and childish.

I wouldn't mind a war-dub though.

Flow Dan - Original Dan

G'day grime fans.

As we're all very well aware, Flow Dan is a legend. After personally waiting for years, and years, and years, he's finally releasing his own mixtape.



Finally having something to call his own, as well as bringing some of the back-catalogue into '09, means this is great news. But, looking at the tracklist, there's tunes that have featured on other projects and, going by the names of certain songs, you can almost tell what bars will be sprayed on them.

As Flow Dan is one of the old-guard, in the immediate aftermath of 'Original Dan' I expect to hear hushed whispers of 'legacy'. If Crazy Titch released a CD, it could have ruined his legacy. At the time, 'The Best of Newham Generals Volume 1' damaged the Gen's legacy. Grime artists dabbling in pop can ruin their underground legacy.

Despite the various radio sets and beats and vocals now lost, grime's history is more recorded than ever before - Grimepedia, Grimetapes. Boy, even Roll Deep are releasing their Eskimo vocal mix next month. CDs are ever becoming an ever-greater part of grime's history but, just because they're unified, physical products, they're not grime's treasure chests in which legacies are found. Which is why, even if 'Original Dan' sounds like a cat being fed through a mangle, Flow Dan will still be a legend.

Lethal Bizzle - Go Hard

I've always liked Lethal B. Recent evidence for my hunch is that he's one of the most entertaining people on Twitter, despite very strong, recent competition from Marcus Nasty.

In the grime-bubble, I suppose Lethal floats on the filmy edge; not quite in the insular, underground circle and not fully in the wider conscience - a touring and NME middle-ground. He's also between the two worlds of Country and City, as Jammer and Fumin have reminded him in recent wars of words. Then again, he seems to know as well:

Been woken up by a cat trying to eat a bird! Then bare birds come to save the bird! Bare noise ! Madness ! Countryside activities kmt !
6:10 AM Aug 7th from TwitterBerry

Sippin on some sizzurp! I no I'm late! I had to drive to the hood to get it! They don't even sale alize in the sticks! Kmt
3:11 PM Aug 11th from TwitterBerry

Just got back to my crib after a long ass day and there's a power cut! My gate not opening so I had to jump over and i ripped my hoodie kmft
10:14 PM Sep 11th from TwitterBerry

There's still more anticipated releases this year but, given Lethal and his foot in each camp, maybe his upcoming CD, 'Go Hard', has been overlooked by the underground. Out on 5 October, it's a crux in Lethal's career:

Real talk! My 4th album is gonna be pop! Chippy, tinchy, ironik and dizze.. That's the way forward! My 3rd album will be my last hard album
3:05 PM Jul 19th from TwitterBerry

As he edges towards the precipice, 'Go Hard' could well have some highlights. Along with the two Donaeo collaborations on Go Hard and
Flap Your Wings, there's production from Dexplicit and the Silencer track, Don't Run It Up:

Lethal Bizzle - Don't Run It Up

Just finished making one pop rap electro tune, decent still.... I gotta get used to this pop shit! Daaaam things have changed
8:28 PM Aug 17th from TwitterBerry

Indeed they have. If in a couple of years he's not referred to as the 'UK grime star', he would have done alright for himself. But I don't really mind what music he makes - as long as he keeps going strong with the twitter updates.

Hammer - Hurricane City (The Drama)

Greetings grime fans.

I'm done and dusted with education. No more books covered in wrapping paper, no more forgetting pens, no more all-nighters. At quite a few points I resented it but, now the academic road has suddenly stopped, I'm bored shitless.

Looking back, it's all very distant from the Goosebumps days. With classics like 'Tick, Tock: You're Dead!' and Shop Til You Drop...Dead!', you could choose your own contrived fate in a death-of-the-author-power-to-the-prepubescent revolution:

'If you want to wait for your mom to get back, stay here. If you want to go into Dr. Eeks lab, tinker with some volatile liquids and then have an arm-wrestle with the scientist that looks a bit like a ravaging, raping serial-killer, go to page 284.'

Hammer has stemmed my boredom for now by bringing viewer interactivity to his new video series. Best of all, I don't have to skip any pages. 'The Drama' is a very good idea, and really quite unique and out of the box. Check it out.



His 'Hurricane City EP' is out next week. You can look out for updates from Hammer's blog and twitter.

And lastly, Silencer is doing alright for himself at the minute. But just in case it all comes on top for him, at least he has a future as a comic actor.

The guy is genuinely hilarious.