The hysteria surrounding Bonkaz first official single “We Run The Block” has been undeniable and is still continuing to grow day by day, placing the tune in the top tier of 2015’s Grime releases thus far.
Whilst the song holds a definite turn up value – the original message behind the track is way deeper. With a bag of hidden messages “We Run The Block” not only explains the independent power of the new generation of creatives, but refers to the blatant inequality when it comes to the World’s justice system. After a conversation with Bonkaz himself, it seems the hit was recorded with infamous producers The Heavytrackerz after a stop and search by London police that same day.
Following a strong UK remix from P Money, Jendor, Mikill Pane, Youngs Teflon and Kojey Radical, as well as dance remix from All About She, today we see a brand new cover exclusively premiered right here on GRM.
Hailing from Rhode Island, US rapper B Dolan heard Bonkaz track and thought it would be impossible not to put his own spin on it.
Inspired by the murder of Freddie Gray, here is what B Dolan had to say about his rewrite of “We Run The Block”:
“A while ago I asked Scroobius Pip to send me some new Grime joints, as a way of hearing what was happening over in the UK. The track he sent me was Bonkaz’ “We Run The Block”, which arrived in my inbox just as I was driving from Ohio to Washington D.C on tour.
We had a day off that day, and it happened that we were passing through Baltimore on the day charges were announced against the cops who murdered Freddie Gray. The entire city was under a National Guard enforced curfew, in order to suppress protests. My tour mates and I decided to visit activists there and see exactly what was going down, without the filter of cable news.
I started writing this “We Run the Block” redux that night, and recorded it when I arrived home from tour last week. The hook of the song seemed to perfectly express the battle that has been playing out in our streets for awhile. Shout to Bonkaz and the whole Grime massive, and everyone taking a stand against state violence on both sides of the pond.”
B Dolan’s new album – ‘Kill the Wolf’ drops on July 10th on Speech Development Records (UK & Europe) and Strange Famous Records (rest of the world). He will be hitting the UK and Europe in September 2015.
Find out more on Twitter: @BDolanSFR