Home of the Lovesoul DJs
Event Review
Kishmeister.net reviews Jaguar Skills at Cargo
Nov 20th
The UK blogosphere’s best kept secret, Kishmeister, reviews easily the most impressive and original DJ since DJ Swing (RIP), Mr Jaguar Skills. I am so glad Jag Skills has got his spot on radio, it makes it way easier for DJ’s like us to continue crossing genres. Here’s the first paragraph, but for the full astounding review – visit Kishmeister.net’s article.
Jaguar Skills is a DJ who is exclusively one of a kind. I first heard him through a Hip Hop mixtape where he squeezed 800 tracks into 45 mins. I am not a fan of straight up playing tracks for one second and moving on to the next, but a lot of effort when into the mixes for this project which came out as impressive. When he became a resident on Radio 1, for years I’ve been addicted to his highly creative mixes where he takes tunes from seemingly any genre and twists them up into a whole new style and energy, added with random comical elements, sharp concepts and voiceovers thrown it. The number of ideas and quality of mastering, is outstanding. So I was very keen to check out what he would be like actually DJ-ing, at London’s Cargo venue last night. Full article.
Flashback 17: Raj Lovesoul’s Video Diary
Nov 9th
A quick wrap up of the fantastic night had by everyone last Saturday at Flashback 17. Def London’s number 1 old school night. Sadly no Vik Lovesoul DJ’ing at this one, but lovesoul repped hard. Shout to shamik and lil’ ash for holding it down with the camera. More info at Flashback2001.com or for DJ Rav’s mixtapes hit his Facebook. And of course, shout to Numark for the NS7.
Broken Soul Boy Review of 'J Dilla Changed My Life', Cargo in London
Feb 20th
An excellent time was had by myself at the J Dilla tribute club night held at London’s Cargo Nightclub on Feb 15th 09. Right from 7pm, the queues were unbelievably massive (a SUNDAY!).
Inside, the place became gridlocked very quickly, and the DJ sets ended up becoming some of the dopest selection of music I have heard played continuously, throughout my clubbing lifetime. Harry Love, Marc Mac (4 Hero) and others were all there dropping good sets, and there was also a very special original breaks set spun at the start, dropping all kinds of knowledge. But I have to specifically mention DJ Rags who smashed the place like crazy with his set. He was playing to the crowds with some of the classic hip hop joints and crowd pleasing breaks that Dilla is renowned for with some tight mixing. This was some furious business, and was the highlight of the evening for me.
And what made the night so good was just being part of a mass of people that shared the same respect and enthusiasm for Dilla’s discography, including much of his obscure work. It was a glorious sight for example to see the whole venue applaud the Over The Breaks joint when that was dropped. The is the most unlikeliest club track! This happened time after time with so many other joints, you take away alot of positive that actually there is a base of people out there who do appreciate these kind of tunes, a refreshing perspective to what is generally popular in hip hop today.
And the party took on another level, when the classic Tribe, Busta, Slum Village joints were all dropped. When Q Tip’s Let Ride got played, much of the place went into intense moshpit mode, and I have never seen such a reaction to that track before.
Respects to all those involved with the night.
Posted by Broken Soul Boy.
Lovesoul.TV Interviews DJ Bobbito Garcia and DJ Spindoctor
Oct 1st
For the first time ever, a double whammy from both the lovesoul DJ’s. Vik Lovesoul interviewed a LEGEND in hip-hop, DJ Bobbito, do the history [wiki], [myspace]. He was a key part in the career of many big hip-hop artists (literally, Big L, Biggie, Big Pun). An absolutely nice guy who loves his music and still plays off 7″ vinyls…
Meanwhile, Raj Lovesoul interviews one of London’s leading hip-hop culture purveyors, DJ Spindoctor. He is responsible for legendary true school parties such as ‘The Doctors Orders’ and the new ‘On The Real’, the latter being the only place you can hear real hip-hop in central London, with no dress code, no fights and more importantly no mortgage needed to buy drinks.
Real true school hip-hop is hard to find, so to find out about the next jam hit TheDoctorsOrders.com
Professor Green Kills Stig Live at The Jump Off
Jul 10th
So last night Professor Green slammed Stig in an MC battle at The Jump Off in London.
Until we get the full video and story, let’s recall Stig serving Asher D…
Shout to Ara The Coach and the team making hip-hop history every month.
Jay-Z's Glastonbury Performance – Download MP3 Link and Tracklisting
Jul 1st
Looks like the Jay-Z excitement post-Glastonbury is still growing. Came across a link to the full mp3 audio from Jay-Z’s Glastonbury 2008 performance
Download Jay-Z Full Performance at Glastonbury 2008 as MP3 here.
And here’s a tracklisting for Noel Gallagher and Friends:
01. Jay-Z – Wonderwall
02. Jay-Z – 99 Problems/Back in Black
03. Jay-Z – Is That Yo Bitch?
04. Jay-Z – Smack My Bitch Up/Rehab
05. Jay-Z – A Billi
06. Jay-Z – Dirt Off Your Shoulder/Lying From
07. Jay-Z – Izzo (H.O.V.A.)/I Want You Back
08. Jay-Z – Can I Get A…
09. Jay-Z – Beware of the Boys
10. Jay-Z – I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)
11. Jay-Z – Show Me What You Got
12. Jay-Z – Girls, Girls, Girls
13. Jay-Z – American Boy
14. Jay-Z – Umbrella
15. Jay-Z – Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)
16. Jay-Z – Beautiful Moment Speech
17. Jay-Z – Encore/Numb
If you download this, I do not technically owe you anything for Christmas.
Posted by Hip-Hop Singh
Review of Mary J Blige at The 02 Arena, London – Lovesoul.TV Exclusive
Jun 8th
On Tuesday 3rd June I attend the Mary J Blige concert at the o2 arena in North Greenwich, London. Having high hopes for the Queen of Hip-Hop and RnB to blow us all away with her amazing voice… it finished with a questionable opinions.
The show was due to start at 19:30, as the crowds began to fill the seats. There was a great buzz around the arena, people anxious to know who the opening acts would be, which special guests Mary J would bring out… and oh how disappointed they were about to become. The first and only opening act came on stage at 20:25…aka 55 minutes late. The band had likely never been seen before, and unfortunately didn’t reveal their name, so they can’t get a mention or link in this review (dummies). The only source of information we received was that the lead singer was a young dude called “Chris”. The group performed 6 of their tracks which got the crowed pumped up and ready to start the show.
After the opening 25 minute set, the full arena lights the came on. A massive confusion arose around the arena as people didn’t have clue what exactly was happening. The backstage staff had their 15 minutes of fame, as they cleared the stage for Miss Blige to perform her show on.
At 9:15 the lights went down for the second time. Flashes of photography filled the arena with light and screams of excited fans filled the air. An explosion on stage revealed Mary’s presence and the concert began. With the opening track “Grown Woman”, Mary had the crowed singing along. Her powerful soulful voice beamed around the arena as people were blown away by her extravagant sound. Her stage presence was felt all around the arena as people began to connect with her.
The show itself seemed to be a very personal one. She often referred to the critics numerous times, explaining how much Mary has changed. She put the show together like a story book of life. Each of the songs she performed related to various parts of our lives, like, ‘No more Drama’ and ‘Love No Limit’. She also teased the crowed with samples of her well known records, ‘All Night Long’ and ‘Real Love’. At 10.10pm Mary left the stage, returning soon after to perform “Family Affair” and “Just Fine” the crowd just started to pump up and dance along. Within 15 minutes this encore had ended, leaving behind a delighted yet confused audience. The whole show lasted approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes, which was very disappointing.
She put on a memorable show, with her amazing voice and dramatic performance, she interacted with her audience well. However, as a younger fan of Mary’s, and more into the commercial cuts, I would’ve liked to have heard a little less of the album and older joints. The rumour mill states that she has cancelled her tour of Australia and New Zealand due to exhaustion, so I guess I’ll count myself lucky.
Review by Abs Pabari, Producer, Lovesoul.TV
Bottle thrown on stage at Lil' Wayne in London… Video interpreted
Mar 18th
This is huge news, verging on gossip-mongering I know, but pretty huge. So just hours after 1Xtras Trevor Nelson and Zena were throwing roses on the runway for the arrival of Lil’ Wayne in London, the man himself was on stage. Here’s the video clip of what looks like a non-performance which seemed to p-ss the UK crowd off to the point of cursing out Weezy F. Baby and throwing water bottles at him [source RealTalkNY on YouTube].
Now here’s the OFFICIAL lovesoul interpretation.
00.00 to 00.13 seconds – The hype-ass Swizz Beats remix of ‘It’s me Bitch3s’ comes on for Wayne sick verse. Crowd is hyped and obviously behind the track. The hype man to the right raises his hand in support, Weezy doesn’t even raise his head.
00.14 seconds – An (assumed) underpaid and demotivated security guard remembers a cheeseburger he left backstage. Distressed by the thought of what impact the aging pickle would make on the processed cheese, he leaves to stage left, leaving Weezy unsupervised and still doing nothing but pacing.
00.15 to 00.50 seconds – Lil Wayne continues to ponder around the stage, insultingly with his back to the crowd while they sing a long to the ‘Lick the rapper’ line. Neither of Waynes homies make eye contact with him. He, by now, should have surely clicked that he’s not giving the crowd any type of show. White coated homie on the left clicks on that something is wrong, shrugs, and also turns his back.
00.51 – 01 minute 08 seconds – Security comes back, all ok with the cheeseburger, probably good for another few hours. Crowd realise that Wayne is seemingly uninterested in performing and a bottle hits Weezy in the chest. He is un-moved and un-emotional, as well as unaware that his security has not seen it as another burger check was needed.
01 minute and 09 seconds – Crowd screams ‘oh!’ as they realise what happened. Security takes 10 WHOLE seconds to be briefed by one of the homeboys to the right about what just happenend, and only then takes a step to front stage.
01 minute and 25 seconds – Weezy finally brings the mic up to his mouth and says ‘I don’t know who just done that, but this whole mfkin crowd need to beat his ass cos he just… he fked up the whole show’. He drops the mic and exits stage right. Camera movements suggest a riot breaking out and maybe a few London dudes jumping on stage as more water is thrown.
Here’s my summary. This is Hip-Hop. He wasn’t rhyming, breakdancing, doing live graffiti or DJ’ing. This left him with no substance and gave the crowd no clue as to where he was going, what his intentions were, or if he even cared about the show and giving people value for their ticket stub.
Now I LOVE LIL’ WAYNE RECORDS, fact, ask anyone. And I read on MoveTheCrowd and Hattie C’s Blog that Lil’ Wayne brought some serious fire before and after this occurrence, but was distracted by the marring of violence all night. Now he should have addressed this more calmly, not added fuel to the fire and encouraged anyone to get beat up, or not perform. Someone should’ve told Wayne that the UK has always been in the top 4 Hip-Hop consuming markets globally after possibly Germany and Japan, and therefore everyone who takes to the stage has to try to bring it, or get touched by the guys that jacked ATL, Mobb Deep, Ja Rule and a heap of others. This is a sad day for one of my favourite recent emcees and I’d like to see it addressed on record very soon. Security and promoters, step ya game up too. Let’s give US rappers a reason to come through and polinate with our Hip-Hop and make history.
Chris Rock's First Ever UK Tour Review
Jan 13th
Event Name: Chris Rock: No Apologies International Tour
Artist(s): Chris Rock
Venue: Birmingham National Indoor Arena
Rating: 8.5/10
Reviewed by: Hip-Hop Singh
Finally, Brooklyn USA’s Chris Rock, the 42 year old man, who many acclaim to be the funniest stand-up in modern comedy, has embarked on his international tour. With dates in Manchester, London and Birmingham, Brits could finally witness the genius and musings behind his previous live specials, “Never Scared”, “Bigger and Blacker” and “Bring The Pain”, all high rating TV broadcasts and DVD’s in their own right.
The truth is, it’s been nearly three years since his last special. Since then he’s cracked the mainstream in more traditional ways via numerous hollywood films, featuring in animated voice overs, and a hit TV show on both sides of the Atlantic ‘Everybody Hates Chris’ [click for his IMDB]. So the question arises, can the man who controversially was responsible for creating a social apartheid between “black people” and “n****’s” still keep people laughing? The answer is a yes, but not as resounding I would have expected it to be.
His warm-up act, Mario Sarpong, was a true seasoned stand up, delivering his jokes well and immediately setting the tone for the rest of the evening. The timing was good and there was little lost in translation between America and the UK. Then the main man came on stage to the bass line of Lil’ Wayne and quickly relaxed into his set, and getting about making us laugh.
But, it was notably a slow start, due mainly to Rock delivering the same jokes many of the nation had seen in his massive UK publilicity tour. Indeed, watching his interview with Jonathon Ross on the BBC, was roughly the same as the first 15 minutes of the stand up show. He dug the hole deeper by recycling old material from previous stand-up sets, like “My only role in my daughter’s life…is to keep my baby of the pole! They don’t grade Dads… but if your daughter ends up a stripper, you fucked up!“ Was this the sign of the disappointment to follow?
Thankfully not, soon after dropping such clangers, he really did hit his stride. Like a preacher in full swing from the pulpit, he started to drop his opinions on that classic hot potato, George W. Bush and the American Election race. On current election campaign runner, Barack Obama, “He’ll be fine, but his biggest problem is having a black wife….you know she’ll make him say you ain’t president… we president!” and Hilary, “Well, we know she has one strength over Obama, and that’s forgiveness!”
Other highlights were Rock’s commentary on that eagerly debated issue, relationships “Half the women in here refuse to give blowjobs, the other half are in loving relationships. Remember ladies, Spitters are Quitters!”
The main reason why Rock is so impressive and relatable, is due to his observations of human behaviour, and pointing out things we can all experience and therefore understand. Plus he carried on making such ridiculous statements like:
“I’ve always hated rich kids, so I guess I hate my kids, little rich bastards!”
“Hey dad, I want a bike!” Fuck you kid! How old are you? five? Shit, when I was young, I couldn’t afford to be five until i was nine!” The fact that he was still making people laugh with lines like these is a testament to his ability.
The night carried on well, and although it slightly dragged at times, Rock had enough panache and style to keep the crowd enthralled. And after almost two hours on stage, he walked off to a standing ovation.
Overall Rock hadn’t changed his topics and style to suit the UK audience, and for that I’m grateful, for what he did do was deliver a fine show, with the same content you not only expect, but want from him, and gave some lasting quotes that I’m sure will be used by many in the months to follow. Below is a fairly average feature on him by the guys at ITN, but it shows some good show clips.
Reviewed Exclusively for Lovesoul.TV by Hip-Hop Singh. Did you go to the show, or hear about it? Please leave your comments by clicking here.
Kanye West 22nd Nov 2007 – London 02 Arena Review
Nov 29th
Event Name: Kanye West, London tour
Artists: Kanye West, Common, Estelle
Venue: 02 Arena, London
Rating: 7.5/10 – “Overall a good concert”
Author: Kurran Gadhvi (first ever Lovesoul.TV reader review!)
Expectations were at an all time high for the beginning of the Kanye West tour. With the recent unfortunate passing of his mother, rumours of cancellation spread fast a week before the concert. The go-ahead email from the O2 centre put a smile on thousands of faces just days before the concert.
An hour before the concert, rumours of supporting acts such as Jay-Z, Common and others, were floating around the numerous bars of the impressive O2 centre. The Concert eventually started off with Estelle, performing a few new tracks from her forthcoming album. Some tracks have been produced by former Fugees front man, Wyclef Jean, who apparently claims she is the best at creating her “own harmonies to her track”. She managed to get in ‘1980’, the track that brought her to the mainstream and the charts in 2004. However, with the sound levels not being quite right and the Arena just being half full at that time, the impact she made was definitely not worth remembering.
The second supporting act soon followed. Kanye’s fellow Chi-town native and GOOD Music label mate Common. After his big acting success in ‘American Gangster’, and scoring a Radio 1 Friendly crossover hit with Lilly Allen, you would have expected the UK crowd to give him a warmer welcome. But, how can I put this politely, the majority of the not so “hip-hop” oriented crowd, didn’t even know who he was! Hip-hop heads, such as myself, were moving away to some of his raw old-school tracks mixed with some from his latest album. Some people were singing along to Lilly Allens chorus, but that was probably the loudest the crowd were during his 30 min rendition.
The crowd started to grow restless in anticipation for the main act. Looking around with the lights on, you could tell that the crowd were mainly pop or commercial music followers and couldn’t wait for the chart topper version of Kanye to grace the stage. The lights went down, and unlike the supporting acts with just DJ’s, a drummer and poor sound levels; when Kanye came on it was a bang. The side big screens came on, his famous string quartet were on the stage accompanying the drummer, synths player, sound effects specialist (who did a solo at the end, the first SFX solo I have ever seen), guitarist and bass. Every track was special. Tracks from his new album, intertwined with some of his earlier chart toppers such as the Chaka-tastic “Through the Wire”, and the track “with Adam Levine from Maroon 5” (“Heard ‘Em Say”) were all sung along to by the crowd and the atmosphere was electric.
Then came a very touching moment, as he dedicated ‘Hey Mamma’ to his mother. He had a beam of an angel looking over him all the way through the track. With tears rolling down his cheeks throughout the song, the crowd gave him, and also to his mother, a standing ovation. The finishing track was “Stronger”, this got the majority of the crowd off their seats, shaking their booty to a beat that was apparently mixed down a record 15 times, with the help of Timbaland finishing it off in the studio. Looks like it worth it.
The Concert got progressively “Stronger”. There were many smiles going back to North Greenwhich station. Mixed reactions from some, but overall a good concert.
WE ARE LOOKING FOR MORE READER REVIEWS. BIG SHOUT TO KURRAN OF SWARA MUSIC. (pic: Shirlaine Forrest)
