Telling It Like It Is

Over at theblagg HQ (pretend we've got a head quarters, come on!), we are suckers for new music. Ra's Rayz, who is one half of hip hop group, Audiophiles, keeps threatening that he and Al Da 3rd are going to drop something new soon on Twitter. We're waiting Ra's! Hurry up. In the meantime, here's a reminder of who Audiophiles are:

Make It Happen

Rappers love themselves some Mariah. Last week, the homies BIG FKN GUN released their new joint, Make It Happen - get this: featuring Mariah Carey. Featuring. Tee-hee. I think they actually performed this at Kool Out Lounge in Johannesburg. I could be wrong, it was really warm and someone tried to harass me off the couch I was standing on so details may be fuzzy. Anyway, you can download the joint HERE. You're welcome. How chooot is that cover?

Girls Wanna Boogie

Sorry Cyndi Lauper, according to the brothers from BIG FKN GUN, the Girls Wanna Boogie. We know, we know, you're all waiting for the Pop Models EP and we're assured it's on its way. Until then, you get this theblagg EXCLUSIVE joint. On the EP, BFG feature Spoek Mathambo and Okmalumkoolkat on a track called Space. So BFG frontman, Solomon The Future, took lyrics from Space and BFG's Soul Faktor cooked them up on this beat so what you have in your ears right now is an alternate version, a snippet if you will, to hold you over until the EP drops. In other news, did you guys peep the BFG mention in an issue of SPIN Magazine a few months back? Pity the international mag that used to be dope didn't bother to spell their name correctly. What do you think of Girls Wanna Boogie, though?

Nothende Unplugged

Go to this gig. She's no Randy Watson but that girl good *Dude throws a drumstick bone in the church collection plate*

fratpack live

You know Choclate Seruno, right? So he's got the whole W.A.T.E.R clothing label thing going but he's launching his Styled By Seruno wing at Capello in Parkhurst tomorrow night. To do that, he has roped in fratpack and Bhubesii as well as a few DJs. Entrance is free and you can eat while you enjoy the performances so it sounds like a good idea to me. And yeah, up top is Mr Calibre in those Styled By Seruno threads. What do you think? You like them?

Stella Gets Her Groove Back

 I'll be the first to admit. When I first saw STL, I thought she was wack. It's partly because I found her talking over a beat to be uninspired and mostly because the beat was that eurotrash dance music that has ensured the likes of Flo-Rida still have careers. The STL song was called Lookie Lookie. Uh-huh. Then Kenyan-born Norwegian singer-songwriter released a rap song called Bad As I Wanna Be and I couldn't help but hear traces of Foxy Brown on it. Plus the highly old American rap styling of the video gave it away. Yes, I know all the cool kids were wearing Chicago Bulls jerseys last season but this video just smacks of hearkening back to a time long gone. Bad As I Wanna Be is released under STL's birthname, Stella Mwangi. I wonder why. Peep the video:

Audio 3D

Reason launches his new album, Audio 3D, at this month's Kool Out Lounge on Friday. It will be held at Shikisha in Newtown (that's the old Horror Cafe) and R30 will get you in before 10pm and R50 if you're tardy for the party. DJ Raiko, ID and *in my best Solomon of BIG FKN GUN voice* P-Kuttah will play.

Flexin/Mercy

The Ordinary Girl may be the only person on the planet suffering from Kanye West fatigue so sorry, you won't be reading about where to cop his new shoes here. What you can read about here, even though you've probably already seen this on the American blogs, is his video for Mercy. Or rather, G. O. O. D Music's catchy AF joint, Mercy. It looks very similar to Siya's visuals for Flexin (which was released well before Big Sean and 'em). I don't know if it's a case of imitation being the highest form of flattery. What I do know is that the well known artists will always get the props for what a lesser known creative pioneers or at least puts out into the world of their own accord. But don't pay attention to me, I'm just a girl who is tired of Mr Kardashian, after all.

If you're interested, here's Siya on Flexin:

And this is Mercy:

This Weekend

So in The Ordinary Girl's part of the world, this weekend is Rocking The Daisies. Sigh. I won't go into the reason behind the sigh. However, if you're up in Joburg tomorrow then check me and Mr Calibre out at Throwdown at OST in Newtown. On the decks will be Da Buddist and Soulo Starr. Doors open at 8pm and R50 gets you in.
This is my favourite fratpack track. Oldie but goodie. Enjoy.

Everything I'm not feat. Sneaker Pimps by fratpack

Drake's Hairline

Did we say hairline? We meant Headlines. Headlines! From his second album, Take Care (out this month sometime - we can't say a date because, well, you know internet leaks don't give a damn about release dates. But I digress), Headlines is the latest single. What do you guys think? Are you liking it? Headlines, not his hairline. Although...nevermind!

Drake ~ Headlines (Official Video) from OctobersVeryOwn on Vimeo.

Oh and are you guys really telling me that The Ordinary Girl is the only person who sees the resemblance between Drake...



and Connor Martin of Glenn Martin DDS?

Without You

You know a track's about to get heavy when it starts off with "Did heaven really need my pops more than we did..."

Audiophiles' Without You takes some inner demons and puts them on Front Street. Ras Rayz takes stock of his life without his father. A few weeks ago, this half of Audiophiles took to twitter and,in less than 140 characters, pre-empted releasing this song by saying he'd been examining who his father was. Luckily for the listener, he has a few more characters to spit on this joint with a sick sample. What are your thoughts on Without You?

Without you by WE_ARE_Audiophiles

He Used To Love She

This is the visual accompaniment to the song that a few Odd Future fans are on the fence about. Off Tyler, The Creator's debut, Goblin, the kid hooked up with fellow Odd Future member, Frank Ocean and the result is She. What say you blaggers and blaggettes, do you like this?

Ill Skillionaire

I won't lie, I was madd excited to see the new Ill Skillz (Tommy Jinxxx, Jimmy Flexxx and DJ ID) video when it dropped this week. But Ill Skillionaire... sigh... I have so many questions. And no, misogyny wasn't the first thing that entered my mind and it certainly wasn't the last. I mean this level of creativity is what we've come to expect from the three-man crew:



But what does The Ordinary Girl know. Watch the Ill Skillionaire video below and tell us what you think.

Kissing The Sky

I know a few Frankestan's are super mad that everyone and their momma's now knows of adores Frank Ocean. But such is life. Brilliance can only be hidden for so long. Which brings me to Siya. The Ordinary Girl's new obsession is also a fan of Frank. Or at least of his new song, Acura Integurl. In this song, Frank sings that he "wrote a letter to the sky saying maybe one day you'll get to kiss me." That, blaggers and blaggettes, is Dude's absolute favourite line. He won't explain why it resonates with him so. Siya decides to explain herself while Frank sings the line. What do you think of Siya's joint, Letter To The Sky?



Here's Frank's original:

Schooled On Siya

This has been one interesting month for The Ordinary Girl. If you know her then you'll know that not only does her favourite rapper wear a skirt (that's word to Eternia), but her top 5 emcees are women too. So with that in mind, I always feel like there's always an emcee I don't know about. That's why I support The Fembassy 100%. As is their tradition, Tuesday is Tell A Friend Day over at The Fembassy and on that day you have to tweet, talk or whatever about your favourite female emcee.

Some of the twitter la familia had some pretty interesting answers on this one particular Tuesday and our girl Nonku said her favourite is Siya (pronounced Sigh-Yah). I made a mental note to check this lady out as I'd never heard of her but soon forgot. As Dude likes to say: blame the head, not the heart. So then I was doing my usual soundcloud stalking and came across this Nonku snippet:

Smoke drank snipett by nunulooloo

So I played it and played it. And played it some more. Then I remembered Nonku's comment about Siya and I went looking for her. Et voila, pure heat! I came across this dope joint and it took me all of two seconds to realise Nonku's snippet was actually a cover of a Siya song of the same name. So then I played this video:



And played it. And played it til I got paranoid that colleagues were calling my name. So I played it a few more times then came across an incredibly well shot visual for I'm Gone, Siya's single off her mixtape, Elevator Dreams. I was a little disheartened when she brandished a gun early on in the video - who can judge another person's reality, I resolved - and then I was pleasantly surprised when I realised the gun was actually a part of the plot. I won't spoil it for you, here's the I'm Gone video:



Then I kept seeing all these video titles with Rocksmith in them. So I BBM-ed Dude and asked if Rocksmith wasn't the clothing label that he's been telling me about for aeons. Seriously, Dude believes in the brand so much he stopped short of literally shoving the Mac Book down my throat. But anyway, Dude was like yeah and he's stoked that Rocksmith is finally blowing up like it should.

The point of all of this is that Rocksmith officially endorses Siya and that's why you see her in the B-ball jerseys and other dope items. Real recognise real and this Brooklynite who now lives in Atlanta put it best when she said: "See I just landed an endorsement, big up to Rocksmith they got a bitch feeling important." And she's important to me too now, shout out to everything and everyone for aligning to school a sista on Siya. Check out more dopeness below:

The Federation Gets Dark...

By the looks of things, people have been waiting for some sort of visual accompaniment for The Federation's Hardcore Styles For Street Rap Preservation double album for more than a minute. And now it's finally here. Mr C, Neon and DJ Bobbi, who make up The Federation, feature fellow Sowetans, Dark Spark on a joint called Cold Of Night. What do you think of it?

Asinamali

So they didn't win the best rap album SAMA (Amu did), so what? They still have a dope video out. Here is Asinamali (Zulu for "we have no money")for those of you who haven't seen Tumi And The Volume's new jam.

Believe In Cole?

It seems that we are quarter-to-release for J. Cole's debut album but don't we all feel like the kid's been around forever. In a manner of speaking, he has. How cute is this picture of him from when he was just yay-high? Did he believe he would grow into who he is today?

Well even if Grown Simba didn't foresee his future, he's made believers out of lots of us. Now this track - it's called See It To Believe It - hasn't been claimed by anyone to be going anywhere so we're not sure if it will make it onto the album.

We're not sure we want it to though. The Ordinary Girl has some thoughts about Cole's direction on the new joints we've heard but she's going to reserve them for now. What do you think of this song?

J Cole-See It To Believe It by Hypetrak

Black Gold Bars

The Randlords in Bramfontein is a spaceous club with a gaw-geous view of Joburg. Absolutely beautiful. So much so that you might miss whoever is performing as you have to turn your back to the tiny stage to fully take in the City of Lights' beauty at night. But, where new rap outfit, Black Gold is concerned, the city will have to wait. But that's not entirely a good thing.

Allow me to explain.

Last night Dude and I went to the Chevy Spark and YFM hip hop party held at swanky The Randlords (shout out to Hypress). A scantily clad - when last did you read such a description? - Dineo Ranaka hosted the event that saw Jozi, Khuli Chana, Pro, Teargas and Black Gold perform. Imma be honest, the performances were ok. I've already explained that this week took its toll on my body so maybe I was just tired. But the rest of the club was clearly wide awake and loving the live element.

Anyway,I was keen to see how all five of the members of Black Gold would fare on the tiny stage. And Prof-C, eXe, Kwa, A.T and Mazi held their own. Mostly. I'm a fan of that Come On, Come On song, so I didn't mind that they brought enough theatrics for two Nicki Minaj's when performing it. However, we don't need all twentyeleven rappers jumping up and down the stage for everyone's verse in every single song. Especially because you guys know Nekwa hasn't lost that X Attitude weight.

I'm playing! No, I'm not but hey... what The Ordinary Girl wanted to say in this post is this: like their predecessors, Jozi, Black Gold have some cool mainstream jams. 37MPH is behind the music after all. And maybe now it's time for them to reel their performance energy in a tad bit. It's fine to have choreography and to get hype about your stuff but with all three songs that they performed being LOUD and fast paced jams as well as their dodgy mic control, the performance can appear frenzied.

Other than that, Black Gold came in as the underdogs last night and they left having made an impression. Now, here's the video of the song I like:



Yo! We know how you love the credits so here you go: cinematography by Sims Phakisi (of Music Atlast) for RESPEKSTUDIO and it was edited by Empiremash. Clap for 'em. Come on, come on.

What do you guys think of Black Gold blaggers and blaggettes?

TTP Presents Hip Hop Sessions Vol 1 (UPDATED)

Pic by Flow Mokale

Wassup blaggers and blagettes. Because theblagg respects everyone's right to be themselves, we've decided to not only update this post but change it all together! TTP's our boy - not just because he gives away goodies in our comments section. So here it goes:

As TTP (pictured above) has proven, sometimes there is something special about certain rap songs. And other times... well, let's just leave that to your imagination. TTP - real name Thapelo Raphuti - has been doing his thing in SA hip hop and is known as one of the go-to-guys in certain circles.

Titled TTP Presents Hip Hop Sessions Vol 1 (name sound familiar?) and dropped on 22 October 2010, the compilation features some well known acts as well as some up and coming cats. The likes of Pro, HHP and Khuli Chana feature. So does Tuks - who is a questionable inclusion if you ask me, but since you didn't let's move along. Mothipa's Ode to Mary Jane opens the CD and after that you can hear Ifani, Spaceman and The Federation before Ill Skillz closes it off with their popular Baby Baby.

TTP tells theblagg that he has "been working on this compilation for 3 years, collecting songs from emcees that I love and respect. By the way Khuli Chana is my favourite emcee has always been. Most of the guys I have selected some way or another I have worked with. Like Pro (helping out on getting Soweto and other stuff on radio ), HHP (Marketing and Branding of Omang and later did Acceptance Speech launch ko Soweto) etc."

This is the same dude whio was behind some of your favourite radio shows. He tells us he's "worked on YFM - remember The Bridge (Lee, Ace of Spade and Dj Kenzhero)? And produced that show as well as The Essence with Kamza and Andile Ncube..."



This compilation - which, if the Vol 1 bit is anything to go by, will be turned into a series - because it's bigger than just music. He says the artists featured on the release will conduct workshops in their respective townships so as to "inspire and teach up and coming artists."

In these business, image, technical, and life skills workshops, 100 aspiring rappers will see their skills put to the test as they vie for a spot in the Top 12. TTP's community reach-out programme will also "run a competition where the top 12 artists will be chosen to be part of the Best of the Best Graduates compilation. From the 12 selected finalists, one will be selected to be the ultimate winner who will receive marketing and recording back up and also receive a clothing endorsement from Loxion Kulca for 6 months."

You keen blaggers and blaggettes? TTP Presents Hip Hop Sessions Vol 1 is now available at all major retailers, Ritual Store and scoobysnax.co.za