Daily Ghetto: Dizzee Rascal - H-Town

So Dizzee Rascal has finally made the move many grime and UK hip-hop acts have made already - getting American rappers to feature on their songs to make them relevant to the US audience as well as making their songs more club-friendly.

Trae the Truth and Bun B guest on this - bringing that Southern Rap flow and signature sound.

Their verses fit the beat well and don't jar against Dizzee Rascal's verses earlier in the song, which can often happen in trans-Atlantic collaborations like this.

For me, the mark of a good MC is hearing what he can do over quite a simple beat - and Dizzee shows his worth in this area.

His flow is allowed to breathe, because while this song's beat is good, it is incredibly stripped back and would be dull if it wasn't for the varied delivery of all three rappers - Dizzee in particular.

I'm looking forward to hearing all of The Fifth, Dizzee Rascal's upcoming album, because this track has set the tone and hopefully we aren't subjected to the Ibiza party anthems that plagued his last album, this time around.

Daily Ghetto: Gucci Mane ft. Rick Ross - Trap House 3

I haven't blogged in exactly a month because I have a business to run - I'm a busy man!

But this absolute joke of a rap song brought me out of my blogging hiatus.

This is everything that is wrong with modern rap.

And I mean everything - the weak-assed beat, Gucci Mane rapping about his money (big surprise there), how he's going to get it and how he's holed up in his trap house.

And then it doesn't get any better when that fatass Rick Ross decides to take that stupid thing off his head stop throwing money around and start dropping some bars - weak bars at that!

Even the video is boring - seriously - Gucci pulls up in a Rolls Royce Phantom, or Ghost, whatever, I've seen that car make an appearance in every rap video since 2006, some white chick that looks bored is mooching around, everyone is wearing ice and counting money and then we get the displeasure of seeing Rick Ross' fat rolls jiggle all over the place. Some gunmen come to the house with assault rifles and Gucci gets his gun ready to shoot back, that's it.

I don't like to cuss on this blog, but let me state this clearly - Gucci Mane is shit and this song is the biggest pile of crap I've heard this year by a long shot!

Daiy Heavy: As Blood Runs Black - In Dying Days

This song comes from metalcore band, As Blood Runs Black, debut album, Allegiance, which came out in 2006.

I was first alerted to this song by a then-popular youtube aired music show - FPE TV - which used to showcase little known metal artists' songs, gear, or often just have extended interviews with the bands.

The then-guitarists and current bassist just ripped into this melodic but brutal onslaught, without even a click track, and this impressed me and I've been a fan of the band ever since.

The band's overall guitar and bass tone is heavily distorted and bright, but this serves well to cut through the heavy drumming and often low pitched grunts that come from the vocalist.

This song combines three main riffs with some variations on each riff, but the star here is the breakdown.

I can't imagine how insane the pit at an As Blood Runs Black show would be when the breakdown of this song kicks in.

I mean seriously: "BRING DA MUTHAFUCKIN RUCKUS!!!!!"

Daily Ghetto: Maybach Music Group - Ima Boss

Hard beat - check
Meek Mill and Rick Ross on the track - check
Ghetto-assed video - check

What more could you want from an MMG track? - this has it all
It's become one of Meek Mill's biggest songs and a club banger in its own right.
Listening to this makes you feel like a BAWZ - there is nothing like pumping this in your car, with the windows down.

I love how the video starts with a phone conversation between Ross and Meek, and Ross dropping line like "Finna come thru like a bawz" and then cuts to Meek in the most ghetto area of Philadelphia, with all the hood standards in sight - all of Meek's crew on motorbikes, Rick Ross on a quadbike, gold chains and the rapper's car of choice - a Rolls Royce Phantom (in ice white nonetheless).

Meek spits bars about the bitches he's banged, the cars he drives and the record sales he makes, and the Ross comes in with a second verse with some clever (for his standards anyway) lyrics:

"Shorty rode me smooth as my Mercedes ride" as well of lots of his signature "uhh" grunt sounds.

Then Meek finishes the song off by barking out his last verse.

This is probably the biggest song on MMG's debut album: Maybach Music Group Presents: Self Made Vol. 1 which is a solid compilation release.

Daily Heavy: Waka Flocka Flame - Hard In Da Paint ((Bellizio Remix) Crizzly Edit)

So this is a repost of sorts - I posted the original version of Hard In Da Paint a while back, but this remix kicks into another gear.

Producers Crizzly and Bellizio made a club banger into a bass boosted, synth heavy dubstep mashup.

The beat of the original is what the remix focuses on, with minimal use of Waka Flocka's original vocals.

Somehow this manages to get me even more pumped up than the original.

All that's left to say is "I GO HARD IN THA MUTHAFUCKIN PAINT!!!"

Daily Heavy: Coheed and Cambria - The Running Free

Coheed and Cambria are a band I discovered only a few years ago whilst they were supporting Deftones.

The word was that Deftones' guitarists Stef Carpenter absolutely loved the band and picked them out as a support act. And I'm telling you, they kicked just as much ass as the Deftones did that evening.

This song comes from their fantastic 2007 album Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow.

It starts with a catchy guitar riff over some synthesized sounds. The verses have an amazing interplay between the guitar riff and bass riff, and vocalist Claudio Sanchez really shines here.

The choruses are more of a straightforward rock affair, but the lead guitar comes in at this point, to great effect.

Coheed and Cambria are one of the best modern rock bands at the moment, I'd urge any rock fans to check out their back catalogue. 

Daily Ghetto: Vybz Kartel - Clarks

Jamaican people love Clarks shoes (long-story short - it is a ex-colonial thing where they buy English things they can't get in Jamaica).

They love Clarks shoes so much that Vybz Kartel had to write a song about them.

The beat is hard, Vybz Kartel and Popcaan drop some bars and this leads to the sort of song that gets those ghetto-assed parties going.

The video is something else - expect gratuitous shots of people's shoes and some girl cleaning her shoes.. with a toothbrush.

Anybody who isn't Jamaican / does not understand Jamaican patois, might have a hard time with this song - but you'll catch on soon enough; this song only has one topic and it's quite obvious by now what it is.