Like many people approaching the big 40, the Beastie Boys have always held a special place in my heart and history. From stealing VW badges and wearing black bomber jackets with sewn on patches at the age of 14, to one of my favourite albums of all time ‘Ill Communication’ to still having faith in the music I love when ‘Hello Nasty’ dropped in a much abused hip hop world in 1998, I have always followed the Beastie Boys.

Perhaps this is why the recent passing of MCA has left a real hole in my heart, I never thought I held the Beastie Boys as close as I did, but, the thought of not anticipating a new album with MCA’s fantastic voice on leaves me saddened, to be honest that’s not the word I’m looking for, but, I guess I’m just a bit lost really. I remember once having a conversation with a friend in a pub about the Beastie Boys and we came to the conclusion that MCA’s voice was the kind of voice that could appear on any hip hop tune and sound ‘right’. He had the perfect ‘hip hop’ tone to his voice, whereas ‘Adrock’ and ‘Mike D’ always had that humorous feel to their vocal delivery and tone, ‘MCA’ brought the rugged and raw sound to compliment them.

Although, like most, I knew ‘MCA’ was having treatment for cancer, I didn’t realise things had gotten so bad. I found out on the Saturday morning after his death and spent the rest of the day thinking about nothing else. I visited Facebook to see a flood of tribute’s and links to videos, I wanted to post something on there, but, it just wasn’t enough and I couldn’t find the right words to say. I have decided to dedicate the rest of May to ‘MCA’ and feature him on the Heroes main page, not much really, just my little way of showing respect to 1/3 of a group that inspired, excited, amused me and quite frankly got me in a shit load of trouble when I was young.

I guess this has hit me harder than most other deaths in hip hop because of the timeline and connectivity I had with the Beastie Boys, I remember feeling a similar kind of grief when I heard about ‘Derek B’ but, nowhere near the same level as this, maybe because Derek wasn’t in the limelight as much when he passed and I wasn’t waiting for the next release or the next live video to appear on YouTube, I don’t know? Will the Beastie Boys continue, who know’s, but, one thing is for sure, they will never be the same, for me ‘MCA’ was the man, the Beastie Boys all shine on tunes, but, ‘MCA’ was the star with the biggest glow.

Keep the star shining, R.I.P. MCA, you will not be forgotten.

Peace
Websta
Heroes Of UK Hip Hop

Firstly, the heroesofukhiphop.com website is not a website dedicated to artists from the UK that have done the most for UK hip hop. It’s not a website about the biggest UK hip hop artists ever, it is simply a website dedicated to the roots of UK hip hop, the old school, the music I grew up with from around 84-96. Artists like Task Force, Skinnyman, Jehst etc. aren’t on there because they started dropping music late 90′s, early 2000′s etc. I mean no disrespect by leaving these artists off, they are simply a different generation to the artists featured on the website. Also, they are featured on and spoke about, on many other websites.

Secondly, the website only exists because of my love for the music I grew up with, I have NEVER made any money off the back of it. I use some of the money I work all week for to fund it, I spent months in my spare time putting it together, I update it when I get chance, so if I miss an artist off or don’t give an artist credit to a tune, or have got something wrong on there I apologise, but, if people are that offended by it how difficult is it to just send a POLITE email with the correct information?

Sorry rant over, but, hopefully I have cleared a few things up.

Public Enemy are releasing two new albums in 2012!

The first is dropping in June and is called ‘Most of My Heroes Still Don’t Appear on No Stamp‘ the second dropping in September entitled ‘The Evil Empire of Everything‘.

Now that’s the kind of news I like to hear

Added ‘Shure Shock’ to the Artists section plus Press pics of ‘Atorie‘ and ‘Logic Control MC’s’ under their pages.

These two tunes by RiRa (Scary Eire) are two of my favourites at the moment, had to make a post about them because I am really feeling them.

RiRa – Put A Wobble In Yer Cerebellum

This is a killer tune and the hook is get’s you, you can’t stop rhymin’ it, excellent beat, with quality lyrics, what more could you ask for. The depth of RiRa’s skills and experience in the scene shines through on this track, quality.

RiRa – What Goes On?

Excellent tune, that ‘Remark’ (Sublime Wizardry) put me onto last year and the video is genius.

RiRa’s album ‘Horses Work For Donkeys Wages’ is available for download below.

Discoscratch has announced the release of a new Whirlwind D EP within the next couple of months. Entitled ‘WD-40′ it contains three new tracks and instrumentals. All tracks are produced by Discoscratch’s very own ‘Waxer’ and engineered by ‘The Assembly Worker’.

For more information and samples of the tracks visit discoscratch.co.uk.

Taken from the 4 Pillars Facebook page:

“The 4 Pillars are the foundation of Hip Hop; each pillar represents one of the following:

Aerosol Art, MC’s, DJ’s and last but by no means least, B-Boys.

Many people claim to be involved in Hip Hop but only seem to represent one or two of the 4 pillars. Hip Hop culture is EVERYWHERE and has touched EVERY genre of music. If the truth be told, Hip Hop is more than a culture; it’s a way of life and what we aim to bring to you at the 4 Pillars party is a night of pure Hip Hop in its true essence, whether you’re from the old school or the new school, we are one and all are welcome.

June 22nd 2012 is the launch date of the first 4 Pillars party and will be held at the Underdog Gallery, Cricifix Lane, London SE1 3JW 

Organisers of the 4 Pillars party (Son of Noise) have teamed up with peers from the Hip Hop scene and will be performing on the night alongside MCM and Kamanchi Sly. There will be live DJ Sets from DJ Renegade, DJ Mada and DJ Big Ted, plus special guests. There will also be live B-Boying from the Soul Mavericks and Aerosol Art from Mode2, Airheads, Hatch and Jaz. The Aerosol Art will be auctioned at a later date and the proceeds will be donated to The Prince’s Foundation for Children and The Arts.

Please spread the word by sharing this page and/or by word of mouth and we hope to see you there.”

On Saturday 28th April 2012 Positive Pressure Productions present Katch 22, MC Mell’O’ & DJ Big Ted, DJ Murphy and the Positive Pressure Sound System live at Galvanik Zug, Chamerstrasse 173, 6301 Zug, Switzerland. I was originally told that DJ Supreme was accompanying Katch 22, not sure why it’s not on the flyer, unless someone can confirm why?

Fat Club are making all of their previous albums available for FREE download on their band camp page. Available to download now is the 2004 banger ‘Venomous Tongues’, go grab them from the link below.

Fat Club Bandcamp Page

From the label that brought you the ‘Regroup The Loops’ EP, Fat Hop, comes the brand new 12″ from 32 Troop (The Criminal Minds) ‘To The Core’, featuring the talents of Iceski, Inzaine, Paranoia MC, Safe D, ill Inspired, Kraze One, Diceman, Boothy, High Fly, DJ Tones, Parker Tronic, Voices from the Ether, Jerome Hill, Merlin & Spatts.

It’s an orange Vinyl only release and limited to 200 copies so, if they haven’t already sold out, go and grab a copy now from Jerome Hill (Fat Hop label) on Discogs (link below).

Purchase it HERE!