Delusionists – Smash Bros. (Lost Letters Pt.5)

After keeping us waiting for just over 2 months, Delusionists prove that good things really do come to those who wait.

This is part 5 (Parts 1-4 HERE)of their intriguing ‘Lost Letters’ project in which they bless us intermittently with one of many tracks which fell by the wayside due to not quite fitting in with any projects in the pipeline. Too good to be discarded altogether, they’re being fed to us drip by drip to keep all you fiends from tweaking too hard.

‘Smash Bros’ is a beast of a beat courtesy of Slim Pickens and it features ‘Relly & Zweli’. Ben excels with some great lines like;

“Goin’ ape, no escape from the horror scenes, when they watching Beans get Illy – no coffee beans”

and, my personal favourite;

“I’ve gotta bop to the shops, I’ve only got a half a lager left – Ben Black, fresher than koala breath”

So stop reading, start listening – the track is currently only available to listen to via You Tube (see below) but no doubt it will be up for free download before you know it.

*Just a little side note – if you’re wondering where the voice of the lovely French lady at the start comes from, it’s from when Delusionists track ‘Serious’ was featured on a podcast along with other niceness which you can find HERE

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Yosh – What I Gotta Do (Prod. By SofaKing)

Just a quick post this morning with a dope track and video from Yosh.

“What I Gotta Do” was produced by UK beast SofaKing, It’s one of those tracks that draws instant comparison to a Preemo banger in that the beat is rather simple but knocks hard and is just set off perfectly when paired with the right artist. In this case, Yosh is exactly that and the black and white video filmed and edited by Stefan Byron (photograpghy by Shaun Crabtree) is kept simple and personal too. All in all – a good all round treat for your eyes and ears. The track itself can be downloaded for free from Yosh’s BandCamp HERE, as well as his album “Fled The Flock” (also free) Catch the video below…

Mystro Raps Up 2011

Yes, yes! Mr. Mys-Diggi, The Natural Born Spitta has released a video for his 2011 UK Rap-Up.

Mystro’s first foray into summing up an entire year’s worth of life in The U.K started in 2009 and has since become a regular release with a 2010 version and now we have the highly anticipated 2011 edition.

Among the mentions this year are the Andy Gray/Richard Keys scandal, X-Factor contestents Misha B & winners Little Mix (as well as a judge or two), Jamal Edwards, ‘my tram experience’ and many, many, maaaaany others.

It really is a testament to Mystro’s ability as a lyricist to be able to fit so much into one track, whilst making it cohesive and keeping it entertaining the whole time. Long time Mystro collaborator Black Einstein is back behind the boards again this year on the beat and smacks it once again.

Catch the video below and download the MP3 HERE

 

Delusionists – Underacheiver (Lost Letters Pt.4)

So, it’s 2012 – the year of Olympic Games, The Queen of England’s Diamond Jubilee and a penciled in date for the end of all human existence on the Earth.

That last one may or may not happen – we don’t really know.

What is certain however, is that 2012 is sure to be a good year for Delusionists – our favourite Hip-Hop group who “probably won’t shoot you.” 2011 was the year they released their refreshing debut ‘The Prolusion’ closely followed by the revamped and updated version ‘Prolusion Plus’. A slew of praise, interviews, and positive reviews later and we are treated to some new material in the form of The Lost Letters series. A mysterious affair which involves a single track released for free download with no word on where/when/how the next one will drop.

There have been 3 to date which you can still grab via the following links;

Part 1 – Dastardly Schemes

Part 2 – Elevate

Part 3 – Lost Girl

And now for the good news…

Part 4 is now available HERE via Delusionist’s website. ‘Underachiever’ is probably my favourite of the series so far – downright honest, extremely relatable and a hugely enjoyable listen with plenty of quotables such as;

“At 17 they tried to teach me to drive, I said fuck it I’ll have a chauffeur by the time I’m 25”

So if you started reading this post, got to the “2012 is sure to be a good year for Delusionists” part and found yourself wondering why – with there being no end in sight to these fantastic little free gems dropping, the answer is obvious.

Mystro Freestyle & Interview with Hip-Hop Kings

Mystro spoke to Hip Hop Kings before his recent gig in Leeds which – judging by what I’ve seen people saying on Twitter – went very well. It’s a good watch, the freestyle is dope – as always from Mr. Mys-Diggi, and it’s good to catch up with what he’s done recently and what’s planned for the near future. Check it below, and don’t forget to hit up Hip Hop Kings

Delusionists – Lost Girl (Lost Letters Pt.3)

Part 3 of Delusionists Lost Letters series is a beautifully mellow departure from the previous two bangers – the Apatight produced ‘Dastardly Schemes’ and The Mr. Loop crafted ‘Elevator Music.’

‘Lost Girl’ is wonderfully sparse and ethereal, courtesy of dream like vocals and a nice phaser on the outro. Produced by Delusionists resident DJ/part time Beatmaker (when Ben isn’t on the boards) Slim Pickens, it’s a testament to the groups ability to hold an audience when instrumental gems like this one, weighing in at just over a minuite and a half – hold just as much gravitas as anything you’ll find on Prolusion Plus.

I suggest you listen HERE

Delusionists – Elevator Music (Lost Letters Pt. 2)

 

Elevator Music is the second release in Delusionists new Lost Letters series, and it’s available to stream/download for free HERE.
 

You can also get involved with discovering the next Lost Letter by printing off this poster and posting it somewhere for all to see. Take a photo of wherever you post it and send it to lostletters@delusionists.co.uk and if it’s funny/provocative/beautiful they might just use your image as the cover art for the next release. Submissions need to reach by Saturday 22nd October and should be an exact square of at least 520×520 pixels (the bigger, the better) with the main text on the poster clearly visible.

 

Enjoy…

Delusionists – Dastardly Schemes (Lost Letters Pt.1)

Dastardly Schemes, produced by Apatight (Professor Green, Jehst, Micall Parknsun) is the first in a series of free singles to be released by Delusionists over the coming weeks. This series of tracks, called The Lost Letters, were recorded for various projects – some pre-date Prolusion Plus, some were created more recently – but all of them got “lost” somewhere along the line. They say none of these tracks will be appearing on the next album, but “we like them too much for them to stay lost forever, so we want to share them with you.”
So, grab yourself a free download of Dastardly Schemes now and they’ll have another new track for you very, very soon. When I know, you’ll know…

Skrabl – Board of The Game

Breaking the long silence from myself over the last few months is an EP from Essex based bar slinger ‘Skrabl Stanzas.’

‘Board of The Game’ is a 9 track (8 excluding 1 interlude) EP which serves to introduce you to Mr. Stanzas via intricate wordplay, closely woven bars and tightly flowing syllables. The hope is to put him on your radar and the EP pretty much covers all the bases, even the obligatory weed track…no that’s actually the name of the track, so there’s a decent level of humour on hand to diffuse any notion of delusions of grandeur that can be found with new artists.

Production is handled by ‘Grow Beats’ with the exception of ‘Grand Slam Slang’ (which was provided by myself) and all tracks fit together nicely, I’m a big one for textural cohesion so it’s good to see no sore thumbs in sight. ‘Copper Pipes’ is probably a favourite with it’s looping piano riff and basic drum hits leaving Skrab to drop “Sockin’ you at bollock height when I’ve got the mic. For you it’s downhill like toboggan rides.//” 

I’d be very interested to see how Skrabl follows Board of The Game and think he’s definitely one to watch on the scene, if anything I’m just proud of another artist from Essex making moves.

You can get the EP for free HERE 

And by all means add Skrabl as a friend on Facebook HERE

Growbeats can also be added HERE

Also FYI – I should be getting back on posting more regularly now, despite promising to do so for a while. Promise this time. Honest

Verb T – Self Less EP

I was made aware of this today by the man himself and man, am I glad? (Yes, I am – that was rhetorical)

I’m a big fan of Verb-T, thought he smashed it on Jon Phonics’ Half Past Calm 2 and it’s more of the same here. The Self Less EP is a gem, beats and bars are heavy in equal measures and it features other superb examples of UK talent such as Fliptrix, Jam Baxter and Kashmere (who also feature on Half Past Calm 2) as well as Leaf Dog who has just dropped his first LP ‘From A Scarecrow’s Perspective’ on Suspect Packages. It also features Verb-T so be sure to check that out too HERE.

Verb handily breaks down each track himself on his Bandcamp, conveniently saving me the trouble! Check it out…

“It’s here! the follow up to ‘Self Ish’ it’s bigger, it’s better, and I hope you all enjoy it. Many of these tracks were recorded in one 4 hour session as was the case with Self Ish, however I felt this time I needed to go back and add more and fine tune what I had.

The first track ‘Luke Warm Buzz’ is kinda me poking fun at myself for average sales, average to no media buzz etc. but none of that matters, I’m still the best. fact.

‘I’m Good’ and ‘Self Less’ show the more positive and hopeful side of my character, it could be said I got a bit preachy on these, you don’t have to agree with me though just enjoy my fantastic silky smooth vocal stylings and the ‘smooth as baby lotion’ production.

‘Day at the Beach’ was leaked recently, and apparently it’s an instant classic, not my words, the words of youtube account holders, and they would know! this track features Fliptrix (high focus head honcho, killer emcee, general badman) and the lyrical genius that is Jam Baxter

‘Return of the Ill Hand’ is a bit special to me, it’s me teaming up with my old mate Kashmere, who absolutely rips this track by the way. The title is a reference to our LowLife records double EP ‘Back hand slap talk / Technical Illness’ and features us talking from the point of view of germs and viruses over an ILL break, so there.

‘Mental Paralysis’ errrrrrr, yeah, I was tapped into another world when creating this beat and rhyme, it is what it is, I feel like someone else made it.

‘Peak Dreams’ is kinda like my Ode to Cypress Hill in a way, I didn’t do that consciously but listening back to it thats the vibe I get, I think fitting then that the track features the supreme talent Leaf Dog (who recently released one of the best albums in a very long time on high focus) as he kinda brings a similar vibe and energy to this track as a B real or Sic Jacken type emcee, which is good, very good.

‘2moro’ features my RAP TEAM associates Joker Starr and Truth, if you watch don’t flop battle league you will recognise both of these guys from there. Both very clever and original writers with unique flow and delivery, 2 artists I would urge you to seek out further if you haven’t already.

‘Self Out’ does exactly what it says on the tin. Ronseal.

so there you have it, the new self produced Verb T EP ‘Self Less’ ENJOY!

 

Get it HERE