July was a weird month… It flew by so fast. It feels like just yesterday we were here wrapping up June, now we here with another wrap up. The was a bit of everything submitted this month. This means we have quite a bit to discuss. Let’s get into it…
Single
13 singles were submitted this month. Most of the songs were turnt up. Yes, we did have our zen moments from artists like Anitakinyi but for the most part Trap Eastern Cape was in full force. Lee.X.I. was crazy on Party Bskit. Wake and Bank crew had us jumping in the bendo. At the end of the month only one thing matters… Who will take song of the month?
This month we got the big homie and friend of The Bl, Sabelo as our guest judge.
Sabelo was part of the Headwarmaz Hiphop Show from 2013 to 2017. Besides being a radio dj, he has contributed to a number of websites, namely OkayAfrica (where his currently working), African Hip-Hop Blog, Mail & Guardian, Platform, Mahala and Live Mag. Even though his the man behind most of our favourite hiphop write ups, he doesn’t regard himself as a hip-hop journalist, rather as an arts and culture writer with a strong focus on hip-hop. One of our favourite piece from him would be the “25 SA rappers under 25, killing the game“. Anyway don’t take our word for it, check out his columns.
OkayAfrica, Mail & Guardian, Platform, Live Mag.
When Sabelo is not writing, his taking photos. Check out his Tumblr and Instagram… It’s ART! In short Sabelo is a Hiphop head.
Pick of The Month
5 songs were selected by The Blacksmithed and sent to Sabelo and the pick for the month for July is…
Title: No Trouble
Artist: Dude Michael
Producer: D’Artizt
This is what Sabelo had to say about the track “More than anything, I like the joint’s overall feel. The raps and beat go well together, and Dude’s delivery is chilled and on-beat. The singing on the hook is simple, and has no unnecessary layers and effects. I just love the simplicity of everything on the song.”
What more can The Blacksmithed say?
No Trouble
Tapes
With 4 projects submitted and a beat tape by Wak Beats, July was a good month for tapes.
Legendary Rookie – This right here, this right here homie! This would be our pick of the month if we did such for tapes. It’s only down fall is the fact that there are only 5 tracks on the tape. The effort Swiss puts into his music is evident from his packaging. The production credits were given to Swiss himself and IReal Talk Inc. This tape is worth checking out.
Legendary Rookie EP
#CrowningDay – We were really keen to check out this EP, the anticipation was real. Then on the outro Yosh states that the tape is a collection of throw away tracks in celebration of his birthday. Happy Bday Homey but we want that cut throat stash! #CrowningDay – A collection of tracks over instrumentals from producers like K9ne and X2da? to name a few. (We are not given full credits so we not sure where he got the other beats) A very important point we have to acknowledge is the reception this tape got. Facts! The Blacksmithed only counts unique downloads. Facts! Yosh peaked in The Bl 10 ten, within its first month. Facts! Its doing the numbers! Overall, we are undecided about this tape BUT Yosh, repping KWT, can spit. Maybe this tape was just what we needed to remind us that there’s a gang load of emcees in KWT!.. In closing, we ready for a project now.
#CrowningDayEp
Rhymes & Bars 2 – Another throw away tape. Prince Infinite dropped R&B2 in the anticipation of his project ‘Long Overdue Mixtape’. He hints the project is going to cost you at least 100 bucks. Not much is given away in term of date but its on the way. The music is dope, Prince has bars for days and he spits over a range of instrumentals.
Rhymes & Bars 2
Valens Way EP (Vol. 2) – The cool thing about hiphop now days is, you really don’t have to get it. It’s fine. We listened to Mike Flowarts project and all we can say is, its abstract. The raps are dope. The musical direction, we get that. Its the beats that lose us a bit. Reminds us of a young Odd Future crew. Dope raps, questionable beats. The track called Peach Emoji is our highlight on this project.
Valens Way EP (Vol. 2)
Videos
#ECHiphopDiaries
July 3 we dropped our THIRD season of #ECHiphopDiaries. We are very proud of the fact that we could bring you yet another season and in this season we aim to give you more! The episodes released thus far are Siviwe_Smash, Sammy Bronze, DMania, DFreak and Slogan, if you have missed any of these catch up here.
The music videos that dropped this month are Gxarha with Tchin’thiza, very crisp music video S/o to Versatile Multimedia, and Dirty Diena by Vile Blakkey(Another wrap up, another Third Eye move. 7 for 7). Isaac Wilson released a lyric video. There are more visuals coming from EC artist, lets get more views on our videos #WatchECHiphop.
2 EC short doccies dropped this month, Sam Jam Sessions Vol. 2 and Nantsi. Nansti is mini documentary which is shot by iSpili (You should look out for more of their work). It captures the journey VJ Nakasa took in putting his project together.
