Back catalogue: Hip Hop/R&B

Review: Kiss Klassics have been producing some high-quality promo double singles for a while now, this double headliner of Nelly and Fat Joe being the eighth instalment in their archival series. Side A was the runaway standout from New York rap legend Fat Joe's 2001 titanic-sized album 'Jealous Ones Still Envy (J.O.S.E.)', 'Whats Luv' with the one and only Ashanti. This marked Ashanti's debut year as an artist, the Tina Turner sample hook becoming the soundtrack of the block party and becoming one of the biggest songs of 2002. Side B needs no introduction. "It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes". No matter what you think of Nelly, 'Hot in Herre' continues to have the world in a chokehold over 20 years later.

Review: Given the critical reception rightly afforded to Tahliah Barnett's superb debut album as FKA Twigs, it makes perfect sense for Young Turks to rustle up a swift reissue of FKA Twigs, the four track 12" that announced her to the pop music world last year. This EP was the first instance of Barnett's ethereal vocals weaved in amidst production work from Arca that was at times floating, others crushingly pressurised. Naturally the effects of the music are heightened when combined with Jesse Kanda's mind bending videos ("Water Me" especially) but late comers to the magic of Twigs will be all over this. Do check "Papi Pacify" as Arca is on some "Cry Me A River" era Timbalaand tip.

Review: The Hot Rox label drops more glowing nuggets of hip-hop goodness with a second offering on 7". These are party-starting b-boy breaks with plenty of big samples and lively beats to get the floor rocking. Ronnie Frazzle's 'The Bronx Rocker' is just that with its hi swinging claps, old school raps and al the bells, horns and whistles you'd expect. On the flip is a DJ tool in the form of the main refrain from the Queen classic, 'We Will Rock You.' A useful weapon for your arsenal for sure.

Review: Two tracks off the legendary 1993 tape-only release 'The Rhyme Wrecka' EP by Manchester hip-hop Group Freakin' Inglish, featuring Red Venom, on vinyl for the first time. This is a raucous Britcore gemstone, and an important window into a style that should be known to many more hip-hop enjoyers than most mainstream vernacular histories have allowed thus far. Seguing through the interweaving, but toothy, flows of Venom, alongside crewmates Eric-T and Yozzer, using the half-American accents informed by the predominance of gangsta rap at the time, this is still a killer record with a distinctly Northern - Salford to be precise - sound. 'Wrecka' is an apt description indeed.

Review: Oscar Jerome, Oscar Worldpeace and Franc Moody have got new music coming on the latest Blue Note Re:imagined compilation this year which is already getting us hella excited. Before we hear what is sure to be a contemporary great, we get treated to a couple of singles from it on this tidy 45 rpm. Jerome Oscar & Oscar Worldpeace go first with '(Why You So) Green With Envy' which fuses jazz styles for across the age with Worldpeace's tight and thoughtful bars. On the flip side is Franc Moody with 'Cristo Redentor' which balances jazz's traditional past with its freshest future.

Review: The seventh in this series of 7" singles is by Bristol and Avon's Kinlaw and Franco Franco and it is a rare mix of sounds with R&B, Italian rap and twisted basslines all defining the tracks. 'Crocs On The Plough' is industrial and experimental in its production - earth-shattering bass, police sirens, and soot-black synths, but background chords bring light as the vocals are delivered with guttural rawness. On the flip, the OSVMVSM version slows things right down to a crawl and the distorted synths and crunchy textures take on even more otherworld character.

Review: Adedemola is the new self-titled album from Fireboy DML and one that marks a new chapter in his artistic journey. It continues to be shaped by years of self-discovery and more than just music, the record reflects his experiences of love, loss and self-realisation. The album was born from navigating life's struggles including the heartbreak of losing close friends which ultimately guided him to clarity and purpose. Adedemola dives into love in all its forms here from self-love to family love and romance and in doing so urges us to embrace what truly matters. There is great honesty throughout this album as Fireboy DML calls for unity and positivity across a compelling suite of sunny pop tunes.

Review: FKA twigs delivers Eusexua, her latest and hotly anticipated new album, and the latest to follow 2022's Caprisongs. A strong and determined directional shift away from Caprisongs' cutesy sensibility (we see it as no surprise that her last album was released under Atlantis, while Eusexua comes via home slices on her home turf, Young), Eusexua hears the artist formerly known as twigs take up a futuristic grey, suited, officiated and incorporated style, informed by a roundabout notion of "eusexua", her own coinage: "a feeling of momentary transcendence often evoked by art, music, sex, and unity." Themes of disconnected embodiment run rampant throughout the album, showing no signs of ambivalence where others might flinch in the face of greyness or techno-uniformity. Twigs' vision reclaims abundant but still currently dubious themes of hard work, grist and prosthesis, and as ever resounds in palates of glistening, glossy mecha-r&b, inheriting Bjorkish chameleonics and contrasting said spikiness with no less impassioned tales of her enjoying the underground techno scene in Prague, among other sources of inspiration.