NEWS: Weave Advocates Azealia Banks x Lady Gaga Team Up

Azealia experiments with hair accessorising, Liquorice

Earlier this week at the GQ Men of the Year Awards capped by Capital FM, Azealia Banks confirmed a collaboration with pop sensation Lady Gaga that may make the latter’s ARTPOP album.

I worked on a song for her. I don’t know if it will make her record. I hope it will, but we’ll wait and see. 

Azealia is somewhat of a lyrical athlete: rapid and ready to run beats she has in firm control, ad-libs that serve as limbering up to shoot sharp tongued raps. A prolific musician with fashion thirst Gods by her side - aspects Gaga is no stranger to. Banks has also recently secured a limited edition Yung Rapunxel lipstick with M.A.C. featured in her 1991 video:

Graeme Virtue for The Guardian purports AB as something of the Disney princess, Fantasea mixtape

Yung Rapunxel and Mother Monster, respectively

Nodding to her alias with further references in her tour The Mermaid Ball, Banks assures she would make a fitting weave apprentice to the sisterhood of bastardised Disney acts, giving spearheaders Gaga and Nicki Minaj a run for their money. Regularly donning and Tweeting hair pieces at least 30 inches, the young Harlemite weave enthusiast that frequently odes hair maintenance seeks to elongate and dip dye as a mark of status where Gaga re-imagines weave concepts altogether. Sealing the unknown track on ARTPOP’s 2013 release will boost Banks into further standing in fashion with Gaga’s co-sign. Anyone else anticipating the charted proof and weave rivalry between these two?

NEWS: The Africa Express Musicultural Festival on Wheels

Musical politics on The Africa Express

Today The Africa Express rolls into London, a train carrying musicians from both the African and Western sphere. Having toured Middlesbrough, Glasgow, Cardiff and Bristol, Gorillaz and Blur frontman Damon Albarn is leading the crew of over 80 musicians back to Kings Cross.

Kano, Paul McCartney & Damon Albarn

Arriving at the point of multiculturalism, the creatives coming out of their respective genres including Hip Hop, Rock, Afrobeats and Electronic have all mixed, jammed and caboosed in the name of musicianship. Achieving influence from environment including schools, factories and shopping centres, the forged musical assortment has built a platform to display genuine artistry.

Cotching within the festival on wheels are the UK’s own Afrikan Boy and Kano part of the West collective, met by reps of Africa Tony Allen and Nneka. Spontaneity, mash-ups and relentless advertising of diversity are clear. It almost reads like a bunch of musicians re-living their glory days that are too real for this gimmick stuff. Shame it’s sponsored by London 2012. Screams post-racist Britain but makes you wonder if there’s a class system in place among the carriages. But I suppose the point is if Rizzle Kicks can manage to vibe well with Hypnotic Brass Ensemble or land a successful soundcheck with Femi Kuti, then genre crossovers should be a thing not reserved only for remixes and diversity campaigns.

www.africaexpress.co.uk

REVIEW: Izzy Veron @ The Fiddlers Elbow

Unintentional low profile gigs remind me of busking: Unpretentious, raw, yet still a demand for attention. Musicians are more honest during their humble beginnings, and quietly confident grafter Izzy Veron testified to this when I rolled up to The Fiddlers Elbow - a fitting modest setting detached from the buzz of Camden.

Izzy, centre-stage, remains a strong voice to resuscitate UK R&B

Izzy managed to blur the punk-postered venue to set a potent chill R&B feel. Among the supportive accolades and braps from friends, Izzy led us through the emotions of three self-written tracks. Conveying desire via voyeuristic lust in Alien Boy, Izzy wrapped the set up with He Said (Acoustic), her most worked on track (prod. by Enjay) which she noticeably came alive in that narrates the echoes of the deeply felt past we hear on second track, Reminisce:

I need to wake up in about three hours, get in the shower, gotta go to work, 'cause I like getting money...

Striking the correct chords in her ability to vibe and emote an independent South London sass that resonated through Fiddlers, pouncing wall-to-wall of a venue with room to be filled. Guided by the impressive capabilities of guitarist Elliott Blackler and drummer Tom Clarke, Izzy kept it short, sweet and effective in her particular range of timeless romantic tales. Check out the one on false promises, her debut video He Said:

REVIEW: Benga Salutes The Skank @ Leeds Mint Club, European Tour

 

Skanking is cardiovascular exercise. There should be a Skanking Association, so shout out to Dubstep for appealing to this dance and keeping the movement alive. Back in February I was given the opportunity to attend one leg of Benga's tour and lapped it up. Two things about these nights: Maintain stamina, sobriety isn't optional.

Benga on deck: Fans up close and personal

Dubstep is simply the sound of chaos and panic. It is the aural version of a heart attack, that is it. Your typical Dubstep night usually includes an assembly line of “edgy” Topshop Belle Amie doppelgangers, lads clad in winter wear, sweat, dirty drops and the expectancy to be bitchslapped by a bingo wing from a roused skanker at some point. Since this was Benga, noted Dubstep pioneer, this idea of the scene was amplified. Though unfortunately, on this night, all that was amplified was the hype in a distinctly small venue, Leeds Mint Club. 

Energy: Leeds Uni & Leeds Met students upholding skankin' stamina

 The energy omitted from the dizzying electric blue lights, the steam room full of skankers that did not falter in giving rise to the gun finger as a signal of celebration – it was a furnace. Benga managed to capture the repetitive glitched sound of Dubstep to the joy of his disciples. With every seamless transition, everything was compositionally destroyed. The lights now ranged from red to Hulk green and there was a general influx of pyrotechnics. Even the security guards were skanking. Regrettably it ended there: smoke and mirrors, with a longing for the introducing set that remained experimental mixing both early UK Garage and modern Dubstep. 

Benga vibes with fans

On this day, the content was not there for Benga the DJ, with the night progressing into an anticlimax with MC Youngman on standby for vocal support. His latest track I Will Never Change may have induced a brief skank, but the set lacked diversity. Maybe it was because his afro was distinctively smaller, disallowing him from channelling the full-on Afro Warrior. Maybe it was the absence of the full trio of Magnetic Man. Still, the hype was amazing, ending on a festival feel with people propped up on shoulders and Benga’s ‘fro floating into the Dubstep masses.

* This review was meant to be in conjunction with an interview with Benga. Questions posed to him were: 

1. What sort of sound are you hoping to achieve with MC Youngman on side? 
2. Are there any key influences on your music? 
3. What about your 'fro? Is that an influence? 
4. What do you class as your best track to date? 
5. You do gun fingers a lot as your mode of skankin. Describe your best skanking experience. 
6. Perhaps for the remainder of your tour there should be more full body skanking? 
7. How is solo work going without Skream and Artwork [2/3 producers making up Magnetic Man]? 
8. I was at the gig in Leeds (Mint Club) which is a pretty small venue, but you still crowdsurfed. Do you prefer to perform in small or large venues? 
9. You're classed as one of dubstep's pioneers. Being around to witness its evolution, what do you think about the argument that it's now 'too mainstream'? 
10. Any music resolutions for this year?

He did not respond.

REVIEW: Watch The Throne, The Divine Right of Kings

Righteous album art, Watch the Throne

The announcement of Jay-Z and Kanye West's European Watch the Throne Tour and acquiring tickets has given me the push to bump the album review I wrote in August, when it was released. It's done very well, mainly because they figured out a way to amp listeners up while also discussing status issues. Remember when Kanye would frequently go on ostentatious Twitter rants? Turns out that was relevant and not the musings of a mad man without a Publicist. Note: Niggas in Paris is rinsed, but rightly so. That Mary-Kate & Ashley pun is tough, but when Kanye asserts:

What’s Gucci my nigga?/What’s Louis my killa?/What’s drugs my dealer?/What’s that jacket, Margiela? 

He is performing two jobs. On one hand, he's saluting the hood. On the other, he references aspects of luxe life in a crescendo as he graduates into higher status; second in command to Jay-Z. It's an identity game where he almost says recognise me, hood to Hollywood. During his early College Dropout days Kanye's extent of fashion awareness was limited to Louis Vuitton. A bit Mickey Mouse, he used to go by Louis Vuitton Don. But he's developed, and he wants us to know work ethic has him able to identify and stunt in Maison Martin Margiela. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Check it out:

Jay-Z & Kanye West perform Niggas in Paris over 3 times @ London 02

In a genre where flossing remains prominent, razzle dazzle is a great strategy for a rap release. Wrapped in a sparkling gold album cover with tag-team rhymes in between extended king metaphors, the  conflations of greatness that classifies Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch The Throne bedazzles listeners into an examination of their rap Kingdom. Moving from mature insights into material wealth (Gotta Have It) and justified bragging rights (Niggas in Paris), to a humanised inspection of their status as rap Gods introduced by 'New Day', the pair crush anticipations of an anticlimactic album laced in currency rhymes by driving their regal theme home: ‘I tried to teach niggas how to be kings’ (Why I Love You). Acting as lyrical instructors on how to "crawl before you ball", Carter and West claim authority, asserting that we watch and learn and prove that they are befitting kings by consistently offering creative conceptual raps, fulfilling their duties. Bow down.