DJ MK: London Underground Extras

It’s been three years since DJ MK answered a lot of UK hip hop fans’ prayers, by making his legendary London Underground mixtape series available on Bandcamp. First emerging in the early 2000’s, the two tapes became essential additions in music collections up and down the country, thanks to the supreme selection of freestyles and exclusives that they contained. Now, 20 years later, MK has released a run of freestyles from the era that never made the original cut. Featuring unearthed gems from the likes of Jehst, Roots Manuva, Klashnekoff and Supa T, the 34 minute recording is ready to download now, with previews available below.

Seanie T ft. Roots Manuva, Rodney P, Blak Twang, Ragga Twins, Tony D & More: Veterans

Absolute monster of a track from Seanie T, as he gathers up fellow veterans from across the genres for this sprawling posse cut. The list of participants is impressive, with more years of service than I can count, under their collective belts. Roots Manuva, Rodney P, Blak Twang, Ragga Twins, Tony D, Ty, MC Creed, Hill Street Soul and Ricky Rankin are just a few of the 20+ artists involved, all backed up by some nice production from DJ Suro and Seanie T. Veterans is lifted from Seanie’s Rough, Rugged & Smooth album, which saw its release earlier this year.

An Ode to Brand New Second Hand

I have been reminding myself of the abundance of good tracks that are on Brand New Second Hand. It was one of the first UK hip hop albums I was obsessed with, after an ex bought it for me back in 2000. Before that I was pretty much only listening to US stuff, but that album changed a lot for me. Roots Manuva put me onto Skitz, who reintroduced me to Rodney P’s music – having rinsed London Posse for a while a few years earlier – then from there I got into Low Life and the rest is pretty self-explanatory.

Ocean Wisdom: Don

The tracklist for Ocean Wisdom’s new LP was released this week and it contained a couple of surprises. Alongside appearances from UK heavyweights such as Rodney P, Roots Manuva, Chester P and Jehst, the High Focus MC has also bagged features from Dizzee Rascal and Method Man. Yesterday saw the release of the next video from the album, this time for the track Don, which is produced by Pete Cannon. Pre-orders for Wizville are available now over at the High Focus store.