So in the last week we’ve had albums from Oddisee, Jonwayne, Thundercat, DJ Jazzy Jeff and his personal selection of DJ’s, producers, songwriters etc and the much-anticipated GSAP (Gang signs and Prayer) by UK artist Stormzy.
On top of this Remy Ma and Nicki Minaj have exchanged indirect bars over remixes before it bubbled over into Remy going full ether mode with the track “shether” unleashing a barrage of abuse over 7 minutes. This also included a few claims and accusations that I’ll cover a bit later on.
Swizz Beatz and Just Blaze had a 3 HOUR LONG beat battle live on youtube/instagram for the world to see, for FREE!
But first of all Stormzy dropped a huge project that wouldn’t even be considered a grime album.
Gang Signs and Prayer is an extremely diverse project with enough features to enrich the listening experience but not dilute what Stormzy is doing. Some features are a nod to the original scene of grime (Ghetto with the infamous wheres Carlos rant from his clash with Bashy and a co sign from the imprisoned Crazy Titch). He also grabbed former Choice FM DJ/host Jenny Francis for a few sultry words as well Kehlani amongst others.
All in all this is a very cohesive and diverse project. He flips from grime roots “Return Of The Rucksack” to real RnB “Velvet” “Cigarettes and Cush” right to real church and gospel “Blinded by your grace” “21 gun salute”. “100 bags” and “lay it bare” seem to have hit home with the majority of people and I can understand why. 100 bags being an ode to his mum and lay it bare spilling about the issues in London living today.
As someone that was a bit apprehensive about this project due to the hype around him I’m pleasantly surprised with the final product, also who would have thought that Stormzy sings! lol.
Next order of business now is Remy Ma!!!!!! She abused Nicki Minaj for 7 minutes over the ether beat throwing all sorts of jabs, disses and allegations. According to her Nicki cheating on her boyfriend (Safaree or Meek? ) with Ebro from Hot 97….he must be sipping that tea right now.
The diss was full of hard bars but as a rap fan I have to say they were delivered poorly. Mal from Joe Budden’s I’ll name this podcast later said it was like she was just reading texts over a beat. As a rapper that is supposedly one of the best female rappers to ever come out she has to do better. A lot of the social media activity after suggested that Nicki Minaj was buried 6ft deep and has no chance to come back. A ton of memes as usual lol and of fans both arguing all over the place. People need to remember that Nicki can actually rap outside of all the bullshit music she drops. She’s got time to craft the RIGHT response and really get this feud going properly. One diss record isn’t the end of it nor is it the greatest diss record ever dropped.
Finally we’re onto my favourite event of the week! The Swizz Beatz/Just Blaze beat battle was sick! Now if you aren’t aware Just Blaze has done a previous battle tour with the Alchemist which was dope in itself. Even DJ Premier and Pete Rock have done a similar thing live on stage. Just and Swizz have a mutual respect for each other and both have huge catalogues of hits so a clash between the two was always going to be special. It apparently started with a few passing comments which led to Just turning up at Swizz’s studio and laying down the gauntlet.
The clash started with the two cutting breaks using Just’s Laptop and controller, nothing too competitive. The real fun was when they started going 1 for 1 with their hits. Just definitely started off better but the later it got the more Swizz really went at him with more aggression and creativity. This culminated in him playing an unreleased track with Nas, Jay Z and DMX! Busta Rhymes who happened to be in attendance reacted like this:
And Just Blaze like this:
It was a very eventual clash and if there had to be a winner it was definitely Swizz but great on both parts. After the clash they set up a group chat inviting the majority of top producers to do this on a similar stage with an offer to put money up too. This could turn out to be something really special for the culture.
I know I really focused on three things but make you sure check out the albums I mentioned, all available on all streaming platforms.
Thanks for your time
Ramblings of a music fan
Ramblings of a music fan 