wepuneX project featuring Nobsta Nutts (2001)

A slice of gritty hip hop from Llanelli/ Swansea- from the gentlemen who went on to feature in The Headcase Ladz. Clever, caustic rhyming, loads of humour and social realism. 

Thanks to Griff...

http://d01.megashares.com/dl/u2Bflnr/Nobsta Nutts & Wepune X Project South Wales No Thrills (2).rar

Lews Tewns and Nobsta Nuts with Slicerman - Poverty Is Thirsty Work (2003)

No excuses. This is a great album and I think more people should hear it, but I've only got it in this format- 128kbps- generously given to me by  Slicerman a few years back when I asked him if I could put some of his work on Burning Aquarium. This is everything that hip hop could have been, a DIY form for the underclasses, and very humorous.
Straight outa Swansea/Llanelli.

MC Tunes (feat. 808 State) - The North At Its Heights (1990)

This album is credited to MC Tunes only- tho 808 State provide the music and production.

http://d01.megashares.com/dl/aT7NBqg/Mc Tunes vs 808 State - The North At Its Heights.rar

MC Tunes vs 808 State- Tunes Splits The Atom (1990)

Madchester. Might sound like New York but with the lovely bass loop from I Am The Resurrection by The Stone Roses and a sample from Testone by  Sweet Exorcist (Sheffield) it's a very English affair.
Younger readers mightn't know that 808 State took their name from The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer,one of the first programmable drum machines, made between 1980 and 1983 (TR standing for Transistor Rhythm).

Nicky Lockett aka MC Tunes.

Goldie Lookin' Chain- Half Man Half Machine (2004)

Guest blogger time! Nixon Newman (seriously) writes from Wetherspoons (probably)...
I remember the first time I heard this I was working in a mental hospital. I was in this lad's room about to give him a clopixol jab and this came on the radio. 
I went to Cardiff with the ex missus a few days later and bought the single in Spillers in  The Hayes. 
We went for a few drinks and I was sitting in these various pubs watching all these young blokes in their cheap looking suits and their lilac shirts having a pint in their lunchbreaks. Like one pint of Carlsberg or something. The penny dropped. I was never going to be like that - I knew that once I'd started drinking I could never stop until I was pissed, and I drank everyday. It was a massive turning point .
Anyway, I listened to the record over and over, as if I was 14. They're quite clever I think, musically and lyrically.

Scroobius Pip - No Commercial Breaks (2006)

 Here's a rare solo work by Scroobius Pip from before he teamed up with Dan  Le Sac.

 Pip explained how he chose his name (from a poem by Edward Lear) in an interview for Beatdom (issue 6):

I loved the story. It's about a creature that doesn't know what it is ...By the end [of the poem] he realises that he is simply The Scroobious Pip. He doesn't fit into any one category and can just be his own creature.

Futura 2000 featuring The Clash - Futura 2000 and his Escapades 12" (1983)

Futura 2000 (Leonard Hilton McGurr) is a graffiti artist from New York City. In 1982 he provided a rap on Overpowered by Funk on The Clash album Combat Rock. At this time The Clash (on the verge of break up) were experimenting with the new urban sounds of  hip hop. Always image conscious The Clash also embraced other elements of this relatively new proletarian culture.
In the 70's Futura 2000 was dodging the cops painting subway trains, by the time this record was released he was a respectable gallery artist and graphic designer.
 The movie Style Wars is well worth a watch- it's on YouTube of course...

Llwybr Llaethog- Hip Dub Reggae Hop (2000)

Blaenau Ffestiniog is a small town in North West Wales with a population of about 5000. It was formerly the centre of the slate mining industry. Thanks to John Griffiths it is also holds a very prominent place in the Atlas of Welsh Popular Music (I'm working on it!).
Returning from a visit to New York in 1984 Griffiths founded Llwybr Llaethog (the name translates as Milky Way) with his friend Kevs Ford . The BBC Wales music site describes Llwybr Llaethog as a revolutionary dance outfit pioneering a bass-heavy agit-rap style with a sharp satirical edge that single-handedly invented the genre of Welsh-language hip-hop ....

The Headcase Ladz- Radio One Sessions- March 13th 2002, September 10th 2003, Funky Fresh EP (2003)

Me and ‘im swear an awful lot and it’s not because we’re trying to do like the Ghetto Boys “Fuck em! Fuck em! Fuckemfuckemfuckem!” - and what’s that other song Limp Bizkit do? “Fucking with the fuckers and a fuck fuck fuck!”? It’s not like that at all – it’s just….well have you seen Twin Town? That’s how we do fucking speak down here. And it’s fucking fucked like.-Nobsta

The critic Fredric Jameson described Postmodernism as the dominant cultural logic of late capitalism.
Characteristics of Postmodernist practice in music are eclecticism and freedom of expression. And since it's emergence in the urban African American culture of the late 1970's there has been a strong case for viewing Hip Hop, with its appropriation and innovation , as a Postmodernist phenomenon.
According to Brent Wood in his paper Resistance in Rhyme (Postmodern Culture 7. 1 September 1996): Hip-Hop ought to be thought of as postmodernist due to the ruthlessness with which it employs capitalist weaponry and the found objects of the postindustrial urban mediascape.
Much has also been written about Hip Hop's relationship to the Postmodern practice of pastiche.(Dr Karen Malone in Hop Scotch versus Hip Hop: Questions of Youth Culture, and Identity in a Postmodern world).

We've never had any Hip Hop at Burning Aquarium. If you've never heard the Headcase Ladz before prepare for a real treat...
What draws me to the Headcase Ladz isn't the seductive intellectual qualities of Postmodernism, but rather the fact that they are funky and funny. Inventiveness is everything.

When I approached Slicer Man about including some Headcase Ladz on Burning Aquarium, he very generously gave me access to a large number of downloads, along with biographical information and lyrics, so hats off to the Dek Masha.
Thanks to Slicer I now have a very large collection of Headcase Ladz material. I've chosen just a couple here for your delectation.
If you like what you hear just let me know and I'll post some more, and keep an eye out for new releases.

Headcase Ladz are;

DEK MASHA - SLICER MAN (right) [producer/turntablist/lyrics]
NOBSTA NUTTS (left) [m.c.]

The Headcase Ladz have been active in hip-hop culture since the early 1980`s, and some of their earliest breaks include recording with the seminal British label of that time “Music Of Life”, winning industry only talent competitions and lecturing turntablism and m.c.ing through university schemes.
During the 90`s the ladz accumulated a 60 strong C-90 catalogue of material culminating in their “Wonky Edz” and “Straight from the donkey`s mouth” L.P’s in 1997/98 and 1999 respectively, both releases gained 4/5, 5/5 reviews across the board. The entire pressings of these releases sold out in just a few months after release.
A very busy crew, The HeadCase Ladz side projects include Deck Masher Slicer Man`s band “GoatBoy”, a band providing an eclectic blend of blues, funk hip-hop and drum and bass, Their new album has been having great reviews from the press and with dj’s like John Peel recently getting them on for a session, a U.K. tour in march/april 2002 and confirmation to play the Avalon stage on Friday at 8.00pm in Glastonbury, plus just releasing a free c.d. of their radio sessions, the future looks bright.
The ladz have also released on their “Wonky Wax” label the “Lewz Tunes and Nobsta Nutts” 7-inch, a funk hip-hop hybrid which sold out in under two months, gaining single of the month in two different sections of “Big Daddy” magazine.With a couple more lew’s tunes e.p.’s and albums already finished and about to be released plus slicer man doing endless side projects the horizon just keeps expanding.
The new six track e.p “Absurdisms-A check up from the neck up” showcases complex layered production with distinctive vocal delivery.
The E.P. was mixed by leading hip-hop engineer “No Sleep Nigel”, who was so impressed by the group that he has asked to work on future projects.
Indeed promos of the new e.p. have pricked up ears of some of Britain`s leading heads. Depending on availability artists such as “Blade”, The Herbaliser, “Mr.Scruff”, “Aspects”, “Junior Disprol” of “Fleapit” and “Napoleon” from the Cincinnati group “Is-What” have confirmed their eagerness to collaborate future projects.
Currently just finishing off our next single, then we will be featuring on one of the next “Herbaliser” projects to be released on NINJA TUNE, Plus after The Ladz playing with them at the essential festival, then supporting them at The London Forum, The Herbaliser will be remixing the Ladz next single as yet to be titled.
While the beginning of march will see the collaboration on A track titled ”mullet for a day, sir!” Featuring “Boswel Heinss” and “M.C. Ramone”(from Nottingham), plus another track titled “My minds have a mind of their own”, which Boswell appears on (recently had a release as “Clinical Daz” on the Red Eye Knights compilation).
The groups productions have even recently landed them a licensing deal for future work starting with the release of a newly completed “Battle Breaks” style L.P. which is yet be titled , Recorded in their own distinctive style, along side the release of further material from the ladz including the “Unreleased Bangers” series and more recently the “live radio session” c.d., a collection of tracks completed in spare moments (If that sounds possible). The next single titled “Funky Fresh” has also been completed and work with a female new york rapper on a track we are doing next year is in the pipeline as well as collaborating with Cincinnati hip hop funk group “IS-WHAT” and an emcee called “Phalon”, while planning a small tour out in the U.S. for early to mid 2003..
the entire 1000 first pressing of the e.p. is off for worldwide distribution and further to recent t.v. and radio appearances the Ladz constantly working for what they believe in, With plenty of work offers and skills and material to back it up, things look good for the Headcase Ladz. so all that is left for me to say is…..
“COME ON AND GET A PIECE”.
www.headcaseladz.com
contact: slice@mightyatom.co.uk

The Radio One Sessions are low bitrate, but I'm not complaining because they were freebies.

The Headcase Ladz are on MySpace.