This week the UK’s Matt Ford, aka DJ Format, will release his first album in nearly seven years. Statement of Intent, the long awaited follow up to 2005′s If You Can’t Join ‘em, Beat ‘em is set to feature DJ Format’s incredibly strong boom-bap production while also giving great independent rappers a great platform to be heard. For those unfortunate enough to have missed the first two albums in the mid-naughties, here are DJ Format’s Essentials.
Some strange people might remember Len from their hit-track “Steal My Sunshine” from 1999 but they also did this track featuring a ton of young Canadian, then, up and comers. According to discogs the plethora of upstarts where Andy Bernstein (Abdominal), Asicks, C-Plus, Circle Research, D-Sisive, Dane Goulet, Daniel Denton, Dave Yan, DJ Moves, Fraser Wendt, Gordski, Governor Bolts, Insight One, Ishkan, Justin Levy, Phatt Al, Philip Rae, Richard Terfry, S-Luv, Sixtoo, Tachichi. Why anyone would think of putting this many people on one track, I don’t know but the result is great and quite important for a few of the stars of contemporary Canadian hip-hop.
Another month goes past and more release dates have been announced and we’re back with another list of what you should be putting on your radar. Hopefully people are finding these lists useful, as it’s stupidly tough to get updated lists of these dates.
It’s always tough to find up-to-date release lists for our genre but we’re aiming to please at Lesson Six. Here’s our second On The Horizon list of release dates.
Here are Lesson Six we’ve always got albums on the radar but we’ve been looking forward to the start of 2011 specifially. Here are a few reasons…
An unleased Abdominal track recorded in 2007. I have to say, I’ve spoken to Abs a few times and he’s a stand-up guy (considering the cheeky nature of the questions). Can’t wait for his new album that should be released early next year.
BookTunes is a curious project. It runs on the theory that music helps you remember things better and a few clever Canadians (who else?) got together and BookTunes was the result. Here Toronto based rapper, Abdominal, speaks on his involvement in the project before giving his rendition of “The Scarlet Letter” a spin. I’ve only picked up “The Hows of Happiness” so far, but it’s a very intriguing concept. Give it a listen.
Interview w. Garvia (Big City, Small World Nov. 20, ’10.) by Abdominal
It’s funny how one line can trigger a playlist:
“We should rap about things that we like / Like food?”
This came about by accident when I was gorging myself on food and a few beers one night and listening to some PUTS. It occurred to me that hip-hop is one of the few genres of music where artists can do just that, rap about any subject as long as the content is clever and/or amusing and the beats are good.
We’re never ones to miss out on an opportunity and despite being towards the tail end of the summer, we couldn’t bear the thought of not making this post. At the core of the site is good music. Good music that we want to share with you. Now if someone can tell me a better way to share music than mixtapes, I’d like to know. So without further ado, here is the first ever Lesson Six Mix Tape, our Soundtrack To The Summer.
Another Monday, another six choices from the Lesson Six playlist. If you’re new to the site, every Monday we post six tracks we’ve been listening too recently. Now this doesn’t mean that they’re new, in fact it normally means the opposite, but they’re all decent.
Easily listen to our last twenty tracks. Featuring tracks by Witness, Organic Flow, & Milo Open Mike Eagle
Open The Lesson Six Mix
May 17th
Apr 16th
Mar 13th
Feb 14th
British success story, Plan B, might not come off as the most eloquent guy but last month he gave his thoughts to an all-ears TEDxObserver crowd on hip-hop and the term ‘chav’, among other topics. It’s definitely well worth a watch whether you’re a fan of his music or not. I found myself agreeing with [...]
Lesson is about progressive & cliché-free hip-hop with intelligent lyrics. Striving for something more than the mainstream perception of hip-hop. This means no misogyny, no glorification of drug-use, no violence and no played out flaunting of personal wealth.