Before playing this my first thought was an extremely lazy “…maybe this’ll sound like Braintax”, closely followed by “…looks alright, Pedigree Chumps are involved (on a few beats)”. Following the intro it kicks off with “Are You Ready?” which features a number of MCs each taking a turn over a Noz (of the aforementioned Pedigree Chumps) beat. Beit Nun holds his own which is no mean feat next to 777 and Doctor Freud who are both clearly accomplished MCs. Please note that me bigging up Freud has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he and his harem of lovely ladies allowed me to accompany them into the Foreign Beggars show on their guestlist a while back, nothing whatsoever!

777 guests on another track later on to good effect. I had previously only seen him post on UKHH (I’m assuming it’s the same one) so nice to hear him rhyming. Unfortunately a few of the other guest MCs seem to fall into the trap of attempting to fit lots of multi syllable rhymes onto a beat they don’t suit. Nothing too jarring but certainly one of the observations I made along the way.

We get close to cliched subject matter on a couple of tracks, but I suppose that shouldn’t stop you addressing something if that’s what you feel. “Something’s got to give” documents the age old struggle of working a minimum wage job in order to make music, or paying bills versus paying dues. “The Scene” shouts out some notable figures in UK hip hop while addressing the old yank accent issue and making observations on the North-South divide in the scene.

In summary I would say he’s a decent rapper. Sounds like a bland statement or a veiled criticism but I can assure you it’s not. He avoids clashing with any of the beats, and a few of his rhymes genuinely had me rewinding to listen again. It sounds like his heart’s in the right place considering he does a lot of work in schools and youth groups, and the kids could do a lot worse than listen to him. Keep an eye (or an ear) out for his forthcoming EP on Bare Records and hit him up on Myspace to find out more.

The reason for me losing my blog virginity? I happen to think it’s a pretty good one. I have come across a site called Freshly mixed. I’m thinking it is the Mix Archive page that will be of most interest to people. It catalogues pretty much every Essential Mix from the last 10 years (and more) along with countless other mixes. The best thing about all of this is that they are all available for free download.

I haven’t had time to check it out much myself yet, mainly because I came straight here to tell you about it. I have just spotted a Psychonauts Essential Mix from ‘96 that might have to be my first port of call. If I remember correctly I have part of this mix on a C90 in box somewhere and always cursed my luck for missing out on the complete thing.

Have fun, because I’m damn sure I will.