Birmingham MADE Festival - Review

MADE Festival Birmingham 25th July 2015

A few days ago me and a friend who goes by the name of TSwiftBagMoneyStacker (if you know you know) hit MADE (Metroplolitan Arts & Dance Event), at the Digbeth Triangle in land of the Brummies.

Shout out the good people from 'I'm In', I managed to get two tickets for free just by spinning a wheel of fortune knock-off within the app, they would have been around £40 each otherwise, that of which I wouldn't have been able to afford being a broke student, so I was pretty happy with my £80 total of free shit.

I booked a cheap and dingy hotel to crash in after the event, which was in a pretty grotty area to say the least. Within 2 minutes of being there I had two greasy looking fuckers ask me for some Rizla. All signs pointed to the fact 'Cheapside' in Birmingham definitely lived up to it's name. But realistically I didn't care about the hotel, I just wanted to vibe in the sun to some reggae and bass heavy tunes, so the mould growing on the hotel room shower head didn't really bother me...

We dumped all our stuff in the room and walked down the street, following the repetitive house-like bassline in the distance coming from the festival. Upon arrival we were told we weren't allowed to take in a side bag for some unknown reason (you know the ones you see people dishing out dusty bags of ketamine from inside the rave) but I'm not a dickhead and selling K isn't my intention. A random security guard said we could leave our bags in his car until the festival was over, but I didn't really fancy my stuff getting stolen by some crooked bouncer, so we had to trek alllllll the way back to our room to return the fucking bags, pretty long but still all is well.

Finally back at the gates, we were ushered into the small queue and headed in to get searched and what not. I eventually entered the festival (now without my friend Mary Jane...) but whatever, it was a nice day and the vibes were already pretty lively for 3pm in the afternoon.

The venue itself was really quite sweet, it was underneath a bridge, fully concreted and provided a massive open space big enough for everyone to have their own room to float around in.  Including the Huarache wearing, MKat sniffing house shuffling sheep. Fuck all that. I really don't like house music, or the stereotype that 90% of it's fans very accurately meet. Luckily this was just one stage out of five, and to be honest even the house shufflers aren't bad people at all, they just act like "House Every Weekend" should undeniably be the national anthem for our country.

You look fucking stupid, and that bandanna around your head makes you look like you're trying waaaaay too hard. Each to their own, but that's not for me. 

Annoying people aside, the venue itself was perfect for this type of event. The walls were covered in decent graffiti (not the typical 'Donski was 'ere' type shit you see tagged on the bins behind dirty fast food places) but actual thought out, talented pieces of art. There was multiple bars dotted around the place, although £2.50 for a bottle of water and £4.50 for a Red Stripe was a bit excessive...

Moving through the flock of sheep, we went straight to the Heavybass Champions stage, which is where we spent the majority of the day. We just caught the end of Tom Shorterz set (I can't lie I hadn't even heard of him) but he was putting out some decent music that seemed to make everyone happy, I mean who doesn't like Bob Marley.

Just as he finished I went to tie my shoelace, and wouldn't you know I found £40 on the ground! That was evidently a sign from the heavens. And considering the system tried to hold me down, fucking me over and removing a harmless plant from my possession thanks to some sniffer dogs, karma was definitely on my side.

Next up was the boss Sir David Rodigan. This guy is nothing other than a legend. He's been in the scene pretty much forever, and is a pioneer for reggae, jungle, bashment and every other form of music that I genuinely love. No doubt his set was one of the best of the day. He has a ridiculous amount of exclusive dub-plates that only he can play, so it was a special set no one else could really match. 

Check a massive dubplate set of his here

I won't go in detail with all the acts as this will end up being a 5 page review. But after David Rodigan, Beardyman stepped on stage to perform some absolutely INCREDIBLE beatboxing, as well as hosting his 'Bass Battle'. The DJ's were given 7 minutes to throw down the dirtiest, biggest face screwing, bass soaked songs they could. It was simply insane. Bass is such a great aspect of music, and to hear a constant battle of the bass made my day. 

A few fairly good acts later, the guys from Kurupt FM, who are behind the BBC's comedy show 'People Just Do Nothing' bounced onto stage. Bringing together old-school garage, drum and bass and jungle, topped by their trademark hilarious lyrics they put a massively entertaining set that had everyone at the stage jamming around and laughing. VIBES. The way they all stay in character so well throughout their set is awesome, they're certainly a unique act.

In all honesty, after Kurupt FM my day became a bit of a blur, but that's simply a sign of a successful day out. Friction and Wilkinson both did a good job, but the drum and bass they drop is slightly timid for me. I'm sorry but 'Afterglow' doesn't quite cut it, not that it's a bad song it's just a bit.... meh.

Anyway, overall, MADE Festival was a solid day out, full of good vibes, happy people and some seriously satisfying music. I recommend it to anyone that's into electronic music, reggae and erm... house I guess. Peace.

13 Shisha Bar (Photojournalism)

Recently Bar 13 in Buckingham opened up a new Shisha bar in addition to it's already popular selection of places to relax in the venue. It's owned by an Egyptian family, and aims to recreate the feel of an authentic Middle Eastern Shisha spot.

 

 It's rather dark and enclosed, yet there's lots of bright sheets and patterns all over the inside of the tent. As well as this there is comfy sofas, a TV, and speakers that customers can connect their devices to whenever they want! It's a really nice vibe inside and suits the bar very well, whilst creating a relaxing area for people to socialise.

When The Queen dies

This is just a random thought that occurred to me, but when the Queen eventually dies Britain will temporarily be a crazy place.



There she is.



I would say at least half of the people living in Britain at this moment were born after The Queen began her reign.

Meaning they have never experienced life without The Queen being around. Now she really doesn't do fuck all other than pass the occasional law and waste tax payers money on ridiculous personal services. But that's a different topic.

When Queen E eventually passes her sell by date, there will be a shitstorm among our population. In particular those sad bastards that basically worship The Royal Family. I really can't understand why people love them so much but whatever, I'm not here to judge...

On the day of her death and possibly also funeral, we will have a national holiday every year after the day arrives. Can't complain about that, even though they fuck up schedules for a lot of people but at least we get to slob around all day to commemorate The Queen's final day on this planet.

It will be one of the biggest  breaking news stories of all time. Bigger than Michael Jackson and Tupac's death combined. Eastenders will be interrupted to tell us what's happened, maybe even Jeremy Kyle. Pure pandemonium..

Now I won't really care when The Queen actually pushes daisies. She is 88 now, and even with her Royal Family exclusive multi-million pound medical treatments she will eventually decease. I don't want her to die, I'm not a sick fuck. I just won't be crying in my bed for days when she does.

The point of this pointless blog is to just make you think how The Queen's death will affect you.

Don't lie, you probably won't give a shit.

Ambition

People with literally zero ambition in life might as well just go grab that bottle of bleach from under the sink, and chug that shit down.

You get people who are happy to accept the bare minimum and slug away at a boring job they don't enjoy, day in day out repeating the same old cycle. Sleep, work, sleep work. This is a perfectly fine lifestyle choice and I have serious respect for these people. Not the direction I want to go, but at least they have the motivation to get a job and make a living. Sure they'll never inspire anyone, but getting out of bed everyday to earn a wage deserves respect regardless of your occupation.

Then there's the scum. The individuals who are nothing more than a waste of a human life. They likely have 5+ children, and because of this they don't need a job due to the Government paying for their weekly supply of Space Invaders, Sterling cigs and a few bottles of Frosty Jacks. Sometimes rare breeds of these strange life forms DO have jobs, but they'll just work 3 hour shifts at their local corner store and steal Wotsits from under the till, go on a fag break every 10 minutes, and wait for their shift to be over. But most of the time these fucks are un-employed and literally do nothing other than sit at home ALL DAY.

I can't comprehend how lazy bastards  can live with themselves knowing they are literally worthless. What do they contribute towards society? Do they actively improve the life's of the people around them by doing the square root of fuck all for their entire existence?

I'm not at all saying if you don't have a job you're a scumbag. Jobs are really quite difficult to obtain. If you're jobless but trying to sort yourself out you're a brilliant person. My issue (as you probably realise) is the one's that don't even attempt to make something of themselves. There's literally hundreds of millions of other human beings who would kill to be in the same situation as these lazy mugs, and they would work so hard if given that opportunity.

Our culture has created an acceptance towards doing nothing. It's so depressing knowing so many humans don't, and will never try and make something of themselves.

Fuck Relationships

I'm convinced there's a strange subconscious desire among young people, who think we need to be in a relationship.

Obviously this isn't true for everyone. I personally don't want one at the moment, and haven't done for a long time. I don't intend on looking for one until I sort my life out and actually have the confidence and motivation to do so, or that day I genuinely meet someone who absolutely blows my mind. There's a lot of people in my position. I want to have fun being young, I want to spend time going out with friends and I don't want to be concerned with keeping my other half happy 24 hours a day. Ain't nobody got time for that right now.

Particularly in younger people, I see them switching in and out of relationships like they're a fucking outfit. Do they actually love the people they agree to go out with in the first place? No. Then why create the fake relationship based of something they never plan to last?

There's so many couples who try to stay together, but their relationship is full of arguments and they're constantly 'on a break' from each other. Tell me the point of this. Your connection clearly isn't working, and it creates way more negativeness in comparison to positivity. It's like buying a meal you only enjoy 1/4 of every single day, you're left with so much unnecessary hassle is it really worth your time until you meet someone you truly adore?

In this society I honestly view so many relationships as nothing more than child producing fuckups. These people get together for what, six months? The girl gets pregnant, and because they're complete morons they are in no way capable of looking after their own romance let alone the life of a child. The child grows up with a horribly unstable family, and then they end up repeating the same scumbag cycle as their irresponsible parents. Good one.

Playstation One - Nostalgia Bomb

I'm assuming you're reading this on some form of modern technology that probably wasn't around when the mighty Playstation One was released. I used to spent a lot of time on the PS1 as a youngling, not quite as much as the PS2 but still enough to have probably impacted my mental development in some way...

Here's my top three, not necessarily 'best', but more 'most nostalgic' games I used to devote hours to.

Crash Bandicoot 

Everyone knows this guy. Crash is possibly one of the most iconic Playstation game characters ever, he's a likable, human sized, partially literate Bandicoot. Which if you look to your right, you'll see a great little real life photo of.

Crash is a failed science experiment that escaped from the evil Dr Cortex, and you spent most of the time trying to defeat him.
The game itself is a simple platformer, set in the fictitious Wumpa Islands, and man, I loved it so much. At the time, the gameplay was insanely addictive, and just plain simple really. Re-live your childhood by watching this sad man complete the whole game, with every special gem in just under two hours, or watch about two minutes, because ain't nobody got time for that.

Driver 2 

Fuck me I honestly forgot how terrible the graphics are in this one until just now, look at this pixelated mess of a game. But I tell you it was ridiculous amounts of fun in its day, and at the time those graphics were pretty cutting edge.

Driver 2 is very clearly the sequel to Driver. If you didn't figure that out I don't know how you're using modern technology at this moment, but anyway this one is a gem. I played the original Driver game randomly after playing this one, but I didn't care much for chronological story-lines back in these times.

Before Grand Theft Auto was a full 3D clusterfuck of an amazing game, Driver 1 & 2 started the whole free-roam sandbox game popularity for me personally. More so in D2 because you can actually get out of your vehicle, in order to get into another vehicle. Which sounds so simple but it was such insanity way back in 2004 or whenever it was I playing this. 

It starts off in Chicago, then moves to Havana, then Las Vegas and finally Rio. ALL THESE CITIES IN ONE GAME IT WAS SO GROUNDBREAKING! But you mostly have to complete vehicle based missions, e.g steal a car, smash up a car, delivering car bombs, follow cars... Yeah so it's called Driver for a reason. 

Witness some classic gameplay and feast your eyes upon the glory that is Driver 2. I enjoyed this so much mainly because you can drift like an absolute boss, it's a fully explore-able open world, and the missions vary just enough that they aren't too repetitive, well especially if you're 8 odd years old and are playing it. Which is another reason I liked this game, it was made for 'grown ups' and I thought I was so savage by completing it all on my own. See, my parents let me play this 'violent' game as a youngster because they knew I wasn't an easily impressionable little fucktard that will try and steal a car after playing it. And they also thought it was just a harmless car game that featured the occasional swear-word. LITTLE DID THEY KNOW I was smashing through police roadblocks, telling fools to 'move out the fuckin' way' and sometimes killing  people in this virtual world. But I think I turned out fine...

Tekken 2

If you've never played  any Tekken game before I genuinely feel for you. I even used to play against my Dad on this one, and all he would do is press all the buttons as fast as he could, somehow always managing to beat me. He didn't even know which button was 'punch'...

I believe Tekken 7 is out soon for Playstation 4 and Xbox One. There's been a whole 5 games released since I used to play this, damn.

It's a simple (recurring theme with these PS1 games) side on beat em' up. Literally one vs one fight until a player is knocked out. It's amazing. 

The game is based around The King of The Iron Fist tournament, and you choose a character to take through the multiple stages of increasing difficulty. At the end you fight a boss, who is a motherfucking Devil, literally a huge purple Devil that shoots lasers from his forehead I shit you not. 

My favourite character was Yoshimitsu, check him in action here, and also this time to your left. I still don't quite understand what the hell he is. But I was 8 or so and I thought he was a goddamn Alien with a glowing green sword, of course he was my favourite. The internet says he's a 'mechanized human'. Apparently half of him is made of metal; I NEVER knew that, probably because the graphics were so bad. 

Really there's not a lot of detail to explain in Tekken. There is a storyline involving the tournament itself, and how some characters are corrupting it or something pretty cliche along those lines. 

I enjoyed Tekken mainly because once you complete the game with one character, their weird alter-ego/variation character becomes unlocked, and they have all kinds of different moves and look completely different. This simple incentive was enough to keep me hooked for hours on end, trying to every single hidden player. It was like getting my next heroin fix, I HAD to unlock Kunimitsu (female version of Yoshimitsu funnily enough)

I hope I triggered some good memories for some of you, and if I didn't I'm surprised you're still reading at this point. Bottom line - The PS1 days were glorious. 

MC DRS Part 2 - Blackhearted - Lyric Discussion

MC DRS - Blackhearted - Lyric Discussion

Earlier in the week I spoke about DRS' Soul Remembers. Hopefully you've seen it but if not you can check it out  here.

I sent it over to the man himself and he said some real positive stuff about it and even said "It's an accurate breakdown of some of his ramblings." So I'm honored as fuck. Big up everyone that took the time to read it, I'm happy as Larry people actually bother to read what I write, if you're reading this now, you're a don. 

Anyway, I promised a follow up to again prove DRS is way more your standard MC. I'm sticking to 'I Don't Usually Like MC's But.....' as it's his most recent full album. I could choose A LOT of songs to talk about but we'll keep em linked together for now.

(Photo taken from the video from HeavyFeet & DRS - Dirty & Stinking, listen here. Sick song and equally as sick video)

Blackhearted is the tune of choice, you can listen to it with this madness of a hyperlink I just inserted. To fully judge the song you need to listen to the whole thing, I just write about a tiny proportion of it.

Lynx is the beat maestro, throwing in a powerful bassline that adds to the tone of the song, and this one is a lot darker than Soul Remembers.
It focuses on the youth of today being quite simply 'Blackhearted.' It's relatable to more than just the usual DRS audience, it really is a massive issue in Britain's youth culture. Sure, the youth has always been fucked up, but here DR accurately spits about issues the current youngens (including myself) have to deal with growing up in this ever-grey country.

Both verses hold an insane level of impact and expression, but I feel verse two fully hits the nail on the head and is the most powerful lyrically. Plus I don't want make this a 10 page essay.

"Blackhearted children, the city's lost souls.

Millions of tortured minds, their stories not told.

At the end of their rainbow there's not gold,

Hard to be positive or find someone that's not cold."

Even though this intro to the verse doesn't use any ridiculously complex rhyme or vocabulary styles, it's still so relevant and true. A lot of the time it is hard to be positive. The majority of things we hear and see are usually death, poverty, hatred and money issues. How can kids growing up be positive when that's all they know of the world? Adults have become cold from being treated like shit, seeing a lack of hope and generally losing trust in society as a whole. Bang. That's what these bars make me think anyway.

"Millions of tortured minds, their stories not told." Insane impact, "Tortured minds" with "their stories not told" speaks to me. So many of us have our minds rammed with paranoia, or the fear of not amounting to anything, or wasting our lives away, whatever the situation is. But because so many are in the same situation, no one speaks about how it is up in their head. Hence why the youth just act cold-hearted, and walk around "hood up expression frozen". It's a thought process that usually ends in people doing stupid shit because they 'don't care' - but you know it's not a smart choice.

(Or maybe kids smash stuff up purely for fun, who knows)

"Short lived escapes can be bought in ready amounts,

If you need weapons no worries plenty about"

Truth. Again. "Short lived escapes" is an accurate metaphor for drugs, which are ridiculously accessible to the youth. They're all short lived escapes, you just leave reality for a little while and eventually come back with a hole in your pocket, or a hole in lining of your nostrils... The second line is self explanatory, tools used to kill another human are just way too easy to get hold of. 

"Nobody cares that they've been led astray, 

just that they were carrying a knife when they left home today."

This one hits hard, and is the final line of the second verse making it hit even harder. Few actually give a fuck that our youth are growing up with all of these issues, but they're ready to pounce on the troubled ones that feel as if they need to carry protection to not get robbed or attacked. Yeah there's a LOT of fuckers that carry a weapon as a form of intimidation to get what they want, but if their world was a kinder environment that doesn't prioritize money and power, they wouldn't have adopted that mindset in the first place...

I hope you enjoyed reading what I have to say, sorry it's quite negative overall but these are some real concerns DRS is making which he delivers with talent and originality. 

Will our culture ever change? Probably never. These are just current problems too, if DR was around 50 years ago he'd probably still be making similar observations, but talking about the issues that those kids have to deal with in that era instead. Straight up inspiring stuff for me. 

Download 'I Don't Usually Like MC's But...' here https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/i-dont-usually-like-mcs-but.../id895366432

DRS' second album 'Mid Mic Crisis' is out in March, be sure to listen, I'm certain it will be top notch.

You can also give him a follow on Twitter @MCDRS 

- Peace