Having our writers often talking amongst one another about all of the different music we listen to, it became apparent that we have a really wide range of tastes. With interests spanning across Jungle, Garage, R&B, Grime, Rap, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Soul and more, we thought it would be great to update our readers on the recent releases that have caught our attention and those that have been getting a lot of plays.
Check below to see what our team of writers has put together for the first instalment of #GRMStaffPicks with entries from Wiley, TE dness, Bonkaz and more.
Vidal
I tipped jungle to make a resurgence late summer 2015 and I might be right. Remixing the Teddy and JME-produced track from ‘Snakes & Ladders’, one of Wiley’s best albums in recent years, Paul Woodford aka Special Request adds a nostalgic, jungle flavour to the banger.
Check out Wiley “From The Outside (Special Request Mix)” below:
Hendrix
Having recently received a delivery of vinyl from Butterz, I couldn’t leave out one of the t q d-produced tracks from the ‘Day & Night’ EP. The trio, consisting of Royal-T, DJ Q and Flava D, went in on two separate mixes of the track – the Day Mix and the Night Mix. I’ve settled on choosing the Day Mix as my entry for #GRMStaffPicks.
Stream the track below:
Rene
While I’ve been bumping that new J Hus “Lean And Bop”, my pick for this week comes from the States, featuring two of New Yorks finest rappers, Jadakiss and Styles P. For the past few weeks Jada has been dropping hot cover freestyles every friday but for this weeks one he hooked up with D Block team mate Styles P for “Block Work”. Using the instrumental from Cam’ron’ featuring Prodigy – “Losing Weight”. For me the Yankee duo take it back to the essence going bar for bar with buttery flows and gritty lyrics.
Check out the track below:
Elle
My pick of the week has to be from TE dness’ mixtape ‘April Showers 2’. The entire project was has been on repeat but my favourite track has to be “South America” featuring E.Mak. I love the sweetboy hood love vibe. The £50 that some fans paid for the entire project would have been worth it just for this track alone.
Check out the track below:
Caroline
With fans only able to hear “We Run The Block” at live shows or on radio, Bonkaz assured that his track was the talk of the streets before releasing the official audio anywhere online. This week The Heavytrackerz produced Grime banger finally received a visual directed by close creative collaborators Asylum 33. The video, filmed in Thamesmead (an area famous for the iconic scenes in A Clockwork Orange and Misfits), features appearances from some of London’s most talented creatives, such as Etta Bond, Avelino, P Money and Tinyman. The message delivered with the video is completely synonymous with the track title. Biggest track of 2015 so far.
Watch below: