Blood Raw feat. Young Buck & FAMU Marching Band - 26 Inches

So clearly the whole idea of this being where I would disciplinedly (is that a real word?) write on a regular basis about music and artists that I am really 'feeling' (no chris langham) has fallen on its arse, what with me actually only managing to write one post in pretty-much-two-months. Despite the fact that almost everyday I hear an astonishing bit of music, I have preferred to spend my days playing Football Manager 2007 (got Barnet into the Premiership with successive promotions), wanking (I'm not gonna write any detailed information in the brackets on this particular hobby) and watching Arrested Development (and The Tower and The Cricket) and my nights reliving all of my life's minorly embarassing moments in a one man slide-show-of-shame-in-my-head before falling into a dark, tortuous sleep (really, why do all those little faux-pas that you've made stay in your head so easily? I would struggle to come up with 5 moments of my life I'm really proud of (well.....) yet I could write a book on the number of times I've been involved in little incidents which have left me beetroot red with a bizarrely sweaty nose. Perhaps I could incorporate all my mini-humiliations into some form of mind-map-style revision technique in the future).

ANYWAY, my petty bourgeois neurosis leads me nicely onto a song where two hard, self-confident rappers talk about the frankly ridiculous size of the wheels on their cars. Well, not at all, but here you go....

Blood Raw feat. Young Buck & FAMU Marching Band - 26 Inches


So about a year ago I became obsessed with youtube videos of the marching bands of historically black colleges and universities performing instrumental versions of rap tracks at competitions and American Football matches. I have absolutely no recollection of how on earth I could have first searched for this, but at least it registers on the healthier side of my youtube obsessions. Here's a few good videos to explain just what I mean, if these don't get you jigging about in front of your computer in some form of military strutting/fist-pumping hybrid you might as well give up and listen to Hard-Fi or Newton Faulkner now (sorry to diss the Newton-meister but anyone who's advert proclaims them the 'UK's Jack Johnson' is not going to draw any reaction other than a vicious tug on his dreadlocks from me).

Southern University - 2004 Rap Medley


Grambling State University - 2005 Rap Medley


University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff - Welcome to Jamrock


University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff - Head Bussa
(embedding disabled for this one)

I love these videos for a number of reasons. At least two anyway. Firstly, they make being in what is effectively a brass band look like the fucking coolest thing in the world. Secondly, they birthed in my head the idea of one day getting a rapper to perform live for a music show with a Salvation Army band backing him up in a similar style (how cool would that look?). Thirdly (hey!), I know I wank on about the importance of hip-hop in myriad ways, but this seems like a perfect illustration of both its cultural significance, in that a generation has grown up with it as such a central part of their lives that playing it with a brass band is entirely natural (if not a necessary statement of their own identity), but also its redeeming power, in that it has always been able to cannabalise other forms of music and use them to its own ends, and so it is totally apposite for hip-hop to be made using a brass band. or for brass band music to be hip-hop.

Which does bring me nicely onto today's song (actually). In which Young Jeezy's consigliere Blood Raw and G-Unit's most-talented man rabble-rouse over a beat that twists a marching band, organs and a choir into a gratifyingly crunk whole which ought to get you jigging about in front of your computer in some form of military strutting/fist-pumping hybrid. or will sound pretty good cruising around town in your ford ka/nissan micra/renault clio/vauxhall corsa/chevy on 26-inch rims (delete as appropriate).

and that is all.

peace X

P.S. r.i.p. to tony wilson - he properly was my hero and I always thought that one day I'd have the chance to shake his hand and say thanks.

Devlin - Community Outcast

It's quite weird starting a new blog, just like starting a new exercise book, a new football season or a new band anything and everything is fresh, clean, unspoiled and full of hope. And then you have to do the first crossing out, or witness the first spineless defeat or start rhearsing and it all turns to shit.

But still, everything seems to mean something at the start, you are utterly uncompromised and every gesture you make appears significant (to myself, but then thats the primary audience for everything I write here). So, to even out the misogyny of the name (which I really do apologise for, but it's a Lil' Wayne lyric (on 'Dipset' from 'Da Drought 3') which represents by far the most eloquent, concise response to the whole cristal-not-wanting-nasty-black-rappers-drinking-their-precious-over-
priced-piss issue) I've decided to talk about possibly the finest piece of political music i've heard in the last few years.

Devlin - Community Outcast

For me, the context of 'Community Outcast' is the central reason behind its brilliance. Firstly, it sits on Devlin's 'Tales From the Crypt' alongside peerless straight up dirty drug-sales drama like 'Dealers':

'I'm an arsonist, I'll set your yard on fire,
hard to retire when the bars that I fire,
inspire so many people to admire,
see you on the road for the p's that you owe,
and I'll smash you in the face with barbed wire' (Devlin - 'Dealers')

Secondly, Devlin was 17-years old when he wrote it. Now when I was 17 my primary concern about society was which bars would be most likely to let me in for a drink without i.d. ('The Retreat' in Cheltenham as it happens), whilst my regard for the elderly mainly extended to laughing at Dave for pulling a 50-year old woman in 'Envy' (ha ha ha). Devlin on the other hand, despite existing within the hyper-competitive grime scene and spending most of his time constructing bars that directly channel the nihilism of modern, urban Britain (and blazing zoots) is able to produce in the third verse one of the most moving meditations on the ageing process i've ever heard (especially because it comes from the mind of someone so young):

'So he goes to the shop for his papers,
with his stick and he falls in the mud,
the people around him all pulled him up,
but to him thats just a reminder,
he's old and he's weak with no-one to love,
he sees clouds up above,
another bad day in the diary,
an old man, one of many killed by society,
strangled quietly' (Devlin - 'Community Outcast')

And that's on top of examining the plight of the young homeless and single mums in the first two verses. And he doesn't swear.

I love this song so much that I played it to my Mum to try and improve her opinion of 'rap music' (an opinion that remains unsalvageable ever since she discovered and listened to my copy of The Lox's 'We Are The Streets' in Year 10... although that was possibly the worst album she could have picked, I mean the 'Intro' is a guy getting shot and the second song is called 'Fuck You' for (insert chosen deity)'s sake).

I love this song so much that if I had a myspace page, this would be the song that I would choose to have on the player in order to convey just how deep and thoughtful I really am to girls.

If David Cameron had half a brain (which I'm rather glad that he hasn't), this would have been the theme song at the last Tory party conference.

As a footnote I think that the social conscience displayed in Devlin's words on this track can be traced back to his O.T. Crew colleague and m.c. mentor Dogzilla, who aside from his strangely comforting voice and presence on DVDs (and spitting the classic couplet 'I support West Ham U.F.C, i like girls in PVC, i skip through beats like I skip through scenes on my DVD' on his fucking great Johnny Rotten-channeling 'Hello') displays a similar social conscience on the quite lovely 'Nightshift' from DJ Target's 'Aim High Vol. 3', calling for more nurses, carers and teachers and shouting out The Black Watch (hate the war, love the warriors).

But yeah, enough over-intellectualising of rap music for tonight.

Further listening:
Devlin - Dealers (feat. Ghetto, Wretch 32 & Scorcher)

DJ Target feat. Dogzilla - Nightshift

Devlin on myspace
Dogzilla on myspace

peace X