“Kick Snare And An Idea Part 2” is out on 10th June on Tru Thoughts. The second of two singles by Ty under the “Kick Snare And An Idea EP” banner, this package brings two more new songs. It closely follows “Part 1”, which made a widespread impact in April, including Official BBC 6Music Playlisting and MTV Base Playlisting for lead cut “Like You Never”, in-depth interviews with DJ 279 (Choice FM) and Huey Morgan (BBC 6Music), and repeat airplay from MistaJam (BBC 1Xtra) and Charlie Sloth (1Xtra), among heavy media support.

“Let’s Start”; the last single announced Ty’s bold intentions, and this track continues the proactive, frank and forward-looking message that has captured the public’s attention. The theme is set over a unique groove, a built-up arrangement that is neither fast nor slow, with cuts provided by Harry Love. In Ty’s words, the lyrics are “hopeful yet firm….There is a change in music coming, and this song heralds that change. We want substance over empty pop rhetoric and we want to have fun”. The video, which features an inspirational lone b-girl dancer, Teneisha Bonner, has premiered with an exclusive on MTV Base and will launch online imminently.

The second track, “Well Well Well” is a tribal 4-to-the-floor musical experiment; out-there inventive, yet with a supremely catchy, breezy feel. Collaborators on this exciting track include drummer Richard Spaven (Flying Lotus/4Hero/Jose James/Cinematic Orchestra), Joy Jones on co-vocals and Jason Yarde (Manu Dibango/Plan B) on horns. “It’s me breaking from the norm”, says Ty; “One Verse, One Message Overall, One Human Race.”

The release will also feature a set of killer remixes, to be announced, as well as Instrumentals and A Cappellas.

Digital EP Links – A Kick Snare And An Idea:
http://bit.ly/aksaai_itunes
http://bit.ly/aksaai_amazon
http://bit.ly/aksaai_juno
http://bit.ly/aksaai_etch

Limited Edition 10″ Vinyl – A Kick Snare And An Idea (plus all Ty’s back catalogue) can be purchased directly from:
http://www.tymusicstore.co.uk

A Kick Snare And An Idea – Related Music Videos

Ty – Like You Never

Ty – Let’s Start

Connect with Ty

Tweets by tymusic

http://www.facebook.com/TYMusicFanpage
http://tinyurl.com/ckuvphk

“Broken 40 Bottles” ft. Brown Bag Allstars Produced By @UndefinedMLM

May21

Undefined comes through with the first leak off his upcoming Producer EP, Certified-A-Side.

“Broken 40 Bottles” features the Brown Bag Allstars going in heavy over some signature Undefined Production.

Look for the full EP dropping in June on DCM / Crisis Center. Also featuring Outerspace, Nature, Nutso, Little Vic, Peter Leo, UG, Banish, NBS, Reef The Lost Cauze, Sycksyllables, Typ Ill, Mann 95, Famoso, King Syze, Relik..

Undefined
https://twitter.com/UndefinedMLM
http://www.dcmhiphop.com

Eurogang – Spit TV Freestyle @eurogang @linkuptv

May21

Dead Ott (of Styxmen) Interview @styxmen @parkstreetpr

May21

Please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you’ve released so far and other interesting stuff you think our readers would like to know! Ok, I’m Dead Ott, an emcee from Oxford, one half of the group Styxmen with my parter in rhyme Prophit. In the last couple of years we’ve released two EPs and our debut full length album, ‘Styx & Bones’ in January this year. We’ve always made our own stuff too, and this year I’m looking to release three solo EPs. The first one, ‘Dead To The World’ has just dropped, and I’m in the process of writing the second one at the moment.

So long have you been making music and what or who got you into music? We’ve been making our own little brand of UK hip hop for over 10 years now, but to be fair we’ve only started taking it seriously in the last couple of years. By that I mean, trying to push our stuff out there a bit. We’ve always been serious about making music but never taken it further than that. As for who got me into music, it has to be my parents. I was blessed with two parents who lived and loved good music. I was brought up on a healthy diet of jazz, blues, Motown, rock and roll, everything you need as a kid! My Dad was up on music big time, and he got me into things like trip hop and drum and bass when I was growing up. My Dad was bumping D&B loooooong before I was! As for hip hop, I found my own way into that world.

What was the first record you ever brought? The first record I ever bought, I’m very proud to say, was MC Hammer ‘Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em’ in 1990. I knew and probably still know every single word, and loved ‘Crime Story’ which was the first gangsta rap song I ever heard! I was seven years old so you can allow me! But from early I loved rapping! I didn’t know what hip hop was, and growing up in the countryside and without Sky TV I had zero exposure to hip hop. But I loved rapping, whatever beat it was over. I loved that Bart Simpson tune back in the day coz he was rapping! I loved all those early rave and acid house tunes that had proper bait MCs on them! I was just always into rap. The record that changed my life and made me the hip hop junkie I am today was the Beastie Boys’ ‘Hello Nasty’. After that I never looked back.

So why do you rap and what’s your main motivation and inspiration? Coz I can’t sing! Nah only joking. Like I just said, i was always fascinated by rap and once I got into hip hop I knew I wanted to do this. I quickly gobbled up the whole Beastie Boys back catalogue, knew every lyric, and used to pretend I was the fourth Beastie. I’m 16 at this stage, so again you can allow me! Then me and Prophit linked up properly when we were 17 and it was him that got me into rapping. At first I didn’t wanna write any bars and used to just rap Beastie’s lyrics, but eventually we got writing together and I’ll always be thankful to him for pushing me into doing this. Back then we used to record our vocals over US hip hop instrumentals like ‘Nuttin But A G Thing’ onto tape, and then dub the tapes so we could record covers and ad-libs. Then we used to show them around school like we were sick rappers haha! Trust me it took a while for us to find our style! My main motivation is that I love hip hop, and I can’t dance, paint or DJ so I gotta rap!I love this shit! I have to be a part of it! We’ve never looked for stardom or anything like that, just happy making good music that our crew appreciates. Thats the great thing for me about UK hip hop, every crew has their own style and way of doing things which is completely different from the next, which gives our scene a real buzz, one that the US used to have in the early 90s.

How would you briefly describe your latest release to a first time listener? I haven’t made a solo record for nearly 10 years, so to be honest this was me seeing if I still had it in me. When you’re part of a duo, you get used to sharing the load and bouncing ideas of each other. We’ve been doing it together so long it just falls into place. So this year I wanna try and do my own thing, and showcase what I can do over the three releases. This EP is all me, produced, written, rapped, I did the album artwork, filming and editing a video at the mo, pretty much the lot. I couldn’t release anything without a Prophit verse, so I got him in for ‘Back Again’ and a good friend of mine sang the chorus for ‘Show Me The Way’. The whole thing was recorded, mixed and mastered by Chemo, and I can’t thank him enough for making this EP sound so tight. The next EP is gonna be me rapping over other peoples beats, I got a couple from Runone and one from Chemo so far. Then the third EP is gonna be just me producing for other MCs. So if anyone is interested in being on that let me know.

If someone reading this had not heard of you before and only had time to listen to one track of yours which track would you play them and why? I’d say ‘Bad Scratch’, which is a Styxmen tune we made last year. It sums up our style perfectly: booming beat, jokes lyrics, sick sample at the end which made the tune complete. Its all about the perils of not strapping up before you fuck, so you know we’re bringing that positive message haha!!

If you weren’t involved in the music industry what do you reckon you’d be doing instead? To be honest I’m not really involved in the music industry. I’m a full time hip hop fan, but I’ll admit I’m a part time rhymer, as one of my lyrics goes “I’m making music but I’m not a musician / make your girl disappear but I ain’t no magician!” Nowadays I work full time doing early intervention work with children and families, which I love doing and gives me a chance to get kids into music and media and a whole load of opportunities they might not otherwise get. So I obviously don’t have the time I had when I was younger to dedicate to making music, which is a massive shame but thats life. I’m still gonna rep hip hop every day and do as much as I can to contribute to this culture. My ultimate goal is to have my own studio and run a charity out of it getting kids into music and recording in the studio for free and doing social action projects. Its a long way off, but you gotta have a dream!

Do you think the recession will displace bling-era rappers in favour of more well-rounded ones in the mainstream? No I don’t think it will, coz lets be honest, none of those bling rappers actually own any of that gold and ice that they’re wearing anyway. Its lent to them by the record company who ultimately own the artist and dress them up as they see fit, according to the current trend or fashion. And as long as that element is in hip hop, there will always be fake-ass bling rappers! Hip hop used to create its own fashion, now it follows the fashion of pop stars, which is real sad for me. Thankfully that shit has never taken off in the UK, where we always go for substance over style.

What’s your take and views on Hip-Hop at the moment? UK-wise, I definitely feel like we are in the middle of the second ‘Golden Age’ of hip hop and its all getting created over here. The beautiful thing about the scene over here is there isn’t really any interest from mainstream media, they got sub-par grime MCs for all that bling shit. That allows everyone else just to get on and create what they want without any outside influences, which gives a much wider musical spectrum coz nobody is forced to follow any trends or styles or fashions. I love UK hip hop right now. As for the US, for me Nas was right! Hip hop died a death over there! The problem in my ears is the beats getting made out there. There’s no real hip hop being made anymore. No boom bap. Its all this bait dance music shit. It doesn’t matter how good an MC is, I can’t listen to wack beats! Just the same as I don’t really like listening to accapellas, for me its all about how the MC rides a sick beat. So people like Kendrick Lamar, who everyone is buzzing about, I dunno if he’s any good coz his beats are too bait for me to listen to! I gotta admit though, its good to see people like Action Bronson and Joey Badass coming outta the US and straight killing it! Hopefully they can kick start something over there.

What’s been your favourite Hip-Hop release of the year so far? Thats tough coz there’s been some real good shit already but the first thing that came into my head was ‘The Shadow People’ by Trellion, Figment & Third Person Lurkin. That shit is sooo ill, I bumped it non-stop for about 6 weeks! For me, Bad Taste Records are killing it, and their style of hip hop is completely different from anything I’ve heard before. Thats what I’m always looking for in hip hop, that shit with a different element. Sniff & Morriachi’s ‘Brainwave Canvas’ was huge and Dirty Dike’s new one is pure fire! As for the US, I’m really feeling Curly Castro’s ‘FIDEL’, thats a solid release and something real different again.

Success is a very broad word nowadays and it means different things to different people, but what’s your definition of success? The way I’ve always judged my tunes, if my lot like it then its a success. If they don’t its back to the drawing board. If other people outside our crew like it as well, then thats all bonus points! As long as I’m healthy, happy and with my people, I’ll always be successful. And if I can get a few more heads into real hip hop, more bonus points!

Do you have a website, if not what’s your other website links? Right here we go:

Dead Ott Bandcamp – http://www.deadott.bandcamp.com
Dead Ott Blog – http://www.styxmen.blogspot.co.uk
Dead Ott Youtube – http://www.youtube.com/deadott
Styxmen Bandcamp – http://www.styxmen.bandcamp.com
Styxmen Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/theStyxmen
Styxmen Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/styxmen Styxmen
Reverbnation – http://www.reverbnation.com/styxmen

Like it, share it, tweet it, subscribe, all of that business! There’s loads of free tunes all over the place so go get em all!

Before you go tell us something really interesting or funny about yourself that no one knows or might not know! I can grow a mean white boy afro! I was blessed/cursed with ridiculously thick, wiry, wavy, curly hair which grows up instead of down. If I don’t keep it under control I end up looking like a cross between Leo Sayer and Ludacris! Look out for that on an album cover one day hahaha!

Interview by Scott Patterson

XODUS “Go Away”

May21

Dominican-American rapper/producer XODUS presents his new single “Go Away”, produced by Long Island beatsmith Paulie Monster. “It was 2005; I was young, trying to form my priorities,” the Washington Heights NYC native says about “Go Away”‘s genesis. “I’ve always been in a rush and I felt like if I kept spending time out in the street, there was no way I was going to find myself in time to do something great. So, I was literally locked away in a basement, in a long-term, long-distance relationship, and struggling with my own brain chemistry—trying to learn the key to my own happiness so I could begin the pursuit. I brought on my own introspective depression and Go Away was probably all I would have had the energy to mutter if I could have personified pain and exchanged words.” XODUS is pioneer of the Color Me Different movement, which he explains as “a consciousness, a philosophy. It’s about making your own decisions based upon your unique perspective; developing yourself through thought and self-analysis, rather than just embracing a societal default in order to ensure acceptance. ‘Reject the ordinary, embrace the ordinance.'” A full-length project is currently in the works.

Arise King David Interview #ukhh @AriseKingDavid @ParkStreetPR

May21

Please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you’ve released so far and other interesting stuff you think our readers would like to know! I go by the name Arise King David, emcee/producer, lover of Hip Hop. I’ve been making music since 1998 and used to go by the names Flawless and Darknight back when I was with Strictly Bizzness. With Strictly Bizzness I released a compilation called Handlin Bizzness in 2000, an LP entitled Frontline Soldiers in 2002, and another compilation imaginatively entitled ‘The Takeover’ in 2005. I took a long break and last year summer 2012 released my first solo project entitled ‘Free Music’ for digital download. ‘Free Music’ received really positive feedback and I didn’t really have the means to promote it much, as such I’ve re-released it this year giving it more of a push. People got to hear this!!

So how long have you been making music and what or who got you into music? I’ve been making music for about 15 years. As a child growing up in the 90’s, Hip Hop really moved me. The beats shook me to my core and I guess I was Hip Hop before I even knew what it was. That came from growing up with films like Breakin, and hearing tracks like ‘Hey you’ by the Rocksteady crew on Now thats what I call Music tapes in the late 80’s, hearing Ice T on tracks like Reckless etc. I didn’t start writing though until 1994 after I heard Biggie’s Ready to Die album. Hearing how he expressed himself inspired me and the rest they say is history.

What was the first record you ever brought? Turtle Power So why do you rap and what’s your main motivation and inspiration? Its a way to express myself creatively in a medium I’m most comfortable with. I like to tell stories, paint pictures and offer social commentary. Hip Hop has done so much for me I cant even explain the depths of my love for the ting so this is my contribution, I want to give back whilst staying true to the art form and culture.

How would you briefly describe your latest release to a first time listener?
An intricately woven sonic tapestry, a story of freedom, emancipation, liberation, growth and creativity. Hip Hop.

If someone reading this had not heard of you before and only had time to listen to one track of yours which track would you play them and why? ‘Nkrumah Salute’ because its edifying, I get to educate, tell an interesting story and make you nod your head at the same time.

If you weren’t involved in the music industry what do you reckon you’d be doing instead? Working with underprivileged children.

Do you think the recession will displace bling-era rappers in favour of more well-rounded ones in the mainstream? Haha I think thats a funny question, I’m not sure to be honest. I think half the bling stories are hype anyway and their wares were either rented or cheap as chips so that might not change. The mainstream is often about selling a desired lifestyle, its not always based on reality so those susceptible to it may still be drawn in same way.

What’s your take and views on Hip-Hop at the moment? Im loving it at the moment, I feel a renaissance coming. Im hearing more diversity and creativity again, I’m re inspired.

What’s been your favourite Hip-Hop release of the year so far? Maaan thats a tough one so I’m going to answer out of the box. An illustrator/Artist by the name EL AY DeeZigns ‘released’ a painting of DJ Premier on facebook earlier this year, you can see it at https://www.facebook.com/elaydeezignsfanpage Its Hip Hop all day! Much respect to El Ay Deezigns.

Success is a very broad word nowadays and it means different things to different people, but what’s your definition of success? When hundreds of thousands of Hip Hop fans can say they know of my contributions to Hip Hop then i’ve been successful. If my music has touched or inspired anyone in anyway, then I’ve been successful.

Do you have a website, if not what’s your other website links? http://www.arisekingdavid.com

Before you go tell us something really interesting or funny about yourself that no one knows or might not know!

Erm I compose for orchestra and write music for TV, film theatre etc. Get at me.

Interview by Scott Patterson