African Electro

Madness. Talk about a trend crystallizing in a day... a young French film maker Fabien, who has made a documentary on the French dance craze tektonic (see earlier posts), switched me onto this... which as he describes it is a French rapper Mokobe (like So Solid Crew) going back to his motherland of Mali and doing the tektonic thang, Mali style. And yes -for the older house heads - that's Mory Kante of Yek Yek fame on the track too.

Mujava - Township Funk

Broadsheets and clueless journos who rely on PRs for discovering new music are going mad for this. Anyone who knows anything about dance or world music will be aware of kwaito, house music from South Africa's townships. What's far more exciting than the patronising, ohmygod Africans make credible dance music reaction, is the fact that this sits very comfortably alongside the sounds coming out of London's funky scene, like Crazy Cousins (see below), Donaeo's African Warrior or Jammer/Badness The Message Is Love.

Crazy Cousins - Bongo Jam

This is a huge choon 'pon d'underground! African riddims hit London's growing funky scene and sound. BIG. This could easily be played at a 'grown up' house night, like Defected at Ministry.

Tinnie Tempah - Tears New video

Beat by Davinche. Love the line, 'We'll be the talk of the town like Harvey and Alesha'. I'd imagine teenage girls love this. If you don't know Tempah, he's the man behind the Wifey Riddim - below - which is two years old now, and was huge amongst the youth dem.

Sway - Saturday Night Hustle official video

Saturday Night Hustle


The official video to Sway's new single, the very catch Saturday Night Hustle. According to Radio 1 it's too 'radio-friendly' - WTF? Go figure. I've had the LP on heavy rotation and it just gets better and better. He is just about the only UK MC who can make me laugh out loud.

Judgement Day - featuring Orifice, Ghetto and Shameless

Heaviosity! Orifice and Ghetto's nasal flows kind of complement each other. I was having a chat with Mala (DMZ) a couple of months back and had been been recording with Orifice (of Foreign Beggars), for some tracks to appear on Mala's debut artist LP.

New Streets Single & Video

Has Mr Skinner rediscovered his inner city poet-self? You can download the single for free here