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Searching in the record racks of a well known record shop where
you can get some records for a penny, searching for something
dope. Most of the records you own, recorded or others you don't
wanna have or get.. No, no pretext I can't buy records every day,
it becomes an addiction, a nice one!
This record junky stops with an album of TY, an emcee from the
UK. London calling to say it exactly. TY released singles with
DJ Shortee Blitz and gave some very impressing shows. Now ss a
duo they are signed to Bear Mountain, an US imprint owned and run by Maceo from De La Soul. He has been invited to share the mic with luminaries such as
Talib Kweli, De La Soul and Jeru.
Now he comes with his debut album on Big Dada Records, to put his own character and personality on vinyl. To quote
him: "I'm not to going to blow my horn but I am going to toot it. I
have always done something slightly different to everyone else." Yeah, he is a veteran of HipHop, but never showed up in the spotlight
and caught the attention of the masses. His style is to describe
as humorous and relaxed sense of flow. Awkward means: 'ill at ease', 'out of your depth', 'self-conscious' or 'gauche', but it means by TY: "Not being normal"; not fitting into the stereotypes, do your own thing, it means,
being an artist who is true to himself and his own vision, wherever
that takes him. "I never have fitted in with what's out there. I have never been
the stereotypical."
It is the opinion of a person, I can say 'what is normal to you,
every individual is unique.' His first recording was in 1995 for
the IG Culture's, better known as the New Sector Movement (check the 1 Drop Inter Outer albums). Recently you can hear him at records by the Nextmen, Usung Heroes, Funky Dl, Procryptix and Krispy. He is even busy with hosting one of London's best- known and
longest running HipHop nights called Lyrical Lounge, such as School Of Hardknocks is for The Netherlands: face to face…
He moved with his family from Nigeria to UK, where his son wass born. But, "In the early 70's when a lot of Nigerian people were settling
there it was hard and to the point that you had to work all day
and maybe all night and if you had children you couldn't look
after them. So a lot of Nigerian children went through the fostering
thing. Or part-time fostering. And I was part of that. I was getting
on two buses at the age of four, five. I had the responsibility
of my little sister from quite an early age."
After the age of six years, he came back to his parents and HipHop
came into his life, quoting his lyrics:"It was in primary school, one of those parents'night. I was playing
my xylopophone - I thought I was hip. Then these guys came in
and started doing body popping to E.T.'s Boogie and I was like, what - is - this? Xylophones meant nothing. To
this day I still wanna be them. They had me" TY listened secretly to HipHop, his mother didn't approve. Joining
up later he was more a dancer then an emcee. Then decade that
followed is what the album is grounded in great times and great
disappointments. Its culmination can be found in "Awkward". So as he say, it's a healing process. I kinda lost my momentum,
and that is why it is not necessarily gonna be straight HipHop
album, a cliché, independent, primo- copying style of album. I
tried to find emotion in most of the songs. Even when you thing
his style is relax and layback, you are wrong. He allows us to
see him as a multifaceted, not a box-able individual. He owns
techniques to make the complex look simple. Listen to the lyrics
should KRS ONE say.
"Awkward" contains 16 tracks with all a different rhyme pattern.
Hercules is a song about being bullied at his school, listen to the power
of the words. Learning the game. The song Jealousy is about this deathly sin and her 3 different point of views.
Zaibo is an international celebration of blackness and individuality
and difference, with to mention Brain Eno; a very good and original song. Show where my head is at… at
the Ghetto Perspective …pay at my vision. A nice flowing track with much contents and
complex words. Nonsense, track 6, is the single.
Check out the creative video clip at your nearest music station
or at www.ninjatune.net/videos This one's so mmm, mmm, mmm. One funny thing, the cover of de
cd is all orange, but the cd it self (there is a hole in it…)
is dark blue, 2 colours that don't fit together
So , go this record shop and score with this new joint of mister
TY, its not an awkward!
TY site: www.funktion.com
TY mail: t.y@darkerthanblue.com
Big Dada Records www.ninjatune.net/bigdada
Contact: bigdada@ninjatune.net
Herbz
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