"Oh no," I can hear you screaming at the 17-inch screen of your MacBook Pros, "not more fucking 'Rolex Sweep' this week." Yep, like Marmite on a sheep skin rug, it's proving very difficult to get rid of Skepta's "Rolex Sweep". Ministry have just signed the song for a July release so it will be around for a lot longer I'm afraid. And maybe, just maybe it might catch on.
The above video was taken at Radio 1's Big Weekend—a two day celebration of mediocrity in music frequented by the kind of people who are members of the official fan clubs of both The Hoosiers and The Wombats. It shows 1Xtra DJ MistaJam—a cross between Fatman Scoop and Rik Waller—and Radio 1 presenter Zane Lowe—a man so annoying that the Virgin Mary would happily pay money to see him slowly boiled in a giant cauldron until his unnecessary constant squealing stops—doing what is being called the ghetto Macarena in front of the crowd of Philistines. Enjoy.
Hot Chip recently did an hilarious, yet brilliant cover of Wiley's number 2 hit on Jo Whiley's radio show. The group are apparently big fans of grime. Joe from the band DJed at Jammer's Are You Dumb Vol. 2 mixtape launch last summer. Well, he started to DJ, until Logan Sama told him to fuck off or something and he packed away his records and left.
Talking of Logan, he had an in-depth interview with Skepta on his Kiss FM show this week. The DJ usually asks his guests questions like: "How many tracks have you got on your mixtape?" before proceeding to calculate what the song/cost ratio for the CD is. Thankfully, this interview is a lot more insightful. Skepta talks about his single deal, his relationship with Wiley and his plans for the future (get the other parts of the interview here). Pretty interesting stuff.
Here is Skepta freestyling on the same show. By the sounds of it, he's been listening to a lot of Mavado. "Your marrow will fly into the sky." Now where have I heard that before? Also, the chorus on recent track "Nokia Charger Wire" (listen to it here) is basically a karaoke tribute to Mavado. To my ears, anyway.
Sway feat. $toosh, "F Ur X"
Finally, it's nice to see that Lady $tush is back. I was sent a pretty grimey new track by Sway (who is UK hip-hop, but whatever) and $tush this week. You may remember she did the classic "Dollar Sign" with Sticky back in 2002, and was then signed to Island only to never release anything. Last year Groove Armada got her on a track but that doesn't seem to have affected her too much. "F Ur X" sounds like a primitive yet catchy grime track, which Sway's nursery rhyme flow and $tush's fast incisive delivery fit perfectly. Hopefully we will see her with some new material later in the year.