Odd time to do a general up date, but here goes.
While Wiley is on RWD Forum (RIP) proclaiming grime is dead he is also gearing up for a release of an album with Asylum records. It is called See Clear Now, which is odd, and the music I heard on it from Logans Show last night, sounds odd as well, hard to describe, really hard to get my head around. This video gives a glimpse of what we are in for November 10th.
If you have a day to sit down and watch people talk about music Here's a link to Red Bull Music Academy's lecture page. Featured here is Skepta, but on the page you can find loads of other people you can't read about on Butterz but are still pretty cool like David Rodigan, Sway, Kode 9, MJ Cole and Plastician. Makes you proud to be British!
If you haven't taken any notice of this image from the homepage, and the nice banner on top, let me remind you Forward v Rinse (The last at The End) is this Friday. Buy your ticket by clicking the lovely flyer below. Plastician do an old school Grime set please! Cheers.
After all the hate mail I got from the Mobo blog I am going to take it easy on the Urban Music Awards. Partly because most people don't/shouldn't care about them, and because they don't truly represent 'Urban Music". They could at least recognise some of the people that the Mobos chose to ignore. My top 3 selected pants categories are:
Best DJ: Fat Ted, Mistajam, Ronnie Herrell, Scottie B, Shortie Blitz. - Don't get me started.
Most Inspiriring Act: Bashy, Chipmunk, Duffy, Estelle, Natasha Bedingfield. - I don't think Duffy and Natasha Bedingfield are urban artists for starters. How do you prove how inspiring somebody has been? This is a joke right?
Best Producer: Burga Boy, Dexplicit, Fraser T Smith, Mark Ronson, T2 - Should of nominated Bless Beats, he produced a number 2 record, and it sold well, it is called Wearing My Rolex with Wiley on the vocals.
It is a shame Grime cannot be represented explicitly. These awards also ignore Dubstep and Funky, weird ain't it. They would rather chase Leona Lewis and Cheryl Cole, face it, they have better places to be!
.:Other Grime Elsewhere:.
The death of Electro Grime
Where is grime?
Wiley - See Clear Now
Doctor - Calm Down Anime Video
Bashy in Africa
.:Downloads:.
Logan Sama - The Best There Is At What I Do 3
JJ ft Jendor, NE, Mega Montana & Fuda Guy 20/10/08
DJ Tubby Classic Mixes (Essential)
Westwood Ft. Jammer, C.Gritz, ASB, Direman, Red Hot Entertainment & More (19/10/08)
Other stuff you may have missed from October
Apologies for some of the sound quality. Maniac told me to move, but i'm an idiot, I didn't listen. Props to Matt Benson on the photographs as well. Check out the rest here.
I met up with him to talk about Grime, and he was fully representing the sound. Didn't sound interested in making other stuff at all, unlike other grime producers who are experimenting with other sounds.
We spoke briefly about Eskibeat Recordings, Wiley's new label that he was talking about doing last year, but nothing has materialized. There was a lot of confusion of who was in the team, and after a while, it just fizzled out. Wiley is still releasing his stuff on the label, like Grime Wave and She's Glowing which is out on November 24th.
He also explains how he had to meet in the middle with Stryder when deciding what beats to use for their collaborative project, Stryder vs Maniac, which is out November 10th. It is 6 vocals and 6 instrumentals, a format that hasn't been explored before in grime by an MC & Producer, although Terror Danjah did Hardrive Vol.1 that was half vocal and half instrumental but with various artists. I think this sort of project is the way to go with the mixtape, I never miss an opportunity to say I am not a fan of them in general, but these could work money wise for both MC & Producer and it will ensure a consistent sound throughout the whole CD.
The lead of song is 'Im rolling' featuring Roachee that is getting battered right now by all the big DJs and a video is coming soon. Instrumentals include What The Rass, Grime Kid and a remix of Little Dees Star In The Making. So DJs and instrumental enthusiasts will get their fix.
Maniac also has two tunes featured on Plasticians Rinse 06 compilation album. They are both big tunes, and flow together nicely with the rest of the dubstep cd. It makes you ask the question, what is the difference between Grime & Dubstep?
If you need to check out some of Maniacs previous work get onto iTunes and download these bits.
Wiley - Bow E3
Chipmunk - I Am Chipmunk
Bashy, Ghetto, J2k - Over Here
Bashy- Kidulthood to Adulthood
Wiley - Grime Kid
JME - Shut Ya Mouth
Big up Maniac for this and apologies once again for the wind.
www.myspace.com/snoopymontanaHere's the interview I did with him when I was in Bow with Maniac. It is quite nice to hear MC's saying their influences are hip hop both local and overseas but sticking with the Grime sound.
Check out his set with Logan and Dzaman here.
The official Dog Eat Dog World mixtape is out soon.
*The views represented in this video do not necessarily represent the opinions of Butterz.co.uk, Grimeforum.com or any of it is partner websites.
£350 for a table at the Mobo's. It was the best shitty award show I have ever seen. Luckily I had top boy seats.
Most of you probably didn't see any of it (who watches BBC3?!), so I have compiled for you the best of the worst. The Z list celebrities were out in full force.
Highlight has to be Trever Nelson winning best radio show award. He clearly didn't care. He looked offended that he had to stand up to get it.
Anyway here are 10 better ways to spend £350. (In no order)
10. 49,000 grams of fizzy cola bottles from Keeping it Sweet
9. 16 bottles of Wray & Nephew white Rum from TheDrinkShop
8. PS3 with Metal Gear Solid from Empire Direct
7. £350 worth of Euros from any bureau de change.
6 Kota the Triceratops from Firebox
5. A return trip to New York from British Airways
4. A Nikon camera to take even better pictures for your facebook from PC World.
3. 10 different fake Ed Hardy garments from here.
2. A 26inch tv from Sharp
1. A real table and chairs that you can keep forever!
Congratulations to Chipmunk for winning best newcomer. How Wiley got nothing escapes me. He even turned up. Massive disrespect.
Here are a few other peoples take on it.
Metro
London Paper
Bashy
Pbleepd
*(Swag is a common term used, for inferior)
Big up my VIP2 crew they have a thread on the new word to hate.
From this day forward, in grime at least, please do not record any more tunes with the word swagger, or any other forms (fly, flashy etc). Release what you have got fair enough, but please don't do any more.
Swagger and being 'fly' has become the new default topic for an MC to talk about. It used to be violence, but as that got out of control, and basically exempts you from any 1xtra daytime play at all (what most people can realistically get with a decent tune), mc's have stepped away from it totally.
This may sound ignorant. But I PREFER lyrics about violence. Not because I particularly enjoy MC's talking about how they intend to eliminate their foes, but it is all in delivery. I am going to be careful on using examples, but when MC's are talking about how fly they are, they seem to slow down, and put little energy into delivery. Intense flows and energy is what I to listen to Grime for, not somebody talking about what brand their T-Shirt is or how great their flow is compared to another MC, especially with such a lazy delivery. Surely if your t shirt is great, let me complement you on acquirying such a fine piece of fabric, don't big yourself up. Or if your the 'realest' MC that would be an opinion I could generate from listening to what else you have to say, rather then you having to dictate that to the listener
The actual term swagger originates from the U.S. If you want to hear swagger in its most irirating form check out T.I's Swagger Like Us track.
When MC'ing in this fashion, other American slang creeps in, and it actually dilutes the authenticity of what they are saying, as it just seems like imitation to me. When I hear terms like "getting my guap" and "trapping" or "dawg" it just screams Dipset imitation to me. And as a man that doesn't really follow hip hop or American culture in general, it is pretty distasteful. (Not saying Americans are by the way, I am saying the people that imitate you guys!)
To finish off, I'd like to say this wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, but we don't want to hear anymore of you guys talking about your free clothes you get, or your paperweight Del Boy chains.
If your not convinced. Listen to this
......
O yea, stop bragging about PRS money. Just because you didn't know it existed when you first picked up a pen and a pad. Actually, I wonder if MC's type their lyrics in this day and age?
As promised, a present this time courtesy of Grimetapes.com. I asked Slackk to give me some words with this, I was going to do it over the phone, but he is a scouser so I asked for it via email.
"It's an odd one, this. I only started, in truth, after a journalist for a magazine I won't name asked me a few questions regarding the site and the idea of putting together the "biggest clashes/moments" from the site for their own site. After I while I got back to them and they wanted something bigger- "don't you have Wiley Vs Dizzee?"
The ignorance was a lot and after a bit of back and forth, the idea for the article- and the attached "biggest moments" disappeared.
The idea pretty much laid dormant until about three weeks ago when someone brought up the idea of the biggest wheels etc on the site. As much as it was a good idea, I didn't like the concept of focussing on the stuff everybody had already heard. In addition, constant wheels sound odd in the car- I've tried it before. So, instead, here's a load of snippets that kind of flow into one thing. I've tried to stay away from the biggest "moments" and all that because most people have heard them before anyway. As good as, for example, Wiley Vs Doogz is, I don't really think it needs to be here. Maybe on a clashes compilation. The bigger names aren't all here either. There's the odd exception, but I just wanted to make something that wasn't bait and flowed like an album, to an extent.
So, it's not perfect, but it's done and here it is.
Wiley Volume One is next, you can guess what that is already I presume.
Make sure you give feedback for this one because nobody has done anything like this before.
Join the Facebook Group then I don't have to keep posting these EVERY WEEK. If you missed the studio set with Roll Deep get that here. Personal favourite moments are.... anything with Killa P or Flow Dan.
As promised, the second in the weekly mixes from Sama. Early as well, weird, Grime Time seems to be ahead of GMT these days.
Download Here.
or
Here for the rest you have missed out on.
.....
The winner of that JME competition was Amy Somers. So if I find her the beers on her. Cheers to Dirty Canvas for that.
Season One Episode One.
Is that the longest name for a free download ever? If you want to skip the opinion about the idea and the actual mix download HERE. To join the Facebook group to receive the freeness every Friday click HERE.
I have got mixed feelings about the free mix culture that the Myspace, Facebook and Blogger make so effortless to push. It has worked well for Bassline & Funky but Grime has only ever had a few here and there. Normally they are one offs, nothing consistent or worth keeping. Rinse.FMs DJ Vectra is doing a good job with monthly mixes called "In Control" but they are a mix up of all UK underground, as are our Butterz Volumes.
When I say work well, I mean well circulated, and highly influential on what gets battered in the clubs and on the radio. One of the main problems I find when playing Grime out is that a lot of people in the audience are not up to date with the music.
Not everybody wants to/can be asked to/does listen to Rinse or Logan on Kiss but still is interested in the music, and I think as long as these are consistent it provides a healthy & convienient alternative. It is pretty frustrating seeing top DJ's play the same old Grime favourites like Forward Riddim to get a reaction in a club, as the sound and scene has come a long way since then. It makes the raving experience a lot less exciting knowing you ain't going to be hearing much new stuff in the raves. As they are few and far between these days as well, the last thing you want to hear at a Grime rave are the tunes that were signed by labels in 2004 and battered to death.
Logan has chosen not to include a tracklisting with this mix. Quite a few other DJs have taken this approach because they don't want other DJ's to imitate or ask the producers for exactly the same tunes. But with Grime I think the artists name should be included. It is hard for MC's to make a name for themselves enough as it is with no pirate radio or regurlar raves. If people know who is on the songs, they will look out for more material from them.
One thing that frustrates me about Grime is the lack of documenting throughout the years. We have got a lot of classic music from 2004 onwards that will be forgotten. This makes it difficult for someone new to understand the history of the scene. Or have a legitmate way of owning Grime music without paying £7 for a poor CD in one of the dwindling independent stores. Dubstep has Dubstep Allstars and various other compilations that you can buy in HMV, Zavvi and is the logical route to understanding a genre. Grime just seems to have 100s of classic mp3s, DVDs full of hype talk about stuff that never came out and a handful of good CDs. We need a well represented compilation album out there, especially because year after year so many sick tunes don't get released for whatever reason. These free mixes would devalue paying for a product like that in my eyes. Giving away too much for free isn't good especially as Logan is guranteeing us one every Friday.
Back to the actual mix. There are tunes on here that Logan has been battering for months, and as im not a radio rip on my ipod kind of guy songs like Nasty Jack & Stormins - One Spliff A Day & Ghetto's Sing For Me are the highlights, even though they are familiar. If you were in any doubt about downloading it, Wiley's - Wheres My Brother is on there.
If you haven't listened to Grime for a while it is an easy way to catch up, but if you haven't listened to Grime for a while, you have come to the right blog!
Just download and enjoy.
Couple notes to add with this
- The F Leakers EP is out now. Buy HERE
- No Right Turn is sounding fucked. It's coming "Soon"
- Faction G is a sound bloke. He bought me a drink and even gave me a lift home.
- Scratcha is on Rinse.fm 8-11am doing the Grimey Breakfast show every week day.
- He also does "Powerhouse" a house show every so often. His tune I'm Leaving is tidy. Check that out here.
- Also filming black and white in the dark is a bad idea. Ah well, you live and you learn.
