The best hip-hop group of Sweden dropped a new mixtape in December.
Labyrint is Sai, Aki, Jacco, Dajanko, Amsiebrown, Rootbound and Donny Dread. We’ve written about individual members here and here.
Included as a bonus on the mixtape are solo tracks by my favorite member of the group: Aki. If you haven’t heard it yet, listen to it now! It’s a must.
Picks from the mix:
Labyrint - Fingrarna i luften
Labyrint - Upplopp
Aki & Jacco - Stämplade
Aki - 1 vers
I’m taking off to Caracas, Venezuela tomorrow morning! So for the next two months, I’ll be blogging from South America. I did some research and found Venezuelan hip hop on youtube. This is Area 23.
I also found videos where rappers appear with Hugo Chávez on his Aló Presidente show… This is a group called La Septima I suppose. Look at Chávez, he looks like he’s down with it!
And this is a female rapper called MC Robex, also with Chávez:
And finally, also Area 23 performed on Aló Presidente:
Huoratron at Flow Festival last summer. You can see my hand at the left side of the audience, seventh row from the front.
The big bad man of Finnish electronic music has joined forces with the Brazilian metal head that gave up heavy for club music. Huoratron, poster name of the Finnish label New Judas, has taken up a remix bash with Mixhell, consisting of former Sepultura drummer teamed up with his wife. What came as a surprise for me digging up some facts for this post was, that apparently Mixhell also signed up to the New Judas family (which doesn’t equal complete commitment). Very nice. These are some hardcore sounds.
Huoratron - Corporate Occult (Mixhell Remix)
Mixhell - Highly Explicit (Huoratron Remix)
Femme Mafala gave us an introduction to coupé-décalé some time ago. Last Saturday in Helsinki there was a very special party with hot dance music from Africa and Latin America, and among lots of other good stuff, these two coupé-décalé hits got played, probably for the first time in that place.
This Jessy Matador song is from 2008 I believe. Tune seems to be huge: it has 13,294,970 views on Youtube at the moment (!!!). There’s a good dance teacher in Helsinki who tried to teach some of us the dance moves on the video. It’s fun to dance to for sure.
Décalé Gwada features La Selesao and here’s another tune by them. I think both Jessy and La Selesao are migrants from Congo living in France. I wonder what’s up with the fixation for “filming” and “zooming” on both tracks?
Copenhagen soundsystem OHOI! has dropped a massive track. Vocals are provided by Riko, jungle/grime mc and “London city warlord”.
The tune seems to be the makings of 2000F, one out of four members in OHOI!. This guy also had his remix on the track Ildebrand i byen by the deceased Danish dancehall/reggae genius Natasja on pirate party mixtapes back in 2007.
OHOI! are signed to the local label Kraken Recordings. The people from these circles really give a huge contribution to Copenhagen dubstep. Since a few years back (don’t know exactly how many) they’ve thrown the late summer electro festival RAW, which I think has had quite a buzz around it among local scenesters. I saw myself some of the OHOI! guys play at the new Youth House last year at two different occasions, and especially the second time the atmosphere was really through the roof.
Note that Copenhagen Big Murdurah seems to have its bass on a higher frequency than usual. So if possible I recommend also giving it a ride on some bigger hardware than computer built-in speakers.
2000F - Copenhagen Big Murdurah feat. Riko
Natasja - Ildebrand i byen (2000F Remix)
Obeah - Copenhagen Massive
The last track is by another OHOI! member and features on the mixtape Scandinavian dubz vol. 1.
Brittish singer/rapper GoldieLocks released the dubstep flavored I’m not her EP a couple of days ago. To my ears the material mostly strikes some very good notes, and not just because one of the tracks is produced by Benga. One single is already circulating the blogosphere, grab it below.
GoldieLocks - Cold Sweat (I’m not her EP)
My personal favorites from earlier releases:
GoldieLocks - Kids
GoldieLocks - A Little Bit of Liquor
Like it? Check out this recent interview:
Time to wrap it all up! This time we put out quite a few Best Of The Year lists for your/our enjoyment.
Guest lists
Subcomandante J: Albums & events of 2009
Dj Cybred: Top 5 events of 2009
Dan: Top 5 UFC Entrance Music of 2009
Dj Sibyl Vane: Top 15 albums of 2009
Dan: Demonstrations in Helsinki
Staff lists
DD: Three threads from 2009
LA: Best dubstep tunes
LA: Top 5 UK Funky tunes
LA: Best rap albums of 2009 (US)
LA: Top 5 songs about everyday proletarian experience
LA: Some of the best shows of 2009
And finally, here’s one of the biggest bangers of last year. A song that got so much rotation, again and again: Bang by Rye Rye. Still loving it. I wonder if her album will finally drop this year.
KillaQueenz just dropped a video for their single “Double Up” from the recent album Sistarhood. Saying that they’re the best hip hop act in Australia right now maybe isn’t enough to prove a point… So let’s just say they’re really good. They’ve warmed up for Public Enemy and Lady GaGa among others, and I don’t think they fall far behind. Don’t quite get this video though.
The track is produced by Mad Decent and Diplo affiliates South Rakkas Crew, who we’ve hyped at least once before. No clue who the featuring artist Lady Chann is.
Killa Queenz - Double Up feat. Lady Chann (prod. by South Rakkas Crew)
Mosca - Square one (L-Vis 1990 remix)
London producer Mosca dropped his Square One ep a few days ago, and it’s mad hot. Square One remix by another young London bass music producer L-Vis 1990 is the winning track for me. Makes me want to go raving to shit like this. Don’t listen it with your laptop, listen it with proper speakers, LOUD!
Mosca also remixed Next Hype, probably the hottest grime tune of 2009:
Tempa T - Next Hype (Mosca Remix)