Dog House Posse - Dope Gets No Heavier (1995)

New Orleans Bounce that swaps the genre's usual block party exhuberance for doomy atmospherics and bleak gangsta lyrics. Definite 3-6/Hypnotise Minds comparisons can be drawn, but the beats are still heavy on the "Triggaman" samples.

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I have sexual ethics after all!

So last night, at a horrible Student Union "alternative" night, I decided against taking advantage of the drunk straight guy who was trying to kiss me. I'm proud of that.

Also, I thought the whole "student drum and bass" thing was a myth, but it isn't, and mainstream d'n'b and dubstep are even worse than I remember, as is ska punk and MTVmo. Still, at least they played "Protect Ya Neck", "Simon Says" and, um, "Baby Got Back". And pints of Diesel (lager, cider and blackcurrant for those who don't know) were only £2.

I'd give the night a 6 out of 10.

Post-Hyphy psychosis

When UK kids collectively overdid the E abuse, they got jungle, the bay area got this. Not sure which I prefer.

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.

PROLE NARC THREAT: Bring back the solvent menace!

Whatever happened to solvent abuse? Growing up in the 90s it always figured as something of a folk memory, something older siblings did, largely out of fashion by the time I hit the age of experimentation (I'm sure we all tried it, but once better drugs were available/we went square, it was abandoned). It's a shame such a noble working class tradition seems to have become so endangered.

When pursued to sufficient lengths, the solvent experience can be as intense and enlightening as anything in the psychoactive realm, and there's something poetic about achieving Nirvana through absolute social degradation, like graveyard-dwelling Tibetan monks. I'm reminded of certain fringe Christian sects who believed that only by entering the very depths of sin could true reconciliation with god be achieved.

We abuse the mundane products of post-industrial society to escape reality completely, shun the slumming, risk-fetishising thrills of illegal drug use and turn the tools of society and reason against their makers. So come on, all the cool kids are doing it.