UK Hip Hop 298 Items

Team Dreebs Vol.1 - Cloud 9, Concept of Thought, Benaddict, M. Kozi, Mr Slipz, Tonks and more…

Jester Jacobs on the mic Formz on the beats

Where the previous 184 & Big Toast album was a bluntly worded denunciation of the zeitgeist over a classic Hip Hop soundtrack, Who Shit in The Sandpit takes a sonic direction more akin to 184’s Trip-Hoppy electronic-folk collective, Button Eyes. With more

melodious production and a greater range in the vocal tones and styles of delivery, it sees the duo step outside of their comfort zones and attempt something less restricted by the confines of their genre. The title is an abstract and Toast-esque expression referring to how the world the next generation stand to inherit (the Sandpit) is being destroyed by the greed and stupidity of older generations (the shit). It is at least a partial departure from the nihilistic and misanthropic themes on previous projects, perhaps a consequence of Toast’s desire to leave a better world for his firstborn, who arrived during the making of the project. While no album which closes on a track about a nuclear holocaust can be described as light, Who Shit in the Sandpit? has moments of real humour, providing comic relief from the more pointed social and political statements elsewhere. Fellow Tuff Boy, The Strange Neighbour, joins Toast on “Anyone Order a Tough Guy?”, a verbal skewering of wannabe hardmen, and the offensively absurd “F.W.L.”. Sometime Sleaford Mods vocalist John Paul contributes his own unique brand of observational poetry to “Backpack” and Croydon’s Breezy Lee elevates every track she features on with her sumptuously soulful vocals. Halo Jones adds the finishing touches with his distorted guitar riffs,

providing further musicality to an already boundary- pushing Hip Hop album.

Connecting Swindle’s grime and dubstep roots with UK jazz, funk and soul, No More Normal was created over a three year period, and spans “strings-laden soul to voicebox-heavy p-funk – often in the course of one song.”

The 11-track album features MCs Kojey Radical, Ghetts, D Double E and P Money, instrumentalists Yussef Dayes, Nubya Garcia, Riot Jazz, and singers Etta Bond, Eva Lazarus and Kiko Bun.

Original AE co-founder Truck is back with a new album coming soon and delivers a taster with this lead off 7” single featuring fellow AE Productions recording artist and Hip Hop legend Phill Most Chill. 3,665 refers to the distance between Truck and Phill Most Chill’s home cities and the pair duel brilliantly over a heavy beat by Sir Beans OBE (The Aroma/Parlour Talk/Ruztik Records). No chorus hook nonsense here but Mr Fantastic supplies some sharp cuts to complement the MC’s.
The B-side is the ‘Raw Skeleton Version’ of Right or Wrong – a special stripped back version of a track from the forthcoming album produced by Mr Fantastic which will not to be released elsewhere. Truck flows effortlessly over the DJ friendly obscure Funk groove.
Available on black vinyl 7” in a run of 350 retail copies in full colour sleeve designed by Mr Krum.