THE REAL McCOY

The Real McCoy was a late night comedy sketch show featuring a cast of mainly young black british actors/comedians made in the early 90's. It featured Felix Dexter,and Myra Syal who went on to do 'Goodness, Gracious, Me!', the Asian BBC comedy sketch show.

Anyone who ever watched this show loves it and wishes it was still on or something a bit like it. Bring back the Real McCoy! Or at least promote new talent. Check it out.

AFRICAN FRACTALS

Fractals in Tibet

Fractal Palace

Image of city made using computer mathematical substrate

Computer game Fractal

A fractal is a pattern composed of a reoccurring, self-referencing shape. Fractals occur in nature such as the pattern for a Fern or a snowflake. Fractals are used in art, fashion and occur everywhere in the natural world. The most famous fractal is the mandelbrot set (above) which is devised from a set of mathematical proofs. There is an interesting lecture given by Ron Eglash on African's building their villages according to Fractal algorithms. Its amazing that nature can be defined through mathematics. It's also amazing that fractals are everywhere, the pattern of the earth, cities, your lungs, hair, flowers. I also see fractals on the back of my eyelids when I close my eyes.

Learn more here...

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ron_eglash_on_african_fractals.html

JNEIRO JAREL

This is for my Slum Village, D'angelo, Sa-Ra, Madlib, Flying Lotus fans out there. Whilst all these musicians can be put in similar categories, they're music does all sound different and they all do have they're own original sounds. But I think they're sounds overlap and they all draw on each other for inspiration & healthy competiton. I think It is interesting for me looking at that list of names above that the common denominator between all of those artists is Dilla, but that's probably a conversation for another post.

Jneiro Jarel is another one of those heavily slept on artists. It's a shame because he probably doesn't get as much attention as JayDee or Madlib when he's on a pretty similar tip. He's another one of those producer, rapper, genius studio musicians in the Q-Tip, Diamond Dee mould. I seriously bug out to Jneiro Jarel, I can hear the Slum Village & Madlib esque qualities in his music. But since Hip Hop music is all about sampling and borrowing ideas and in the famous words of Nas, 'no ideas original, there's nothing new under the sun' then it would only make sendse for Jneiro to come with something incredible.

As is the case with a lot of music I prefer the earlier Jneiro Jarel to his later stuff. His 2004 release 'Three Piece Puzzle' is a space soul masterpiece easily on par with The Unseen or Fantastic Vol.1 or 2. I think because Jneiro Jarel openly references artists like Dilla or Mad, he perhaps isn't attributed with being an originator of the sound in the same way they are, even if he might deserve more props.

FRESH FROM THE MAIL ROOM

Most of the Hip Hop I have written about on this blog has been pre 96' golden era or early hip hop, but now I want to bring to light a few slept on artists that have made worthy, classic material since then. These particular artists stand out to me because in terms of original fresh, beautiful music ( I do search for beauty in the music) there hasn't been that much since about 96.

The album 'ONE A.M' by Diverse released in 2003 stands out because the whole album is good not just a few tracks. The LP features collaborations with heavy hitters such as Jean Grae, Presfuse 73 & Madlib. Tracks like 'Blind Man' & 'Just Biz' stand out to me because Jazz inspired concious tracks are my ish. But Diverse brings something new to the table.

I don't think Diverse' lyrical ability has been duly noted in the history of Hip Hop because he really is ridiculous (in a good way). He is super super advanced and his flow is so complex it's hard to predict and follow (in a good way), and whilst is contains traces of other rappers such as Pharaoh or Ghostface perhaps, the style is completely original, and he's succeeded in becoming more structurally advanced than them. There is enough content here for a thousand listens.

This windy city postal worker has got it going on. Before Lupe and them other fakes.

You can download the album here....

DIVERSE-ONE A.M

http://www.chocolateindustries.com/diverse/index.php

http://www.myspace.com/diversemovement

LOCUSTS

Invincible is a female rapper out of Motor City, Detroit. I really rate her as a rapper, she's up there with Jean Grae, Lauryn Hill and Rah Digga as one of my favourite female spitters.

I like her because her rhyme style is extremely advanced, on some proper gritty Detroit Royce Da 59 meets Diverse ish. I'm feeling her social content as well, the song talks about people loosing their homes to privatisation and the corporatocracy. Houses getting knocked down to build motorways and such,

I like the beat cos it's on some Dilla/Black milk detroit ish, a sound of which I'm a big fan of anyway. The rhymes are intricate & the lyrics are very deep as well as socially conscious, showing it can still be done.

Peace

TAKE YOUR TIME

This song brings me happiness amongst the shit-storm that is life.

The SOS Band performing 'Take Your Time (Do It Right)" live on Soul Train circa 1980. This song sounds ridiculous live. The band is sick, mad tight, I'm particularly feeling the bass & the synth keyboard. I'd pay a lot of money to hear a band like this perform.This sound needs a resurrection, who's with me?

Also Don Cornelius, the host of Soul Train has the coldest voice I've ever heard in my life.

Peace.

BACK IN THE DAY

I was just playing basketball in the park. And all I could think of was this song! I literally thought this song was by Pharcyde my entire life until I researched it for this blog post. Very dope west-cost sunshine song. Peace...