Slugga Tee - Passages From The Puddle

From the Millennium Jazz stable comes Slugga Tee and his solo EP, Passages From The Puddle, Bobbysix's 25ThC gives his verdict:

Slugga Tee built up his name with an abundance of features throughout the years and was the frontman for 12” Matter, who you may remember achieved Hip Hop Single of the Week and 5 out of 5 Stars from DJ Magazine for their seminal track Sunshine Coast. Slugga now rolls with the Millenium Jazz Team and presents his first EP featuring six tracks as a free digital download (available from Millenium Jazz Music). 

Opener Same Old Struggle, featuring MC’s Gadget and ReggiiMental, charts the reality of everyday life in Britain today. It describes the lives of the single mum with a fake tan who “drinks through the pain till she blacks out” through to the kids who “roll with a trigger in tow”. On The Reunion, Slugga recounts attending a school reunion. The track is filled with funny lines but also tinged with sadness at how all of his peers have grown up and changed in ways that he would not have believed possible.


Elsewhere, Love and Hate is the very personal and heartfelt account of a loving relationship. At the start the union is so deep and tight and continues throughout the tragedy of a custody battle for his two young daughters. Then the mind games start and trust slips away until the relationship has to be ended. The chorus says it all, “I love to hate you and I hate to love you/but this is my thank you and this is my fuck you,” and the track is indicative of the EP's high standard, both lyrically and musically.

The EP is FREE and very good, so download it now!

Review by 25ThC

Jehst album launch at Fabric

  
BobbySix.com reviewer 25ThC went along to the offical launch party for Jehst's new album, Dragon of an Ordinary Family at Fabric:

Jehst, one of UK Hip Hop's legends hasn't released a solo album since 2006's Nuke Proof Suit, so his latest offering Dragon of an Ordinary Family has been eagerly anticipated. To launch the album, he put on an epic party at Fabric on 17th June and the place was packed with fans new and old. Micall Parkinsun warmed up the crowd briefly before Jehst - William G. Shields if we're being formal - came onto the stage to Starting Over - the first single off the album. The single was launched by a viral music marketing video portraying a fan secretly filming his postman who turns out to be Jehst.

Jehst swiftly moved through tracks from his back catalogue including People Under The Weather and Hydroblowback, interspersing them with new tracks. Most notable was his acapella version of new track England, a stark and poignant description of the current state of the country which ends with the line, "I still got love for the place that I'm living/But right now theres nothing great about Britain." Jehst then rolled into Weed and pulled up onto the stage another legend, Evil Ed (pictured above, middle, with Micall Parkinsun right) - who produced the track - to great acclaim from an increasingly fervant crowd. The new tracks all stood up next to their older siblings and it appears that Jehst has released yet another classic hip-hop album. The night continued with Rob Swift of the X-Ecutioners scratching it up, followed by Mr Thing and Harry Love battling it out.

Words and pictures by 25ThC

Here's the aforementioned video to Starting Over:

Getting To Know... Big Dumb Kid

Indie/electronica artist, Big Dumb Kid, is about to take residency at MUM at Sydney's World Bar, playing every Friday in April (except Good Friday). We find out more about him:

I would describe my music as a popular blend of electronic sounds with hip hop beats, which in this day and age is a pretty broad statement. Typically I enjoy using a vast library of different sounds and I don’t limit myself to the same instruments on each song. I like big synth sounds but I also love acoustic pianos. I like the delivery of Hip Hop lyrics but I love the storytelling in Folk music. Oh and I love acoustic snares with tonnes of reverb! My formula tends to be pretty consistent but my execution is always changing.

I'm inspired by good music, good people and good times. I know it sounds pretty cheesy to put it like that, but that’s what it comes down to. When I sit down to compose music, I fantasize an emotion or event and build a mood off that. And lyrically I just write about what I know and what I have experienced, from big nights out to playing video games.

I grew up in the Western suburbs of Sydney and was always in awe when I came to the City as a kid. So naturally I moved here and it’s not really like I imagined it to be. During the week there are swarms of people doing their own thing and having fun, there is always something interesting going on in Sydney. Although there is something about weekends that attracts this weird subculture of jerks who take far too much ecstasy and go out looking to fight people. This sometimes makes really cool venues uncomfortable to be in. I enjoy the Inner Western Suburbs, it’s sociable, it’s genuine and it’s home.

If I could only listen to three albums for the rest of my life, they would be:
Elliott Smith - Figure 8
Wu-tang Vs The Beatles - Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Etiquette

It might surprise people to learn that I am six feet and six inches tall.

In five years time I plan on being seven feet tall… and rich.

Check out the track below, and find more of Big Dumb Kid's stuff on his Myspace page.



Interview by Rob Townsend.

Public Enemy to play one-off show in Melbourne

Hip-hop legends Chuck D, Flavor Flav, DJ Lord and The S1W's – aka Public Enemy - are hitting Australia in December. In a one-off show, they will perform their groundbreaking album Fear of a Black Planet at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel on December 29th.

Before hip-hop became a bragging tool revolving around pimps, hos, money and bling, the likes of Public Enemy were musically relentless and politically fearless. They were crusaders, ramming their messages down the public's throats. Enemy's 1990 album, Fear of a Black Planet was forthright in its attack on America's racism to the extent that it shifted one million copies in its first week of release in the USA alone. In 2003 it was ranked number 300 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time and in 2004 was chosen by the Library of Congress in the US to be added to the National Recording Registry.

Twenty years on, Public Enemy are heading to Australia, and are set to prove that the album and its creators are as relevant and important as ever.

Tickets go on sale this Friday, via The Corner Hotel or Select Touring