February: Good, Bad and the Ugly

Posted on by

0

February has finally left us, and hopefully with that its cold weather goes away too. But apart from the frost and the freeze did the music of February give us something to smile about? All will be revealed in my February: Good, Bad and the Ugly

The Good

Truly Yours E.P– J.Cole

J.Cole surprised fans by dropping a five track E.P. It was surprising because the rapper has been working on his sophomore album Born Sinner.  The E.P Truly Yours had tracks that did not make the cut of his next album. These tracks did not sound like throwaways at all; in fact they were all terrific. Cole provided us with heart rendering storytelling songs that were poignant in unsure times.  Truly Yours greatness just ups the anticipation for Born Sinner.

Jumping – T.E

West London’s T.E has been generating quite a buzz recently. His latest track Jumping shows that the hype is justified. Jumping has a great energy, and T.E’s flows and lyrics are on point. He’s definitely proved that he’s one to look out for this year.

La Familia– PBGR

PBGR are a duo that consists of two rappers Baba Crunch and Skeps Swarve.  They released their debut mixtape Live And Maintain  that was a sophisticated and sleek production overall. Finally they’ve released the visuals for track La Familia. I can honestly say this is the best video I’ve ever seen from a UK urban artist. Its refreshing and relieving to see something different to the typical ‘hood videos’ we’re subjected to by UK artists, its nice to see some creativity and some class. The video is beautifully shot; it’s stylistically sharp and is a thoroughly well thought out production.

The Bad

No Love Lost– Joe Budden

It’s easy for new hip hop listeners to assume Joe Budden is more of a public spectacle than a rapper. He has gained attention and notoriety for splashing intimate moments with his girlfriend Kaylin Garcia all over instagram and twitter.

But Budden is more than an exhibitionist he’s also a talented rapper who excels at confessional rapping. Unfortunately his latest release No Love Lost did not show that all. Instead it was filled with generic gormless hip hop that a rapper of Joe Budden’s calibre should not be making.

The Ugly

Kanye West Breakdown at London Concerts

Usually this section in my monthly overview has been reserved for music beefs as that’s usually the ugly side of music .But this month Kanye West’s bizarre breakdown was a truly disturbing sight and uglier than any music spat. Kanye announced shock concert dates in London which filled many fans with joy but fans did not get the exact performance they wanted.

West went on rants, insulting Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake’s collaboration Suit and Tie, the Grammys, the state of hip hop and the music industry in general. He yelled and screamed and threw microphones at the audience.

Some have derided Kanye’s behaviour as pure stupidity, but I think it’s too simple to look at it that way. I think this is truly synopsises ugliness in music seeing a rapper crumble like that. I wasn’t there unfortunately but this blog post by  amazing young journalist Tiffany Calver perfectly summed up Kanye’s actions; http://blog.tiffanycalver.co.uk/2013/02/remind-me-again-why-we-do-this-shit.html