Sizzurp Riddim

I know modern "Urban" music blogging is supposed to be about catching the latest developments before the next guy, but the Sizzurp Riddim (2007) is too good and too damn strange not to post about. I guess its inspired by that "Hustlin'"/"What You Know" style of Southern rap production from around 2006, but sounds infinitely more deranged. The monolithically stomping claps and acid squiggle sound more like Starkey's "Gutter Music" than anything in contemporary dancehall. The vocal cuts range from Sizzla's manic, visceral "Dash Away" to Cristopher's joyous Timberlake rip "Sexy Back". The most addictive, and I believe most popular, cut was Vybz Kartel ft Nuclear's "Sippin' Sizzurp", which I've uploaded here. The nimble vocal performances draw the hazy pharmaceutical hymns of drank rap into the frenzied heat of the Caribbean sun. It's amazing how unthrowed Kartel and Nuclear sound, creating a fun incongruity between delivery and subject matter.

If you buy mp3s, they're on Amazon and probably Itunes.