COOL MUSIC; WHAT'S OUT THERE?

WARNING: THERE ARE A LOT OF VIDEOS IN THIS POST, IF YOU WATCH EVERY VIDEO FROM BEGINNING TO END, I HAVE WORKED OUT THAT YOU'LL BE ON MY POST FOR THE NEXT 2 HOURS OF YOUR LIFE. JUST WATCHED A FEW MINUTES OF EACH. FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.

Okay, this is just going to be a short(ish) post. A shortish post that should educate you more about the grime scene, outside of London. Yes, yes, yes, we've all heard of Skepta, Wiley, Frisco, P Money, K Koke, JME, to name a few. BUT how clear a bell do these names ring? Marshy, A9, KB, Dorris, JayKae, Gino, Mez, Eyez, Dankz.....  Hmm, I thought so. Well these are the names of MCs who have been representing their 'ends' for the past few years now, all with different flows, bars, styles, fashions and goals not too mention accents. Without London and the Godafther, Wiley, the whole idea of grime theoretically may have never started, London has done very well to give the grime scene one demographic, one face. With the help of social media channels, grime now has many faces, many different demographics and a lot of accents.

The main grime following outside of London can be found in the Midlands, east and west but predominantly in Birmingham and then in Nottingham. Awareness has been raised in these areas mainly via YouTube and the work of online grime media channels, such as, JDZ Media and P110, that operate on YouTube. Both have emulated characteristics of the father of all YouTube media channels, SB.TV.

 I personally am a huge advocate for The Midland's grime music, what attracted me to it was the individually that  each rapper possesses. Crews like Invasion from Birmingham are a team of talented MCs coming in all in different shapes and sizes, MCs are solely judged on talent and how much their bars are believed, no matter what the bars are. This is better than being judged on what clothes you're wearing and how many times you've 'banged a strap', no? 

Anyway let the lessons begin! I'm going to kick it off with some videos of artists from Birmingham..

Invasion Alert - Vader, Hitman, C-Dash, Tazzle, JayKae (LOTM4), Depz (LOTM4), D2(LOTM5), Sox(LOTM3), Villain (In Order)

Here's some more talent from Brum..

Jaykae (Invasion)

KB & SafOne (StayFresh)

Devilman, the grime veteran of Birmingham who was banned from MCing, after an incident in which he was found to have snitched on a close friend. Devilman famously clashed Skepta (BBK) in LOTM2!

P110 have definitely been the main advocates for Birmingham, with JDZ raising awareness for surrounding parts of the Midlands. Other media channels have been around for a while as well, doing the same thing that the three platforms mentioned are currently doing. Here's a cypher from one of those channels.. UGX (UndergroundExposure).

These are MCs from Nottingham, Derby and Manchester.

In Order - D Flowz (NSB), Rikkers (NSB), Mez (NSB), Jay Eye (NSB), Don Dyno (Str8GzENT), Baz Brown (NewCamp), Wariko (LOTM3 & NewCamp)

Now let's have a look at Nottingham and what's going on there?..

Firstly, Wariko. Wariko is one of the first non-London MCs to really blow in the UK scene, with appearances on Westwood 1Xtra in 2009 and LOTM3, Wariko is DEFINITELY a grime veteran AND.. he has the lyrics to match the reputable career.

Mez (NSB), one of the hottest younger's in the country, beating Grimsta on Sunday to claim SilkCity Radio's Prizefighter award. Please look out for, for your sake.

You cannot forget Gino. Defintely Nottingham's most commercial MC.

This #SPITFIRE from A9, had to feature in this post. This is probably my favourite freestyle on any YouTube channel, MAD VERSES. 'I don't wanna hear man chat chat..'

Okay.. Now we'll have a look at Walsall, I think it's time to get the map out.

Walsall, is extremely close to Birmingham.

Here's Walsall's best MC, Marshy representing Higher Stakes and Young Guvament. Amazing flow and only 17 years old!

Flawzz from Walsall has his Story Teller shot by JDZ.

And finally. to rap things up.. we have Eyez (LOTM5) and Dankz representing Derby. And representing Manchester we have Dorris, accompanied by more Notts man in 'Deya'.

The scene is also exploding up north, so obviously, I'm going to show you more videos. 

From Liverpool, now representing a K Koke's crew, USG. We have Aystar. Then we to MCs that both broke through via DON'T FLOP rap battles, Blizzard (LOTM5) from Manchester and Lunar C from Bradford, yorkshire's first big grime name. 

 BANG!.. Aystar.

Blizzard!

and Lunar C, who's popularity is ever growing!!

Now, I hope it didn't take you 2 hours to read all of this. I also hope that you are now more enlightened on the exploding grime scene and that you all understand that good grime music is not solely produced by one demographic. If this is still the case and you're not convinced, have a look at my absolute FINAL vid. 

This is Cee Major, straight out of East London, the home of grime.

Have a great day! Listen to more videos on YouTube and follow and subscribe to the channels I've mentioned throughout! Here are the links..

SBTV 

SBTV YouTube Channel - SUBSCRIBE

SBTV Twitter - FOLLOW

JDZ

JDZ Media YouTube Channel - SUBSCRIBE

JDZ Media Twitter - FOLLOW

P110

P110 Media YouTube Channel - SUBSCRIBE

P110 Media Twitter - FOLLOW

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter, Instagram and anything else you can think of @ZachEkpe, it'll be worth it. Stay Locked for more GRM News and videos, and stay blessed.

COOL MUSIC; P MONEY vs BIG H: WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

You may have heard it. You may not believe it. You may not even have heard it till right now! Regardless! It's happening. The clash of the year, and one of the biggest clashes in grime history, has now been confirmed by both of the rappers involved. P Money, one of my favourite MCs, from Lewisham in South London, is clashing BIG H, straight out of Tottenham!! Both MCs have had their fair share of beefs, famously P Money and Ghetts, and then for Big H.. the list would find out and surpass Blogger's word count. Ultimately, this clash will be amazing for a number of reasons. 

1. Both MCs feel as if their respective flows have been copied as grime has grown and new MCs have emerged. I think most will agree that they're both not too far from the truth here..

2. Big H speaks about his relationship with P Money being 'tense' on The Grime Show, claiming that P Money has maybe not been as polite as he could have been in their previous encounters.

3. Big H is a mad man, and is hell bent on the destruction of P Money. This mixed with P Money's composure and confidence, will promote this clash all by itself.

4. THESE ARTISTS DO NOT FLOP.

Both these MCs are very different. As people and as artists. In fact, they're completely different. That's where the main spice comes from, they're difference. One of the only things they share is confidence. Big H is a character, he's loud and it is very clear that he thinks a lot of himself, and not very much of those around him in the game. Big H talks about his recent EP 'Fire and Smoke' being his weapon of destruction. Big H wants to flush out all the s*** in grime and keep it real. P Money on the other hand is a completely different personality, he's a reserved character who I've been in very close proximity ha, check me. He hasn't commented much about the clash with H and you shouldn't expect to hear anything too revealing about the clash and his opinions on it. Although, P's personality can come across a bit arrogant, so can H's. With Big H though, it is different. He is almost too arrogant, the way he MCs and talks is almost as if he doesn't take anything that seriously. I feel that H should be a bit more careful in his approach to LOTM6, he needs to do his research on P, because P Money is a master lyricist. His wordplay and skippy flow attract reloads and massive crowd backing, this is a disadvantage to H as his flow doesn't warrant a reload as often.

But in the meantime, have a look at BOTH MCs, and come to your own conclusions! First up, we have both of their 1Xtra Fire In The Booth's released only two weeks apart from each other. 

BIG H - FIRE IN THE BOOTH

How'd you find that?

Here's P

P MONEY - FIRE IN THE BOOTH

I'm allowed to have an outright opinion, right? A few of my pals are certain this one's going to Big H, but I am almost positive that they're all wrong. P MONEY FOR THE WIN. Listen to the guy, he's a lot more talented than most, not just Big H. Thaaaat said, Big H is a lot more suited to clashing so it is going to be close whether you like it or not.

Since starting this post, there has been all sorts of dramas surrounding the clash. Big H didn't turn up for the pre-clash contract signing, making people believe that he had 'wimped' out of things and ultimately proving me right about his character. But no! It's not over yet, according to H, his absence was due to mis-communications between him and Jammer (LOTM6 owner), something about Jammer telling him the wrong time. ANYWAY, here's a screenshot showing what Big H thought about rumours claiming he was too scared to clash P Money.

I don't know what will happen yet with regards to the clash, all I know is both Big H and P Money will clash! And it's going to be an epic one. Who will win? What will happen?

Follow both artists on twitter to keep up to date with their feuds and what they have to say about this upcoming clash of the titans!!

@KingPMoney

@BigHOfficial

@JammerBBK - for news on this clash and more!

Stay Tuned and Stay Blessed!!

@ZachEkpe

check out.. www.kitkittyfashion.blogspot.com!

COOL POINTERS; iMOAN - WATCH YOUR STEP!

Afternoon beautiful people! After many years of procrastination, I present to you.. my FIRST post. As you've seen in my little bio section, 'I occasionally post things that I hope will fascinate people as much as me.' And boy o boy have I been swept off my feet by my latest discovery. 

I'm sorry to say that if you do not own an iPhone 4/4s/5/5s/5c, with iOS7, you will not be able to participate. That said, the relative next to you or downstairs is probably in possession of one, so use theirs!

ANYWAY.. Ever wandered how true the gossip about our privacy actually is? Well, here's something that should help you form your own opinion on the matter. I personally was amazed when I stumbled across this, since seeing this I have probably told everyone I know with an iPhone about it from friends to customers at work!

Ok, so finally.. Here are the steps:

1- Go to Settings

2- Scroll down a LIL to Privacy

3- Then go to Location Services (make sure they're turned on, if they've previously been switched off then this may not work as well for you, but credit you for your battery preservation skills!) 

- Scroll down,below all your apps, to System Services!

4- Now in your System Services you'll see Frequent Locations, GO TO FREQUENT LOCATIONS!

5- Make sure your Frequent Locations are turned on, scroll down and view your locational history, click on one of the locations if you're thinking 'hmmm.. this isn't THAT accurate..' (again.. if you previously switched off Frequent Locations then your results will not be as extensive as most, worry not though, this is a default setting and should already be turned by the cheeky buggers running apple.)

6- I won't show you all exactly where I've been and at what time but I feel as if I have taken you far enough. Press the addresses and your phone will pull an inch perfect register of where you've been for the past 2 months.

Amazed? I told you. 

Although this may be seen as an invasion of our privacy, it is also an example of human lethargy! We all agree to these terms as we hurry to set up our brand new iPhones, but next time take a step back, have a read, see what information you're nonchalantly handing over to these massive corporations. 

Thank you for reading! Eyes peeled for the next one. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram - @ZachEkpe for more blog info, and an look into my life!

Stay tuned, stay blessed.