Blog
New Music
I’m K-Classic, an upcoming artist who grew up in Zimbabwe and now residing in Nottingham, UK. I will be writing a new blog every few days on the new music available out there that you most probably haven’t heard… from Club Bangerz, to R&B Love Jamz to New Age Hip-Hop Classics. Today’s blog features The [...]
Jimi Hendrix
On the morning of 21 September 1966, a Pan Am airliner from New York landed at Heathrow, carrying among its passengers a black American musician from a poor home. Barely known in his own country and a complete stranger to England, he had just flown first class for the first time in his life. His [...]
Scene and heard: Shangaan electro
For Wills Glasspiegel, the discovery of Shangaan electro came after an evening of random YouTubing in his Brooklyn apartment. His sofa was then acting as a bed for Tshepang Ramoba, drummer with South African band BLK JKS, and the pair were looking at clips online. “Tshepang knows I manage a musician from Sierra Leone called [...]
Wiley is giving away 200 tracks for free
Fans boggled at last week’s decision by the grime star Wiley to give away more than 200 new tracks for free online. First, they asked, is it for real? And then, why is he doing this? And finally, where do I even start listening to it all? Wiley’s absurd generosity will be part of the [...]
Clarks footprint on Jamaica
Back in the spring, the Jamaican dancehall artist Vybz Kartel released a single paying tribute to his favourite consumer goods. He was, he says, recognising a great Jamaican tradition. The song was a huge hit on the island, and stores across Jamaica reported selling out of the very thing Vybz Kartel was hymning. The big [...]
Whatever happened to Lauryn Hill?
Rumours circulated earlier this week that former Fugees singer Lauryn Hill would headline American hip-hop festival Rock the Bells this summer, performing her 1998 solo debut The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in its entirety. Well, it’s not as if she has much other material: more than a decade after its release, the reclusive singer has yet [...]
Tricky gears up for ninth album
Tricky has announced details of his ninth studio album, Mixed Race. Despite his recent reconciliation with Massive Attack, the LP boasts a very different set of collaborators, including Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie and Tricky’s little brother, Marlon Thaws. Mixed Race was recorded in Paris, where Tricky now lives, but was strongly influenced by Jamaica, north Africa [...]
Rinse FM finally gets recognition
London’s leading pirate radio station, renowned for promoting grime, continues to rule the airwaves with an official licence It’s been a long time at sea for London’s leading pirate radio station, but yesterday Rinse FM finally docked, in the sheltered cove of an Ofcom community licence. Starting in 1994 as a jungle station, Rinse [...]