Furious Bread

This Friday at the Jazz Cafe my Breakin Bread peoples are celebrating their 11th Birthday.  Doesn't that just make you feel fucking ancient? Anyway, its looking to be a pretty special night all in all.  Taking the headline spot are one of the flagship old skool hip hop groups, none other than the motherfucking FURIOUS 5.  That's right Dynamite, Grand Master Melle Mel, Kid Creole, Scorpio & Rahiem are all billed... Plus the one like Kurtis Blow will also be taking the stage to delight and entertain the Camden punters.

Breakin Bread have got the obligatory B-Boy contingent covered in the form of UK champions THE SOUL MAVERICKS facing off against RETURN 2 BURN from Germany. DJing duties are being covered by long-standing Bread mogul Skeg, and its all hosted by none other than perennial underachiever Dylan Sage.

Furious facts:

1st rap artists to win Grammy awards, 

1st to inject social commentary into rap, with the genre changing “The Message” in 1982, 

1st to endorse a political candidate with the song “Jesse” in 1984, 

1st to be inducted into the rock & roll hall of fame in 2007

Also:

Dj Grandmaster Flash is credited as being the 1st to scratch vinyl

Kurtis Blow was 1st Rapper to be signed by a major label

Full details are below.  If you're desperate, I should be able to get concessions for the main event, so if you know me - holla atcha boy. I'm not making any promises though -Jazz Cafe's notoriously tight with that kinda thing, but I'll do what I can.

Friday 18th September
Live Hip Hop Show: The Furious 5 & Kurtis Blow
Resident DJ: SKEG
B Boy Battle w. Return 2 Burn (Munich, Germany) vs Soul Mavericks (London, UK)
Host: Dylan Sage

Jazz Café, 5 Parkway, Camden NW1
All night: (7pm - 2.30am) with Furious Five, Kurtis Blow & Breakin Bread.
£16.50 advance, more on the door
Late Session: (10.30pm - 2.30am),
£5 concession by emailing your names to assistant@breakinbread.org before Friday 18th 4pm!
Or £10 on the door

Peace

Natural Self

All of my memories of people and Brighton have merged into one blurry half recollection of the past 11 years. I'm not sure whether its something to do with the people I know there, or just Brighton itself.

Probably both.

Among the the things I can vaguely recall, is meeting Nat(ural Self). Who introduced us is also falls in the fuzzy category, but I do remember being at his house and meeting Ben (Nostalgia77 and some of the boys from Museum. Possibly one of them was called Stu.

Anyway that way ages ago, and lot has happened since then... 2 solo lps, one collab lp with Nostalgia 77, a slew of singles and remixes and a new album out in October on Tru Thoughts called My Heart Beats Like a Drum.

Here's some other bits and pieces I've gathered together.



Keno1 (Aka Natural Self)- I Manifest.



The Rising feat Andreya Triana, Live somewhere in Brighton. Nice Tambourine work Nat.


And here's a mix by him to download off the Tru Thoughts site.

If you cant hold out till October, you can get a fix of Mr Self in Brighton at the Loop Festival on the afternoon of the 11th of July, where he'll be doing a full live show on the open air Victoria Gardens stage. It'll be a full live set up featuring Percussion by Will Fry, Trumpet by Scotty Baylis, Sax & Flute by Ben Hadwen, emcee support from Dylan Sage and possibly a special guest...



Not on the south coast? He'll be in London on the same night for Belleruche's Turntable Soul Party at the Vibe Bar. Think only Dylan Sage and Will Fry will be making the trip up with him due to limited space, funds, time -etc, but with all the other shit going on, I think you'll be okay.
























In other news, his website has been up since June, which you can check out here.


He's featured as a vocalist on the new DJ Food track, Illectrik Hoax

DJ Food - The Illectrik Hoax Ft. Natural Self by Ninja Tune

(You can also hear his vocal prowess on the Broken Keys album)

Word is he's somewhere in the process of doing a third remix for Sofrito due out on an EP later this year. I'm sure they'll let me know when.

Later

Madman Speakz

When I met this guy, I did what nearly everybody does when someone you know says "Oh, my mate/brother/Vietnamese-pot-bellied-pig is an emcee...", which is write it off completely, and pretend no-one said anything.

Having spent years submerged in UK (and world wide) hip hop and the London D&B scene, I've been exposed to the worst excuses for rapping the universe has (hopefully) ever seen, which has left me a little jaded.

I don't know what it is about emcees, but they seem to be more inclined than other vocalist to think that delusions of grandeur and a bad attitude can stand in place of talent. Actually, now I think about it, its probably because the vast majority of rappers fall into that category.

But I digress.

Initially we met through his older brother, when, the two of them were sharing a place in North London. His bro, who knows I'm into my music, introduced me to him a couple years back, and did the aforementioned "My brother's an emcee." thing. To which I replied "Uh huh." and left it there.

A couple of weeks later, I was on my myspace site (yeah, this is back when people were still using it) and I come across this guys page. On one of the beats on his profile he looped up a sample from Akira. You know that bit where Tetsuo wakes up in the hospital and the cuddly toys grow huge and start bleeding milk? No? Well anyway, it's a great sample, and he slapped a fat beat on it too, so I was like "Hell yes. Bro - that track is sick." Of course, I had no idea that I'd already met the guy, but luckily he remembered me, and sent me some beats to pick through. So we start hanging out, playing streetfighter (I get my arse handed to me-repeatedly) and it turns out he can rhyme too. And well.

"Like corn babies I'm more shady than porn ladies right now,
And even more crazy than Martin Scorsese's eye brows.
Born hades, i pour gravy on your beaten raps
And eat the crap, as if its Auntie Babs Sunday meat & mash."

Since then he's been pretty busy. He finished his, mostly self produced, album earlier on this Spring. And what can I say? Its the shit.

He's currently shopping it around, but in the meantime, he's dropped this mix tape of off cuts, featuring the likes of Dylan Sage and Illaman, and production from K15,which you can download for free here:

Madman Speakz - DABBLE IN THE DARKSIDE MIXTAPE

There's also some other bit and pieces on his myspace page here.


I recently caught him at Hoochinoo at the Vibe Bar, where he was testing out the album material on the crowd there. It was well received, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him back there in the next couple of months.

Also if J'da Kut (Sensei.fm) ever forgives him for flaking on that live PA he was supposed to do a couple of weeks back, you might see him at her night at Bar Vinyl in Camden.