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You are here: Live Your Life E-zine > Hostel Newsletters - 2009 > October E-Zine > Music Mashup

Music Mashup

The nights have turned colder and it looks like Autumn is beckoning with her icy fingers. But fear not as I bring you the latest in musical goodness to keep you warm at night. This month sees yours truly revisit old passions in the form of Jay Z and Dizzee Rascal, and I’ve thrown in a few top suggestions about new albums, worth spending your hard earned cash on.

Albums You Should Purchase

Artic Monkeys, Humbug: This is the difficult third album for the Yorkshire foursome but after a stunning show at the Brixton Academy, starring Dave Grohl in disguise, the fans and I are lapping it up. In fact tickets for the Wembley Arena gig are ricocheting sharply. The album showcases more of the Monkey’s trademark sharp word play and fast paced Indie beats, tempered as ever with social commentary, especially on the awkardness of being young. However this album represents a departure from the norm with the band experimenting with an acid rock‐psychedelic hybrid. My favourite track is Secret Door. Enjoy!

Basement Jaxx, Scars: The duo’s fifth album is out now and full to the brim with funky goodness, booty shaking beats and all round dancing fun! Now an album doesn’t need much more endorsement than that for you to flock to your nearest music outlet and buy it, but just in case you need a little more encouragement, Sam Sparro, Santogold, Kelis, Chipmunk, and Amp Fiddler all feature on it. Go on ‐ cheer up your record collection!

Jay Z at the Roundhouse

By the time you read this Jay Z will have performed an awesome set of banging tunes from the last 13 years, at the Roundhouse. From the sound of the hoods in New York to the Limp Bizkit collaboration and multi million selling track Numb, Jay Z is bound to please. He was the controversial headliner at the Indie / Alternative festival that was Glastonbury 2007 and he married one of the hottest ladies on the planet, so he’s no stranger to the UK media and music charts.

Jay Z may have risen to fame off of the back of gangster ‐ mafioso lyrics and a bling lifestyle, but the fact that he’s still going strong suggests his fans appreciate the clever word play, hit after hit. Accompanied at this exclusive and intimate gig by Memphis Bleek, Jay Z is set to draw from his impressive back catalogue, promising to belt out Money Ain’t a Thang, Big Pimping, Can I Live, 99 Problems and the anthem that is ‐ My Name is Hova. That’s not to mention more recent tracks like DOA and Run This Town, featuring Rihanna and Kanye West. Judging by the rapturous reviews on the fan sites and Hip Hop forums, Jay Z’s followers are still loving it and they’re not phased by the £70 entrance fee.

Review ‐ Dizzee Rascal’s Tongue in Cheek

When Dizzee first came onto the scene he was the creme de la creme of the UK underground music scene, the pioneer of Grime and the support act for Jay Z at Wembley Arena. Impressive – yes. Intriguing – definitely. Like many DJs of my age, I was fascinated by the anger and aggressive nature of Grime and its MCs. Back in the early 2000s, Dizzee was one of the youngest and angriest MCs around and this shone through in his first album, which also stayed true to his East London roots.

Early tracks like Street Fighter and Hoe tore up the club scene and helped cement him as one of the most innovative grime MCs. Now I know some people may be sceptical but in context, Dizzee was a youngster with no musical training and nothing to work with but the most basic music software around. He had no guidance and yet he’s gone on to create music that is listened to by thousands and thousands of people. To me that’s revolutionary.

Dizzee has now released his fourth album ‐ Tongue n Cheek, which features his three UK number one tracks ‐ Bonkers, Dance Wiv Me and Holiday. The album also represents his full cross over to Electro Pop, substituting lyrical depth for catchy tunes, in partnership with some of the hottest producers around. Calvin Harris has produced two of his number ones, house legend Armand Van Helden worked on Bonkers and Tiesto put together Bad Behaviour, a rather forgettable track that can’t be saved by the lyrics.

Album tune Road Rage is catchy and reminiscent of M.I.A. It also, rather unsurprisingly, documents aggressive driving habits and will no doubt match the other releases in the catchy and danceable stakes. Chilling Wiv the Man Dem is the track that most reviewers seem to be surprised about, due to its use of classic soul samples and its RnB sound, however it’s well documented that the young rascal grew up in the London rave scene where RnB got a heavy rotation, so it’s not as out there as you might think.

Personally I’d love Dizzee to release a new banging Grime tune with the thought provoking lyrics that I listened to relentlessly back in the heyday, however it seems from his permanent smile that the anger he entwined in his music, has gone. These days, for the sake of popularity and money, he raps about taking girls to Ibiza and persuading them to dance with his toothsome self. This is a shame, however on disc two of the album you’ll find many snippets of his old work, with DJ Semtex and the music of the Newham Generals. This lies closer to the Grime sound Dizzee pioneered. The Track Warrior Within is the closest your going to get to the heartfelt anger of his previous releases. Nonetheless it’s a good party album.

‐ DJ Michelle