#I’ve tried listening to MANY other d&d podcasts but can’t get into them :P

[cha1cedony]

I need to replay Long Gone Days sooo bad now that the full version is out ughh omg. It was such a big hyperfixation of mine a few years back; I know it will absolutely come back in full force haha. Oh, Rourke, my beloved <3 My second favorite sniper LMAO

[best-enemies]

For the fandom ask meme thing can I request the whole damn alphabet or is that not very cash money of me? I’m nosy lmao I wanna know all of them!

AHDKAJSDKJAHSKDA JACK YOU’RE THE BEST

A - Your current OTP(s)/OT3(s)/OTX(s)

I’ve had my current OTP for like almost 8 years and it’s, obviously, Thoschei (Doctor/Master). My other current obsession is the Gallifrey OT4 hehehe

B - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind

It’s funny because I didn’t ship Hannigram at first... I’d thought the idea of a cannibal having a relationship was terrifying because what if they had sex and Hannibal got hungry in the middle of the act? Lmaoooo 

But yeah they’re my endgame now. I watched the show when it first aired and I was about 14/15 years old so now you see why I thought that. Although I’m still afraid I’m gonna be reading a fic and Hannibal will suddendly bite Will’s dick off or smth AKJHSAKJSAHSASKAJ

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will (be nice)

Uhhh Doctor/Clara. Mainly because I don’t like to ship the Doctor with companions (there may be one or two exceptions but I don’t ship them enough to actually say I ship them lol) and I don’t know I just never vibed with it

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t (again: be nice)

Doctor/River. I mean, I did like it for a while years ago but now it’s just... eh. I think she has a waaay better chemistry with the 12th Doctor, but still don’t ship it. I might give it a try once I listen to the River audios but so far meh. I’m not much of a multishipper anyway.

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what

God. I’ve written a couple of Academy Era (focused on the Deca) crack fanfics and I still have to translate them to English. They’re pure garbage but I love them. I have a lot of fun writing crack fics because they’re easier and I can ignore whatever piece of canon I want just for the laughs

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom

Guess it’s Doctor Who, been here (in and out of the fandom) for over 8/9 years

G - Do you remember your first OTP, if so who was in it

Uhhhh I think it was Han Solo and Leia, since I was a kid really. I wanted to marry both of them lol

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., tv shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)

I had to google what a source text is and still don’t know

I - Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why

I don’t think so, but Twitter definitively has. I remember a couple years ago I was curious to see what voltron was about and watched a few episodes, it was ok, fun and cute but the fandom was so annoying I stopped watching it for good and don’t care about it enough to pick it up again

J - Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr

I had definitively forgotten about supernatural until I saw it all over my dashboard in the year of our lord 2020 lmao like in my wholock days I tried to watch the show because everyone on my dash (is it still called dashboard?) was talking about it and I watched about 8 episodes before dropping it. But seeing it again on the dash was actually a happy surprise because the memes are too funny hahaha

K -Say something nice about someone in any of your fandoms

I’m extremely shy irl and on the internet as well but I wanna say that  @janeturenne is one of the best authors ever and her fanfics are a blessing in my life; also @thebraxiatelcollection who brings awesome content to my dash and is also one of the best authors. And of course, you, Jack, also one of the best authors god I’m so BLESSED

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves (chars you’re neutral on are fair game, as are chars you dislike)

Uhhh I guess I’m neutral about the current companions. They’re not my favorites but I don’t really dislike them - they had a lot of potential and chibs came up with some good storylines but did not develop them well in my opinion. I think Graham is a fun grandpa whom I’m going to miss when he leaves; Ryan is cool and could’ve done a lot more if the writers had kept a few things, it’d be awesome if he vlogged all of their adventures. He’s like the one I was curious to see more but sadly didn’t feel a connection; and Yaz, I hope she’ll keep growing and that her friendship with the Doctor will finally be developed to a level we can connect to her.

It sounds weird because with the fam it’s always ‘what I wish could have been’ because I never felt really connected to them :(

M - Say something genuinely nice about a ship that you don’t ship (or its shippers, or anything related to you)

Ok... I don’t really ship Rey/Finn but I think it’s one of the sweetest ships ever, and if they ended up together I’d be happy. They love each other and are there for each other always so, yeah :D

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice)

I don’t know if I got the question right but it’s three things I wish I saw more in my main fandom? Well, if it’s that, then, 3 things about the Doctor Who fandom: 1) people having more civilized or light-hearted discussions about things. Like, I genuinely disliked an 8th doctor audio I listened once that my friends loved, and they made fun of me and we joked about it. Also once we were in a live twitch video playing among us and discussing doctor who, and then we got into a ship “discourse” as a joke and nobody really cared and just laughed because everyone knew it’s fictional shit so why get mad over it? 2) Doctor Who has a titanic amount of content, it’s all canon but at the same time it’s not, so who cares? If you want to listen to Big Finish audios and if you can afford it, then lisiten; if you can’t, it’s okay, no one has the right to tell you you’re less of a fan. Just tell them to fuck off; 3) The best way to keep fandom alive is by creating content. Here in my local fandom we have several podcasts dedicated to all areas of the whoniverse (the show, the expanded universe, the audios, etc), those old fandom websites who do serious work to bring news to the fans, people who make subtitles for the classic series (we don’t have it available here so they do their best to make it accessible to other fans), accounts dedicated to promoting dr who fans who create content, and we even have people making their own audiodramas with dw characters and writing book-lenght fanfiction to help explain the show to people who’ve never watched it, and a great variety of things. I’ve seen a few of these things in the international fandom, mostly by older fans, so I wish younger fans about my age who have the means to make this kind of stuff would make it too. Maybe there’d be less twitter drama out there lol

O - Choose a song at random, which ship or character does it remind you of

“the killing moon” by echo & the bunnymen reminds me of thoschei. yep it was totally random

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)

The fact that we don’t have a pride and prejudice AU for brax/romana yet is driving me insane

Q - A ship you’ve abandoned and why

I’ve mentioned it before but doctor/river, don’t really remember why idk I just don’t vibe with it anymore. But also because thoschei has so many different pairings in 1 ship that I don’t really feel the need to ship them with anyone else lol

R - A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships

GOD I NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT BECAUSE IT’S SO SPECIFIC ok fellow academy era stans gather around if you have read Divided Loyalties there’s a scene where it SHOWS that Magnus had a crush on Ushas. And NO ONE HAS EVER TALKED ABOUT THEM and the power couple they would’ve made. I write them into all my fanfics in hopes of making other people ship them but I’ve had no success so far

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

The Master is a big fan of musicals and in the 77 years he spent on earth he watched every single one ever. I’m gonna be bold and say that when he was young, still Koschei, he was an artist, and thought about dropping everything to become an actor on Gallifrey. Time Lords do appreciate art, and have their own plays, but it’s just the same old and boring ones the young people don’t care about. The Master then created a shocking performance that was way ahead of its time and the older Time Lords were so appalled they banned him from writing and presenting plays and that’s his villain origin story

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending, about anything at all (gender identity, sexual or romantic orientation, extended family, sexual preferences like top/bottom/switch, relationship with poetry, seriously anything)

1) The Doctor and the Master married on Gallifrey and the entire show is just them having the most litigious divorce in the universe (still isn’t final because the Master has killed all the judges); 2) Ushas/The Rani is ace; 3) The Deca was a 10 people polyamorous relationship; 4) Romana and Livia were girlfriends at the Academy and they hate each other now because the break up was baad; 5) Romana writes fanfiction; 6) Romana/Leela had a thing in Davidia I KNOW it; 7) Leela pegs Narvin; 8) Brax has a life-size painting of Romana at his collection or a statue or smth; 9) Brax’s dream in Reborn is actually REAL and he’s married to Romana, Leela and Narvin all at the same time

U - 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms

I don’t even think I’m in 5 fandoms but

Doctor Who: The Master, The Doctor, Romana, Leela, Sarah Jane, Bill (this was the hardest thing ever)

The X-Files: Mulder, Scully, Monica, and can I add The Lone Gunmen too?

Star Wars: Leia, Obi-Wan, Finn, Poe Dameron and honorable mention to Din Djarin and Grogu

Hannibal: Hannibal, Will, Bev, Alana, Chiyoh

V - 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms

That’s hard

Doctor Who: thoschei ofc, gallifrey ot4.......... uuhh as you can see i don’t ship many pairings in the show

The X-Files: Mulder and Scully. And whatever Scully and Monica had going on because they definitively flirted

Star Wars: Poe/Finn, Han/Leia, whatever Han/Lando had going on too

W - 5 favorite ships and 5 kinks you like best for said ships

WHATVASHAJSKAJSA ok this is a little embarassing but I don’t have a lot of kinks for many ships... I guess I have some for thoschei like, choking, whipping, blindfolds/gagging, bondage, begging, biting, sem-public, phone sex, dirty talk, body worship, praise kink, etc. Alright alright I know it’s a lot but in my defense they've shown half of these on the show

X - top 5-10 characters who are yoUR PRECIOUS BABIES AND YOU WILL DIE DEFENDING THEM

The Master, Romana, Leela, Brax, Narvin, Bill Potts, Martha Jones, Sarah Jane, Donna Noble, Lucie Miller. No particular order for most of them but the Master is my precious baby and I will die for this mf

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)

Not many, usually the people I follow are in the same fandoms as I am but I’ve seen some mutuals reblog some Hadestown stuff which is a play that I’ve never seen but definitively would because the protagonists look hot 

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go (prompts optional but encouraged)

I DON’T KNOW WHAT DOES IT MEAN

it took me three hours to do this but it was fun!! thank you bb <3

[nemossubmarine]

NaNoWriMo Ask Meme: 2., 5., 8., 12., 15. and 20. :)

Thank u friend 4 my life.

2. How did you get into it?My first NaNo was back in 2009, which was my first year at Opisto. I’m not sure who brought the idea to attention but some of my friends and I decided to partake that year (since living together with a bunch of writers sounded like a good idea). I’m pretty sure I was the only one who made it past the first week or so, bc I remember going to the computer class all alone to do my stuff. I made it a bit over half-way through (27,5k) before giving up. That said, we were having our writing program at the same time, so it was not like that was the only thing I wrote. :PNext time I tried it was two years later in 2011 and a lot more of my school mates partook that time. I don’t remember if anyone else made it, but I did. I started doing NaNos regularly once at uni. It was nice to have at least one semi-finished creative project / year, even if I never edit them. :D

5. What’s your personal goal?My personal goal is always 50k, but this year the actual novel can be shorter if I can scrape the rest together from various write-ups and kill team mission logs. Hoping to get to at least 25k with the actual novel.

8. Any inspirations?I’m still working a lot on imagery, which I have written down on papers, so who even knows where I pick all that up. I guess I’m picking up stuff from (American) urban legends (since I’ve worked with theory regarding those for my thesis so it’s on my mind) and I’ve been listening to a true crime podcast which has given me some stuff (though they focus on small towns and my story is taking place in a city). A lot of the stuff I’m drawing from is my own old unused stuff.Also I guess I’ve been tossing in my mind some of Sir Elwoodin Hiljaiset Värit songs about cities (I believe someone called it Helsinki-romantiikkaa once upon a time). Especially “Jumala rankaisee Helsinkiä tänä yönä” and “Marssiaskeleet”. They have occasionally v bleak-imagery, and for now so does my story.

12. Who’s your favorite character so far?I have one named character figured out so far (MC, gotta have ur MC named or u cant get to writing). :D But I guess there’s a dude who I’ve dubbed “deer man” bc he’s a man with a deer head. Dunno what I’ll do with him, but I get super-grossed out about antlers (weird offset of tryrophobia yay) so it’ll be exciting how that comes across in the writing.

15. What’s your character’s favorite memory with another?:D I got nothing. I have one established relationship even figured out that it exists and nothing beyond and that’s it, so. (guess who is v ill-prepared :D)

20. If your MC was in another book, what book would they be in?Probably some kind of YA book tbh, based on setting at least. Don’t know many other books that take place in cities and have supernatural/horror-ish elements. I can’t give you a name, since I don’t read YA, but. :P

[inonesingleline]

Ooh, yes, I have a lot to do today before I can do any celebrating, so naturally let’s procrastinate with the end-of-year fandom meme! THIS GOT REALLY LONG I’M SORRY.

1. Your main fandom of the year: The Good Fight, which is a madness while it’s on, always a dull aching hum in the back of my mind while it’s off, and still makes me feel instantly sick to my stomach every time I see a bit of news about it. Fun! But yeah I guess this is the only thing I participated in fandom for anyway; I wrote a little fic, I made some gifs, I tried to offer comfort to my fellow sufferers. (The show is great and most of you won’t feel sick about it, lol)

2. Your favorite film this year: Another year of not being much of a movie person--and to think 5 years ago it was everything! But favorite film in cinemas was Lady Bird; at home, I’m glad my recent Lesley problem has given me a chance to watch some great Mike Leigh films--I loved High Hopes, Another Year, and All or Nothing. 

3. Your favorite book this year: A slightly better year for books; after years of shamefully managing, like, five, I read 26 this year and, more importantly, really got back into the habit in the last few months so I think 2018 will be even better. I read many mysteries, which is always a go-to genre when I’m in a reading funk. But the very best book I read, far and away, was Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker. Shout outs to Still She Wished for Company by Margaret Irwin, Alias Grace and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (hmm wonder why I read those), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (how had I never read it before???) and Excellent Women by Barbara Pym. Of the mysteries, there is a reason why And Then There Were None is revered; holy shit. The rest were just comfort food. If any of this sounds like your thang, we should stalk each other on goodreads, hmu

4. Your favorite album or song this year: Yeah if I’m embarrassed about my engagement with film and literature this year, let’s not even talk about music. I don’t think I listened to a single new (or new-to-me) thing this year. The only music I listened to at all was a playlist of old favorites I can sing along to on longer drives. And this a year with new St Vincent! Shameful. I did listen to a fuckton of podcasts. All my music time has gone to podcasts.

5. Your favorite TV show this year: Honestly, The Good Fight. And if you want a ridiculous list of honorable mentions, here are all of the currently-airing shows I adored this year in approximate descending order of my love for them: The Good Place, Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Harlots, Grace and Frankie, Catastrophe, Feud, Big Little Lies, American Vandal, One Mississippi, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Search Party, Insecure, Alias Grace, The Handmaid’s Tale, Transparent, Brooklyn Nine Nine, Orphan Black, Broad City, GLOW, Better Things, Stranger Things, I Love Dick, Veep, The Bold Type, Younger, One Day at a Time, Schitt’s Creek, Jane the Virgin, The Americans, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Speechless, Colony, The Worst Witch. Among older shows, I discovered To the Manor Born and watched it like seven times in a brief but heady love affair this summer, and The Good Life, too. I rewatched Ugly Betty and As Time Goes By. Oh, and while I guess it doesn’t count for 2017 shows, I honestly adored Mum. And had a weird week where I snarfed down a whole season of Strictly Come Dancing. OK that’s probably enough about television. Clearly, television is what keeps me from engaging with any other form of media. :|

6. Your favorite Tumblr this year: I LOVE ALL MY MUTUALS EQUALLY AND ARDENTLY, even if I’m pretty bad at keeping up conversations with you all xo

7. Your best new fandom discovery of the year: Can I use this space to talk about my year in situations? Obviously in these last weeks I’ve been losing my fucking mind over Lesley Manville, who is a sleeper situation, but clearly a Code Red Level One now. I also had some delightful times with Penelope Keith and Raquel Cassidy, who occupy that delicious but not all-consuming space in my mind that Lesley once did. I almost had a thing with Ashley Jensen, but I guess Penelope stole me away before that got off the ground. And Christine Baranski is clearly my forever girl. I didn’t think my fickle ass could ever love anyone so deeply for so long, but here we are. 

8. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year: Ummm...? I can’t really think of any, although I will say it was frustrating when all I wanted was a good mystery book series to lose myself in and I had to toss aside many half-read or after the first book. (If I’d finished all the books I started this year, I would have finished my reading challenge and then some.) But of those the biggest frustration was, despite enjoying the Agatha Raisin tv series because Ashley Jensen, and enjoying the Agatha Raisin audiobooks on a different level because Penelope Keith, how honestly terrible I found the Agatha Raisin books. So instead I read summaries of them all because I was weirdly invested in that ship for a hot minute, lol. Not worth it. Please come back, tv show.

9. Your TV boyfriend of the year: NONE but ugh I still have embarrassing Gary Cole feelings, and also Peter Mullan’s character on Mum is allowed to date my girlfriend, yeah. 

10. Your TV girlfriend of the year: So many??? AUDREY FFORBES-HAMILTON is all goals, Diane Lockhart forever and always, yeah I want to softly cuddle and bathe in the luminous glow of Cathy on Mum, Hecate Hardbroom, both Grace and Frankie, and I had a dream about awkwardly trying to date Tig Notaro, so.

11. Your biggest squee moment of the year: DIANE TURNED OFF THE CAR AND WENT BACK WITH HIM!!! God damn it, I am still so fucking embarrassing about this ship. Also, so many Audrey/Richard moments. I keep thinking I cannot fall in love with another het ship, but if you make mah girl all googly-eyed, I’m probably gonna be there for it. 

12.  Your most missed old fandom: Nothing buuuut if it counts I did really feel sorry about the Major Crimes fandom after they fucking fucked Mary/Sharon over, and kind of gleefully monitored the carnage from a safe remove. Honestly so terrible, glad I got out of that mess years ago.

13. Your fandom you haven’t tried yet, but want to? Hmmmm I don’t know? I feel like if there were anything major I would be on it already. I know what I like and I do not delay gratification. But if anything, I think I should probably watch Janet King very soon? Also I’m hovering on the point of diving into The Crown; I did try the first episode for Harriet reasons, but could nooooot get into it. But a number of friends/culture bloggers I admire love it. So I may give it another go. If only in anticipation of Olivia Colman!queen yas!

14. Your biggest anticipation of the New Year: P H A N T O M T H R E A D and seeing Lesley on stage doing Long Day’s Journey :3 and the return most especially of The Good Fight and Grace and Frankie. I also do very seriously intend to diversify my fandom interests in 2018: read more, watch more films, listen to more new music. If I have one concrete resolution, it’s that I will see every movie directed by a woman that comes through town--I mean, of course, through the good indie theater, anyway. I’m setting a reading challenge at an ambitious-by-recent-standards 50 books and intend to meet it. And I want to get better at focusing? If I’m watching a show or a movie, I should really watch the show or movie, not play on my phone half the time. Maybe get better at documenting my experiences and reactions. And continue enjoying this Lesley thing until she wears me out. 

Everybody do this, I’m really interested in everyone’s fandom year!

[airadam]

Episode 121 : X

"...celebrate like a crooked capitalist..."

- Mr. Voodoo

The podcast reaches a huge landmark this month - the tenth birthday! Thank you to all of you for your support along the way. It's not easy to put together a show month after month, but when I hear from people how much they enjoy listening (especially when they've gone out and bought some of the records), it makes it all worth it.

I hope you enjoy this month's show - there are some rarities, some obscurities, and a bit of an extra-special treat! I've dipped into the vaults for some real personal favourites, so hopefully they're loved outside of the confines of my headphones!

Twitter : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Run-DMC : For 10 Years

Only a short one, from their comeback "Down With The King" LP - when else was I going to have a chance to play it? :)

Natural Elements : Live It Up

Big 12" from my university days, a period when Natural Elements were already making themselves one of my all-time favourite crews. This track from the soundtrack to the not-particularly-notable film "Black Mask" was also on the B-side to the also-excellent "2 Tons", and that's a vinyl you should be able to pick up very cheaply nowadays on the used market. Charlemagne (the real one) is on the beat, and as with all NE tracks, lyrical quality is guaranteed and delivered.

[Nick Wiz] Shabaam Sahdeeq ft. Cocoa Brovaz : Every Rhyme I Write (Instrumental)

I was almost going to include the vocal version of this track (known to most from the "Soundbombing 2" mixtape), until it twigged how well the beat mixed with the NE track before it. Nick Wiz of that era was a master of blending those staccato electronic sounds with more traditional Hip-Hop drums and bass, and he's still doing his thing today. As an aside, I think me and my man Pascal may be the only two people ever to blast the "Soundbombing 2" tape while barrelling through the Budapest area in an old Trabant. True story.

Mobb Deep : Rare Species (Modus Operandi)

It's already been two years this month since Prodigy passed. For this special episode, I thought it was worth pulling out a lesser-known track which also contains one of my favourite verses of his. Those of you who know this already will be aware that it came out on the soundtrack for "Soul in the Hole" (in the fine tradition of 90s soundtrack records that barely relate to the film), but it's actually a remix to an unreleased tune called "Reach". Classic Mobb dunn business all over, but the start of that second P verse...just too good. Havoc definitely kills it on the beat, with snapping drums over the top of some subtly clever sample work.

Black Moon : Freestyle

I'd forgotten quite how aggro this was! Buckshot is solo on the mic here with that real 90s grittiness over a flawless beat from Da Beatminerz. The "War Zone" LP was very different to "Enta Da Stage" - not as jazzy, definitely a different sound - but is not one to be overlooked.

A Tribe Called Quest ft. Consequence : Mind Power

The first two tracks in this section have been pretty gully, so for the second half we keep the flow sonically but take the lyrical aggression down a few notches. "Beats, Rhymes, and Life" is an LP that had to grow on me, but this track was always up there. The lyrical quality is there, drums are crispy as you like, and it's got a jazzy feel that could easily have fit onto either of their previous two albums. 

DJ Honda & De La Soul : Trouble In The Water

Chilling things all the way out as we come to the end of this section, this is a really good De La track that may have passed some people by. From the second DJ Honda album comes this reflective song, which for me is absolutely made by that first verse, reminiscing on growing up. 

Oddisee : After Thoughts

One of the many great instrumentals on Oddisee's "The Beauty In All" album. I didn't realise until doing some research that this is unbelievably popular on Spotify, which is pleasantly surprising. It's always good to find out that people appreciate quality music that the industry isn't pushing upon them!

Mary J. Blige : Good Woman Down

I only heard this 9th Wonder-produced track recently thanks to an article from the man Gino Sorcinelli, the man behind the excellent Micro-Chop blog. Mary is someone I firmly believe will one day have a film made of her life, and she gives just a small window here on this great song from "The Breakthrough". She's been through a lot, and thank goodness, she's still here and still on her game. 

Agallah : Don't Wanna Be The Last

From around the period when Agallah was doing a lot of work with PCP/Dipset, this has been a drivetime favourite for me for the last three cars I've had! A hard one to find for quite a while, Agallah's 2004 "Doomsday" mixtape is the source for this one. Like the track that follows, if you enjoy hearing the kick drum get busy then this should be right up your street. 

Camp Lo : Cookers

Chuck D tried to tell you - B-side wins again! From the quiet period between their storming debut "Uptown Saturday Night" and their underrated sophomore release "Let's Do It Again", the "Troubleman/Cookers" 12" let the world know that the Lo were still on it! Geechi and Cheeba go back and forth with ease over Ski's beat, one that clearly drew on the EEC kick drum mountain to smack harder than most.

Fat Joe ft. Armageddon : Find Out

Is that DJ Premier on the beat? Diamond D? Buckwild, perhaps? Nope, the legend Marley Marl reminding you that he fathered sampling/beat making in the way that many other great producers would do it today. That delicate acoustic guitar loop withstands an absolute battering from the heavy drums and bass Marley puts on, and Fat Joe has no problem slicing right through the middle or it all. This is from a white label 12", but you really want to pick up the "Don Cartagena" album for this and other gems. 

Roni Size/Reprazent : Out Of The Game

Bristol, stand up! Even in the period when I really didn't mess with much drum & bass, I couldn't deny the "In The Møde" album. This hectic track was one of my favourites, largely off that moody, crime-thriller guitar riff. Smashing along at almost 180bpm, it still sounds masterfully under control.

8 Gold Rings & In The Loop MCs : Tribe Cipher

Here's a special treat for you - big thanks to Agent J and 8 Gold Rings for making it possible to include this month! The much-missed Manchester Hip-Hop club In The Loop was known not just for the great selections from DJ A-Up and Agent J, or the flavoursome hosting of Bedos, but for the monthly ciphers in which local MCs could step up and showcase their skills  - ciphers from which a lot of great local MCs have emerged. Around the time of my "Manchester Marauders" exhibition, In The Loop connected with the then-nascent band that came to be known as 8 Gold Rings, and got them to soundtrack the month's cipher with a set of live renditions of A Tribe Called Quest instrumentals. Here we have just over 20 minutes of that absolutely fire session, with 8GR playing like a live mixtape while the vocalists battle for the month's crown. 

Air Adam : Walk

An old beat I found while having a look through my archives - I couldn't hear an MC on it, but I found it's one I kept listening to so it's perfect for an instrumental bed here!

Geto Boys : Fuck A War

RIP Bushwick Bill. He had one of the more unique career paths, from dancer with the original Ghetto Boys, to MC with the reconstituted Geto Boys, solo releases, and eventually becoming a born-again Christian in a complete 180 to much of his old lyrical content. Right here, we're on the Geto Boys' second LP, "We Can't Be Stopped" (the one with the infamous album cover of Bill after he had shot himself in the eye [content warning]), and he goes solo on the mic putting the first George Bush and the Gulf War on full blast. The third verse goes a little off-piste with the message compared to the rest, and with the hook also being too short to really mix with, I did a little edit to just contain the first two verses and an instrumental outro for a nice blend.

E-40 ft. Keak da Sneak : Tell Me When To Go

"Jesus Christ had dreads, so shake 'em..." Bay Area classic material! For those of us outside the area, this was an anthem for the Hyphy movement, as E-40 and Keak lay down a little of the lifestyle - also illustrated in the wicked video. The first single from "My Ghetto Report Card" is just a certified banger, and guaranteed to make you move something. Surprisingly, the production was actually courtesy of an Atlanta native (crunk heavyweight Lil Jon), and it's almost entirely drums and percussion, with enough energy to make you want to throw something out of the window!

Zapp : Get Up Off The Wall

After the death of the great Roger Troutman, Zapp could have been forgiven for just packing up the whole thing for good. Fortunately for us, they're made of rare stuff, and after a few years off they returned. While they now are primarily concentrated on their live work, at which they are absolute masters, there have also been a couple of albums. "Zapp VI : Back By Popular Demand" gives us this track, with the air of classics like "Dance Floor". The CD is hard to find and incredibly expensive, so there's no shame in just going for a digital purchase here! 

Ilajide : Don't Fake

If you haven't got "Heet Tape" yet, you're really missing out. Clear Soul Forces' Ilajide puts all the bump into reworking a classic 80s sample (which you may recognise, but which I won't name in case it's not cleared) and shows his rhyme skills into the bargain. It's just a genuinely fun track, and the video is in the same vein :)

The Chemical Brothers : Piku

The Chemical Brothers are one of a handful of groups I actually learned about from the old PlayStation game "Wipeout", and who coincidentally started DJing in the same student halls where I started to learn the craft! "Exit Planet Dust" is still my favourite LP from their catalogue, but "Dig Your Own Hole" definitely had tracks as well. This one I'd never paid that much attention to, but after a recent listen - and on realising the classic Motown sample they snuck in there - I was pleased to gain a new appreciation for it and find a spot for it here.

Ice-T & Ice Cube : Looters

Apologies for the sound quality, but here's a real rarity here for you! This was the unreleased title track for the soundtrack of the 1992 film that was eventually titled "Trespass" - until the L.A. Uprising happened. Ice-T and Ice Cube go hard on the mic over a beat that sounds like a Sir Jinx production, though I can't be sure. More so than the final title track (which I'm a big fan of), this one explicitly covers a lot of the plot of the actual film, so if you're trying to be efficient with your time... :) I chanced across this in a London used records shop, but your best chance of getting one of the few white label bootlegs is to hit Discogs.

Ry Cooder & Jim Keltner : King Of The Street

Finally, we close with the final track on the officially-released "Trespass" soundtrack album, a rock/blues (mostly) instrumental number that was a favourite of mine from the first listen! California's Ry Cooder plays many instruments, but on this track he shows his guitar chops alongside the skills of the legendary session drummer Jim Keltner. Aggressive, dramatic, pure flames.

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

  Check out this episode!