First Night Blues

As far as real life goes, theblagg have been fam with The Intellex for a long time. Benson N Hedges - who is a third of the hip hop group (alongside Eternal Rhymes and KE Squared) - and The Ordinary Girl go back to high school. And even back then he was never one to shy away from self expression, whether giddy or gaudy. This week, Benson released First Night Blues featuring the very talented Dismental thee Axemple of One-2. The joint is frank and hella funny and will obviously remind those of you who are old enough of Monica's First Night song. I used to like that video. And for the longest time, I was convinced that the American r&b singer was saying "Usher made a move but I won't." Ha! Engrish. Anyway, you can download the song HERE or listen below:

Boombox Presents The Next Movement

Vaal Triangular, son, to be particular! Gotta love X-Rate for that line.

It always makes us super proud to hear or see people from our home, the V, do great things. And if those things are within hip hop then you know we absolutely have to share. This week sees the inaugural Boombox production and it is aptly titled The Next Movement.

In addition to watching live performances from the likes of Huge Impakt, Pho'Netiq and more, you can learn a thing or two on the visual arts side which is headed up by Mohlomi Kocha. There will also be a gaming experience side, you can peep or get tattoos by Ryza and check out some graffiti too. The all day event will take place at 555 Park in Zone 10 extension 1.

Mandisa Mditshwa of Boombox, Twisted Girl Entertainment let us in on how this whole idea came about. You guys know Mandisa used to crash my Visual Culture lectures at university? She probably doesn't want you to know that. Ha! Anyway, here's what she had to say:  

Boombox is what we would like to call a movement by and of a collective of minds that are trying to shape and shift the contemporary street art culture within and around the Vaal. The Collective comprises of 15 of some of the most influential event organizers, DJs and popular culture connoisseurs in the Vaal region. 

In our first offering, The Collective is mainly interested in taking the already developed yet for some reason "stunted" culture of Hip Hop to the next level. You could call us Vaal's very own Hip Hop evolutionaries..*chuckles* 

We are all about reaching out and giving back to the community via the culture. 

Most grown folk and even some young folk nowadays don't understand the culture and therefore tend to rebuke and shun all things Hip Hop because of their lack of knowledge. It is our duty to change that state of mind and spread the magical Hip Hop gospel, so we work closely with charity organizations such as the Lebohang Children's Centre for the mentally and physically challenged in Zone 10 and neighbouring schools. So all donated goods go to such establishments.

The cover charge for the event is R5 and donations that the Lebogang's Children Centre and more charities can use are most welcome. If you donate something, you don't have to pay the R5 but it would be nice if you did both to support Boombox and the kids.

FRWEDNESDAY MIXTAPE

Happy Hump Day! If you've been reading theblagg or following fratpack (@fratpackmusic) then you already know what frwednesday is all about. If not then do not pass go, do not collect 200 and get the heck off the internet. I'm just kidding. Come back, come back. Now, you all know the hip hop group called fratpack (one word, all lower case), right? For every Wednesday of the past couple of months, they would release a song for their fam. Called frwednesdays, the songs were mostly the two brothers rapping on beats that me far-outed. So it's only fitting that me and Mr Calibre drop a compilation of those joints and a few new ones on a Wednesday. Yep, TODAY. The frwednesday Mixtape is available for free download over HERE and in addition to features by the likes of BIG FKN GUN and Reason as well as far-outing my favourite Zaki Ibrahim song, the mixtape is packed full of surprises. The frwednesday mixtape is the final offering before fratpack's famlove EP is released in the final quarter of this year. Tell all your frwednes! Here's the tracklist:

The Diamond Standard Remix

While trying to delay getting out of bed this morning - Cape Town is freezing, man - I was scanning the tweets when I came across one written by @Phonetiq. The spitter plugged the latest installment of the We Make Music Wednesdays. The Battlekat-poduced joint is actually a remix of a song by Simply Vincent and features Mo Katalyst, Principle and Golden Shovel. Feel free to download it HERE. Happy Hump Day.

In Case You Forgot

We're Chasing Our Dreams

fratpack at Campus Reboot

fratpack. Saturday. Club Illusions, Vanderbijlpark, Vaal Triangle. R80. Doors open at 6pm

Kings Of Another Kingdom

This past weekend presented history-in-the-making for some of us rap lovers. Not since Optical Ill was a rap crew and not a distant memory have hip hop luminaries, Golden Shovel and X-Rate, rapped on the same track. If you've been a longtime blagger or blaggette then you know how we feel about Brotha X. If not, see theblagg's bio on the side strip of this site. Go.

Are you back? So now you understand that a meeting of these minds is a big deal to us and, I'd like to think, to hip hop. Anyway, the two hooked up with Mothipa at King Katta's studio in the V and recorded a joint called Kings Of Another Kingdom. The verses complement a Battlekat fire-beat and also feature the singing styles of Battlekat, Genocide, our favourite female producer, BK as well as Lindiwe.

Instro, who was the sessions engineer, was reluctant to explicitely express what the joint is about but one thing is for sure, the producer is ecstatic about the parallel universe concept and can't wait for you to hear it.

theblagg hit up X-Rate, who told us what the experience was like. And before you ask why his arm is bandaged in this photo, we've learnt that when it comes to injuries, it's better to not ask rappers questions like "how did you do that?" This is what the half of X and O had to say about recording Kings Of Another Kingdom, a song that will appear on Golden Shovel's (Shove to those who like things, ha!) upcoming album, The Lost Gospels:

"Well, the beat was sent a week before the recording and we were supposed to start writing then. However, Mothipa and I didn't do that - as if we ever do what we are told. So we got there and Shove was finishing off a song he was busy with. After that, it was on. That beat was played and we hit the pen and paper. There were a lot of loiterers at the studio though, which was a bit different for me. As we were writing, Shove laced his verse and I think 2 hours after that Mothipa got in and then I followed. It was fun but... different for me."

If you'd seen Instro's tweets (@instros), you'd know that touching the mic after Shovel was not easy to do. But we're keen to hear the final product and hope we'll get it first - hint, hint - so keep your eyes on theblagg for that.

What You Know About

This is not the T.I song. That is not T-bo Touch. This is a joint by Mo Katalyst (pictured) and the more outspoken half of Audiophiles, Ra's Rayz. Instro is on production. Song is called What You know About. And we wanna know what you think about it.

Whatchu Know About By Mo Katalyst and Ra's Rayz by theblagg

Jazz Made Eezy

He goes by name Eezy Beats Lee (for now) and he's straight out of the V. Yep, you know we rep for our people. But beyond that, we rep good music. And that's exactly what Eezy's done with this jazz instrumental entitled Family Tree. And you thought hip hop producers didn't have range!

Eazy bc mokemane-FAMILY TREE by theblagg

Podcast Put On

An exchange between The Ordinary Girl and "Vaal Triangular Son, To Be Particular" originator X-Rate on an early April morning.

The Ordinary Girl: What is the Nauts and Crosses Podcast II? Do you and producer, Ootz, present or just rap?
X-Rate: It's really songs that didn't make the album [that Ootz and I are working on]. We are just showcasing our work on this podcast...yameen?
T.O.G: So how does it work? Are the songs just played non stop or is the podcast in radio format with breaks in between songs?
X: Well...it's a medley of songs so how it works is that, basically, you can't skip a track because all the songs are presented as one mp3. So you just play the mp3 and you'll find about 14 tracks on it.
T.O.G: What exactly is on the podcast?
X: Those are songs we did just nje! Plus some of the older songs we did in our individual capacity just to show what we do. We feature Zubz, Battlekat, pH, Nthabi, Reason, Eli and more.
T.O.G: The podcast is great but when can we expect a X-Rate and Ootz album?
X: Sooner than soon. Its finished its just admin now...

Uh-huh, we've heard that one before. Download Nauts and Crosses Podcast II for FREE here and here.

And yes, although we know what Brotha X was saying theblagg cannot advocate the use of "yameen" in public or around small animals.

In other Vaal Triangular Son To Be Particular News

Dude always does this thing with his mouth. It's both annoying and adorable at the same time. See if you can spot it in the video of One-2's first single off their album, We Aint Done Yet. The joint is called Ahuu.



Sidebar: "The video looks nice. But it looks like they were going for Ghetto Beautifulness and ended up with Rau Rau."
- paraphrasing The Rubberband Man telling EbonyWoman his thoughts on Ahuu.