Prancehall.com

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:42:24 PDT

Which animal does dubstep dude Rusko most look like?

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:28:10 PDT

This is Rusko – by the looks of it, not long after a two-hour appointment at Toni & Guy. But which animal does he most resemble?

1. A well-groomed llama

2. A thirsty pig

3. A harassed camel

4. A drenched cat

5. A haggard dog

6. An unkempt llama

The most terrifying music genre the world has ever seen

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:34:23 PDT

Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski with Texas A&M cadets

Invented by Ryszard "Crunk King" Kuklinski (the grandson of an infamous Polish Cold War spy of the same name), Crunkczar, which sounds a bit like Polish donk, is a terrifying new genre that makes ravers lose control of their bodies. The drug of choice is a cocktail of carfentanyl, a downer that's approximately 10,000 times more potent than morphine, and Dexedrine, a powerful amphetamine. (Young fans opt for something slightly less harmful: a mixture of Red Bull and sherbert, referred to as "crunk gunk".)

Some people will break both their arms and continue dancing all night as if nothing has happened. Also, numerous cases have been reported of people dancing so fast that their heart gives in and they drop dead on the dancefloor.

Download: Lil Wayne, "A Milli (Ryszard Kuklinski remix)

At one rave at the end of last year, when the above song was pitched up to +16, three people dropped dead before the track had finished.

Full story over on guardian.co.uk/music.

James Corden reviews a noise record

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:29:41 PDT

I recently started a new column on the Vice site in which I get one of my many celeb friends to review an album. In the first installment, the hilarious James Corden reviews a noise record on No Fun. The next one will be up by the end of the week.

Andrea Dworkin's least favourite bassline song ever

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:30:15 PDT

Full blurb here.

RIP

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:30:49 PDT

You may not have known where East Anglia was, but you knew the way into our hearts. You will be dearly missed.

The new nu-metal

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:28:50 PDT

TRC combine the chagrin and angst of hardcore with some grime-style rapping. Read all about it over on guardian.co.uk/music.

By the way, synth-metal poster boys Enter Shikari are now doing dubstep.

Breaking news: D Double E's favourite Street Fighter character is Sagat

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:32:07 PDT

For the latest Bass Odyssey column on thefader.com I had a mole implanted on the Newham Generals' table at the NME Awards, who reported back on the important things like how many cocktail sausages Footsie was eating (the average for the whole night was 48 per hour). The mole (Jack from Friendly Fires) also did a mix of classic house and bleep and stuff, which you can listen to below. Tracklist in comments.

Top five explanations as to what Kanye West might be doing with his head in the lap of his girlfriend, Amber Rose, backstage at London Fashion Week

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:45:32 PST

1. Warming his metallic jaw
2. Licking some cheese and chive dip from her skirt
3. Publicly proving, once and for all, that he is not gay
4. Seeing if she's wearing the limited edition Ed Banger x Cobra Snake x Louis Vuitton knickers that Kid Cudi exclusively designed for Kanye
5. Rummaging for a penis

(Picture half-inched from the Vice fashion blog)

Smutlee mix

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:10:42 PST

I got Smutlee to do a short mix of dancehall, funky and garage stuff for the Vice music blog last week. It's real nice. Tracklist in comments.

Download: Smutlee mix

Burnley's buzzin'

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:53:05 PST

The people at VBS recently travelled to Burnley to meet with donk's main man, and a personal hero of mine, MC Grimzie. This guy's like Snow multiplied by Bernard Manning, to the power of that "Louish Walsh" [sic] X Factor guy.

If you haven't heard "Sexy Nun", his X-rated ballad which describes in sickening detail his seduction and rape of a lady of the cloth, I implore you to go and listen to it now. It's utterly offensive in every way. VBS got some footage of him performing an a cappella version of it in a church but it unfortunately didn't make the final cut.

He really is a hero of mine, though. He's a rule breaker, he's a risk taker/ Cookin' up rhymes as quick as a baker (makes bread). Sorry, I just broke into a freestyle rap there. I do apologise.

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 05:57:02 PST

Mistral, "Starship 109"

More Fader blurb this week.

Attempted murderers' Cribs: part one

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:25:09 PST

Circumcision, aspiring gangster-style.

This just in from my friend Ted: "I've met the attempted murderer in that documentary on your Fader column. I moved into his old house in Clapton Park Estate about eight years ago. He had photos of himself holding knives lying around. Lots of gaunt, wild-eyed people kept calling by asking for him and Transport For London sent about 20 letters addressed to him during the two years I lived there. We found a photo of him posing and put it on the wall as a memento."

London Transport fines, eh? Thish guy'sh more big time than I firsht shushpected.

The rather picturesque estate in question.

To find out more about the house, I asked Ted to come down to the station to help me with my inquiries.

Detective Chief Inspector Prancehall: What was the house like?
Ted: Grey, bars over most of the windows, but big. It had three floors, a big kitchen and living room, and was very cheap. I think I paid about £250 a month.

Fill me in on the general decor.
Erm, it was minimal. When he was still there, there were knives lying around upstairs, and a relaxing scent of weed.

Was it fully furnished?
It had a greeny-beige three-piece-suite, beds and cupboards.

Carpet or a wipeable surface on the floor in the bathroom?
Wipeable laminate surface everywhere except the stairs.

Did you have a garden?
Yep, but never bothered with it.

Was there a mice problem when you moved in?
No sir.

OK, tell me about the inside of the microwave. You can usually tell how clean a house is from the inside of the microwave.
I have never used a microwave.

Using a knife for self-defence

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 09:37:23 PST

Handy tips for what to do if someone pulls a knife on you (cut their throat or stab them through the heart).

See here for some more general tips on how to murder someone with a knife.

Three short mixes by three (possibly) quite tall guys

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:51:55 PST

I've been looking after the Vice site this week so I got Bok Bok, Crazy Cousinz and Jackmaster to do a wee mix each for the music blog. You can get them all here.

Funky beats, sax and divas

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:58:53 PST

Two of my peers, Pierre Schaeffer and Wiley

I have made a funky house remix of "Panty, Bras, Coke and Cameras" by Durrty Goodz. Hope you like it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Full story over on thefader.com.

PS: DJs/bloggers/A&Rs/Liberal Democrat MPs who want a 320 kbps MP3, holla at ya boy (that's me).

"My president is black, my Lambo is blue"

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:11:34 PST

My friend Sara was overflowing with music-related Obama puns (some more tenuous than others) on my Facebook page the other day so I thought I'd steal them for here and see if anyone can do any better. Here's what she came up with:

Shola Obama
Baracka Som Sistema
White House Banton
Head of States and Heartbreak

Come up with some more and win a minimum of four years' supply of hope and about four minutes' worth of e-props.

Sniffle, sniffle

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:12:11 PST

The chorus gets me every time.

Panty, Bras, Coke and Cameras

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:35:39 PDT

This week's Fader blog column is up.

Btw, imagine how completely insane you'd go if you were forced to listen to this chorus on loop and look at my new logo for an hour – while on acid.

Readers who are freaked out by trippy shit, look away now

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 09:05:17 PST

Wrap your eyeballs around my new logo, by Henry McCausland.

In praise of Coolio on Celebrity Big Brother

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:35:02 PST

I wrote this thing in which I expounded my love of Coolio for the Guardian TV blog a week ago but unfortunately it only went up on Friday – the day after Channel 4 screened the episode in which he started getting aggressive and tediously petty with some of the laydeez. Owing to this, the piece makes me look like I'm a deranged misogynist – which isn't (entirely) true.

I'm thinking I should've got that guy up there to give me some pointers beforehand. I'll know for next time ...

Happy, contented and fulfilled

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:14:17 PST

My first column of 2009 for thefader.com is up. Read here.

Benazir Bhutto rap tribute

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:02:00 PST

I'm not sure if that's some Jon E Cash-style square wave bass or just heavy feedback that comes in after about 52 seconds.

(Stolen from Vice)

The biggest funky tune right now

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:30:41 PST

Peeps have been telling me about this "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" funky tune for a while. I've been scratching my head trying to figure out what they meant until I did a search on the interweb today and found it. It's had 1.5 million YouTube hits, wouldn't you know. Who can argue with figures like that? The evidence is plain to see – this one is, as RWD magazine would say, "about to blow". You know where you heard it first.

Ugandan dancehall and the Ghetto Republic of Uganja

noreply@blogger.com (John) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:46:49 PST

This week's Scene and Heard for the Guardian music blog is on the Ugandan dancehall scene and the breakaway republic that dancehall collective Fire Base Crew has formed in a slum in the country's capital, Kampala. Below are some words regarding this topic by VBS.TV's Santiago Stelley, who recently filmed a documentary about Fire Base.

When we went to Uganda we weren’t really planning on looking into the music scene at all, but from the minute we landed in Kampala we started hearing dancehall everywhere we went. And we love dancehall – a little over a year ago we shot a ton of dancehall artists for the Vice Kills Jamaica series and we had also followed up in New York with Beenie Man and other artists who weren’t on the island during our visit. Anyway, I knew that dancehall was supposed to be pretty popular in sub-Saharan Africa, but I certainly didn’t expect anything on the scale we encountered.

Our first days in Kamapala we kept seeing and hearing these trucks blasting dancehall as they drove around the neighbourhoods selling CDs, so at some point we started asking our Ugandan fixer about the local artists. He was the first person to tell us about the Fire Base Crew, but he also told us about the complex politics of the local dancehall scene.

In Uganda, the dancehall world plays an interesting role in day-to-day politics and governance. At first, the idea of a dancehall crew having its own president, vice president, ministers etc seemed kind of silly to us, but in reality Fire Base do play an active role in local politics.