As I have been made an honorary torch barer for the ever growing WY collective, I feel it is my duty to write this post about the hardest working group of people in the UK music industry.
At the head of this movement you have ‘Don’t Talk to Strangers’, a group of like minded artists who have been constantly pushing what they believe in which is at the heart of all great genres of music.
I have been very fortunate to mix with all involved with the project for the last 6 years or so and the professionalism of Bane, Dead, Megamouth, Mury and Spida Lee (to name a few), is seriously unheard of in the world of hip-hop and it’s relative art forms. They (like me over the years), have put their money where their mouths are, going without to support their dream that one day something will click and the cream of the West Yorkshire scene will be noticed.
It is a known commodity that if you are an artist from the North (even more-so in Hip-Hop), you have to ‘move down South’ to get noticed. This is true if you want to be playing the venues around London and it’s surrounding Towns and Cities so that you get snatched and molested by a record label that will make you change your style and want you to ‘sing’ as well as rap or drop your DJ so that they can afford to put dancers on stage with you.
Anyway, back to the reason why I am writing this blog post. Within this WY (West Yorkshire), bunch of MC’s, Producers, DJ’s, Beatboxers, Artists, Singers, Writers, Creative Geniuses and Businessmen are two of the finest examples who go by the names of Chief Wigz (real name David Wiggum) and Sonar Cousin (Mike Davis to his parents).
The 2 of them have come together to create a concept album like no other in recent years. ‘The Cat Came back’ is not only lyrically genius but is bedded down with some of the most beautiful man made beats known at this time. There are very few rising UK underground producers that tick all boxes in my honed ears, in fact you can count them on one hand (IRN MNKY, Black Einstein and errrrrr… leave that one with me), but Mike ‘Sonar Cousin’ Davis (same spelling of the dopest surname as me), has come on with a style that is his own, one that is becoming signature to all projects he’s involved in at this present time and I personally have a crazy amount of respect for producers who find their sound and run with it.
Mister Wiggum is one of the most genuine and hard working MC’s, dare I say .. in this country. His energy in the live performance is something I admire and his beaming grin is something I wish I saw more of in this scene (saying that the members of Don’t Talk To Strangers are happy dudes). His love of cats and using them as topical analogies is known to those who know him and know of his past musical endeavors, and this album ties them in once more.
This is my message to ALL of you that have taken the time to read about these 2 stand out artists who released their brand new Album ‘The Cat Came Back’ on Monday 16th April 2012.
I rarely review albums because I believe even though some artists put effort in and put their money where there mouths are, they are self indulgent and don’t put everything they have into the piece of work they are offering. This album ranks alongside one of my favourites of all time to come from the UK Hip-Hop Scene (Grown Man Business by Yungun & Mr. Thing), and I urge you to buy it. Chief Wigz and Sonar Cousin have put ALL their creativity, talent and skills into this and it shows.
Here is a link to the ‘Dark City Store’ where you can support their amazing efforts by purchasing the album. www.thedarkcitystore.com