Tag Archives: Decent Irish Hip Hop

The Elements – Let The Stars Shine

New year, new hip-hop.

We kick off 2021 with innovative Dublin rappers The Elements who reach for the stars with this single from their forthcoming EP Art Of The Vandal (top).

Daragh O’Kelly plays piano and NDLZ plays guitar, with Ricki Rawness on production duties.

David Conroy of XoZen1 Films directs and edits the trippy universe-straddling promo.

The band write:

“The Elements challenge their listeners to take the journey into their world, their songs are an abstract, objective and a somewhat psychedelic surrealist experience as an alternative to the now formulaic objective “struggles” of reality in Irish Hip-Hop.”

Nick says: Stars in their eyes.

The Elements

Leigh Michael, Zimback and Staz – Live

Leigh Michael writes:

Big thanks for helping spread the word for the Underground Collective gig with FlutterTone in Drop Dead Twice the other week. It was a great night with a superb turn out. I’d like to share with you the footage of the set I performed with Zimback & Staz. It was filmed by friend and musician Felipe Menezes.

Leigh Michael

Previously:  Decent Irish Rap Live

Chap Stallion & Leigh Michael – Just A Chap

To wit:

Both Bray [County Wicklow] natives, Leigh Michael and Chap Stallion have collaborated on an EP of soul searching, conscious Hip Hop. Chap Stallion’s chilled out, atmospheric beats perfectly compliment Leigh Michael’s philosophical and introspective lyricism.

The 6 track ‘Box Money EP’ is available for stream or download on band camp here:

Leigh Michael

Chap Stallion

Tebi Rex and ELKIN – She Hated Love Songs II

Phil Udell writes:

Tebi Rex are an alternative hip-hop duo based in Kildare and with fellow duo Elkin tackle the most iconic romantic moments in film and music history,

…taking the message of the song one step further by creating a video that not only spoofs your favourite romantic comedies (featuring Taylor Swift, Heath Ledger, Ingrid Bergman, John Cusack and Humphrey Bogart) but also acts as social critique of a system that perpetuates unrealistic standards about what love looks and acts like.

And they’re also fairly bitter and petty so there’s that too.

Fight!

Tebi Rex (Facebook)

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Bleak Stackhip-hop out of the West

What you may need to know…

01. Coming out of the country’s wild West, hip-hop duo Bleak Stack keep further details rather close to their chest, preferring instead to let their music speak.

02. Emerging last year with a number of A/V sets and live appearances in Dublin, Cork and Galway, the pair have been slowly gearing up for debut album Check or Fold.

03. Streaming above is the video for single When We’re Whole One Day, released last September via their YouTube channel.

04. Catch them this Saturday at Dublin’s Grand Social as part of a stellar line-up of Irish hip-hop that also includes Cork-based cutman T-Woc and Sligo boom-bappers This Side Up.

Thoughts: A dark horse running quietly amid the exponentially accelerating development of Irish beats ‘n’ pieces.

Bleak Stack

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Nxstalgic_releases Motorola beat tape on Soft Boy Records

What you may need to know…

01. Decent (instrumental) Irish hip-hop from Leeside beatmaker Nxstalgic_.

02. Independently released an album and two EPs between August of last year and February, all available here.

03. Streaming above in its entirety is new beat tape Motorola, available for pay-what-you-want download.

04. Released via upstart Irish hip-hop collective Soft Boy Records, among them former Broadsheet featuree Kojaque, Matt Finnegan and Kean Kavanagh.

Verdict: Impossibly smooth, yet suitably gritty. Don’t sleep on it.

Nxstalgic_

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Same D4encereleasing the video for A Beauty Called Shannon

What you may need to know…

01. Limerick rappers Size, Hazey Haze and MCB, along with collaborators, are Same D4ence.

02. Coming to prominence in the last two years after an appearance at 2014’s Make-a-Move festival, the collective has hit the ground running, taking in appearances at Scrobarnach and Electric Picnic.

03. Last year’s Basic Instinct EP featured production from Irish hip-hop luminaries Naive Ted and mynameisjOhn.

04. Streaming above is new single for A Beauty Called Shannon, which sees Ted reprise production duties and members of Lynched provide instrumentation. Video production from Steve Savage.

Verdict: Tackling the topics of suicide, mental health, and the search and rescue operations in their hometown, it makes for uncompromising but compelling listening.

Same D4ence

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Jonen DekayPassionate Example mixtape

What you may need to know…

01. Released last Friday, 17-year-old wordsmith Jonen Dekay‘s debut mixtape Passionate Example (streaming above) showcases the Limerick rapper’s scarily accomplished lyrical prowess and maturity.

02. Dekay is the product of the current swathe of Music Generation workshops in Limerick, overseen by Rusangano Family rappers GodKnows and Murli, and Andy Connolly, better known as one-man duo Deviant & Naive Ted.

03. The latter’s fingerprints are subtly identifiable throughout the mixtape, as the masked man stepped out of his box of pro-wrestling VHS to get behind the desk to record and mix the whole affair.

04. The whole mixtape can also be streamed and individual tracks downloaded via Soundcloud here.

Verdict: Dekay’s stream-of-consciousness style, seething observations and unabashedly accented delivery give an indicator of what we can expect from the Limerick rapper in the future. Daycent Irish hip-hop, to say the least.

Jonen Dekay