This video was taken from ExtremeMedia’s vimeo account, spending 24 hours in the life of two grime DJs -Elijah and Skilliam-. Click here to download their latest mixtape and here to subscribe to their blog.
”Since we started this blog we have met, and had dialogue with loads of interesting creative people from all over the globe, and it is difficult to accommodate all of them in what we do. Trav, the editor of this video is an all round artist, from the abstract stuff he has done to the walls in my room, to this video, he is a really talented guy.” - Elijah on the Butterz blog
The first guy to say ‘never judge a book by its cover’ needs to get slapped with a wet fish, preferably back to back with the geezer that came up with ‘can’t have your cake and eat it.’ Because sometimes all we have to formulate a buying decision is a millisecond look at the cover be it of a book, film or music album.
Honestly does this cover from ‘Chicken Coupe de Ville’ scream out ‘Classic album’ to you? I thought so, its not quite your Beatles ‘Sgt Peppers..’, Nas ‘Illmatic’ Dizee’s ‘Boy in The Corner’ or Jay-Z ‘Blueprint’ cover, in fact along with the 1990’s No Limit and Cashmoney Record blinged out album covers, it demostrates the lack of any photoshop skills in the southern regions of America.
Looking at the albums below, I wish I could see the creative briefs for these covers, because something was definately lost in translation or a mixed up with a brief from another organisation.
SO LETS BEGIN. THIS COULD HAVE BEEN…
DARK AND LOVELY HAIR TEXTURISER COVER
ADVERT FOR THE WEST COAST GYNAECOLOGIST LTD
COVER FOR DISNEY’S LITTLE RED RIDING ‘IN’ THE HOOD
JOIN THE RAF ADVERTS
INSPIRATION TO BASHY’S ‘BISH, BASH, BOSH’ CLOTHING LINE
Before we engage on this journey, I must first sate that prostitution is a serious social issue that has tarnished many people’s lives. Therefore in no way shape or form is this article glorifying that lifestyle. In fact the article aims to do the opposite and begin to identify how the pimp pathology has found itself in our living rooms, continuously promoting the manipulation of young women.
I always find it funny that people claim that prostitution has been around since the beginning of time, as if this prehistoric reference all of a sudden offers the justification for the exploitation of females. But what seems to always get to me is the how Pimps are seen as the charismatic Casanovas, who so many men are envious of their natural skill to keep their woman in check, while the woman on the other hand gets the privilege of sharing a name with a gardening appliance.
The Popularisation of P.I.M.P in the 1970’s
The 1970s saw an influx of African-American movies, in response to the declining revenues in Hollywood. The new genre dubbed ‘Blaxploitatio’ is considered by many to be the turning point for Hollywood, as it was able to attract a previously uninterested black audience to the cinemas. But with this new found lane came some terrible and at time humorous representation of urban stereotypes, such as the Pimp culture. The average PIMP and Pusherman in Harlem were never as glamorous as they may have been presented in films like ‘Superfly in 1972′. This later translated into the music of that day, with artists like Curtis Mayfield glorifying such as a lifestyle in their music and it is pretty much becomes self explanatory why today’s hip hop artist who grew up listening to this music are now fascinated about being the ‘drug dealers’, ‘fly’ and ‘P.I.M.P
Many of you would be able to recognise the snippet on the video below between 0:58 to 1:17 from the Jay-Z intro entitled ‘Prelude’ on his Kingdom Come album.
Hip Hop artists carrying the torch
If ever there was a medium or genre that seems to happily embrace the pimpologic ideals of the 1970s movies, its Hip Hop music. Many blame hiphop for the mainstream crossover-or regular usage- of the term pimpin’ in TV shows such as MTV’s Pimp my ride. But I would have to say that it will not be fair to place the burden solely on hiphop’s back especially when the subtle aspects of pimping techniques were evident on our TV screen’s way before Don Majic Juan got his hands on his first Stacey Adams shoes.
STAR TREKS’ MR MACK DADDY
Look how Khan Noonien Singh of Star Trek demonstrates what many now consider to be the ‘Pimp’s hand’, the manipulative techniques which makes the female beg to their partner’s mercy, even though he is in the wrong. The scary thing is that this type of thing happens everyday, and for Star Trek -which is is bigger than any hiphop artist or album ever released- to be showing this in our living rooms, there seems to be something wrong with how we portray women in mainstream media.
It can happen to anybody..believe me
Remember Maia Campbell? No, well she played Tiffany Brown on ‘In the House’ with LL Cool J in the 90’s as well as appearances in ‘Moesha’ and ‘Sister Sister’.
Well here is a video of her in LA, with her Pimp, who I am sure you have noticed is not as Fly as Snoop Dogg or as well spoken as Mr Kahn and is actually nothing more than a low life spineless twat taking advantage of a woman in need of some serious help.
Conclusion.
Pimping ain’t easy, has to be the greatest urban myth if ever there was one. Any man -or woman- who makes money from the business of selling someone else’s body for sex, cannot even begin to comprehend or have the right to us to use the terms ‘aint easy..’ If anything pimping must be easier now than ever with female self esteem at an all time low. So maybe its time we started to make Pimping harder for these low lives, by portraying them for the clowns that they are and building the self esteem of the women in our society, with more videos of hardworking ordinary women then booty shaking video cameos and glossy magazines reports of Z-list celebrities new tummy tucks.
I am going to start by showing you a snippet of how these clowns SHOULD be portrayed…Peace!
Rinse FM DJs Elijah and Skilliam of Butterz.co.uk have once again released a free mixtape for grime enthusiasts, entitled ‘This one’s A Percy Ingles’.
Click the image below to download the mixtape.
Tracklists
Nasty Jack - One Spliff A Day
Footsie - 3 Plates
Wiley - I Was Like You
Silencer - Bonus Stage
D Double E - Bell Dem Slags
Rude Kid - Jack Daniels
Maniac - G.R.I.M.E
Skepta - Dark
Silencer - Dirtbag
Lil Nasty & Fumin - Dont Phone Me Freestyle
J@kes - Rock The Bells
Newham Generals - Mind Is A Gun
Maniac - Ugly
Joker - Purple City
Ghetts & Rapid - One Way Road
Swindle - Generations
There has probably not been a buzz this big for a hiphop artist since 50cent, 7 years ago. Here is the official video for rapper Drake’s smash hit ‘Best I ever had’ directed by KanYe West.
Here is the video preview of the up and coming album from New York rapper Nas and Jamaican reggae artist Damian Marley, son of Bob Marley. The album is entitled ‘Distant Relatives’ and will heavily be focused around the African continent, covering ancestry through to poverty.
Based on the Youtube below it seems as though North London artist Skepta is sending out a war cry towards his fellow Grime counterpart Wiley, after a lyric from the latter’s ‘Zip It Up’ track was deemed to be directed at Skepta.
On the song Wiley rhymes:
“I’m a king when I roll through anywhere, your just a king when you roll through Barnet”.
Considering that Skepta has been the self proclaimed ‘King of Grime’ for the last two years it was not far fetched for many to believe the line was directed at him.Having seen the two artists embrace the stage and recording may songs together, i was initially sceptical-no pun intended- about the authenticity of the beef.
But according to our good friend Elijah of Butterz, Skepta had a few lines towards Wiley back on the 2007 track ‘Nokia Charger’, where the artist rhymes:
”king of grime yes I’m the best innit/ But Wiley ain’t respecting it/ If you want it with me we cant start 50 and Kanye westing it”
With that said I am still not sure whether this is real or just a promo push for both artists albums, either way who is your money on?
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n many cases, the built-in Text Widget can be used to add new abilities to your sidebar. The Widget Plugin allows you to specify how many text widgets you need. Once you have specified the number of text widgets you need, each of those widgets is added to the "Available Widgets" column in the Presentation, Sidebar Widget Administration Panel.
n many cases, the built-in Text Widget can be used to add new abilities to your sidebar. The Widget Plugin allows you to specify how
