Fish N Spliffs: UK Roundup- October 11th

After refraining from eating any seafood last week, let’s get caught up on some of the tastiest tunes that I’ve come across over the last week or two.

Loski- Daily Duppy

Loski of Harlem Spartans dropped his highly anticipated, oft teased Daily Duppy freestyle this past week. Safe to see, Big Ski delivered and then some. These freestyles are the best place for an artist to show of their punchline game, with slick visuals to make sure that the best lines aren’t going over anyone’s head. Loski being back on some drill instrumentals is a beautiful sight, and he reaffirms that his flow is untouchable. Now we just need him to hop on a track with MizzOrMac and Blanco to get those 2017 Harlem vibes back in full effect. Well speaking of Blanco…

Loski and Blanco- Anglo Saxon

Loski decided to a do a little double time this week, giving us another new track, “Anglo Saxon” with fellow Spartan Blanco. They both sound right at home over a textbook skittering, discordant drill beat. The chorus may repeat one or two times too many, and I really wish that Blanco had either a longer verse, or a second verse later in the track, but regardless, it’s nice to hear them both on a track again. Blanco just had to let everyone know that he can still tear apart a drill beat when he feels like it.

SL- Felt Tips

The boy SL is back with another video that just further proves that nobody puts more effort into their visuals. Recently, he’s spent some time putting together a school supply program that helps out underprivileged students in the UK, and some of that is reflected here. “Felt Tips” is a play on some of the items that are included in the supply packages he’s been providing, and the main setting of the video is in a school. We also see visuals alluding to BLM, the KKK, and a lot of the social unrest that has been occurring all over the world throughout this year. The lyrics themselves may be pretty typical SL fare, but as I’ve said before, it is wonderful to see such a young artist put so much thought into his art. He’s constantly been going out of his way to use his platform to make a statement and help out as many people as possible. A true inspiration.

Dutchavelli and M1llionz- Cool With Me

Dutch is motivated to be featured here every single damn week. He adds another fantastic track to his unbelievably prolific and consistent output this year. Now we just need an album, Dutch! This time, he hops onto a track with M1llionz. Their voices and flows complement each other very well, and I don’t know if it’s M1llionz’ off kilter flow that brought it out of Dutch or what, but it was great to see him experiment a bit more here. There’s some different processing on his voice, and his bars are a little more disjointed, but that isn’t a detriment whatsoever. His energy is at an all time high as well, which keeps you on your toes as he runs through different deliveries. I hope that Dutchavelli keeps these unexpected collabs up forever and ever.

R.A and Giggs- Grateful

Giggs is featured again, as R.A dropped the visuals for “Grateful,” which was off of his JIM BROWN album that he dropped earlier this year. R.A is off the leash, damn near foaming at the mouth as he practically screams about drillings. Giggs comes in more composed, but at the same time, it’s been a while since I’ve heard him this energized and violent. He isn’t giving any time for the beat to breath between his bars, and he hits an absolutely crazy flow right near the end of the track. If you weren’t keen on Giggs style before, this will change your mind. And I have to point out how hard I laughed when I first heard Giggs say, “I just beat that pussy/ Later on, she sent me flowers.” Fucking Giggs, man.

Skengdo and AM- Chop Dat

Drill stalwarts Skengdo and AM have been picking their workrate up in recent weeks. They’ve been at it since drills inception, even being the first UK drillers to get Chief Keef on a track back in 2018, with “Pitbulls.” They’re both some of the most respected artists in the scene, and AM has one of the most distinct voices you’ll ever hear. Skengdo and AM both kill it here.

Offica, Ksav, Dbo and BT- Plugged In W/ Fumes The Engineer

Let’s show some love to the Irish drill scene, which has a legitimate star in the making with Offica. This is another great freestyle series in the same vein as the Daily Duppy, where Offica is joined by Ksav, Dbo and BT. Dbo has a voice that makes Dutchavelli sound just Justin Bieber circa 2008. I saw a comment that mentioned how these freestyles are basically a contest to see who can get the most lines censored, because they’re talking about opps and actual drillings that have happened. It’s nasty, violent, and all of their flows are fantastic. A92 is definitely a group worth keeping an eye on for the future.

Chip- Killer MC and Flowers

Wellllllll okay then Chip. So, there’s some explaining that needs to be done here. Chip is a modern day grime legend. He’s known for beefing, strictly through the pen, and always decimates anyone that thinks they can take him down a peg. With these tracks, it’s one of my favorite artists, Stormzy, that is in Chips crosshairs.

Stormzy, for what it’s worth, had himself a successful little beef with Wiley (another grime legend) earlier this year, with his “Disappointed” and “Still Disappointed” tracks. All of that stemmed from Wiley getting irrationally pissed at Stormzy’s track “Wiley Flow,” which was seen as a diss or dig from Wiley’s perspective, even though it was clearly Stormzy paying homage to a legend, as he began his career in the grime scene himself.

That’s all important, because now Stormzy finds himself playing the role of Wiley. Chip put out a great album with Skepta and Young Adz earlier this year. On that album, there was a track called “Waze.” In Chip’s verse, he is clearly calling out some fakes within the scene, and while some lines might seem to be aimed at Stormzy, the verse starts with Chip calling out those who haven’t gone platinum, or even bronze, and still call themselves the king of the scene. Stormzy is MASSIVE and has chart topping tracks and albums under his belt. Because of that, I doubt Chip was talking about him, but Stormzy would disagree with me there.

That then brings us to an incident that happened in June, but the video was just released the other day. It shows Stormzy and a few other guys showing up to Chip’s house (maybe it was his mother’s house?) looking to confront Chip. Because of that, whatever beef they do or don’t have as culminated in Chip dropping two diss tracks aimed at Stormzy, “Killer MC” and “Flowers.”

Without dissecting every single sharp bar here, Chip puts on an absolutely mesmerizing display, honestly tearing Stormzy to shreds. To sum up the two tracks as quickly as possible, Chip pokes a ton of holes in Stormzy’s character. He presents himself as a mainstream artist who isn’t into that road shit anymore, focusing on his faith, family and various social justice causes. And yet, the second he thinks someone is beefing him, he shows up to Chip’s house with goons, presumably looking for a fight (or more? I don’t want to speculate too much here). Keep in mind, Chip has never been, as UK slang would dictate, a roadman. He doesn’t rap about drillings and drugs. He’s all about his pen. So again, of all the guys to posture up on like this, it really does make Stormzy look a bit foolish.

Again, considering all of this comes from Stormzy most likely taking a few lines the wrong way that weren’t really intended for him in the first place, and taking addition offense to some constructive criticism Chip provided about one of his most recent verses, it all seems even harder to believe.

But that’s it for this weeks Fish N Spliffs. Check the tracks out, and I hope that everyone is doing well out there. Thank you so much for anyone who continues to check out my ramblings about these tracks. I have at least one full length album review coming up, and I have a few more albums to listen through yet. Any lack of productivity can be blamed on the fact that the new Fifa game just came out! Love you all.