Delays!!!

Sorry about the lack of posts, my intermittent readers. I have recently moved abode and the internet is yet to arrive(through the fault of Sky who apparently don't guarantee their "Award-Winning Broadband with one quick phone call" statement on their adverts). Needless to say 40 very SLOW phone calls, constant nagging, bitching and whining, contradictions and ignorant call-centre representatives later....I still have no home internet service.

This will change in the next two weeks so expect me to be late with a few posts of mixtapes I may have been emailed as when I get it up and running you'll find a flurry of posts. The fact I'm in a library typing this is of much irritation to myself. Luckily I've been able to lend a Kevin Keegan biography and a Sir Bobby Robson biography so all is not lost.

Expect Cyrus Malachi's new mixtape, a new Mr J Medieros track and a review of Cymarshall Law and Skit Slam's Everliven Sound album coming shortly, but until the internet is up and running I'd rather not leave you expecting much at all.

Rest assured Northern Author is alive and well, and able to interact with fellow hip-hop lovers on twitter at www.twitter.com/sniperinthemist through the trusty iPhone. I'll release details on there when new posts are up but for now enjoy what we already have for you.

In addition to this stupendous site, I recommend a new UK hip-hop site called Cypherz at http://www.cypherz.co.uk/ which is a spin-off (or rather an upgrade) from the Leeds Hip Hop Site. Its full of great videos and news not only from hip-hop but other UK urban genres such as the new obsession on these shores of dubstep, trusty but never trustworthy Grime, and maybe even some RnB or Drum n Bass chucked in for good measure.

Don't be a stranger, people....unless you're a wierd bastard. In which case, STAY a stranger. I don't need any more silliness in my already nonsensical existence.

Apologies

To my readers, the millions of them (obviously) I feel ashamed to have let this charade go on for so long. Its been three weeks since the last post, and that is not the definition of hard work and elbow grease.

Truth be told, I have been irritated over the past few weeks. First, my typical arrogant approach to the England vs Croatia game left me looking like a pompous twat in the end as we lost to the Eastern Europeans 3-2 and will not be partaking in the European Championships next summer. Then, my local footy team Newcastle United went on a big streak without winning leaving me depressed. I don't know what its like in the US, or with other people throughout the UK, but if my team don't win (this applies to whichever sport be your choice) then it ruins my whole week. That one loss seems to set the ball rolling for a clamity of errors that continue up until our next match when it starts all over again. Well, Newcastle have got back on track (kind of) and I'm back to better days.

Another thing stopping from me from contributing to this illustrious site is that I travelled home to the North-East to see Queens Of The Stone Age live, and only hours before the gig Josh Homme (lead singer for those not in the know) pulled out with a chest infection. He could have told me before I bought a train ticket and travelled 200 miles to see him. Ginger twat.

Oh well, things are back on track, and you can expect a few posts coming in the next week. One being the long-awaited posting of some old school Kid Acne, who has came on leaps and bounds in '07 due to his critically acclaimed new album 'Romance Ain't Dead'. Another you can expect is the start of a series reviewing and highlighting UK hip-hop classics. It will be me putting forward a claim for a certain album and explaining why I think it is a classic. Feel free to agree/disagree with them when they come up and put forward your own shortlists.

Check back in the next few days for new shizzle. Or does that mean 'sure'? These days I'm not so shizzle about where to use certain hip-hop slangterms. Maybe thats because I'm of the school of thought that if you actually like Soulja Boy's music then you should be anally deflowered with a cleaver. But hey, that's just me...

Bugger.

Just give me a day or so of mourning, lads and lasses, eh?

Israeli Pride

As it stands, the average English male’s favourite country besides his own will be Israel, after they beat Russia in stunning fashion earlier on tonight to do us Brit’s a solid in the European Championship qualifying campaign (For you yanks, we’re talking about proper football, not this arrogant mockery of rugby where you wear 10 inches of padding and celebrate each tackle).

It was a bit strange supporting Israel and at the same time not knowing who the effing hell any of them were, but buggering hell, as long as they beat Russia, they could have been 11 rapist paedophiles out on the pitch and I’d still cheer them on like they were ‘my lads’.

So, all we have to do is draw with a team we’re better than in our own backyard midweek to qualify. Sounds easy, but you just know we’ll be a goal down to Slaven Bilic’s Croatian Army within minutes and we’ll be scrambling about like retards with rubber legs trying to stand up and secure a victory

On the England front, yes, we did beat Austria in a meaningless friendly, but more importantly, something brilliant happened for my club, Newcastle United. Our worst thief of a player, who still consistently gets picked, Michael Owen, is injured. Hallelujah!!!!! We don’t have to see his ugly mug for a few weeks, and maybe our manager will put on the better striker in Obafemi Martins instead. I mean, bloody hell, if we can’t beat our main rivals and purveyors of utter tosh football, Sunderland, then we may aswell just not bother.

What happened to Scotland was pretty harsh, but also a incy wincy bit funny. I mean come on, they have their own destiny in their hands, to win at home against their main rivals for a qualifying spot, and they go a fudge it up in the last minute of play by not bothering to mark the World Champions in the box because they were still sulking about having a decision given against them. Och yes, it was a poor decision, but och no, they can’t blame the ref for their loss.

I actually wanted them to qualify….but only if we did. If England were dumped out by a Russian win tonight and Scotland triumphed I would NOT be pleased. I’m not having some scruffy red-nosed berk telling me that their nation is better than mine at our own game. They couldn’t even get over Hadrian’s Wall for christ sake - and that’s only about 5 foot tall.

In celebration of our ‘triumph-without-doing-bot-all’, here’s some good old English boom-bap from back in the day, links courtesy of an actual right proper hard man called Adam Ross. He killed a guy with a spoon once you know. Ate his face like a strawberry sundae.

Katch 22 - Diary Of A Black Man Living In The Land Of The Lost (1991)

1. Ghetto Child
2. Katch Mission
3. Cynical World
4. Service With A Smile
5. Son Of Shem
6. Mind Field
7. Diary Of A Black Man Living In The Land Of The Lost
8. State Of Meditation
9. Who’s Business
10. Stalag 22
11. Rogues Gallery
12. Brown Clown
13. Get Together Now

Faze One - Heroes (1987)

1. Jump On The Jock
2. Get Buzy
3. Shango-Tac
4. Mellow Down
5. Pleasure Seekers
6. The Only Thing I Need
7. Kick Up (Something Fatter)
8. Dutch Cheese
9. Good Friends
10. Here To Win
11. Money Eater
12. Question Mark

Caveman - Positive Reaction (1991) - (Writer’s Tip: This one is a classic!)

1. Troglodyte History
2. Victory (Remix)
3. Positive Reaction
4. Cool (Cos I Don’t Get Upset)
5. Pages & Pages
6. Fry You Like Fish (Jazz Remix)
7. I’m Ready
8. Caught Up
9. You Can’t Take It
10. Desmond
11. The Dope Department
12. Back To Cause Mayhem
13. Victory
14. Introduction To A Caveman

Sindecut - Changing The Scenery (1990)

1. Demanding Cycle - Of A Word Bound Hammerhead
2. Having
3. Live The Life
4. Won’t Cahnge
5. Too Rough
6. Passtime
7. Braincell
8. Tell Me Why
9. Slow Down
10. Crack Business
11. To The Heart
12. Wisdom

Get downloading or I’ll go all Prodigy on you and ‘stab your brain with your nosebone’, which may I say is grammatically incorrect and very uncouth to say the least.

Leeds Festivities

I have just returned from a superb weekend at the Leeds Carling Weekend 2007. In the past three to four days I've seen about 20 great bands and I've enjoyed every minute of it, with absolutely no hint of hip-hop in sight. I know this blog and its friends are strictly hip-hop, and it will stay that way, but I will set out my musical taste here.

I am, of course, primarily a hip-hip head, but I spend only say 50% of my music-listening time with hip-hop on. I listen to metal, indie, soul, rock, funk, dance, all of it. But rock/metal is my second love. And I must say, it was nice to get away from hip-hop for a few days and just be a rock fan for once instead of just towing the line.

I hope that everyone that visits this site loves rock and many other genres as well as hip-hop, because if you just seclude yourself and commit to one genre you're missing out on thousands upon thousands of superb other artists that could change your life. Right about now, I have to bring up a more serious point.

Hip-hop, RIGHT NOW, is not as creative as it used to be (what an understatement that is...). OK, thats no problem, as the creative output from times gone by was at such a high level it would have been impossible for fans to expect our beloved genre to keep on developing and bettering itself at such a high pace. But the problem does not lie within itself. Hip-hop, RIGHT NOW, is nowhere near as creative as many other genres. Rock, indie and metal are flourishing right about now, and even older bands in those genres such as Nine Inch Nails and the like are experiencing a rebirth of sorts, by tapping into new sounds and changing their own perception on what music should sound like. I just feel like hip-hop is stuck in a rut at this moment.

When the Red Hot Chili Peppers were playing the festival out as the headliners on Sunday night, and had well over 100,000 people all singing along and appreciating their artistry I wondered to myself, could this ever happen in hip-hop?

I just don't think hip-hop at the moment is as good a live spectacle as a) it once was, and b) other genres are. I seriously cannot imagine even the best hip-hop artist in the world (whoever that may be depending on your opinion) being able to both draw a crowd that big into a muddy field and support them and have them hypnotised for the whole time they're on stage.

I've been to some great hip-hop gigs. I saw The Roots at Rock City in Nottingham and was almost drooling when Black Thought was rapping constantly for what seemed like 20 minutes. I saw Nas in the Manchester Apollo and sang along with every song he did and felt like I was part of something special when the first few bars of 'It Ain't Hard To Tell' came out of Nasir's mouth. But these are exceptions. Most hip-hop gigs I go to comprise of just the group members or rappers all walking about the stage going through the motions, shouting at the crowd and generally just looking like they cobbled together the set minutes before. I saw Enter Shikari, a trance/metal british group at Leeds Festival and they had an entire light show going on while managing to persuade the crowd to start pit circles and chant choruses and the lead singer got his whole band to stage dive into the crowd and dance like ravers when the trance came in. It was a sight to behold. Most rappers these days just stand and, well, rap.

I would be interested to see a hip-hop festival, because none have ever been staged as far as I know in my region, and none in our country have been staged on a truly huge scale. But one factor remians, both on creative and performance levels, hip-hop as a genre in this day and age is slipping, and needs to step up. It's falling behind other genres so much at the moment due to its insistence to be monotonous to irritating levels in its commercial circles.

A weekend listening to some great guitar music amongst other things has made me truly see hip-hop as a genre that is in a state of crisis at the moment. Granted, this year has been much better than previous years for material so far, but I'm talking interms of commercial artists. Someone spectacular needs to breakthrough. If Kanye West, 50 Cent and Cam'Ron is the best we can do to represent our culture on a major scale then we aren't doing ourselves justice.

Music update coming tomorrow. Hip-hop needs to wake up.

Return From A Brief Hiatus

I apologise for going a week without a post, I have just got a little too caught up in the start of the football season and the start of a new era at Newcastle United. Also, I have been busy chuckling seeing Manchester Utd (or Manure) fail to win either of their first two fixtures. But anyway, if football and random talk is what you want, head over to Gangsta Jackanory, thats where I spout most of my comic-wannabe-but-never-gonnabe drivel.

An interesting thing happened today. I went into a computer game shop today (no, thats not the interesting thing) for the first time in a while just for a look about while my lass was furiously buying up all of the stock in Primark, and started listening to the music they were playing. Bearing in mind this is Gamestation, a major computer shop, in Huddersfield, I was very surprised to hear the sounds of Jehst booming from their admittedly weak shop speakers. After just lurking about the shop for the sole reason to listen to what was being played (I probably looked like I was going to rob something) I managed to distinguish the album as Jehst's new Menghi Bus Mixtape.

Now, this may not be that wierd in America, but you're lucky if you hear Common in a shop in England, so I must admit I was very impressed with the shop owners for being supporters of UK hip-hop. The only way UK hip-hop is ever going to be established in the same way American hip-hop is in England is if it is heard in shops, played in cars and generally wanders into the ears of anyone who will listen. When you hear an underground british rap mixtape being played in a major store, you know there is still a chance of local hip-hop music taking off bigtime (which is something we all thought it would have done back in about 2002).

In other boring but notable shops-playing-rap news, I was in HMV today and they were playing DM & Jemini's Ghetto Pop Life album, swearwords and all. Some granny complained that she'd heard racist slurs in the record while I was in the queue, when it was actually Jemini during a live freestyle tagged on the end of a song saying 'I'ma bad n*gga, I'm a bad bad n*gga...'. I wonder how the lass on the till explain the use of the word to the elderly lady...

Anyway, this was a short but always sweet post to say I'm back, and the Northern Author, alongside its brother/sister blog GJ are here to stay.

Oh, and if you're lucky I might upload some classic Doyen D for you tonight. Barnsley thugs, eh? Music doesn't get better than a chav from Yorkshire rapping that he'll give you a black eye like a Panda.

Blaxtrix & Junior Disprol - Night & Day

Dirty Diggers - For The Haters (as we all know, a future UK classic)

Welcome to the North

So here we are, a new frontier.

I am the Northern Author. Some may know me as Adam, others just may now me as that idiot with a beard and long hair that walks about Huddersfield with a bemused stare. Either way, this is my new blog.

I already have a live space called Gangsta Jackanory which I update regularly, and will continue to do so, and that is just random b****cks that I come up with on the spot. This one, however, will be more focused.

'Northern Author' is essentially a music blog that will cover hip-hop music. I have created it so I can share some of my more obscure music with other people, and give my opinions on everything from a certain album to the state of music as a whole. Hopefully I can educate some people on hip-hop, and hopefully others can visit here and return the favour.

I stress that I will NOT be uploading hundreds of music albums for no reason other than to share them, as I believe that this practice that has plagued blogs is only damaging the music industry, and all of the artists within it. What I will be doing, however, is uploading the odd album or two, and many single songs, and sharing my opinions and review of said music. I will also write some articles on music and focus on certain artists to maybe try and promote their music a bit more, as I think they deserve it.

This is not a site to find your most current pop album. I will not be posting up any 50 Cent rubbish on this site. Oh no. This is for real hip-hop music. The stuff created in dingy studios in Doncaster at 4am in the morning. OK, maybe not that underground, but you get the point.

I welcome any comments, whether they agree or disagree with me, as I will definitely be stating my opinion on the music I upload, as well as some artists that don't sit well with me. For all intensive purposes, this is my own page to express myself about the music that I love. HIP-HOP.

Now let's get on with the show...