hip hop

Well then….. lol. I got this from a charity shop I think in 2013 or at the latest 2014. I used to work part time collecting dead peoples clothes that charity shops couldn’t sell. They’d sell the clothes to my company by weight, so the money would still be going to good causes, and we’d collect the clothes in high volumes and take them back to HQ to be pulped and turned into fuck-knows-what. This…

Well this is an absolute banger of a track. I tend to focus on albums rather than singles here on LIW, but every now and then I’ll hear one so have to write about it. This has an absolutely stomper of a beat to it, backed up with some clean and stunning synthesizers and robotic vocals. I believe this guy has done some work with Kamasi Washington so I’ll have to try and hunt that…

Man this is a classic. I just realised, despite the countless times I’ve listened to this thing, I don’t actually own this record, in any format. I need to sort that out. A cassette or vinyl will do! Honestly, I’m not the biggest fan of Wu-Tang, and whilst I don’t claim to have heard their entire body of work, everything else they released that I have heard just pales in comparison to this absolute masterpiece….

Personally, I blame this EP for the entire existence of ICP. I’m sorry, but there is NO WAY they didn’t model their entire ghetto clown thing off this shit. I mean absolutely no disrespect, but c’mon. Musically, this is oooold school Esham with that trademark sound and delivery, a year or so after Boomin’ Words From Hell dropped. Great shit.

Another solid album from Doom. Is there a bad Doom album? If so, I’ve yet to hear it. The sampling is turned up to 11 here, with seemingly every song filled with hare-brain references to heroes and villains of the past. Doom’s flows are of course, legendary, you don’t need me to tell you that.

YOOOOOOOO!!!!! This shit right here be the 2000th Lines In Wax post. I don’t really know what to say other than “thank you” to anyone who is still reading this shit for some reason. Cheers! Here’s a lil something for you bustas. We were recently talking to Viper about doing a UK/EU release of this thing and talks are ongoing, but yeah – anyways, it reminded me I hadn’t done an entry for it here…

Boom! This is sicker than I remember! Hell of a production, such incredible beats and sick sounds, and of course, those amazing bars that introduced Twiztid to the world (House Of Krazees, who tf are they?). Mostasteless is the start of a long career for this duo but its arguably one of the best records they have done.

I recently started following Viper on Bandcamp. I thought my phone was having a time of it, because during the last day or so, its been spamming with with the notification “Viper just released a new album”. Little did I know, that these were genuine alerts, and not my Bandcamp app losing its mind. I always knew Viper to be prolific, but this was taking the piss a bit. Anyways, turns out all these “albums”…

Still not having checked out the latest Streets album/mixtape, I’ll have to make do with this chunker of a single. Only Skinner can make a song about the lockdown so fucking chipper, with the usual all-encompassing production and the clever little rhymes we all love so much. The second track’s a good ‘in too.

The OG Forgotten Freshness release combined the first two volumes, even though I guess its one release across two discs. I remember my Forgotten Freshness 4 having a second disk, but I think it was a bonus of some kind and not a legit FF inclusion. All in all, what you get out of these depends on your investment in ICP is. If you want out takes and alternative versions and “rare” tracks then get…

The fact that I listened to Mail Dominance within the last few weeks yet can remember absolutely nothing about it doesn’t exactly speak volumes about its quality. Musically, its not a million miles away from Gothom City, but isn’t as silly as that album. A solid mid-career effort from Esham, but it can’t beat the old shit.

Dog Beats is one of (if not the original?) ICP cassette EP back when they were known as the Inner City Posse. Actually, I think this came after Bass-ment Cuts, because it sounds a lot better, and I think even has some rudimentary Mike E Clarke production. All in all, this is a precursor to what would come with the Carnival Of Carnage record. The vibe (and some of the tracks) are the same, with…

There’s a special place in my heart for the early Wu Tang records, and the following solo albums that came after they blew up. GZA’s absolutely legendary Liquid Swords has gotta be up there as one of if not the best of the bunch, with absolutely dank as fuck and on point beats and production. All the usual suspects are out for the vocal contributions, and this is more like another classic Wu Tang album…

There was a time when I thought Necro’s The Sexorcist was big and clever, but there was also a time when I was an edgy 20-something that thought rapping about fucking girls in the ass was the pinnacle of hip hop entertainment. The Sexorcist may have aged like milk, but I still love the flows, the production and the endless venom that Necro brings, even to a record that is basically about porn and shagging….

This little blast of mixed vibes really hit me off my chair. Expect intense hyperblasting noisecore coupled with stankin’, twisted hip hop beats. This latest release from Bristol-based Meth Camp is only 5 minutes long, but makes every second count. Tape version due to come soon via Two Man Tape Co!

Vinnie Paz and his wicked taunting laughs are almost as much of a household name (to me) as DMX and his dog barks. God Of The Serengeti is a long fucking album, and whilst it does falter in some places (some of the songs tend to overstay their welcome), this record contains as much genius and phenomenal rhymes as any Jedi Mind Tricks full length.

I got shot! Beverly Kills is more of that wicked early ICP output where the band hadn’t long transitioned from Inner City to Insane Clowns. The production is actually a downgrade from the Carnage album, with Esham as the producer on some tracks, bringing that distorted KKKill The Fetus / Closed Casket vibes. Other than that though, its a great listen with some great tracks. “17 Dead” and “The Stalker” are probably my favourites.

I needed to wash out my brain after listening to some horrendously bad hip hop, so I (rightly it seems) turned to a Danny Brown record that I hadn’t heard yet. Atrocity Exhibit is fantastic, and whilst this record has an entirely different vibe, uknowhatimsaying¿ is just as good, but in different ways. I love how the beats are so abstract and interesting. The delivery from Danny and his guest peers is also, of course,…

I don’t want to shit on any musician who puts their own thing out there for the world to hear, and doubly so I don’t want to shit on any Psychopathic Records / juggalo stuff because I feel like its an easy target and “music” “journalists” have often had a field day stroking their beards and shitting all over this stuff. But, I’m afraid that is exactly what I have to do here. South Of…

Terror Wheel is absolutely prime rib classic era ICP, falling somewhere between The Ringmaster and The Riddlebox records. It calls forward to The Riddlebox with the inclusion of a slightly-less polished “Dead Body Man”, and contains such insane classics as “Skitzofrantic” and the hilarious “I Stuck Her With My Wang”. ICP have a lot of hit or miss stuff but honestly they have a bad reputation that they absolutely do not deserve. This is a…

Probably one of my favourite hip hop records of all time! Much like Dre’s own The Chronic, this sits as a stand out from that era, and even has similar production (both being done by Dre of course). Snoop Dogg has never been as good as he has here. Personally I find the man (legendary as he is) has an overall weak discography, despite he rap skills. Doggystyle is an exception to this rule, being…

CunningLynguists are a group whose name I’ve seen about the place quite a lot, but I’d never gotten around to checking them out until now. I guess if you’re a frequent reader of LIW (poor you) you’ll notice that this is a recurring theme, what with the sheer amount of music out there to be heard, so I’ll cut to the chase. A Piece Of Strange is a lovely slice of introspective hip hop, full…

I love Immortal Technique. I have a lot of respect for his contributions to hip hop and his constant “revolutionary” attitude. No doubt it has caused many rap and hip hop fans to think outside the box on a lot of different issues. The 3rd World is no different in that regard, Tech is on point with his flows and his deliveries (as are the majority of the folks doing guesties), but the same issue…

I’ve been meaning to check out Clipping. for a serious amount of time now. I finally got to listen to …Addiction To Blood in the dying months of 2020, and I soon grew to learn what all the fuss is about. The first thing to notice is there is no immediate urgency with this record. The songs creep slow, building all sorts of menacing atmospheres. On the first run through, a lot of the tracks…

On Gothom City (what is with that spelling?), Esham wheels out all the tropes of his best work; the violence, the sex, the crummy self-production, and the rest of the guys from NATAS, just because. Gothom is generally more polished than say, Closed Casket or KKKill The Fetus, but still has that unique sound. However, at this point in the Esham canon things are starting to become derivative. Is it great, yes – but almost…

It was the announcement of Slowthai’s second record that made me fucking stop and realise just how goddamn fast time is going these days, especially in lockdown life. Here it is then, my somewhat late quick entry for the artist’s cheeky debut. He’s right though, there ain’t much great about Britain, at least not urban Britain, and that disgust, angst and attitude is distilled entirely into the record itself. It’s like The Streets’ Original Pirate…

There’s something sweet about the chilled out yet morose tunes of Portishead. Sure, the beats are definitely sounding their age, but the spacey atmospheres and glorious vocal performances that makes this debut so exciting, even today.

Endroducing is a textbook case of the plunderphonics movement; samples are the focus of the audio collage here, all of which are artfully and gorgeously woven into fantastic tunes for us all to enjoy. This is literally the perfect soundtrack to walking through the city in the rain, at least in my case!

Vol. 1 is easily my favourite Immortal Technique album. You can tell how young he is here, but the truth-laced venom and intelligence is entirely apparent from the word ‘go’, even if a few of his more flagrant statements haven’t aged well. Truly a stunning debut, with amazing guest spots and absolute wreckers of tracks, from the boastful opening “Creation & Destruction” to the now infamous “Dance With The Devil”. What a debut!

This was a cool little random listen for me. I’ve heard the name Brother Lynch Hung thrown about here and there but it was when my Spotify randomly played me a track from this album that I took it upon myself to explore it further. Lyrically, we are pretty much in horrorcore territory here, with all the usual unpleasantness that comes with it (and then some), but the beats and vibes (and production) are spot…

Make my shit The Chronic! I love this album. I hadn’t listened to it in so many years, so went back to it for the purposes of this entry. In hindsight, its weird how so close together in time The Chronic and its follow-up, 2001 (released in 1999 lol) are. When I was younger, these two eras of rap felt like worlds apart, with The Chronic in particular sounding absolutely ancient in comparison. I wouldn’t…

Booming Words From Hell is the sprung as fuck debut from everyone’s favourite bogeyman, Esham. Our man here bolted out the gate with an amateur yet now legendary record. All the tropes and themes that Esham would continue to explore over the course of his legendary original acid rap / horrorcore run of records begin here, but Booming… also contains a more “street” or gangsta rap sensibility to it. Either way, if you like abrasive…

I’d never really bothered with XXX until a work colleague of mine implored me to check out some tracks from this album, but I ended up listening to the whole thing. There’s a lot to unpack here; the opening track acts as fair warning, as trumpet blowing as it is (“my genius!”). I wouldn’t necessarily say you need an open mind to digest a weird mish-mash of hip hop and screamo or acoustic songs, but…

(2020 edit: This review was written several years ago, I just dug it out from the lost drafts on my old Blogger account). And the award for quickest maturing member of Odd Future goes to Earl fucking Sweatshirt. Doris has always stood apart from most of the other Odd Future stuff I’ve heard, and now this… well, this is something truly special. On the strength of “Faucet” alone, this record is fucking outstanding. The beats…

Smooth, cool as all manner of fuck and with a flow to boot, Del’s 4th record is an execution in true hip hop genius. I mean, Del is surely self aware of the fact – but not rubbing it in people’s faces or boasting about some of the same old shit most rappers get caught up in is one of the best charms about this man and his glorious body of work. This was also…

Tyler has come a long way from Goblin, that much can be said. Igor didn’t exactly blow me away, but it is a decent collection of tracks. I’ve always seen Tyler as a producer first and a vocalist second, and now that rapping as been almost completely removed from his repertoire, that opinion is even more tilted. This record is glorious, and the beats have bells on, but that’s about it.

This is an absolute beauty of a hip hop album. Ever since Immortal Technique spat “just like my nigga Vast Aire from Cann Ox said, if you don’t like the smell of burning meat then get the fuck off the planet” I’ve had this group listed down to check out. In true LIW fashion of course, that ended up taking me a considerable amount of time but it was worth the wait. The beats on…

This is sick as fuck. Dr. Octagon’s (Kool Keith) self titled record from 1996 is a lesson in how to produce sublime hip hop beats, and then provide a stunning flow to go with it. Comparisons with MF Doom are perhaps too easy, but it’s easy to see where MF took a lot of inspiration from. Some of the lyrics about being a gynacologyst are a bit clumsy and haven’t aged too well, but all…

I have a lot of respect for most Psychopathic Records artists but this EP is utter dog shit. Imagine the Dark Lotus staff taking on the subject matter of Necro’s The Sexorcist. And yes, there is an aspect of cringe to any hip hop that deals entirely with sex, but when ICP – under aliases of course – are rapping about fucking bitches in they booty holes, we reach a whole new realm of uncomfortable…

Denzel Curry has been recommended to me many times lately, so I decided to get into Ta13oo, which has the most interesting cover art of his records. I can’t deny that the man has talent, his flows are fantastic, and the production is solid overall, its just that the whole thing is a little ‘trappy’ for me. Perhaps I am out of touch with modern hip hop (a very real possibility), but I couldn’t fully…

Here we have Ellie Goulding’s fourth studio album, the number one selling Brightest Blue. So, I believe the premise of this record is that it is split into two sides; two parts – one being the very sort of sound we started seeing Ellie creep into around the time of her Halcyon record and the latter part a series of collabs with various sort of EDM artists (all of which I’d never heard of prior…

This is a mixed bag for me, as far as Bong-Ra is concerned. Monolith generally seems to be critically well received, but I am more of a fan of the breakbeat stuff than I am of the dubstep with rapping over it. This rap stuff isn’t a million miles away from what Esham is doing on the Venus Flytrap or DMT records, and the stuff here (featuring Sole mainly) isn’t awful, it’s just when the…

The Low End Theory is a classic hip hop record. Just listening to the beats on this thing is an absolute pleasure. The rhymes from everyone involved are sharp and precise, and remind me of the days when hip hop wasn’t all about excess and debauchery (granted, there’s a lot of modern MCs who don’t rap this way, but you know what I mean). A stunning exercise, from start to finish.

I came to this world with nothing, and I leave with nothing but love. Everything Is Borrowed is a wildcard in The Streets’ canon, and absolutely one of my absolute favourites of theirs. The street-level rapped antics of the everyday pulse of the city is swapped in lieu of introspective philosophical musings and lyrics that are almost riddles. The scope of the sound is opened tenfold; gone are the banging garage beats, in are full…

I’ll start by saying the only downside I could find with this record is that MF Doom barely rises up to spit, compared to Czarface. Otherwise, the beats are on point, the idea was on point, and the whole record is on point. A seriously solid hip hop record, which I heavily enjoyed.

If you like your hip hop drenched in metal references there’s rarely any need to look past Necro or his brother Ill Bill. I’m not sure if a rap over Slayer’s “Raining Blood” really works all that well, but otherwise Black Metal is full of some pretty solid tunes, if not as gross or OTT as his brother’s albums.

I’ve grown quite fond of Rico’s rhymes. Her delivery is equal parts terrifying and entertaining. This mini album / EP is a pretty good showcase of her skills, with ace production by Kenny Beats, and I’m pretty sure Harry Fraud pops up too.

All three rappers (I think there is three? 2020 edit: yes, there is three) in this group kick ass, and I’m a huge fan of Esham anyways so I’m chuffed to finally getting around to checking out Natas. Of course, this is some old school prime rib wickedshit and absolutely just what the doctor ordered. If you don’t like lyrics about fucking bitches and shooting guns I wouldn’t bother, but otherwise I would strongly recommend…

Well shit, who gots da funk, I hear you cry? Prophets Of Rage gots da funk, I’ll tell you that. I’ve definitely been sleeping on checking this project out, it is brilliant in every way. “Drones” is probably my stand out track. (2020 edit: What track are you talking about, pal? Haha!)

Well, if there was ever a disgusting ode to a capitalist society and a pointless existence of mindless consumerism, Herby has that all nailed in track one alone. She has really strong flows, some of which are incredibly impressive. As far as substance goes though, this is pretty weak. Come on, girl. 

If you had to distill the sound of the The Streets down into its most marketable and easily consumable form, The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living would be the best way to do it. The record is short, sharp and to the point. It works well with the cocaine fuelled tales of Skinner’s new found fame, and there are some decent bangers here, although this is far from the greatest Streets album ever…

This was one of the first records I ever heard, and is probably responsible for my life-long interest in hip hop maintaining even as I spent most of my teenage years wallowing in the pits of grindcore. I remember being ten years old, over my friends house (who was the son of my primary school headmaster (that’s elementary principal to you yanks)) roaring with laughter at the contents of “Public Service Announcement 2000” blaring out…

What I love about this record is that it harks back to the earlier days style of just blasting out 1 or 2 minute short tracks. This keeps you on your toes as The Black Devil jumps from track to track spitting bars and dropping fat bass up on yo ass, fam. There’s a bunch of oldey-worldey samples too, like how MF DOOM does. That isn’t to say of course that it is a short…

This was about the time I kinda moved on from Death Grips so I missed this record when it initially dropped. In hindsight, it’s now easily identifiable as the beginning of the band’s rockier, more abrasive sounds. Sure, DG have always been noisy and abstract, but there is a more distorted edge beginning with The Powers That B that permeated every release going forward. 

I’d be lying if I said I was anywhere near as enthusiastic about post-OG run Joker’s Cards ICP stuff than I was about everything up until that point. Sure, they had the odd album that was y’know, a bit crap, but after the original saga was complete it almost felt for a while that ICP were trundling forward without a purpose (I’ll get to this in my Tempest review). Furious Fred Fury though (the FIFTH…

MF Doom’s flows are absolutely unreal. MM.. Food is a short album but every single track is an absolute banger, even the ones which are just shed loads of samples over sick beats. Reminds me to check out the Special Herbs beats series. Its easy to dip in and out of Madvillainy and ignore the rest of the discography, but MF Doom has to be one of the most consistently excellent MCs ever, and MM…..

Year of the Snitch sounds like the logical development from Bottomless Pit; more of the now somewhat refined chaotic electronic surges meet bizarre blasting cut-up metal pieces, all the while MC Ride lords over proceeding with a cheeky rasp and knowing scorn. Death Grips have always been abrasive, but if some of the “noisier” elements of Bottomless Pit put you off, I’d probably avoid this one too. 

It is easy to dismiss Necro as just churning out pure filth and dropping heavy metal references just for the sake of it, but I Need Drugs has reminded me that this guy’s flow is just absolutely fucking unreal. Mix that with some dingy subject matter and the odd clever sample and you have a bona fide hip hop classic. This is Necro in his OG rawest form. Top marks from me. 

This dropped fairly recently to masses of hype. Personally I was not too impressed on the first go around, I found Kamikaze to be more of the “hey, look how fast I can say absolutely nothing at all” deal that MM has been working with on his last few records. But, of course, when he’s not wasting his time chasing after fucking mongoloids like Machine Gun Kelly, Eminem is an enormously talented rapper capable of…

There’s something desperate about guitars in rap music that reminds me of the late 90s / early 00s. Unfortunately that means we don’t get off to the hottest start with this quick 2015 offering from the legendary Esham. Honestly, all in all, its a very mixed bag of styles that is over very quickly, with nothing that really stands out (also, of note, there is zero dubstep here, after many of his releases before this…

I’m not really sure what it is about Mac Lethal. I really enjoyed the first record, but since then… I don’t know what it is, I can’t put my finger on it, because this guy can rap, that much is quite obvious…. but, I just hate this shit. I think its the lyrics more than anything. On one track he’s just ripping on Tool for seemingly no reason whatsoever. “Make Out Bandit” sounds like it…

Way back when ICP stood for Inner City Posse, the group dropped their demo cassette, Bass-Ment Cuts (yeah I know I’ve credited them as Insane Clowns in the post title, but what you gonna do?). Before the group “found” their horrorcore style (read: decided to imitate Esham lol) they had a much more gangsta rap style on the go. All things considered this isn’t a million miles away from Carnival Of Carnage, minus the whole…

I’m not entirely sure what it is about Die Antwoord’s music that draws me to it. It embodies mostly everything that I hate, but it appears to be done in such a DIY and genuine way that I cannot help but be drawn to it. It may also be because its perfect music for the gym, or because Yolandi Visser is mint as fuck, but who knows. Ten$ion isn’t my favourite record but there are…

With the recent 20th anniversary re-issue of this I was not-so-subtly reminded that I’ve never checked out any of Myzery’s stuff. The production on this is great; proper solid old school street hip hop style, and Myzery’s flow is seamless, darting back between Spanish and English like it ain’t no thing. Throw in a guest appearance from a Milenko-era ICP and that is just the icing on the cake. Great little EP. 

Azealia Banks keeps popping up in the media due her somewhat erratic and bizarre behaviour. Naturally, this led me to actually check out her music, remembering “212” from a few years ago being a bit of a banger, with rude lyrics and intense Euro-style techno instrumentation. Broke With Expensive Taste is a bit of a mixed bag, if I’m honest. It reminds me of Lady Gaga’s debut album, which was also desperate to try and…

Wolf is the third album by Odd Future founder and, I suppose leader – Tyler, The Creator. It is a solid record that prominently develops the rapper’s style and direction, not only as a lyricist but mainly as a producer. Goblin, for all its entertaining malice, wallows in darkness. Wolf expands on Tyler’s off-key production style, adding more colours to his intrinsically different yet instantly recognisable track design. Track-wise, the album begins proper with the…

Dead Flowerz is probably my second favourite release behind Closed Casket (a close tie with KKKill The Fetus), which deals less with fantasy realms and rapping about the devil and focuses on the life of an inner city black man in the 90s, played up entirely with the excesses and absurdity of E’s “wicket shit” acid rap style. Drugs, guns and XXX girls is the order of the day, and whilst that might sound somewhat…

You better slow down baby! SAAAB Stories is the excellent debut EP by NY rapper Action Bronson, which has been out since June 2013 (holy mother!). I really need to pick up the pace with my reviews! Action is probably one of my favourite “modern” rappers that have come about within the last few years or so, and the SAAAB EP is a shining example of everything that makes his music so great, but tied…

This latest Kendrick Lamar record is a strange collection of what is supposed to be left over tracks and ideas related to the rapper’s previous record, To Pimp A Butterfly. Musically, it has a lot in common with the beats and instrumentation of that album, but as these songs are demos, there is a welcome rougher feel to things. At first the vocals seem a little lo-fi, but every falls into place quickly and the…

Ahhhh oh my God, where has this been all my life? Have I been living under a rock? Quite fucking possibly! For those who are as stupid and ignorant as I am, Deltron 3030 is a hip hop “supergroup” (much in the vein of Madvillian or Run The Jewels) consisting of Dan The Automator, Del The Funky Homosapien, Kid Koala as well as a few select special guests, who all take on futuristic personas to…

Man, this is fucking awful, even for Obie Trice. This is some Lil’ Wayne level shit right here. Seriously, how is it possible for someone to fall off so hard? Granted, the relentless pursuit of the $$$ leads some artists by the nose through the trends of the month / year / decade, and that is the only explanation I have for this absolute farce of a single. Ten years ago this guy was sharing…

Run The Jewels 3 is the hotly anticipated return of – and third full length release from – the legendary hip hop duo Run The Jewels. First off, I just want to comment on how awesome that cover art is. I’ve seen a lot of people on various online mediums posting about how shit it is but I think it is the best RTJ cover yet (even better than Meow The Jewels haha). Anyways, this…

Before I Self Destruct starts off promising as hell before falling off in the second half, gradually getting worse and worse until it closes with one of the worst songs ever written; “Could’ve Been You” parades out R Kelly like a secret ace card, but when the dickhead is literally crooning about smelling his own shit (no joke) in the chorus, all credibility goes out the fucking window. Shame he couldn’t smell the shit coming…

The Amazing Jeckel Brothers is easily the weakest of the original set of joker’s cards. In fact, I really don’t have that much to say about this album at all. It has a few stand out tracks, but for the most part it is just irritating filler and a bunch of shit that just goes on way, waaayyy too long (“I Want My Shit” being a prime example). There’s a terrible selection of “metal” songs…

Big Grams is an extremely refreshing mash up of synth-drenched electronica pop and hip hop. Initially, I had a reaction of “holy shit, this sounds like Lorde collaborating with Run The Jewels!”, and rather ironically, considering how ridiculous that comparison is, Run The Jewels pop up on track six here. Anyway, Big Grams is actually New York dream pop duo Phantogram but fronted by Outkast nutter Big Boi. And, not to mince words, its fucking…

The Gorillaz self-titled record was the first album that I ever owned. Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory (unfortunately) holds the title for first record ever bought, but Gorillaz was the first thing that I seriously jammed, and it was instrumental in developing my interest in music as a serious hobby. Back in the day I had this terrible transparent blue Aiwa tape walkman / radio combo, and I played the livin’ fuckin’ guts out of my…

Computers And Blues was, sadly, the final record by The Streets (2020 edit: they’ve dropped a few singles recently but no full length for nearly a decade). For me, Streets records tend to follow a fairly defined pattern of progression. After the almost ethereal chill out of Everything Is Borrowed, Computers And Blues seems like a bit of a step backwards (only in the order of how things unfolded, not in quality). This final release…

The Ringmaster has gotta be a contender for one of my favorite ICP records. It marks the point where the group really start to find their feet. As much as I love Carnival of Carnage, it is a bit sketchy and the quality of tracks here far surpasses anything off that album, not to mention the Beverly Kills EP. I also think it’s one of the more under-rated jokers cards, if not the most under-rated…

Pothead are a bunch of a masked crusaders from Prague (Praha!), Czech Republic, who play down-tuned death metal / goregrind infused with the wondrous sounds of hip hop and also a bit of techno. It all seems a bit ridiculous, and quite frankly it is. On the first initial listen it sounds a bit like GUT jamming with Ahumado Granujo at a Cypress Hill gig (I know, right). I caught these guys live recently, and…

Exmilitary is the debut mixtape/record/whatever from seminal noise-meets-rap maniacs Death Grips. I can’t believe this thing is five years old, especially considering I’ve been planning on reviewing it since I started this website! But yeah – I don’t think the hip hop world was prepared for Death Grips, and neither were the legions of fans from outside of that sphere; would-be converts sidling on over due to this group, and this mixtape. I first came…

I was recommended this band to check out, and having known literally nothing about them I was interested to hear what was going on. The LaFontaines are a very difficult band to pigeonhole; I’m finding myself presented with rapping, smooth sounding vocals, riffs, indie guitar licks, lovely guitar tones amongst really big sounding anthems. What a mental combination! On paper this shouldn’t work, it really shouldn’t… however these guys have seemed to pull it off…

I know these are bootlegs but fuck, the sound quality absolutely fuckin’ sucks. It sounds like a bunch of low quality mp3s jingling their wateriness all over the place. That being said, it is great to hear all these Psychopathic Records affiliated artists all in one place, and kinda reminds me of an extended Dark Lotus, more than anything. The Twiztid guys really bring it on this record, and the odd contribution from Esham is…

Widely known to have been the album that propelled Mike Skinner’s The Streets project to international recognition, spawning two charting singles (one of which went to number 1 in the UK); the group’s sophomore effort is a concept album based around a few weeks/months in the life of Mike. A day in the life of a geezer, finally recognised as a full blown record. A Grand Don’t Come For Free is one big story, each…

To say that the recent Electric Wizard album sounds like Electric Wizard would possibly be a very lazy analysis of the situation, but hey – this sounds like Electric Wizard. It sounds so much like Electric Wizard that it literally hurts. Even with Mark Greening back on drums (for long enough to record this record anyway) it just sounds to me exactly like the last two albums. It seriously boggles my little mind how Wizard…

This has gotta be one of my favourite rap/hip hop discoveries of the past year or so. Granted, this came out in 2011 but I’m not exactly crawling all over the modern rap scene (because as Eminem so eloquently put it – it’s a landfill). I heard enough episodes of Charlie Sloth on Radio 1 whilst at work to convince myself that hip hop was welllllll and truly dead and anything post-2000 was not even…

Every now and then it’s great to hear a rapper who doesn’t rely heavily on endless taboo subject matter to fill his verses. Granted, perhaps I was a little burnt out on the excess of hip hop, as I was listening to Necro’s The Sexorcist a lot alongside Doris, and I’m not exactly saying that this Odd Future member’s solo outfit is clean like a Will Smith album, but it is admittedly refreshing all the…

This is one of my all time favourite albums. In fact, there’s a few Streets records in my all time favourites, but this one has got to be the best, IMO. In my youth I found The Streets’ quirky raps about everyday life rather amusing, and in my maturity (err… LOL) I have discovered whole new deeper social commentaries within them, as well as a greater, more profound love for the instrumentation itself. Mike Skinner…

I’ve really been digging Esham recently. Well, I’ve always loved this guy (one of the few positive things to come out of my teenage obsession with ICP) but I discovered that a whole bunch of his albums are streaming on Spotify, which is absolutely great news because a ton of his early works contained a pile of uncleared sampling and are therefore seemingly forever confined to the “out of print” section of music industry hell….

“Fight Music” is probably one of my favourite singles off the D12 album Devil’s Night, as it incorporates a much harder edge to it. When I was a wee lad the rockier guitar parts of this track helped me get into D12, and whilst it turned out that a majority of their songs don’t actually sound like this, it helped plant the seed, and after the strength of the “Purple Pills” (or “Hills”, as I…

I would probably have never listened to Portishead if it wasn’t for the fact that their first two albums were already on my old computer when I bought it, back in 2009. They always seemed like something my mother would listen to, what with their shit band name and music video circulations on the Sky ClassicFM music channel. It wasn’t until my appreciation for electronic music developed to such a degree that I could hear…

I already did a review of this record over on Gonzo Karaoke (something I need to do again, that shit is awesome), a wicked website ‘portal’ to a world full of freely downloadable audible awesomeness, but seeing as I also now have the physical edition here in my hands, I guess I have to do another, proper review. It would be a bit cheapskate to just copy the review over, so I’m gonna do a second one, albiet it’ll…

Ho ho! Now this is something that I have watched grow from a silly one-minute-something demo into a full-blown project of epic proportions. Introducing my good ol’ pal Gareth B, whom is a fellow band-mate with me in Merthyr Tydfilian based rap metal (yes!) group Start! Start!. Mr. B is always grooving our tunes up with his mad bass skills, but he doesn’t get much chance to shine on the mic. That’s where Small Fortunes…

Insane Clown Posse are a band that get incredible amounts of ridicule the world over. Luckily for me, here in little ol’ Wales, ICP and their seemingly endless armies of redneck juggalo “fans” aren’t really a subject for ridicule, as they don’t really exist. When I was big into ICP as a teenager, I didn’t know a creeping shit about any of this juggalo crap. I’m not claiming ignorance as an excuse; I knew that…

This album was the final recording that Mick did with any connections to Earache. The album itself was produced and “marketed” by Earache Records, but released by Mick’s own label, Scorn Recordings. Logghi Barhogghi is only the second Scorn album after the departure of Nik Bullen, and still sounds a bit bare and unsteady on it’s feet, just like it’s predecessor, Gyral. Although, unlike Gyral, LB is much more straight forward and was a definite…

Aaah my life! I simply cannot fathom how fucking amazing this record sounds! Having heard this possibly a hundred thousand times since I was 11 years old, I finally bought this album when I saw it on the “home listening” rack in Cardiff’s Catapult Records. I know I waffle on about how fucking great vinyl is (that’s the original point of this website, really) but Jesus fuck…it really, really makes the difference to make sure…

How else can a band cash in on what was supposed to be their final album? Remember, the story went that after the sixth joker card fell…….well nobody fuckin’ knew what was going to happen, so they needed to milk that shit, let’s be fair. The Wraith itself was split into two separate albums and released two years apart, and then this remix album came trailing behind a few years later. It is no secret that anything…

In my many years of D12 / Eminem fandom it never occurred to me that other members of the group might have solo projects. After giving myself the ultimate facepalm, I began hunting down those records. I started with Bizarre, who is by far my favourite member of D12. He’s like the Frankie Boyle of rap music. A lot of rappers say shit that gets them shot; Bizarre is so offensive he goes beyond that and just…

This is solo hip hop effort by Mushroomhead’s drummer Skinny and ex-vocalist J Mann. Being a fan of all things Mushroomhead in my early teens, I naturally began hunting down physical copies of side-project albums when I found out about the existence of Discogs a few years back. I started with 10,000 Cadillacs because I love J Mann and also have quite the penchant for rap music, as I’m sure some of you are aware….

This is where it all began! Well, not all of it, but as far the Dark Carnival thing goes and the Joker’s Card legacy shit, it all began here. ICP’s debut record is like nothing else in their history and it remains to this day one of my favourite records by them. It possesses an extremely amateur mix by an at-the-time fresh-faced Mike Clark, and shows the group before they had fully adjusted to their new Insane…

I always have mixed feelings about D12: the potential with the group was absolutely fantastic; each artist is an excellent rapper in their own right, but if they work together as a group or not is something that has always bugged me. I guess it’s the endless “it’s Eminem’s old band, innit” that pisses me off. The first record shared the load fairly but the second album parodied this yet lived up to it entirely; employing Mr….