The prodigal playboy R-Les blesses us with a brand new joint anticipated off the forthcoming Les Is More album – a project that’ll see Leslie more in control of his career than ever before since turning the independent route.
It’s been unfortunate in the past to witness such a gifted multi-instrumentalist – churning out classier Rn’B – end up overlooked by the mass market and commercially under-perform. Despite this, Leslie’s built up a cult fanbase of mature music heads and it’ll be smart of him to capitalize on this momentum.
Riding over soulful coos and his hallmark synth game, R-Les (opting for raps, that he’s increasingly getting away with as they’re not so bad) sends his petition out to the usual femme fatale.
Return to form for recently incarcerated, freshly unleashed Prodigy on the hardest I’ve heard these QB duns come in a while.
Alchemist’s uplifting strings escalate the duo’s victorious, weathered swag as a drumline pushed by pounding kick and snare, reminds us the infamous ones are back patrolling the jungles of the boro’s.
A fan of Mobb stretching back to their Infamous and Hell on Earth works (I say ‘works’, these guys deserve an academic thesis’ written on the significance of their back catalogue as East Coast story-tellers, #imjustsaying), think it’s time they disposed of their stylistic lethargy in recent years and re-enforced the lyrical substance they schooled street cats with. Fingers crossed Havoc & Alch can cook up a contemporary classic- it’s been a while. But this joint is strong.
Premiered on Funkmaster Flex’s Hot 97 show. Excuse the taggage.
So, here’s a Pop record, called ‘Fuck Me’, with girls spouting one of our favourite London colloquialisms, “pussy’oles”. Oh & they’re sitting on public lavatories. New wave of feminism?! Demise of fragile femininity?! UK Girl Gang Power 2011?!
Dunno. Guess Wino really left the bleedin’ floodgates open.
Weather it’s a little contrived or not, entertaining enough to receive a few gunfingers in the office this afternoon. Let’s see how this new group follow up…
Shouts to Kev Nimoh for drawing my attention to this.
Wild, dangerous new number from (experi)mentalist Daedelus’ forthcoming LP Bespoke, that pairs his left leanings with our man Bilal continuing his fearless streak into other realms of Alt Soul.
Brand new Terrace Martin EP has dropped and we’re sweet-talking total jizz-and-G-strings tremendousness with this one.
Slept on for a minute now despite some dope material last year, his craftings remain lush & heavy on this set of layered, amorous jams.
Jeez, I’m ’bout to keel over to multi-instrumentalist Martin’s saxophone game, squeezing every production into an exceptionally smooth porno potion. You’ll experience some form of fine, physical sleeping – but you’ll not be sleeping on it. Believe.
Charmingly titled ‘Cum Baby’ is one of my favourites on this first spin, but our SoundCloud’s acting foolish so one can’t stream for you right now. Featuring involvement from Hi-Tek and 9th Wonder, just free download above now and call your boo over…
PinBoard keep an ear out for the romantics.
(That cover, out to Speeakz & his big Kim Kardashian stan ass self.)
Some blog nights can be sluggish when you’re selective about content & the net’s congested with crap (sometimes), but this wonderful, recently-aired documentary from BBC Four giving deserved prominence to the history and impact of Reggae culture in the UK these last fourty years is a must-watch
British music’s always been amongst some of the most innovative anywhere in the world, but what would it have rendered our prized bass culture, our Jungle, Drum n’ Bass, Garage, Grime, Dubstep and other sub-genres if we’d not had Reggae’s galvanizing effect?
Don’t sleep on the roots. Lively up yourself, press play.
Speeakz said I was banned from ever posting any Lil B on PinBoard. We came to the conclusion he’s too easy a mark of idolatry for hipster mp3 bloggers. Wonder what he’s going to say when he sees I’ve taken a near-executive decision to this pop this up…
The parody rapper (“Hoes on my dick, cause I look like Jesus” anyone?) tearing off the tiny pants and staking a serious claim with these three respected Hip-Hop torch holders?
All I’m saying is, lol. And Swag. Swag. Swag. And I even validly fucks with this.
Not as apocalyptic as the critics will have you believe. 9th and Phonte aren’t shy of sending a few jolts through the Rap community… remember when Little Brother announced their collabo with Lil’ Wayne in ’07?
(B’s not on Weezy’s level mind you, #nomisinterpretations)
As our readers are aware, PinBoard has been celebrating the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day 2011 in Brazil for the Bollocks To In Equality/Equals campaign. Our journey into exploring the gender issues of this land have pried open unfamiliar eyes to a social climate steeped in complexities.
With all of Action Aid’s work across international poverty stricken communities focused heavily on women’s rights to power, money, protection from violence, access to education and healthcare, our roles here as observers/thinkers/commentators (bloggers) have been to examine the amazing work highlighting and fortifying such fundamental liberties by AA’s partnership organizations.
Often this drive to change has to navigate the tricky terrain of long-standing cultural beliefs and practices: amplified during our visit to the remote rural town of in the Northern Brazilian district of Para situated a stones throw from the Amazon. Often where poverty is rife and education scarce, moral interpretations (frequently stemming from faith culture’s strongholds) can serve up opposition to the progress of modern living. As one of the poorest communities in Brazil, social awareness in the past has been handicapped by a lack of accredited guidance. Abortion, itself, is outlawed throughout the country unless under the circumstance of rape, incest or risk to mother’s life- the result of which are felt worst in deprived zones where information about contraception is scarce and women submit their bodies to unsafe methods of resolve fearing severe stigmatization.
Local partner organization IPAS however have been working towards a change in attitude by realizing that their greatest instrument is the voices of the young. Their youth group GADA formed over a year ago and is comprised of some of the most dynamic and charismatic young people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting anywhere I’ve travelled or worked before. These volunteers received vital training by IPAS in key areas such as sexual health, access to abortion, freedom from gender violence and are now armed with the knowledge to revolutionize their community: fresh faces of change. Meeting 18 year old Lucas Gomes for example, one can instantly sense from his magnetism that he is one of a pending generation of leaders and the perfect intermediate champion needed to speak influentially to the younger and be heard credibly by the older.
It’s fair to say the continued success of International Womens Day will always be very much reliant on the younger age bracket of both men and women supporting forward thinking developments throughout the communities of the world. In Santarém, you find that hope.
Photos by Eduardo Martino / Documentography / ActionAid.
Three days and five flights into our Bollocks To Inequality mission here, London appears like a molecule in the mind. We are fish out of water and the culture’s as dense as the land it’s perched proudly upon. In trying to investigate poverty and gender equality, we’ve had to expose ourselves to seeing some difficult things. A welcomed challenge to the mentality of a Brit born and bred blogger; admittedly it’s also made me question the capacity of hardship we experience in the UK compared to what some of these people here are going through. I guess it’s all about context & circumstance with variable levels of coping dependent on where & what you’re born into.
The car ride from the tourism saturated Copacabana Beach to the raw reality of Maré Favela is a gradual descent: from palm trees lining pathways for the pretty, to parasitic grounds segregated for the poor. The seemingly rich and developed vibe that Rio de Janeiro wears as its bronzed face is a mask to conceal the hidden cities within the city. We’re all familiar with the fantasies of this glamorous town, leaving us in receipt of shock when discovering the favelas (slums) here are as ‘third-world’ as any politically incorrect term should rightfully suggest.
With 180,000 inhabitants spread out across 16 communities (8 government-built, 8 self-sprung), these long-time settlers survive in the most polluted district of all Rio. Warring factions divide the Maré complex territorially; drug gangs such as Red Command and Third Command aswell as bizarrely those known as militia (ex-officers of the law now operating as racketeering squads) have created their own dictatorships and fear-mongered inhabitants into abiding under their imaginary frontiers. How is this permissible in a democratic country? Somewhere in the political pyramid there is a bureaucratic stink.
PB friends & PB family, first time it’s ever been done like this in blog history and we’re part of it.
Proud to announce PinBoardBlog has been invited as one of only three UK sites to voyage deepest Brazil by one of the most vigorous and hard-working international charity organizations today, Action Aid. We’ll be doing our bit for their powerful Bollocks To Poverty campaign under the Equals coalition spearheaded by legendary artist Annie Lennox in light of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, March 8th.
The idea is simple: we’re partnering up to fight against gender inequality & promote women’s rights amongst some of the poorest areas on Earth.
Now, we are a music outlet so our beloved patrons could easily wonder where the relevance to philanthropy and socio-political pamphleteering comes in (unless we began doing a sh*t-load of random Bono coverage)? However, we’ve always seen ourselves as children of culture, eclecticism, free-will & free-thinking: basic human rights. So given a chance to re-enforce that, raise awareness for a cause we believe in and perhaps even inspire a siren call in our own sector of the online community, PB will travel over the next 10 days of carnival season from developed cities into shanty town favelas and right up to the Amazon basin exploring the rhythm to which Brazil’s heart beats and the metronome to which it’s people’s mind’s tick.
Yes, the PinBoardFilm gear is ready in the bag for customs!
Keep it locked for our special PinBoard x Action Aid in Brazil posts as more is revealed. You can also stay instantaneously updated via Twitter: @PinBoardBlog + @PinBoardFilm
