Owner: PRANCEHALL URL:http://prancehall.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2007 19:43:13 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A funny music blog about grime and other music stuff like crunk, dancehall, snap, dubstep. Site statistics:Click here
No furry hats, no hoods 2007-09-21 02:17:00 I went to Dirty Canvas last night for the launch party of their label. Lee Brasco, Dirty Danger, Purple, Badness, Jammer, Neckle Camp, Ras Kwame and Terror Danjah were all there but the highlight for me was D Double E's new hat. It was incredible. Think a little mink Liza Minnelli number meets something Dot Cotton might have been wearing in the 80s and you will get the picture. Towards the end of the night, Jammer and Badness did a PA of the next release on No Hats No Hoods which was produced by Silverlink. I can't remember what it was like - I was too mesmerised by the hat. Just after I left I heard Jammer and co. were hanging out playing music in their car and smoking across the road from the venue when some police rolled up and searched the car, but it was all bless in the end innit.This is my new favourite drink. I only discovered it the other day but it's pretty amazing. It's like a cross between Lilt and Rubicon Passion.
no title 2007-09-17 15:51:00 (Click on the image to enlarge)Jammer is in the new issue of i-D dressed as a giant multi-coloured condom. Cardigans a month or two back, now this. Look out for Wiley in a skirt and blouse next month (maybe).---I'm going to post some of the songs that are in the top 10 at the end of the new DO IT! column in Vice, plus some other new ones I like. Here goes.Mykal Rose - Shoot OutI was put onto this by my friend Blaise. It's on the Shoot Out riddim. Mykal Rose has been around for over 30 years (and had a big song with Shabba Ranks in the 90s) and now has a brand new album out next year. This should be your new favourite song.Hot Dollar feat. Rick Ross and Gucci Mane – Streetz On Lock (Remix)I'm not sure how good Hot Dollar is - he just seems like any guy with a major label distribution deal - but I'm a massive Gucci Mane fan and Rick Ross is pretty great on this so it's a big track. Also, the original was taken off a release called The Crackhead Mixtape which has a pretty ridiculou
Boy better know that I'm not Rick Rubin / You man are doing too much YouTubing 2007-09-13 02:33:00 Mine and Easychord's Vice music column from the issue before the one which came out last week is now online. Click here to read it. Not sure why it takes so long for them to put it up. Read Easychord's recent interview with B.O.B here. We're planning a show with B.O.B for some time in November. If you are a promoter in Europe or anywhere around the UK and would like to do a flight share, email me innit.Here is a recent interview I did with Sean Kingston:Prancehall: Hey, did you star as Leroy the boxer in Bugsy Malone? You look like him.Sean Kingston: What? No, I didn't star in that. I did acting when I was younger, though. I went to acting school and I enjoyed it a lot.Oh, okay. So why did you let DJ Khaled anywhere near your album? He's literally insane.He's not insane, he's a good dude. He shows a lot of love to me and has a lot of energy. He's very energetic, know what I mean?Does he shout all over the song on your album, like he usually does?No, he doesn't shout all over i Read more:better
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Peekaboo 2007-09-05 02:16:00 The Observer ran a piece on singer-songwriters on Sunday and featured Lethal B(izzle). Erm... are they tryna take man for a cocktail sausage? Since when was he a singer or, for that matter, a songwriter? Apparently he took a body guard to the shoot and got him to look after his ice cream while he had is picture taken. Read the article here.This is 50 Cent's remake of his forthcoming Rolling Stone cover with Kanye. Curtis has a sense of humour. VBS is doing some kind of 50 Cent vs Kanye thing this week. This is part 1 of Spike Jonze hanging out with Kanye. There's also a 50 interview. I almost forgot about this, but there was also another Spike Jonze Spends... with M.I.A. where they go to Afrikan Boy's house (he's signed to her label, don'tchaknow?). Pretty funny. Notice the way she pretends they met "out and about" but it was a total MySpace thing. Just like Kano pretending he saw Kate Nash on MySpace when in fact it was all totally planned for him. Gotta go now. Bye.
Dikhead Ting 2007-09-02 17:29:00 Officially my favourite thing on the internet from the last three months. Who's the guy across the road I wonder?I'm not sure if I mentioned Goodz's Axiom EP on here before now because I was saving myself for a Vice feature that never happened (does anyone have his phone number? If so please email it to me) but I have been liking it a lot. It's good to have him back. I listen to this little clip at least once every day. Just saying.The guys from Y3 Media emailed me a week or so back to tell me they'd uploaded footage from Wiley's album launch. They strangely decided against providing me with a link to where I could find it, but I'm smart like guys with three or more GCSEs so managed to track it down. This is part 1 of 5, but in keeping with tradition, I will leave you to find the rest of the links yourself. I also stumbled across older footage they have of some of the Eskibeat youngers. I wasn't totally convinced before how good Ice Kid was (even though I booked him for my fina
The world is my Oyster card 2007-09-25 09:35:00 Lethal Bizzle is on the cover of Time Out this month. When was the last time he wasn't pictured with sunglasses? When was the last time he was actually seen by someone without them on? I saw him play in a dark, sweaty punk club with Gallows at the Dot To Dot festival earlier this year and kept them on all night. Something's wrong. He's either got conjunctivitis, a gammy eye or he's gone blind. Someone should investigate that further.Come to this night in Hackney Wick on Friday. It will be amazing. I haven't seen Slew Dem all perform together in years. Kode 9 is at FWD>> that night so think of it as an after party.I'm DJing at Sankey's in Manchester with Plastician and Hatcha tomorrow. Should be good.
:-| 2007-10-14 19:29:00 My joint Vice music column that I wrote literally two months ago is online now. Read it to find out about stuff that happened two months ago. Logan Sama loves it he told me. He fucking loves it. He is in love with it. He wants to marry it and have its babies. No Holmes. Anyway, the new one came out last week and I will upload it when I get to a scanner. Here is Double S on Westwood last week. I really love this Maniac beat.Interesting chorus. Apparently Bashy's getting loads of MCs to record versions of this or something - I couldn't be arsed to properly read the press release I got sent. Come to Dirty Canvas next Friday. Gonna be alot [sic].
Back then I was a little Linford / But not as ugly as Linford 2007-10-09 02:29:00 Me and Easychord wrote about this song in our column in the new issue of Vice while talking about pills being really popular in a lot of hip-hop coming from below the Mason-Dixie line. It's by KP and it's called "Bean Pop". When this comes all, all the girls in the club to do a little
move where they mime throwing a pill in their mouth. Nice.The first video on here is Aidonia's vocal of the massive Swarm Riddim (produced by the guy who did the Scallawah Riddim, 77Klash), which has been getting a prety huge response in Jamaica. It's the clean version so every third word is cut out, which is annoying but the song is great. There's also some more big vocals of this floating about by people like Vybz Kartel and Lutan Fyah. You can get the riddim medley on the forthcoming Iron Shirt (77Klash and Matt Shadetek) album on Matt Shadetek and DJ /Rupture’s Dutty Artz label. Have you seen this? Wow. It just seems so desperate and lazy. They couldn't even be bothered to cut to a helicopter
miaowww 2007-10-07 21:34:00 My friend James bought me a copy of a new reggae / grime /dubstep magazine called Woofah a few weeks back. I didn't get round to reading it till last night because I had to read the new issue of The Source and the dog ate my homework, etc. It's a good one though. They somehow forgot to ask me to be involved (which is totally fine) but there's a Simon Hampson article in there which can only be a great thing. There's also a pretty interesting grime fiction piece. It just so happens I've started on a dubstep fiction piece. I'm writing it from the perspective of a 40-year-old farmer living in a village in Cornwall. Here is an excerpt. If you want the whole thing, you'll have to wait for, erm, the rest of your life because I'm never going to finish it.As I cross a cattle grid into a foot and mouth exclusion zone, Benga's warm bass tones rattle my chest, and I think of Jah. I pass a working sheep dip. A sheep is flung into the bath of raw effluent and chemicals just as the beat dro
A braptastical review 2007-10-07 17:41:00 There's a little two page feature on me in the new issue of RWD. Read it here.(Click image to enlarge)There's also a review
of my mixtape in there, and no, your eyes aren't deceiving you, they gave my mixtape 3/5. Yep, 3/5. I mean, WTF? I've got Jammer MCing over Britney Spears, Busy Signal and Mavado murdering a Lewi White tune, Slew Dem going over a song from the Bugsy Malone soundtrack and Ce'Cile rapping about my stick, and all they can think to mention is the intro? Also, what do they mean "the odd exclusive"? It's about 80 per cent exclusive, never-to-be-released stuff. I would have been insulted if it was only given 5/5. It's at least a 6 or 7 out of 5. If they wanna know about reviews, why don't I do a review of the latest issue of their magazine?(Click image to enlarge)Let's start on the letters page. I don't mean to be harsh, but this shit is embarrassing. No one bothered to write in this month, so they had to print some uninteresting staff emails and random spam? I
I'm an angel, I cut the devil in half / I cut him down to 333 2007-10-18 08:22:00 Skepta, JME and Frisco were on Westwood's new 1Xtra show on Sunday. This first beat (JME - "Mario Flag") is insane.Here's part two. For me, JME shines the most. So many good new bars.---Dizzee did some Sony party last night with The Sugarhill Gang. They performed together I think. I didn't feel like going, but my friend Ben Rayner did and got some footage that I will post tomorrow so no one has to miss out. Read more:angel
"Ain't gonna work hard, Chippy's no fool / Jesus tempts me, Satan tempts me, but it's the Lord that wins overall" 2007-10-17 12:56:00 I must've gone and done wrote a piece on bassline house / niche for the Guardian blog. Still. Read it here. Brapple!Durrty GoodzI interviewed Durrty Goodz for the new issue of Vice. I almost didn't want it to run. It was such a hassle to get hold of him, he wouldn't answer most of the questions, his manager rang me to say I'd asked the wrong questions, then emailed to ask to see if he could see the interview before it went to print (never a good thing to do if you want to get press ever again). Then, to top it all off Goodz was too busy to have his picture taken so I had to spend days running round trying to get an unpublished one. Eventually I got the one above, but I had to deal with the photographer calling to ask if he would actually get paid for the picture or if I was just lying. He also called our photo editor to interrogate him because I guess he didn't believe I was telling the truth. Weird. Anyway, here's the unedited interview.Prancehall: Have you spoken to Titch recen Read more:gonna
, Jesus
, Satan
We got tings in yachts 2007-10-16 17:54:00 Rapid, Fuda Guy and SlixLast Friday I DJed at a night at Cargo with Ruff Sqwad. I was going to write some stuff about it but my friend Emma said she would do me a little write-up that I could steal. She seemed pretty into what Ruff Sqwad were wearing so she said she'd talk about that. Emma works for the fashion designer Katherine Hamnett, who is kind of responsible for everyone and their dog now wearing those large block letter slogan tees, so I'll trust her to know what she is talking about. Here is what she had to say with a few changes and some notes from me in red:Rapid is really a Yacht Rock guy and only a few steps away from joining Duran Duran on Simon Le Bon's boat. Slix dresses like he kind of is, but his shoes look like an indie boy (?). Fuda Guy... cap is a little bit 8-Ball Lucky Strike with the embroidered dice, but I guess he is big on the stitches with the hat like that, the embroidered Pink Panther on the knee and the ICE-B embroidery on the pocket.Fuda Guy in the IC
Thieves in the night 2007-10-22 18:26:00 Bizzle is on the cover of the NME this week / last week / whatever. I'm not saying a thing, but Gabrielle wears an eye patch for a reason, you know. I'm calling it Bizzlegate. It's like Fiascogate but without the Penfold glasses, bed wetting and snorting when laughing. You have to give credit to whoever does Lethal's press, though. They are doing an amazing job.Dirty Canvas on Friday was pretty amazing. Best night of the year maybe. So many MCs, everyone spitting their classic bars. President T, Flow Dan, everyone. Trigga and loads of Shadow Demon showed up and were riding grime, Skepta was doing his bars over drum and bass. It was so good I won't mention the fact that I had to DJ for like three hours at the start, then wait around till three in the morning because Coki didn't show for his set only for him to show up 10 mins before the end and get paid before me and more than me (for not even playing). I don't know what time I got home in the end but it was bright outside. Maybe
To my massive corporate events crew: get paper 2007-10-22 11:41:00 Here's the Dizzee and Sugarhill Gang video at last. Notice how Diz seems in a bit of a daze at the start, probably counting all the money in his head that he's no doubt getting for this show and thinking about how he'll spend it. Then he checks back on himself and realises people are watching so he does a few finger points. Big.And as a bonus, here's a video of Dizzee at some Nike event pulling up in a Lambo and then sprinting (all the way to the bank, presumably). Read more:massive
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Pon de gym mat, pon de bank 2007-10-26 09:27:00 Elephant Man has lost his mind. I thought Bad Boy had signed him to release music but it seems Diddy just wanted him to make some workout videos so he could work off his man boobs. A couple of points. First: why do they write "blazey" when he says "blasé"? Second: my favourite move is the hand cart.Don't Panic have put up an article where one of their journalists took Skepta on a date to the ballet. The best part for me is this:“Where is your carnation?” I challenge. “Oh shit yeah, I was told to bring one of those but I wasn’t sure what they were."It's worth a read but it certainly pales in comparison and significance to my dates with Shystie (at The Natural History Museum), Mizz Beats (at The Ritz) and Judy from "Pow" (at London Zoo).
Watch the goals they concede without me 2007-10-25 16:13:00 I can't find a picture to go with the text, so here is a random video. The stuff below is ex-RWD editor Matt Mason's liner notes he wrote for my mixtape about a year and a half ago when grime wasn't really going anywhere fast. I don't know why it's taken so long for me to put it up. I'm not even sure how it relates to my mixtape. But here it is:Hey, Grime, can I see you in my office for a minute? Thanks. Close the door, have a seat. Want a coffee? Sure?Ok, well, I'll get right to the point. Um... we've been getting a lot of complaints recently about you, and... there is no nice way to ask you this. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? I've just been told some fucking blogger named Prancehall is making a grime mixtape with VICE magazine. Bloggers? We did not hire you to hang out with bloggers. That's dubstep's job. When I left London you were right on track to become the greatest scene of all time in the making - "the bastard sons of Blair's Britian" transmitting your ang
"He confesses that his favourite sounds are sampled from Vin Diesel's car keys in a film..." 2007-10-29 17:32:00 Dan Hancox had an interview with Burial in the Guardian on Friday. Here is an interesting quote:"What I want is that feeling when you're in the rain, or a storm. It's a shiver at the edge of your mind, an atmosphere of hearing a sad, distant sound, but it seems closer - like it's just for you. Like hearing rain or a whale-song, a cry in the dark, the far cry."That last sentence reminds me of my review of his last album in Vice:"Can everyone stop saying that this is "a grower"!? This is the most uneventful, over-hyped piece of shit we've heard all year. If you're after an album that sounds like the mating calls between a group of libido-less whales, then run and smash open your little sister's piggy bank. It's boring, gawky 2-step with some token reggae samples and some crackles." I don't know why I gave it such a harsh review. I guess I hate hype. It wasn't that bad, but definitely not as good as everyone was saying. Anyway, can you see how I made the whale connection? It's l Read more:confesses
, Vin Diesel
SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO - HUSTLER (ROLL DEEP REMIX) 2007-11-06 09:52:00 Photo by Jamie-James MedinaLISTEN: SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO - HUSTLER (ROLL DEEP REMIX) WORLDWIDE EXCLUSIVE I don't know why I've used a picture with all the MCs in it because it's only an instrumental. You can see little DJ Target (who I'm guessing produced this) peeping his head out at the back, though. I will put the song up for download when it's released in a few weeks.---BTW, I've heard through the dubstepvine that Dizzee Rascal is doing an official vocal of Benga & Coki's "Night". I can't believe how big that song has got. It's everyone's profile song on MySpace. I heard Grooverider playing a really bad DnB remix of it last week which was basically the original sped up with an amen break on top. It's even big in the bassline house clubs up north. Just goes to show what can happen if you get a big song in Ayia Napa. I honestly think Skepta has helped a lot with getting that song recognised, like he did with "Midnight Request Line".
Willie Bounce 2007-11-06 07:56:00 There's an interview type thing with Elephant Man on VBS today. It's pretty funny. It was done while he was in the Bad Boy studios in NY. He seems to be doing pretty well for himself now, eh?One thing: Why is dancehall described as "The Jamaican equivalent to punk-rock"? It's not. It's the Jamaican equivalent of hip-hop. Why does everything have to be in terms of punk-rock? When people say stuff like that it makes them sound like they don't know what they're talking about.He's certainly come a long way since this - vocalling the Christmas Stagger Rhythm in someone's cupboard. Read more:Willie
, Bounce
Q: "What's been funny recently?" A: "Umm... Halloween? Britney? The drum-playing gorilla?" 2007-11-06 06:51:00 Following my post purporting that I had proof Lethal Bizzle could see just like most other people, I have been questioned by none other than Dan Hancox of the Dot Alt blog. He claims he wants to see a signed clean bill of health from a registered optician before he believes Bizzle is cured. I can't do that but I have some more proof above in the form of a video. After 2 minutes and 55 seconds, you see Maxwell staring into the camera for an extended period without his shades. In saying this, the video is a year old and it's only recently
he's been wearing the shades. Dan says someone should surprise Bizzle with a digicam and one of those optician's charts and challenge him to read from it. Maybe they should. Actually, if someone does that I will send them the new Kano album and a crate of Ribena.BTW, I like Mike Skinner. I really do. But who is this Example guy he seems to love so much? He just looks like a guy desperately trying to hide the fact he went to public school. Has he sol Read more:Halloween
, Britney
HE CAN SEE!!!!!! 2007-11-05 13:15:00 Gallows and Lethal Bizzle - "Staring at the Rude Bois"OMG! Bizzle takes his shades off at the end. He has been cured!!!
Laaaa-vaaaa 2007-11-05 08:03:00 I downloaded a free mixtape by Badness today (get it here). I'm into it. He fancies himself as a bit of a singjay it seems but I like that. Here are some of the best tracks:MP3: Badness - Scarred 4 LifeThere's loads of freestyles on big dancehall rythms like Red Bull & Guinness. Has anyone ever had Red Bull and Guinness? It's actually pretty disgusting. It tastes a bit like really horible cough medicine but without any of the good stuff like Promethazine or codeine. Anyway, this song is on the Tremor Rhythm, which I always play out because it's garage speed. The Sean Paul version is pretty good but he tried to do a screwed chorus and it comes off sounding like the bald guy from Aqua, which is unfortunate. S. Peezie does that a lot for some reason. He almost ruins his vocal on the Madness Rhythm with the same antics. BTW, if you haven't heard Madness you need to go and get it - it's 140 bpm dancehall with really trancey synths.MP3: Badness - Do Ya WorkThis one is on the Bad Dog Rh
$$$ 2007-11-04 17:03:00 It seems the ICA is useful for more than being a really, really, really unsuitable venue for a grime night. Two interesting films were shown there today. I didn't go to see either of them unfortunately so I've been spending a while finding out what I missed.The first is called Rent-A-Rasta. Here is some blurb from their website:When white women flock to Jamaica for a little fun in the sun, the R&R they're often looking for is not 'rest and relaxation' but to 'rent a Rasta', according to director J Michael Seyfert. His eye-opening exposé sheds light on a barely acknowledged form of sex tourism: white women who visit the Caribbean to sleep with black locals - as many as 80,000 such women from a variety of relatively wealthy Western nations come to Jamaica every year according to this film. Framed from the perspective of the history of Jamaica, from slavery through the rise of the Rastafari to the present, we are shown a pattern of utter subjugation and economic inequality, with
"Hyperbolic, arrogant and criminally under researched cool-jockey" 2007-11-01 20:11:00 Saw this on Channel U the other day as I was briskly and erratically flicking through the channels to watch that shining beacon of resplendent modern day urban televised fiction BKA Dubplate Drama. Quite a lot of randoms in Fire Camp now. I'm guessing Mr Oizo knows nothing about it but they should try and release it I think. Catchiest grime song in a long while.My friend Richard showed my this the other day. It seems this guy flew all the way from Japan to come and dance in the street at this weekly event in Downtown Kingston called Dutty Fridaze.Here is his female friend. This sums up the pointlessness of Bonfire Night and all that goes before it, IMHO, FYI... YGM?
I almost bought a fake Rolex today (long story) 2007-11-10 00:56:00 I just found this recent mix by DJ Wonder for Twin B's 1Xtra show. I don't have time to listen to it right now but the tracklist looks great. Says DJ Wonder: "It's a mix of grime/garage tracks from back in the day." O rly? Download hereTracklisting:01. L Luv U - Dizzee Rascal02. Killahertz - Agent X03. Jamhot - Geeneus04. Red - Artwork05. Hungry Tiger - Mos Wanted06. What Have You Done feat. Kano - Wonder07. Transmission - TNT08. Bounce - Donaeo09. Spring Roller - Plasticman10. It's All About - Macabre Unit11. Never Last - Wonder12. Ramp - Ms Dynamite13. Gutter Remix - Alias14. Midnight - Geeneus15. Unbreakable - Wonder16. Earth Warrior - Target17. Believe Me - DJ Wire18. Breakdown VIP - Wizzbit19. U Ain't Ready - Eastwood20. Nissi - TNT21. Go DJ - Zinc22. Saved Soul - Narrows---You can download Riko's set from the last Heatwave night here. MCing over rhythms like Applause and Good To Go, talking about his in-laws, acting drunk - just your usual Riko greatness. Read more:Rolex
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Toddla T and The Toddlers 2007-11-09 09:28:00 Hi. Here is an interview I did with Sheffield producer Toddla T for my music column in the new Vice. For some reason they took out the pic of him and replaced it with people dropping some mad crazy science all over the dancefloor, i.e. doing some breakdancing. Weird. Anyway, keep your ears open for Sinden and Count of Monte Cristal's remix of Toddla's "Do U Know?" - one of my favourite songs right now.Prancehall: You sound like someone who is trying to make dancehall/techno/garage/house/hip-hop all at once within the same track without coming across like those dicks who make stuff like Baltimore bootlegs of kuduro tracks with an Akon acappella and a Daft Punk sample hook, and describe their tastes as "eclectic". Tell me about that.Toddla T: Well I first started producing when I was about 16, which is when I started going raving. I was exposed to loads of stuff like electro, dancehall, house, techno etc. There are some wicked party DJs in Sheffield who mash it up really well - DJ Pipe Read more:Toddlers
Hold tight Richard Blackwood 2007-11-08 08:01:00 MP3: Bashy - Black Boys Remix feat. Chipmunk and Ms. DynamiteLoads more remixes to come featuring people like Goodz, Ghetto, Scorcher, Lethal B etc. They need to get Richard
Blackwood on one of the remixes, still. You remember when he used to rap? It would be alot [sic].---As well as all that unimportant, incidedental stuff like New Era ad campaigns and a range of clothes for Topshop, Kate Moross has finally had her big break - she is designing Ears' new mixtape cover. Read more:tight
ROFL 2007-11-07 07:25:00 NAA & Nitro - "Forever"Wow. Big Narstie has braided his hair into some Peter Andre-style curtains. As if his last look couldn't get any worse. Also, what's that thing he keeps doing with his index finger and thumb? Is that some sort of gang sign or is he miming giving a really half-hearted hand job to a badger? (BIGGEST NO HOMO EVER).
WOAH WOAH WOAHHHH... WHY DON'T YOU GO TO MACY'S AND SPEND SOME DOUGH-OH-OH? 2007-11-07 06:31:00 Ahhh man, how nice. Everyone's favourite dubstep MC, Crazy D, heard that I was off to NYC today so he's sent me some vouchers to use. Thanks, dude! I semi take back my comment about you being like an empty prison - a waste of bars.
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