Well known Dublin emcee Siyo hit 2012 hard and fast with the new video for his track Shinobi Flow.
The Artane native is one of the most recognisable heads in the game, both for his place in the Irish HipHop scene and for the amicable character he is too. Rapping with a number of years, he got his start at an open mic night ran by Alan Newman. From this he connected with Terawrizt and Collie and began recording his own tracks. Siyo has released two mixtapes since his entry to the scene, Fresh Out The Gaff Vol.1 and Weapons Of Mass Creation. He has also been spending his time honing his skills on the battle scene both here and abroad participating in both Don’t Flop in the U.K. and our own national battle league D.F.I.
The video was shot, directed and edited by Jimmy Reynolds who also worked with Siyo on the video for his track Future. The video was shot by green screen and uses brightly fused backdrops of urban, industrial and backyard scenes. The magic of the video is the almost animated colours and the simple but effective technique used in the shots where the lens bounds to and from from Siyo creating more bounce to the beat.
The track itself was produced by Polish producer Kielich for well known Polish HipHop group Hemp Gru. It starts with a nice soft but melodic guitar pluck and a lowly blown cinematic horn sample that loops until a hard but rounded kick drum drops with a soft smooth bassline topped with a whippy snare that holds the sonic timing. The music loops in an easy listening form throughout the track with the odd snare stutter to break the form of the samples and create a fresh lyrical attack. Siyo steps in as the beat drops with a focussed and clear directive with his lyrical delivery, definitely hitting on a different level than we’ve heard him on before.
It’s so so, whatever, tried to block it out and not think about it never, cos all it does is stress me, I smoke grass so the coppers want to arrest me, searching for me reason thats the morning that she left me
We get taken through the track on a serious barrage of non stop bars. Siyo gathers momentum parallel with the ebb of the beat as he seems to just catch a verbal ousting of issues and realisms, pushing for escape from his inner captivity as the lines just drop heavier and harder in the progression
Shinobi Flow Obi Wan toke the bucket, slicing up the tracks Jack the Ripper couldn’t cut it. I stub shits like you into my tipper, Big Siyo got more spark than the wheel in your clipper. I ain’t holding any prisoners or wounded kicking, not but true to the wise and the prudent I’m like time ever living, always schooling, but in the end I’m cold cos I kill all my students.
Siyo for me has picked the perfect beat for his own laid back but sharp delivery on this track. He seems to have got more in tune with himself as an artist this year, showing maturity in form, structure and suitability of tracks. His place on this track in particular shows the result of this by how he stays central within the beat as though it was produced for him and he delivers his personal identity in a much sharper form than I’ve heard from him before.
Siyo is currently working on the Epigrammatical EP, a joint project with Rayo, an up and coming Dublin emcee and he has also started work on his as yet untitled solo album which will be all original tracks with production from Pro P, Mathman, Tony Mahoney and Spekulative Fiktion to name a few.
The first single Young Apprentice featuring G.I. from Costello’s forthcoming solo album Illosophical, has been released accompanied by a video.
Costello, from Blanchardstown in Dublin has been putting in work on the scene here for a number of years, collaborating with the likes of Sons Phonetic, Veritas and Moschops. He’s been writing since his early teens and back in ’07 he hooked up with producer G.I., then in ’08 he linked with the late Lunitic and along with 4Real the four formed the group Street Literature. They eventually released the Products Of My Environment album mid last year after a long journey, including the loss of Lunitic which obviously left a big void for the group. But the lads have stayed focussed, working on their solo projects the first of which being Costello’s Illosophical.
The video was directed by Joe Dooney who has been delivering some other top work, notably the video’s he directed for Lethal Dialect including Keep It Real amongst others. The video is shot in and around the Northside of Dublin and follows Costello on a daily path from morning to night. The visual emphasises the theme of the track, showing the closeness kept to his crew and the realness that they keep to each other, always staying grounded in this music scene and paving the way for the next generation.
The track is produced by fellow Working Class member G.I. and begins with a spacey sample that filters into a peak delivering the drop, which comes with a soft but steady kick drum paired with a whippy snare hit and polished with a shiny clear hi-hat rhythm on top. The use of the spacey samples on this track creates the airy but yet dreamy feel to the track leaving the space ideal for Costello’s deep intricate self analysis of life and philosophical rhymes. On the second verse Costello drops a deep flow
Life is delicate so whats the truth at the end of it,
Searchin a book cos I love persons layin there derelict
Its only in our nature to question it, but I’m never a pessimist know there’s a heaven for definite
Chillin, cheesin it up, you get the smell of it, inspire dreamin for all you residents in council settlements,
For the hook, the first four bars are taken from the Wu-Tang Clan track Older Gods, paying homage both to those that inspired and put him on and also to those coming up to stay focussed and true
The older God put me on, on how to rock this, maintain three-sixty lord live prosperous
It only takes a lesson a day, just to analyse life, one time in the respectable mind.
Thats why we’re scriptin it to get yiz into it, we’re deep with this Hiphop the love affair is intimate
understand the energy is infinite, we still got your minds feeding off the light like photosynthesis
G.I. drops in for the final verse as the beat switches up and he seamlessly drops a lyrical, multi-syllable flow holding to the theme on keeping the listeners on the real path
But remember this my fellow apprentices, stay humble make use of your time follow the fellowship,
stay mellow don’t let these devils relive a genesis, dismemberin’ sediments of our planet for the pleasurin
Overall this track is perfect for the first release from the album, although Costello is no stranger to the scene, he still drops this track showing how truly grounded he is and how he and the crew push for the realness and love for the music. The production as always from G.I. is tops and perfectly suited to Costello’s deep, conscious and philosophical rhymes. This track is more than an outward listening experience, it’s also a subliminally introverted listening session that slows and paces our own self thoughts, creating a grounding that is very rare in modern times.
Costello’s debut solo album Illosophical is out this week and has features from 4Real, Lethal Dialect, Willa Lee, G.I., and Jambo. The official launch is taking place at The Twisted Pepper on the 15th March, with support from Lethal Dialect, G.I., Willa Lee, Gary O’Brien and DJ Moschops, no doubt it will be a night of top performances from some of Irelands premier Hiphop artists.
You can stream the album online on the Working Class Records site and on Bandcamp :
Early in 2011, HipHop group Sons Phonetic released their first official album Twelve Labours.
The group were formerly known as Correkt Minds and released a mixtape along with a slew of tracks but they switched up, added a new member, a new DJ, formed a new sound and Sons Phonetic was born. The addition of new member’s Tommy Tyler(emcee) and Tom Dunne(DJ) gave the group a much fuller sound and unbeatable live experience. The group consists of six members and are all from and based in Waterford ;
Mook
Tommy Tyler
Kavsputin
Mouse Hughes
Sammy Dozens
Tom’ShotGun’Dunne
The only features on the album come from Ri-Ra of Scary Eire, who propels solid rhymes, deservedly earning his legendary status and the production of all tracks goes to SP member Mook.
The production on Twelve Labours I would describe as an integration of some well chosen samples that have been chopped, tweaked and filtered to create a raw, undeniable underground sound with a bounce of heavy beats pushed with sub but hard bass, twisted into a combination of dark, solid, head nodding tracks. Mook has created heavy hitting beats that he laces with chops of eerie key samples, guitar plucks and strings. The sub resonating basslines bounce and push the hard low end kicks as coupled, punchy, big hitting snares explode. Tightly timed, closed hi-hats hold the rhythm and the use of splashy open hi-hats keep a level of precision on certain tracks. Overall the production has written a score for the lyricists to drop on. Dark, eerie, crackly and antiquated but also heavy and explosive is the musical emotion here.
From the Intro on this album the whole lyrical concept is implanted as you get the feeling you are being brainwashed or hypnotised into the world of Sons Phonetic, as they take you deep into the mezzanine between life & death. This album takes you through the eyes of each member as they each spit their own individual fury of where they are, both in their own mind and their place in the unfortunate modern world. To say the album follows a stereotypical HipHop style of how “I’m the best” is far from correct, there is a solid sense in the bars dropped on the album of how they are superior at their craft but in no means like any other has done. From the start of the album each emcee takes you into that mezzanine to their individual dark place and struggle, to their place in life but also integrated with their survival means and goals. The track Isolation which is the first vocalled track can show an example of this where Mouse drops in first twistedly describing in poetic, contradicting imagery, the pits of life we are living and how some don’t see like he does
I write these butterfly knife lullabys with the blood of christ
for corrupted minds who were born colourblind
like they never seen the green blades a grass on the otherside
it’s like I wanna see someone die everytime I see my mother cry
Mouse holds the hook too as he laces his dedication to succeed in the dreary hold back of present life
Dwellin’ in isolation, I pass the day by writin’ pages, ain’t no skyscrapers, or frightened neighbours, just timewasters waitin’ for the day to pass us by and the night chase us
On verse two Sammy drops heavy bars claiming his status as a man but yet elite, done with a solid hold on mythology
Resurrect ghost writers so my pen flows timeless
I do this for the most highest to the lowlifers
Soul survivors, standing on the shoulders of giants getting stoned with Goliath, I roll with Titans
Yo its like Im throwin’ bolts of lightning, I’m no Poseidon but my flow’s the reason that the oceans rising
This album holds to its title with the mythology and the journey of it. From the beginning you have the sense of the despair and of fall from grace, that purgatorious mezzanine. As the album progresses you feel the struggle endured in the Twelve Labours and also how that progresses to the realism of being of a greater level of person. All this is extremely deep and genuinely seeps through the music and lyricism. The use of the groups combined style of rhyming and even pronunciation is very easily heard and so the lyrics become visual stories that parasitically infect your brain and cause a lucid listening experience. Each track on here creates sharp lyrics that cut finely through the dark production and the rhyming schemes jump from well crafted phonetics to strongly linked historical reference all mixed into sonically beaded tracks.
On Domino Effect, the seventh track, Kavsputin & Tommy tell of their progress in the labors as they become more confident in their journey. Kavsputin verse ties the theme as he describes how they(SP) are of greatness but yet still don’t follow that commercial path
Last descendants of the emperors blood, Phonetic Sons raising up n never settling for anything less than first while we’re second to none
Find me an the boys in your resident slumped, wherever there’s skunk
heaven sent benevolent ones, fuck the mainstream we dwell where these estuaries run
The hook is taken by both emcees as they explain the motives to their craft
Move back is the solitary set, laboring for honor and respect not for profit or a cheque, your just another notch on the belt and so we kick back and watch it fall like the domino effect
Next is Tommy as he breaks down the path that has created them(SP) to that of dominators in the game, through their working the Labours
Cause potentially we’re legendary, like we’re similar genetically to Hercules,
Many traits passed to the sons thats hereditary, the twelve labors a legacy,
Deeper than the seven seas, destined to be put on pedestals for centuries
It’s hard graft till we all rest in peace in the cemetery, cos the day Sons Phonetic cease, thats the day hell’ll freeze
There are so many tracks on here that could be broken down and deeply analysed and for many reasons…Casino…Danger Danger…etc. Each track holds to the their own place on this album with a beginning, a journey and an end; from the pits, to the realisation of being better than the average, to contentment with who you are, culminating on the final track, Off The Hinges. On this track the feeling of achievement and comfort with that achievement is positively sensed, no longer a struggle but a sense of appeasement from the journey. Mook is in on the second verse and captures this vividly
The modern Pythagoras, and for every rapper taken out I move another marker on my abacus,
How you gonna hide from the ravenous, you can burn us down but remember from the ashes rise savages,
Armed with the dragon-kiss, wanna beat us get a gun, no, then you better run, ‘cos emcees are blowin’ chunks down they sweatin’ fronts, even from standin’ next to us
With the album title based on the Twelve Labours of Hercules, you can sense the strong grip that theme holds within the tracks. The always constant feeling of a lost man is carried by all emcees but yet on a belief of their superior self in a struggle that they are capable of, so long as they keep at it. The mirroring of the mythology is profound and so well grasped within the tracks both musically and lyrically and the strong use of mythology intwined within the bars of the tracks adds such a visual element to the album enhancing the glory of the all too despairing life. The darkness and eerie vibe of the production but yet lyrically immortalised with the knowledge, craft and homage paid to ancient wisdom, hero and legend. A classic album….. no doubt…!
Next up for Sons Phonetic is the release of solo EP’s by all five emcees, which will be dropping very soon. The group have also began work on their sophomore album and will be taking their time to perfect it as they want to up their game even more with the next album.
The video was shot, directed and edited by Jimmy Reynolds who also worked with Siyo on the video for his track Future. The video was shot by green screen and uses brightly fused backdrops of urban, industrial and backyard scenes. The magic of the video is the almost animated colours and the simple but effective technique used in the shots where the lens bounds to and from from Siyo creating more bounce to the beat.
