Do It!

Sinden with the Catch An Attitude tour guys

Mala and Loafah at DMZ birthday party

Gucci Mane

e’re not doing a whole column on grime music anymore. We’re still going to let you know the important stuff like what hair products Jammer is currently using or Logan Sama’s favourite new wrestling move, but we’re not going to dedicate a whole page to just this. Instead we will tell you about lots of other music that we like. And we’re going to call the column “Do It!” after the club night we run of the same name. One of our favourite songs of 2007 so far has to be “Come Around” by Collie Buddz, which is going to be this summer’s “Notorious” by Turbulence. We’ll admit when we first heard and saw this guy we thought he was some kind of noughties Snow (he was born in New Orleans and was raised for a bit in Toronto so we were suspicious of the accent), but maybe we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. For an insane (Radioclit-produced) remix of “Notorious” check Trimbal’s debut mixtape Soulfood. We remember earlier this year when Trim had pretty much given up on music and was calling us to help him find a gardening job, so it’s nice to see him back on track. We’re liking a lot of St. Louis stuff at the moment. Guys like Joka Tha Deck (who’s got a big STL radio hit right now called “Swing on ‘Em”) and Tone Rebel (check “This Young Man”) are killing it. Also watch out for Baby Huey who got signed to Jive last autumn and released his first major label single “Pop, Lock & Drop It”, and Ruka Puff, who has the most beautiful man boobs we have ever seen. Our buddy Brains is working with a lot of these guys and will be releasing a mixtape in association with Vice, so keep an eye out for that. Another dude we love (NO HOMO) is Atlanta’s Gucci Mane. In 2005, Gucci dropped a classic album on Big Kat Records called Trap House. His career then hit a little snafu when he was charged with a little thing called murder. What the court heard was this: Gucci took home a stripper named Foxy. While he was busy “showing her his collection of sunglasses” several armed men ran in and threatened to duct tape him at gunpoint. He had a piece on him and fired back, unknowingly killing one of them. The dead one, Pookie Loc, was from the same Macon neighbourhood as Young Jeezy—who had been publicly beefing with Gucci over the rights to their massive collaboration “Icy”. Suspicious, no? In 2006, Gucci was subsequently acquitted on grounds of self-defence, released another perfect album called Hard to Kill (geddit?) and signed a deal with Atlantic. His crawling, raspy, verging-on-retarded delivery has been ripped off by everyone from the Snowman himself to Yung Joc. Cop his latest mixtape Ice Attack for lyrics about taking too many Es and driving aimlessly around the block over Zaytoven’s trunk-rattling production. Boosie out of Baton Rouge is one rapper people forget about when they say the South doesn’t have any spitters. We love him (NO HOMO). He also keeps his lyrical content thuggish, which is a nice counterpoint to the fact that he kind of looks and sounds like a 12-year-old. Seriously though, we still play Gangsta Muzik and Bad Azz—both of which are full of raw, uncut tunes without many big name producers or guest appearances. The upcoming album from Boosie’s best (non homo) friend Webbie is our most anticipated of the year, so don’t let it pass you by. There’s more Southern stuff we’d like to talk about but we’re running out of space so let’s just quickly recommend a couple of mixtapes. Track down DJ Harvey D’s Break ‘Em Off, which is on that soulful, throwback Houston vibe and features exclusives and remixes from ESG, Chalie Boy and Jokaman. Over in Florida, B.O.B. are making noise with their Cloud 9 tape, which contains the most mind-boggling blend of trance and hip-hop ever to grace our little ears. You need to hear it. We don’t get to witness too many good shows over here so it was nice to see A-Trak, Kid Sister, DJ Craze and Flosstradamus when they came over to London earlier this year on their Catch An Attitude tour. A-Trak told us that he’s started a new label with Nick Catchdubs called Fool’s Gold. Their first release is Kid Sister’s debut single “Control” with the super catchy “Damn Girl” on the b-side. Alain also played us his new mixtape Dirty South Dance, which is filled with hip-hop, crunk and R’n’B blends over electro and house beats. Our pal Sinden got A-Trak to record a mix for his Kiss FM show (when they weren’t busy shopping for limited edition Maharishi T-shirts). It will be broadcast in the next few weeks, so keep your ears open for it (Wednesday nights, 1–2 AM). Also check the banger “Beeper” by Sinden and Count of Monte Cristal—it’s officially bananas. We also popped by the epic 10-hour nerd-fest DMZ party in Brixton last month. Things are looking pretty healthy in the world of dubstep. Two thirds of the crowd flew in from overseas, which tells you how fucking nuts these people are about it. The biggest tune of the night was the Loefah remix of Matty G’s “50,000 Watts”, which will probably usher in six months of tracks with pitched down vocals now that the whole Mr. Oizo-esque, wobbly-style bass appears to be falling out of favour. PRANCEHALL & EASYCHORD