Class A’z are back with a video for their latest track The Evidence, which is from their upcoming mixtape On Tick and will be released in the coming weeks.
Class A’z consists of Terawrizt, Redzer, Nucentz and Rawsoul who all hail from Dublin but this track is without the latter and has a feature from Ballyfermot native Nugget.
The video is directed by Jebus and is a darkened video with each emcee stepping to the front for illumination as they deliver their parts. DJ Mo-K also cameos in the video and it was he who picked the instrumental for the guys while sorting through tracks for them.
The track is an old Gang Starr track that was remixed by some DJ from the States. It starts with a nice bouncy beat that uses a hard but rounded kick and a splashy snare laced with a tambourine on every second hit. It utilises a smooth old skool Jazz sample with controlled horns and a haunting female vocal over the top. The track has a great flow and has a jump on feel to it and Nucentz does just that as he goes in first with a perfectly timed snappy rhyme
Now all these mouths wanna talk till the days old
every other move we make then the hate grows
You do songs at gaff partys with your mates bro
I do songs with Lupe……. case closed
Nucentz takes the hook on the track also as he hypes up the Class A’z reputation. Nugget is in next as the change in flow gives a switch to the track as he reminisces about coming up listening to the guys and the journey to his present position and stature within the game
Back when Redz stood holdin a Dutch Gold can
I was unknown, now I got a fuckload a fans and supporters
got the album on order, internationally known man, I’m passing the border
The track just eases along with the solid head nodding beat, making excellent use of the difference in timbre and flow from each emcee to the next. Terawrizt drops in next with his trademark flow, switching up paces and delivering tight couplets while bragging justifiably about his group’s sound and productions
Smoke Room we kill it kid,
so if it’s got the logo with the cut throat, balaclava and the pyramid
that shit is sick and I’ve been killing this since day one
Cos I’m the type to give a shit but don’t take none
Redzer is in last and makes the entrance to this track as he always does…running..! Keeping with the theme, talking up his group’s status and tight flowed, he drops his snappy punchlines and jokes on the track that get you smiling about topics you know you shouldn’t
All these up and coming artists hope to know Red
Class A’z run shit like a bloke with no legs
It’s safe to say I find you rappers boring
Thats why I’m not defending all a you capper’s … Jordan
Yet another top class track from the Class A’z who just don’t do wrong when it comes to good music and good sound. Great track choice…shout to Mo-K on that and a great combination of delivery and presence from the lads. That brings it to two, the releases already out from the upcoming mixtape On Tick,the first being the quick paced banger I’m Back check out the review here http://www.hiphop32.com/?p=205 . With both being top rated tracks that could easily find their way onto any official project, the hype has been well created and we should have the free mixtape before Christmas.
Shakey and Colltrane got together around June of this year and formed the group The Delta Boys and this is their first release, the mixtape Special Delivery.
Shakey, from Wexford has released two mixtapes in the past, 2007s This Is Me and in 2008 he released Keep On Keepin On. He is probably best known for his track Irish Party and has upcoming releases with Redzer, Siyo and Rob Steenson to name but a few. Colltrane is a young eighteen year old emcee/producer from Listowel in Kerry. He has released three mixtapes to date, Lights and Aries were both released in 2010 and in May of this year he released Lights(The Demo). Only new on the scene here, Colltrane is just beginning to get his name out there.
This is a ten track mixtape that starts with the Drake ft Jay-Z track Light Up which is produced by Noah “40” Shabib and Tone Mason. It gives a nice entry to the mixtape as the airy beat loosens you into the music as Colltrane drops in with a strong stance and fires his 1st bars
Its just a thought, what if we never fought
What if you found me even though Im Jack Shepard Lost
Like I have no reputation cos my credits gone
But fuck it since your gone I think I’m better off
The tape progresses with some more commercial type tracks like Lil Wayne’s 6ft 7ft, Kanye West’s Power and Kanye & Jay-Z’s Otis to name just a few but for me the real banger on here and to which I truly hold the most respect is the final track, their rendition of Tinchy Stryder’s Game Over. The Delta Boys have landed some top heads on here and the energy is savage and progressive from start to finish. They have pulled in Mango, Tha Duke, Murka, Rob Steenson and Mr. HighSpeed to deliver verses and this track has an electric charge that stimulates and fires the nodes in your brain. This track sees Shakey get a bit more aggressive as he goes from a single rapping flow, then upping his pace to catch and push the energy for the track
Blacked out shades so u cant see my red eyes
Doin’ the girls in the toilet like I’m in the mile high
I blast off like a mother-fuckin rocket
Cos when I do that, there is no stoppin’…..me
This mixtape takes a very commercial approach with the tracks that are used and so if thats not your thing then you will probably find it hard to lock into this one. But on the other hand if Kanye, Weezy, Drake and Ace Hood type tracks are your listening pleasure then you’ll slide right into this.
Shakey and Colltrane both have a similar style and so have chosen tracks to suit just that. Your not going to get complicated rhyming styles on here but at least they embrace that and just deliver on the tracks with high energy and some decent couplets interlaced with some clever similes and metaphors.
The Delta Boys wanted to use this mixtape with well known tracks to introduce themselves but they have already started on their next project which will be a body of all original tracks. They are also both working on some original solo projects at the moment too so you can expect to hear more from Shakey, Colltrane and The Delta Boys.
The mixtape Special Delivery can be downloaded for free from the 23rd of December and you can check out the guys facebook and reverbnation pages on;
Jonnyboy and Jambo of ACR(Atha Cliath Records), have just dropped their long awaited, first full length album Dawn Till Dusk.
Jonnyboy and Jambo, both from Donaghmede on the Northside of Dublin, have been involved with music for quite some time now, but have really only been taking it seriously since around 2005.
Jambo is a well known emcee from around Dublin when he used to run Atha Cliath Records nights in Radio City and Eamonn Dorans etc. and where a lot of Irish emcees got their first gigs. He is possibly Irelands best battle rapper, well known for his harsh battle skills in DFI, winning all three battles he took part in, he also appeared on Redzer’s Dublife album and has been featured on some of Terawrizt’s albums.
Jonnyboy is a producer/engineer/emcee and prides himself more on the production side of his craft. He has produced tracks for numerous Irish artists including a track from Lethal Dialect’s top rated LD50. He released a mixtape a good few years back called The Gospel According To John, which was his entry to the scene. Three years ago he released The Propaganda EP with Intox, an emcee from Tallaght and it featured some of his production on it along with guests Maverick Sabre and Terawrizt.
Dawn Till Dusk is almost entirely produced, mixed and mastered by Jonnyboy, except for Take Off and Changes which were produced by Scimon Tist of the band Zombie Computer, who is based in Cork and who is also known for his work with dance DJ John Gibbons. There are features on the album by Hazy Jane, Jonnyboys’ sister, who does the female vocals and Joey Mac, both of whom are signed to ACR and also from Donaghmede, Damien Dempsey is sampled on the City’s Lur, another Donaghmede native and you also have Gary O’Brien, who tours with Damien Dempsey on the male vocals.
The albums production takes on three musical genres which mix and separate as needed through the stories and emotion of the tracks portrayed. The production on the album utilises traditional HipHop style beats with pulsating basslines and with the use of soft melodramatic strings. Also the use of vocal samples as cuts on the beginning of some tracks is utilised excellently; well known samples, cut in rhythm to heighten the story you’re about to receive. The use of acoustic guitar and the traditional live drum styles give certain tracks a more deepened and realistic take, which give them a more singer/songwriter feel to them. Then you have the fusion of spacey, pad/synth sounds on tracks, giving them a dance/house type feel and with the use of some nice light keys sprinkled on top to create that twinkle and shine to the the beats. The tracks are all produced to enhance the ambience of the stories that are laced on top, so as you always feel connected to the rhymes.
Jonnyboy and Jambo give an album that portrays their surroundings both physically and emotionally, from their youth to now and often leaping backward and forward as though reminiscing on times past. On The Sun, the first track, they explain the journey in getting the album completed, the struggle and the work put in to get it right and deliver a quality product. Jonnyboy breaks it down with a nice head nodding flow
We took a little time, probably more than most did,
Other rappers drop their albums with their braggin n bboastin
But we stayed reserved, kept calm no need to rush this
Perfect the album make it bang now we’ll push this
Hazy Jane works a perfect hook, summing up the concept for the track
The sun is coming up, you have to
know when its down that you’ve done enough,
We’ll keep on going up, until they knowing us
The tracks seem to take you back and forth to different times, as though taken from the perspective of someone
who has finally sat down after a long but young life and gets to reminisce. The rhymes dropped are intelligently sewn into the tracks, matching emotion and feeling, pulling the listener into their world, whether its the pits of their struggle or the release of their rebelled youth. A journey of mixed emotions, a rolercoaster of modern street life and the constant struggle to reach solidarity and stability in life. I think most people can relate to the topics and stories dropped on these songs. Jonnyboy and Jambo utilise their flow and styles, changing in unison with the production to enhance the message their trying to push, thus creating tracks that just feel somehow complete. You can feel this as they create totally different feelings on separate tracks, like on Leave The World, you can feel the good times that were still had while engulfed in the madness of youth, on Take Off, your engulfed in a club track which has a positive and confident feel to it and the style of rhyme that the guys drop on this creates that fusion of dance and rap which is not easy to pull off, it takes you back to the proper old school house, when the emcee hyped and “moved the crowd”. You get the impression they really went all out on this album to infuse that emotion on tracks and you can feel it, but that doesn’t take from their lyricism, skill, delivery or flow. On The Prophecy, they take us to street level and walk us on their path, pointing out the life within the life, between the lines, away from the mainstream smokescreen. Jambo delivers a steady, solid, image filled verse, with lines like
Let me take you to the place where we live these lines
to the estates where the youngfellas commit these crimes
see the hate that resides in the publics eyes
where we die for a price that the government decides
The tracks take us through a social, a street and a political level but its never done in an “in your face” type of way, instead there is an underlying subliminal feed of these aspects that as a listener you decide what level you want to ingest, if you listen deep then you can feel the social angst and pain created by societies injustice but also the positive that exists in such surroundings and if you just breeze through, you can have a great musical experience with great tracks, twinned with great lyricism that will both lift you and pace you at different stages.
Jonnyboy & Jambo have scrapped two albums previous to this one, a sign of the persistence for perfection in their sound and their search for self contentment in their art. They could have had their first album released twelve months ago but then it wouldnt be the installment that is Dawn Till Dusk. This is an album that you can listen to with anyone and they will appreciate it, even that friend that will only listen to one style of music will appreciate the diversity and boundary pushing brashness of this album.
Next up for Jambo is the release of his solo album Die Or Develop, produced by G.I and Jonnyboy which will be out in the next few months. Jonnyboy is also executive producing Jambo’s next album which is as yet untitled, both to be released on ACR. Next up after that will be Joey Mac’s debut album on the label. Jonnyboy is also currently working on dance material, under the name Jacknife. Overall there will be some big releases and major happenings on ACR in the coming year.
Class A’z consists of Terawrizt, Redzer, Nucentz and Rawsoul who all hail from Dublin but this track is without the latter and has a feature from Ballyfermot native Nugget.
Back when Redz stood holdin a Dutch Gold can
