A continuation of our series looking at the last great hip-hop album, we go in-depth with Lupe Fiasco's fifth studio album, Tetsuo & Youth. It's pretty clear is a concept album, and may not be on many people's lists, but as Sunny explains, ther

#23b - Bringing it back (part 2)

May 17th, 2023 1h 27m

Here's the second of another two part podcast episode. This double episode is about tracks that brought us back, or made us fall in love with hip-hop again, when our passion had waned somewhat. Loads of great and unknown tracks mentioned, featu

#23a - Bringing it back (part 1)

May 17th, 2023 1h 31m

Here's the first in another two part podcast episode. This time about tracks that brought us back, or made us fall in love with hip-hop again, when our passion had waned somewhat. Loads of great and unknown tracks mentioned, featuring artists s

#22b - Numbers (Part 2 - <100)

Apr 10th, 2023 1h 15m

Here is the concluding part of our numbers episode, where we counted down from a lot to a bit less. This one is from 100 downwards.In this episode, we countdown interesting numbers and associated hip-hop tracks. From Jay-Z's 99 Problems to 1nc

#22a - Numbers (down to 100)

Mar 19th, 2023 1h 13m

After an epic three-parter looking at the 26 letters of the alphabet, we thought we would make it easier for ourselves by giving some constraints. Just all the numbers...In this episode, we countdown interesting numbers and associated hip-hop

#21c - A-Z (part 3: R-onwards)

Feb 15th, 2023 1h

Thank f### for that. We finally finished this mega episode. I'm not even going to go through the remaining couple of hours when we kept rolling.On this episode, we trade letters of the alphabet for some little known, or forgotten, gems. Tracks

#21b - A-Z of hip hop (part 2: H to Q)

Jan 5th, 2023 1h 14m

We carry on with another episode from the A-Z recording. We recorded over 5 hours in total (it was a long night), so here is part 2, taking you from H to Q. Be prepared for some hidden gems, some unmentioned classics and some slept on tracks a

#21 - A-Z of hip hop (part 1 - A-G)

Nov 21st, 2022 1h 13m

Be prepared for some hidden gems, some unmentioned classics and some slept on tracks and artists. Recorded as an end of year special for 2021; this episode turned into a monster. Sunny and Marcus were talking for over 5 hours, but rather than p

#20 - Greatest year in hip hop (1988 vs 1993/4)

Oct 26th, 2022 2h 22m

Questlove, drummer for The Roots, director, author and all-round music genius, said that he thought 1993-4 was the greatest period of creativity for Hip Hop. Strong words seeing as almost all of his musical career comes after that time. It is w

#19 - Bhangra & Hip-Hop

Sep 21st, 2022 1h 35m

In this episode, Sunny sets Marcus a challenge: Listen to some carefully selected Bhangra tracks, analyse and evaluate them, and then give feedback without upsetting about 190 million people.Bhangra originates from a folk dances of the same na

#18 - Wow moments

Mar 24th, 2022 1h 59m

We all love hip-hop, why else would you be listening to this podcast, but there are times when you hear something and go full Black Rob "like, Woah!"This episode is about all those moments when you've been shaken to your core by something so n

#17 - Hip hop sporting XIs

Feb 18th, 2022 1h 19m

Nope, this isn't episode looking at the sporting prowess of athletes turned hip hop stars, this is a weird thought experiment where we try to match the personalities, styles and technical abilities into our imagined hip hop football (soccer) an

#16: Let's Get Free - hip hop's last great album?

Jan 7th, 2022 1h 30m

In this episode, we take a closer look at one of the most underrated and important albums in hip-hop, dead prez's 2000 debut 'Let's Get Free'. Although the lead single, Hip Hop, is well known - even making it into a VW advert - but the rest of

#15: Place and space in Hip-Hop

Dec 23rd, 2021 1h 52m

Following on from episode 14, where we looked at Small Town Rap, we started to dig deeper into some of the reasons why there was such a paucity of rappers from outside the metropolises of the US. Sunny managed to mention all his favourite philo

Small town rap

Dec 10th, 2021 1h 7m

When we think of hip-hop and rap, it is often inextricably linked to place. Most often, these places are the densely populated urban areas in America; after all, hip-hop was born in those places, and they contain all the ingredients needed to c

#14: Small town rap

Dec 10th, 2021 1h 7m

#13: Don’t call it a comeback

Nov 6th, 2021 1h 3m

They fell off, they came back harder. This episode looks at artists whose careers took a turn and celebrates their triumphant return to form/status/notoriety.In this episode, we try to look beyond the typical examples of Nas, Common and Dr Dre

Don't call this a comeback

Nov 6th, 2021 1h 3m

#12: Second hand love – hidden gems

Oct 10th, 2021 1h 15m

Remember when you heard that one track, and immediately rushed out to get the album? (Or set about saving your pennies in order to buy it). Well this isn’t an episode about that track. No, this is about the hidden gold on those albums.First of

Second Hand Love - hidden gems

Oct 10th, 2021 1h 15m

Remember when you heard that one track, and immediately rushed out to get the album? (Or set about saving your pennies in order to buy it). Well this isn't an episode about that track. No, this is about the hidden gold on those albums.First of

Second Hand Love

Oct 10th, 2021 1h 15m

#11: Hip-Hop Seasons

Sep 28th, 2021 1h 19m

In this episode we follow on to a conversation on twitter, where someone claimed Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince was the ultimate summer hip hop track. Others (Dart Adams, et al.) said Fight the Power by Public Enemy was the ep

Four seasons: 'tis not the season to diss content

Sep 28th, 2021 1h 19m

Apologies for getting all 'Bardic' with you. In this episode we follow on to a twitter conversation, where someone claimed Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince was the ultimate summer hip hop track. Others (Dart Adams, et al.) said

#11 – Tis not the season to diss content

Sep 28th, 2021 1h 19m

#10: Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star - hip hop's last great album?

Aug 19th, 2021 1h 49m

“Hello everybody. Recording Live from somewhere…”After a discussion about the Fugees’ The Score as a classic album, we started to consider what other albums released afterwards could be deemed as classics. So this is the first in a mini-series