UGLY DUCKLING: 'Turn It Up' live video (2012)

Shortly to embark on a multiple-date November UK tour, the best and hardest working true-school party hip-hop band, Ugly Duckling, show how they did it like that when they were here last autumn by dropping a brand new live video for Taste The Secret album cut Turn It Up. Splicing together footage from shows in London, Bristol, Liverpool, Southampton, Exeter, Plymouth, Swindon, Brighton, Bath and Oxford, there’s an even chance that if you were there, you’re on. Especially if you have a UD tattoo on the back of

MONKEYBOXING.COM - Top 10 Albums of 2011

MONKEYBOXING.COM - Top 10 Albums of 2011
N.b. This chart was compiled using a highly complex algorithm based on what has been blaring out of the monkeyboxing speakers most often in the last twelve month period...

1. TOM CARUANA PRESENTS - Wu Tang vs Jimi Hendrix ‘Black Gold’

You can’t put a mash-up album at number one! And yet here this is. And yes - it is that good…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

MONKEYBOXING.COM – Top 10 Tracks of 2011

MONKEYBOXING.COM – Top 10 Tracks of 2011
N.B. This chart was compiled using a highly complex algorithm based on what has been blaring out of the monkeyboxing speakers most often this year...

1. Ugly Duckling – Elevation

Massive UD dancefloor banger off the new LP…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

CHART - December 2011

CHART - December 2011
(NEW) =1. GonesTheDJ – Done Nothin
Super-disco badass rework of lesser-known Stevie funk cut……READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

RHYMESAYERS: London Tour Stories video (2011)

RHYMESAYERS: London Tour Stories video (2011)
In which various artists on the Carhartt/ Rhymesayers tour relate why they love the Big Smoke. Or not. Slug found the bacon undercooked, Budo informs us that he’s half English and like everyone this side of the Atlantic he already drinks tea with pinkie raised and salutes the Queen while Evidence hates Heathrow but thinks the weed is pretty good. Thus it is Brother Ali alone, who sidesteps the lumbering embrace of cliché with (ironically) a tale of some drunken bumblefuck falling into the bowels of the city …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

UGLY DUCKLING: Moving At Breakneck Speed (2011)

UGLY DUCKLING: Moving At Breakneck Speed (2011)
RATING: 5/5
Proof that three really is the magic number as Long Beach trio Ugly Duckling return with their fifth studio album Moving At Breakneck Speed. In their eighteen-or-so year career Andy C, Dizzy Dustin and Young Einstein have outlasted peers like Jurassic 5 and latterly maintained a higher worldwide profile than other West Coast underground acts they came up with like People Under The Stairs, Dilated Peoples, Foreign Legion, and Quannum as well as the further afield but musically closer DJ Format and Abdominal. In fact they give every sign of having the staying power of another goofy rap trio from even further back in the day who also released a studio LP this year……READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

CHART - October 2011

(NEW) 1. Ugly Duckling – Elevation

Three is the magic number. UD back with massive dancefloor banger">…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

RHYMESAYERS & CARHARTT: Mix competition (2011)

RHYMESAYERS & CARHARTT: Mix competition (2011)
Ah – the mixtape, still with us despite the lack of tape. So not actually a mix ‘tape’ then - more just a digital mix. Now vinyl’s one thing (and I, for one, applaud its refusal to die) but I’m not even going to pretend I miss tape. What a shitty old format. It stretched, it got chewed up, if you held it too close to a magnet it got wiped – yes, a mixtape was a delicate thing back in the day and once created it was surrounded by enemies. Back to the present and now all you do is connect a cable or two, hit a couple of commands on your laptop or something…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

CHART – September 2011

CHART - September 2011
(NEW) 1. DJ Duct feat. The Regiment – Breakout

100% B-boy crack …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

SAVANT: ‘Make Your Move’ remix competition (2011)

SAVANT: ‘Make Your Move’ remix competition (2011)
Calling all hip-hop producers, ghetto funk old-school plunderers, mash-up jockeys and other beatsmiths – it’s competition time! Earlier this year true school emcee Savant linked with OHHLA and RapReviews to drop the fresh original Make Your Move (vid below) which was produced by Luke ‘Wagon Christ’ Vibert no less! Now the acapella is up for grabs! Use it wholesale, chop it, re-arrange and supply your own beats but whatever you do – make it bang! The winning remix (chosen by Savant) will…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

DEAD PREZ: Live @ The Garage – London - 25 May, 2011

DEAD PREZ: Live @ The Garage – London - 25 May, 2011
What’s bigger than Dead Prez’s track hip-hop? As far as Dead Prez are concerned, not much, since they’re still largely known for their one big hit from eleven years ago. Could it be because rappers M-1 and Stic.man sound like a motorway and a book by the creator of the Gruffalo respectively? Perhaps their anti-record label stance held them back? Never mind. Now that the music industry’s having to climb it’s own greasy pole of illegal online downloads whilst receiving an energetic buggering from programs that …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

FOREIGN LEGION: (EXCLUSIVE interview) The Official Monkeyboxing Fireside Chat (Part 2 of 3) – 2011

FOREIGN LEGION: (EXCLUSIVE interview) The Official Monkeyboxing Fireside Chat (Part 2 of 3) – 2011
I saw a billboard advert for deodorant in Canada once. The slogan was, “So dry, people will think you are British.” It’s an epithet which could equally apply to Foreign Legion in this, the second part of a triple interview (part 1 HERE) which monkeyboxing attempted to conduct with those ‘intangible emcees’ Prozack Turner and Marc Stretch. I say ‘attempted’ since they were continually out of their seats, did not listen to a word I said and demonstrated a flagrant disregard for serious answers…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

FOREIGN LEGION: (Exclusive interview) The Official MonkeyBoxing Fireside Chat (Part 1 of 3)

FOREIGN LEGION: (Exclusive interview) The Official MonkeyBoxing Fireside Chat (Part 1 of 3)
West Coast hip-hop legends Foreign Legion made a stir on the international hip-hop scene with Full Time B-Boy back in 1999. With the release of much-delayed third album Night Moves imminent and (allegedly) an accompanying movie of the same name (the content of which one blushes to think about given the band’s connections with porn queen Adriana Sage), monkeyboxing.com thought it was high time to offer Legionnaire emcees Marc Stretch and Prozack Turner a chance to talk about their new long player…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

UGLY DUCKLING: New LP title ‘Moving At Breakneck Speed’ announced - 2011

UGLY DUCKLING: New LP title ‘Moving At Breakneck Speed’ announced - 2011
Long Beach crew Ugly Duckling will be back in 2011 with a new LP entitled Moving At Breakneck Speed. The release date has not yet been decided but rapper Andy Cooper was kind enough to let Monkeyboxing.com preview three tracks off the new album this week. The monkey is under strict instructions to keep the tracks themselves on the downlow but we can tell you that they are called, Keep Movin’, Elevation and Sprint. Speaking of the LP in the recent…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

EPMD: UK show – February 2011 – London, HMV Forum

EPMD: UK show – February 2011 – London, HMV Forum
Is it possible to pack in some feeble EPMD-referencing wordplay whilst commenting on this rare rampage in the big smoke at London’s HMV Forum on 19 February next year? Actually, I might already have started. One suspects Errick and Parrish may not be making as many dollars as they’d currently like given that the last time they gigged in London was ten years ago. Not that I’m suggesting they’re gold diggers or anything – I would imagine things’ll be business as usual for the boys and that they’ll let the funk flow. Man – it’s like…READ THE REST AT MONKEYBOXING.COM