Next Friday (the 29th of May) 4 EP’s will be released at 1 party:

• Master Surreal – Adaptation
• King Jule – The Hunter, The Tracks
• Klap van de Molen & homies – Sessies
• RealiTijd – Kop Voor Mijn Plaat

DJ DNS (of Shit Is Bangin’) has made a 55min mix to celebrate Master Surreal’s EP. You can get the mix for free here.

The releaseparty will be held @ Rof! in Ekko. Doors will be open at 21:00 and the damage is EUR 8,-.

Skidz & Mseize are spinning between the acts, so b-b-b-be there!

Kyteman dropped his well-received album “The Hermit Sessions”, Keynote Speakerz released their “Remix Record“, EP’s by Master Surreal and King Jule are scheduled to blow and if I’m correct Arts The Beatdoctor is (as always) working on tracks in his new pad. Inf’s “The Go Round” is also scheduled to be released soon, and until that time we can still chill out on Pax & Pry’s “A Day Off”.

But let’s put that aside for a second and focus on the recent issue: Skiggy Rapz has signed to the Austin-based Beats Broke label and as of May 12th (yea tomorrow!) you can buy his brand-spankin’-new EP called “Bang To The Boogie” on CD or MP3.

It’s been a while since Skiggy dropped his last EP “Boatdrinks”, so let’s not get into the usual compare-the-old-with-new review style and just check out this EP on it’s own.

As it should be, the release is very well timed. Spring is already in full effect here considering the weather and BTTB fits it well. Venturing into a more musical side of hiphop, Skiggy delivers a fresh and cheerful blend of summer-worthy tracks. Uptempo beats with uplifting melodics are combined with Skiggy’s signature content-filled raps to make a solid feelgood EP.  The guys get proper lyrical lines and the girls get hooks they can sing to.

Also featured on the EP are Tinusz and Annemarie of the happy-go-lucky band Leaf, and remixes are done by Inf and Arts The Beatdoctor.

Ofcourse a release like this should be celebrated. This will take place Thursday the 14th of May @ Ekko. The doors will be open at 21:00 and the damage is EUR 6,-

For people sympathetic with Beats Broke and Skiggy Rapz there’s  a discount on the album. It only lasts until today, so better check your mail/hyves/myspace inbox!

Also, there’s already 1 track up for free download at bandcamp, click!

If you’re not on their mailinglists, shame on you and tough luck! Luckily you can already order the EP here or get it the next thursday at the releaseparty.

As usual you can bounce hard in the main room on some fidget/booty/bmore/electro/dubstep/miami bass, but when you enter the premises of Ekko we of thebeats.nl will greet you with some dope chilled beats and banging hiphop. Qualitee won’t be able to join me and Skidz, so we’re bringing our boy Lavarock to fill in.

For those who can’t wait to get off their ass, Ugly Duckling will be playing at Tivoli De Helling tonight. Also, Skidz will be playing sets at the Beats Broke Allstar Jam this month and in March will be the first edition of Back 2 The Breakz with Mseize, Skidz & Lavarock. But we’ll get back to that later.

Be there!

As you can see on the flyer the suspects of the evening will be

• Arts The Beatdoctor
• Atactic
• C-Mon (C-Mon & Kypski)
• theFringe
• Illvester
• Jae (ex-Stropstrikkers / Hof van Jaeden)
• John Sniffler
• Kapabel
• Kypski (C-Mon & Kypski)
• Kyteman
• Mike Mago
• Mseize
• Nicks
• Pax (ex-207, Illicit)
• perCeptie (of I.S.)
• Prace
• Randstad Rollaz
• Reazun (ex-207)
• $jammie The Money (Nobody Beats The Drum)
• Skiggy Rapz (Keynote Speakerz)
• Stabiel

Between the acts, Mseize will be the one mixing everything together. For an impression of last year’s party you can download the Utreg Centraal 4 mixtape here.

The event will start at 22:15 and the damage to get in is EUR 10,-. Not too shabby for such a line-up eh? Also, the visuals for the night will be done by Ramkraak.

I’ve got a personal sidenote on the event: Since I’m a beat-lover, I have totally no objection to more styles being represented at Utreg Centraal next to hiphop. But seeing some of the names on the line-up makes me wonder how far this will stretch in the following years.

Seeing as most of the Boemklatsch guys have switched over to the dance side I wonder whether they will play that, or break out their old hiphop records. And aren’t Randstad Rollaz a dubstep crew? That’s kinda far from hip hop if you ask me. The only thing I could find on John Sniffler is a link to a guy with that name being the Dutch Air Guitar champion…. hm.

Like I said, I have nothing against broadening your view in music and I love beats. But while hip hop is massively upfront in our money-infused society (mixtapes/sneakers/fashion), the music itself is being represented less and less and traded in for 1- or 2-year lasting hypes.

No matter what happens though, and although the site has only been up for 1 year, thebeats.nl crew has been in this game for over a decade and we’re keeping our ground. We embrace the past, the future, the progressions and the changes, but we acknowledge that we love the core of hip hop and we will not trade in that core for anything that’s hip right now.

Pfew, now that that’s out there.. let’s forget the politics on friday and have a blast!

Although it’s not stated on the flyer your boys niwa, Skidz and Qualitee will be in the lounge, providing all you dancefloor animals some dope tunes to stretch your legs to. Word is that Lavarock might be dropping in too, but that depends on whether he can get up from his chair after the christmas dinner.

The main room lineup consists of Suckerpunch, Mike Mago, Guerilla Speakerz, Gefressenes Funden and theFringe.

Some free tickets can be scored at swurdin, so there’s no excuse not to be there on the 26th of December!

The evening was pretty dope, especially concidering that ADE did not host a lot of beat-related events aside from all the dance/techno/electro action going on. OT 141 was a good location, with the stage close to the entrance and in the back a bar to lounge in.

The musical part of the evening consisted of a two-beat showcase of each producer which got judged by the audience. The beats that got the most reaction from the crowd were put on a CD that you could pick up an hour after the showcase. That was a really nice touch on the evening considering the tickets were only EUR 5,- and after a couple of weeks you could pick up a second CD for free, on which the producers remixed each other’s tracks. All that was packaged in a neat cardboard cover tray:

After the showcase Comfort Fit performed a really chilled out live-set which I unfortunately only could check half of. All in all this was a cool initiative by DROP and hopefully they’ll have more of this stuff in the future.

For your listening pleasure: a couple of clips of…

CD1

FS Green – Yap That

40 Winks – Untitled

Killing Skills – Van Dijck Brown

and CD2

Dyno – Chess Tat (Comfort Fit remix)

JLS – Majestic (HayZee ft. SirOJ Crackmix)

40 Winks – The Birds And The Beats (Portformat remix)

E-royal (of Next Item) has teamed up with DJ Diabastard (aka DJ Broken Record =) and producer Kaos, forming the group “Illskool”. What started out as a little project to make an EP has grown into a 15-track(english) album, and because I’m listening to it right now I can already tell you: it’s D.O.P.E.. Tonight the release-party will be held @ Proeflokaal België in Almelo (NL). Kickoff is 22:00, damage: EUR 0,-

The Illskool people have worked hard for the past 5 weeks to finish recording and mixing this gem, and while that seems like a short period it’s obvious that hip hop from Almelo has evolved and matured a lot since the last noteable release that came out of their small hometown: Next Item – Under Construction. Kaos’ beats have a real hiphop flavour, combining the old techniques (sampling) with the new (synths), E’s flow and lyrics have become real tight and Diabastard has obviously spent some time diggin’ through his records to find appropriate cuts for the tracks.

Featurings on the album include Cee Major (of The Proov), vocalist Roomster and King Jule, who is currently working on his own project and can be seen in the Keynote Speakerz video Say What!. The only Dutch spot on the release has been reserved for MC Sillo, who will also be presenting his EP “Ik Accepteer” tonight. Also, DJ Proces (also of Next Item) helped out on co-producing 2 tracks.

Both “Welcome To Illskool” and “Ik Accepteer” can be bought as hardcopy tonight for EUR 5 each, and later on this week thebeats.nl will be hosting the freely downloadable version of Illskool’s product. Ofcourse we already got a couple of tracks for you to listen to:

Illskool – Artist Within Me ft. Roomster

Illskool – Quiet

Illskool – Where I Belong ft. King Jule

I heard King Jule will be accompanied by Master Surreal and Avi, so don’t be surprised if they grab the mic to perform a couple of bangers for y’all! See you there.

The damage is EUR 6,-, and there will also be a couple of surprise acts performing (take a guess… =). All this is brought to you by HABEK!

Check the vid below for a live cut of Jae and Avi!

RTB Amsterdam flyer

The used-to-be-US-only hiphop festival is coming to Europe starting today, October 31st, in Prague and will continue with a total of 9 shows until the 12th of November. Personally I don’t really like the way the official website is put up, so I’ll break down the dates and places below (all links go their respective last.fm pages where you can find more details about the venue and line-up):

• 31/10 – Prague @ Tesla Aréna
• 01/11 – Amsterdam @ Heineken Music Hall
• 04/11 – Stockholm @ Globens Annex
• 05/11 – Helsinki @ Jäähalli
• 06/11 – Birmingham @ Carling Academy
• 09/11 – London @ O2 Arena
• 10/11 – Paris @ Le Zénith
• 11/11 – Oslo @ Sentrum Scene
• 12/11 – Manchester @ Manchester Apollo

The line-up of US acts differ per country and will be complemented by some of the hottest local names. The total roster of MC’s/groups that will be included in the tour:

• Nas
• De La Soul
• EPMD
• Mos Def
• The Pharcyde (all members!)
• Supernatural
• Scratch (of The Roots)

So you’d better rush out and get tickets!

You can check the full program here.

Unfortunately I missed out on the Beat Dimensions session yesterday at Bimhuis, where Dimlite, Mike Slott and Take played live. Tonight however I’m definitely not going to miss. The guys from the DROP collective are organizing DROP #6 which, funny enough, features a line-up of artists that thebeats.nl has covered in articles over the last couple of months (click the links for the articles/myspace links and free downloads!):

• Comfort Fit
• Portformat
• FS Green
• HayZee
• Joe Kickass & B.O.U.K.E.
• 40 Winks
• Killing Skillz
• Dyno
• JLS

Next to the producer line-up DJ Phaze will provide in-between-damn-funky-music, and there will be an art-expo featuring Maoma, Lil’Shy, Wayne Horse and Two Things.

The party goes from 21:00 ’til 02:00 (remember, tonight at 00:00 the clock goes back 1 hour, which means 1 hour more of dope beats) @ Overtoom 141, the damage is EUR 5,- and you even get a free CD with it!