A rather delayed Video Jukebox this week, apologies folks! I can hold two nights of D’Angelo live at Brixton Academy fully responsible for this one! This week M.I.A. re-defined the phrase ‘making an entrance’ with two rather controversial music videos hitting the web. I decided to ignore the Madonna & Nicki Minaj video…it’s boring, full of advertising (Nicki’s adi-breasts) and poor M.I.A. & Nicki only get a small feature at the end. Plus her video for ‘Bad Girls’ is way cooler! Miguel and Day26 have their eyes set on the fast-approaching Valentine’s Day with their new R&B-smooth videos. There’s also some Hip Hop from Pharoahe Monch, Blu, The Quaranteam and a fan-made video for The Throne’s anthem track, “Ni**as in Paris”! Enjoy, and I promise I’ll be on time for our breakfast date this Saturday!

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M.I.A. – Bad Girls

If you’re an avid M.I.A. fan, you’ll remember the track ‘Bad Girls’ from her mixtape, Vicki Leekx back in December 2010, which is now being re-released as the first track from her forthcoming 4th studio album, due to be released this summer. This will be the first album under her new label, Mercury Records (formerly XL) and is rumored to have appearances from Swizz Beatz and Chris Brown (hmm sceptical about the CB collab for obvious reasons) Last Friday, Noisey (Vice’s new music channel) premiered the music video for the track, ‘Bad Girls’ directed by Romain Gavras (of Born Free fame). Shot in the Moroccan desert during some kind of drag race featuring women in leopard print hijabs, an unhealthy amount of gold chains, graffiti and the gorgeous M.I.A….is this just another tongue-in-cheek, psychedelic video from the Sri-Lanken singer, or is there a deeper message behind it about empowering women and equal rights for all…I’ll let you decide!

M.I.A - Website | Twitter | Facebook | Noisey Website 

Blu – Jesus

When Yin put me on to this new video, I was pretty surprised, Jesus was released by Californian rapper, Blu in July 2011…but as any Blu fan will know – he isn’t one to go along with the rules! Alcohol, weed, sunshine and cadillacs are the main components of this video, directed by Aaronisnotcool, the man behind the video for “My Sunshine“.

Blu – Tumblr | Twitter

Miguel – Adorn

Okayplayer premiered the new video for R&B singer, Miguel’s new track ‘Adorn‘ taken from his forthcoming project, ‘Art Dealer Chic vol.1′ due to be released Feb 27th. Carmex & Colgate intact, the video features some extremely close-up shots of the Prince of the new SoulxElectronica movement (yes I’ve named him that):

The visual for “Adorn” is the projection of a dream I recently had. I wanted to use simple creative elements in a symbolic way to communicate the intense desire to understand its meaning. – Miguel

Hit up Miguel on the links below to stay up to date with his latest delicious soulful offerings!

Miguel – Website | Facebook | Twitter

Pharoahe Monch (Feat. Jill Scott) – Still Standing

Pharoahe Monch hooks up with Red Bull for an extremely powerful video for his track, ‘Still Standing’ taken from the W.A.R (We Are Renegades) album, featuring the beautiful, Jill Scott. The video, directed by Terrance Nance displays the story of Pharoahe Monch’s battle with asthma as a young boy, through to now – which is the theme behind the track. Both empowering and inspiring, this video reminds me why Pharoahe Monch will always have a cemented place in every Hip Hop fans top ten.

Pharoahe Monch – Website | Facebook | Twitter 

Tom Laroc of the ‘United Content Providers‘ sat through 1000 minutes of live concert footage from the Watch The Throne concert tour and put together this unofficial video for The Throne’s track, ‘Ni**as in Paris’, featuring footage from concert dates in Montreal, Houston, New York City and Chicago. Tom has really put some hard work into this, I hope it doesn’t get taken down anytime soon! I wonder if we’ll ever get to see an official video from ‘Papa Carter & Yeezy World Peace’ as Low Key puts it on YHTN!

Day26 – Made Love Lately

This is incredible. I feel like I’ve just been transported back in time by about ten years. When the R&B power fists came in around 3mins I was genuinely excited!! ‘Made Love Lately’ is the first single from Day26′s forthcoming album, ‘A New Day’…a rather appropriate title since their split from Bad Boy.

Made Love Lately on iTunes | Day 26 – Website | Twitter | Facebook

The Quaranteam – Carnage (official video)

East London’s The Quaranteam have released the video for ‘Carnage’, the first track taken from their project ‘The Quaranteam EP’, produced by K-Nite13 and directed by Loudmouth Melvin. Props to Loudmouth on the directing & editing for these visuals, you interpret songs differently when you read along with the lyrics at the same time and this is a really nice, effective way of ensuring the delivery of The Quaranteam’s lyrics are well received.

TheQuaranteamEP | The Quaranteam Website | PyroBarz | KNite13 | SKILLITMUSIC | Chrismentalist | loudmouthmelvin

Damn. We’re slacking – another fortnightly wait for Eargasms. We had all 5 tracks picked last week but couldn’t get the post on time so it was scrapped so hop on after the cut for our top 5 from the first week of February. Boom.

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ESPERANZA SPALDING

‘Black Gold‘

After hearing  ’Chamber Music Society‘ and then seeing her live at The Barbican, I’ve been keen to hear some new material from Esperanza. Based around the theme of empowerment, ‘Black Gold‘ is a soulful track featuring Algebra Blessett and is taken from her upcoming album ‘Radio Music Society‘. While I love the song, after hearing it, I’m intrigued by what her new album will offer as the previous one boasted a stronger Jazz influence than this track.

Selected by Yang

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JOHN LEGEND x LUDACRIS

‘Tonight (Best You Ever Had)‘

YES! New John Legend. Enough of the features! though they were all dope – his features made me a Rick Ross fan. Fact. R&B Crooner is back with this braggadocio filled track titled ‘Tonight (Best You Ever Had)‘ featuring Ludacris. The pair confess their way with the ladies and why they’ll provide the best night ever. Baby making music! Enjoy.

Selected by Yin

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CHRIS BROWN

‘I Love You‘

When it comes to sexy slow jams Chris Brown fully understands how to craft such a tune that exudes the necessary sultriness, sexiness and suggestive nature needed to pull it off. Examples include recent tracks such as ‘Wet The Bed’, ‘Like A Virgin Again’ and ‘Take You Down’. Having released the up-tempo lead single from his forthcoming fifth studio album Fortune to the world, this sexy love song found it’s way to the Internet this week.

As much as I like the song, I do have a slight problem with the over use of studio effects on the vocals. Chris can sing and I feel that the studio trickery takes away from the song rather than adds to it. His vocals sound muffled in parts which irritated me. This is either because of the over reliance on studio magic or it could be that it is a low quality, unmastered, unmixed version of the song that has been leaked. Although I don’t feel the latter is the actual reason.

Selected by DJB

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Cris Cab

‘Angels & Demons‘

BEAUTIFUL. I’m a sucker for tracks with an acoustic guitar instrumental. Angels & Demons is by young Miami artist Cris Cab who’s signed to Pharrell‘s imprint I Am Other. So I decided to do a little bit of research to see where his distinct Carribean inspired sound comes from…

Selected by Yin

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K’NAAN x NELLY FURTADO

‘Is Anybody Out There?‘

Both K’naan and Nelly Furtado had quiet 2011’s, but they make for a great collaboration on ‘Is Anybody Out There?’, the first track off the highly recommended K’naan EP, More Beautiful than Silence. With a simple piano melody, some fantastic vocals, and great lyrics, this makes for some easy listening. It may be a little too mainstream for fans of K’naan who will still remember the days of The Dusty Foot Philosopher, his first studio album. But that doesn’t make this any less of a brilliant song, and its message should not go unnoticed. Hopefully, we’ll hear more from these two talented artists in 2012.

Selected by Amon

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NICKI MINAJ

‘Marilyn Monroe (Tags)‘

So it’s fair to say that Nicki Minaj hasn’t had the best start to this new album era. Her single ‘Stupid Hoe’ has been hugely criticized along with the album’s buzz track ‘Roman In Moscow’. Pushing the album back may have been the best thing to happen as she is now in a position to start the promotion and select the right songs to support the album all over again. This new track entitled ‘Marilyn Monroe’ has not officially been confirmed as an album track but this is definitely the right direction to go in if she wants to continue to have commercial success.

The song sounds very much like it has been produced by Alex Da Kid but I cannot confirm my suspicion at this point. The track wouldn’t be out of place on a Rihanna album, Minaj has go on record to say that she writes songs as well as bars and this just may well be a very good example. This is a leak so the track does have tags attached and is cut short but let me know what you think anyway. Is Nicki on to a good thing with this vibe?

Selected by DJB

I thought I’d sneak in and steal this week’s one while the boys (DJB, the current champion of Throwback Thursdays, and Yin) weren’t looking. This week the internet has been abuzz with footage and glowing reviews from soul icon D’Angelo‘s European tour, taking place after the crooner took a 12 year hiatus. Personally, rather than being excited at news of his return, I was skeptical; many a super-talented icon has ‘returned’ to the stage to lacklustre effect (Lauryn Hill, anyone?) so I didn’t rush to get tickets for his London dates (happening this upcoming weekend February 3rd/4th). This time though, my skepticism led to me missing out on what’s set to be an electric show, so while I kick myself, you kick back and reminisce to this classic cut from his album Brown Sugar.

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And if you haven’t peeped any of the footage from his current tour, watch this performance of ‘Untitled (How Does It Feel)’ in Le Zenith, Paris:

We’ve teamed up with the newly started Reload Sessions to bring to you acoustic sessions with London’s finest up and coming acts. The guys behind Reload Sessions hit me up a few months ago to see what we could do together and here we have our first collaboration; featuring singer Michael Duke. You should all have heard of him by now as he’s been one of West End’s biggest musicals ‘Thriller‘ and is also the founder of Shoreditch House night ‘Wired‘. I’ve only heard him sing a handful of times but never solo, so this was a pleasant surprise. Hop on after the cut.

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I never actually listened to Coldplay‘s version till after this performance, dare I say that it didn’t have the same connection that Duke’s rendition had. Michael put more emotion into it, and just captures you in with his vocals. Click play below.

You may have already seen a few of these photographs in my Yin’s Life post a fortnight ago…but here you go! Shout out to Duke, Mafro, Peppe and Joshua!

So on Saturday was a day of two half for me. Having woke up after a deep and meaningful sleep that lasted all of 1 hour I headed down to the studio (photography studio), still intoxicated, to meet Yin. After the shoot was done I took my ass home and slept for a lil bit. Having returned to being a fully functioning human being I then took my self down to the second studio shoot of the day where I again met up with Yin. We had no business being on set really other than just to be there but it was good just to be in the presence of such talented people. Olan was busy doing his thing behind the camera creating his next Cardy Films masterpiece while Joel Baker and Monique Sian were busy looking pretty and showing off their acting skills. If you guys aren’t familiar with Joel and Monique then take a peak at our previous Eargasms post but before you do that just watch the visuals that Olan has crafted. May I just add that this was shot on Saturday, his turnaround is crazy I don’t know how he does it.

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YIN: I’m here, alive and well. You think I’m going to go on set without my camera? Please. It was another opportunity to play with my camera and see what I can do indoors. Especially since there is lighting involved – I’m a big fan of natural lighting, absolutely despise of the overly commercial ‘shiny reflective’ skin look that many people yearn for. To me, it’s like the autotune of photography but that’s just my opinion. I want to be able to make studio lighting look as natural as possible, will take practice! Here’s a few behind-the-scenes photographs, including a few funny ones. Poor Joel, he almost got Chris Brown’d by Monique.

And the cover for DJB & Joel’s upcoming single – Changing Room (Drake Cover)

These days it is quite rare to hear a song that instantly makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. So when you do, you need to sit up and pay attention. This is exactly how I felt when I heard ‘I want you‘, the debut single of New Orleans newcomer Luke James. The falsetto of the chorus is just wow. As for the video-well I can’t find words! Just hot. Peep the video after the jump.

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Luke James is a singer-songwriter from New Orleans who co-wrote “Crawl” by Chris Brown and has penned songs for Justin Bieber and Britney Spears and also featured in Beyonce’s ‘Run the world’ video. If the song ‘I want you’ is anything to go by then I will definitely be adding ‘Made to Love‘, James’ first album release on Island/DefJam to my Itunes library.

Besides the fact that James is unbelievably FIIIINE (ladies I am sure you will agree after watching the video), it is exciting to know that he will be gifting us with soulful R&B music that is all about the voice and lyrical honesty rather than the flippant and irritating pop releases from the likes of Jason Derulo. Without drawing obvious comparisons, Luke James joins the category of male R&B vocalists like John Legend, Timothy Bloom and Maxwell who represent what seems to be a rising trend of thoughtful vocal-led R&B music. Check out the video. Ladies enjoy, fellas take note of that body and get in the gym!

This particular post has me feeling quite proud. Do you remember a little while ago when I showcased an unsigned artist by the name of Ethan Breakaway? Well today I am pleased to present you with his debut mixtape entitled Sans Voix. The set sees Ethan singing eight original tracks and two covers, including a cover of Beyonce‘s ‘I Miss You‘, with all the tracks being produced by this talented young man. I urge all of you to head over to the flipside and give the mixtape a listen, a download link has been provided.

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Download Sans Voix

Video Jukebox episode 3! This is going well, I’ve received some positive feedback on this weekly post and I’m starting to even receive requests (even though it was from Yin haha) so that makes it all worth the 3 hours it takes me to write this (alongside some pondering) This week I’ve picked quite a random bunch from pop-trash Ke$ha (I promise you it’s good), nu-rave 14th, some corny R&B from Carl Thomas, Hip Hop from ItsNate, Overdoz, Mikill Pane and the Bakery Boys, soul from the lovely Iman Omari and last but no ways least, some thought provoking poetry from Dean Atta! Hit the jump to check the visuals, and enjoy :-)!

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Ke$ha ft Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, T.I. and Andre 3000 – Sleazy (Get Sleazier remix 2.0)

Yes. That’s right, I decided to start this post with music by Miss ‘ihatesoap’ Kesha…but bare with me on this one! Featuring Wiz Khalifa, Andre 3000, T.I. and Lil Wayne the video was put together by Kesha’s eclectic bunch of friends where they ‘take sleazy to a whole new level’. Every rapper kills it on this verse (Andre exceeds…obviously), and to be honest Kesha’s vocals are quite fitting. If you’ve ever wanted to see a transgender male in a mini skirt miming over a Wiz verse, an old man ‘stuntin like a fool’ a la T.I. or a fat man with a mohican pretending to be Kesha….tune in! Props to MusicNerdery for convincing me to watch this!

14th – Take Me There

In the follow up to the 14th’s video for the acoustic version of ‘Take Me There’, we now have the official video for the pair’s forthcoming single, due to be released on 13th February (the 14th would be an overkill right?). The video, partly shot on a houseboat in London, features Tracey adorned in an orange gown singing about her dissatisfaction at her current situation. The track is quite a paradox in that the beat makes you wanna bust a bogle in a warehouse party, but the actual concept of the song is quite sad. 90′s House & Garage and Dance music is one of my most relished genres of music, and I would like to speak for every 80′s London baby when I say thank you to Tracey Duodo (vocals) and Tom Barber (production) for not only resurrecting, but rejuvenating this much missed sound, by adding their own touch to it!

14th Website | 14th Facebook | 14th SoundCloud | 14th Twitter

ItsNate – Call me a Cab

London rapper ItsNate released the visuals this week for ‘Call Me A Cab’, the first track taken from his forthcoming ep, Suede Jones, Smooth Material released mid-February. A combination of London fun, pretty girls, Budgie’s production with elements of groove & funk and relatable verses from the mellow rapper, ItsNate make this video real nice. Visuals were put together by @johnniefraud @joey2bunn and @phdldn.

ItsNate Twitter | ItsNate Tumblr

Overdoz – Growin Pains

Overdoz drop visuals for the track, “Growin Pains” shot in Inglewood, L.A. I’ve become so obsessed with music out of Cali…that I’ve planned to go an visit this year. Hopefully I won’t run into any short men in cowboy boots and YMCA Lakers jerseys whilst I’m there! Nice track for a Sunday chill sesh! I love me some Overdoz!
Overdoz Twitter | Overdoz Tumblr 

Bakery Boys – Up & Down Girl feat The Thirst

London based, Hip Hop trio Bakery Boys lay out their romantic woes in their latest track featuring some beautiful vocals from Mensah of The Thirst.  The video (directed by Courtney Edwards and edited by Shane Davey) is set in what looks like an abandoned school building and cuts between each rapper and their respective girlfriends having a bit of an emotional crisis – the editing and colour is real nice and Mensah’s vocals alongside the boys’ storyteller lyrics add a nice touch. The relationship theme is perfectly timed as we come up to Valentines day…but I also think this would suit perfectly as a summer tune! Props to Niran for the tip!!

Bakery Boys – Website | Facebook | Twitter | The Thirst

The Thirst Website | The Thirst Facebook | The Thirst Twitter

Dean Atta – I Am Nobody’s Nigger

Thought-provoking performance poet, Dean Atta hooked up with SB.TV to produce visuals for his critically acclaimed piece, ‘I Am Nobody’s Nigger’ (having appeared in both HuffPost & TheGuardian). The recent sentencing of Stephen Lawrence’s murderers brought to light that the last word beloved Stephen would’ve heard before his death was, ‘Nigger’. This inspired Dean to write this piece calling for unity and brandishing rappers and other artists who persist to use the word mindlessly as cowards and irresponsible. Scorcher, Clement Marfo, Random Impulse, Mic Righteous, Roxxxan and Jamal Edwards from SB.TV join to show support for Dean’s message which I think is a welcome wake-up call! I wouldn’t stop listening to music because it contained the word, but this video has made me want to remove this word from my vocabulary. I feel it’s hard to completely understand the reasoning for the use of the word throughout Hip Hop’s history in the States – a recent trip to New York taught me that, although I have black heritage just like many of my friends living there – our history is very different and so I wouldn’t cast judgement on their use of the word. But in Britain…I don’t think we have any reason for it, in fact I wish Dean had called out Tinie Tempah for his use of the word, as opposed to Jay-Z/Kanye. But regardless this is a well-shot video, with a thought-provoking message which I think you should watch, absorb and share :-)

Dean Atta Website | Dean Atta Youtube | Dean Atta Twitter | Dean Atta Facebook 

(click here to purchase ‘I Am Nobody’s Nigger’ on iTunes – all proceeds will be donated to the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust.)

Carl Thomas ft Snoop Dogg – Don’t Kiss Me

Seems like everyone is gearing up to get their Valentine releases out just in time (yuck!). To say this video is old-school, is an understatement – but it’s nice to hear new material from Carl Thomas! And it’s absolutely hilarious to see Snoop getting his soul-man-finger-click-n-shoulder-shuffle on. ‘Don’t Kiss Me’ is taken from Carl Thomas’ album titled, ‘Conquer’ which came out in December of last year.

Carl Thomas website | Carl Thomas Facebook | Carl Thomas Twitter | Conquer album purchase

Mikill Pane @ Dope Chef – Fresh Off The Boat

London lyricist, Mikill Pane marks his longtime collaboration with clothing brand, Dope Chef in this freestyle video shot in their boat store! Rapping over Jay-Z’s Big Pimpin, Mikill Pane does the beat justice with a tongue-twisting narration of his love life antics! Mister Pane’s album titled, Blame Miss Barclay is due for a 2012 release so keep your ears/eyes peeled!

Mikill Pane Website | Mikill Pane Facebook | Mikill Pane Twitter | Mikill Pane SoundCloud

Iman Omari – Worth It

I wrote about Iman Omari and his Energy ep a little while back which I still highly recommend you download! Not much happens in the way of action in this video I must admit…but it features the beautiful Iman passing a joint back and forth with his girl and the tune makes the watch well ‘worth it’ ;-)

Iman Omari Website | Iman Omari Twitter 

I should have really wrote an Introducing post on Elle Varner mid last year but for what ever reason I didn’t. Still she did manage to grace the pages of Y&Y via our Eargasms post back in August with her J Cole assisted single ‘Only Wanna Give It To You’. While the world is awaiting her album Perfectly Imperfect following the success of the single the RCA signed singer has decided to release a mixtape entitled Conversational Lush to tide fans over until she is ready to release her debut studio offering. If you have never heard of Elle then I strongly suggest you read on and give the EP a listen. I don’t what has happened in the last year or so but there seems to be so many good artists with good real music bursting at the seams waiting to be unleashed on the charts (many of them being from the UK might i just add).

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Incredibly dope selection of music for you after the cut. Handpicked by 4 members of the Y&Y family – don’t delay, hit read more and play. Eargasmic.

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BJ THE CHICAGO KID x KENDRICK LAMAR

‘(His Pain)‘

Just had to post another track of BJ’s upcoming EP ‘Pineapple Now Laters‘ featuring one of my favourite rappers of 2011, Kendrick Lamar. He switches up his flow nicely so it works well with the beat. Chicago kid’s undeniably soulful vocals just kill it, beautiful. I’m looking forward to hearing the full project on Valentine‘s Day.

Selected by Yin

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JOEL BAKER x MONIQUE SIAN

‘Blame Game (Cover)‘

Olan introduced me to this pair earlier this week, I’m not the biggest of YouTube fans. I know people that spend half their time on that network watching make-up gurus to fashionistas to bitchie video bloggers. One great thing about the network is the platform it gives music artists the opportunity to play to a worldwide audience, who knows when a label boss will be listening to your stuff. Joel Baker and Monique Sian deserve the recognition, the record deal and more – their talent is effortless. Just listen. Download the EP here.

Selected by Yin

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MIKE POSNER x BLACKBEAR

‘Stay Schemin’ (Acoustic Cover)‘

It’s seems Common isn’t the only one adding his flavor to Rick Ross’s Stay Schemin. Mike Posner alongside Blackbear has recorded his very own Acoustic cover of the song, I must add at this point that this acoustic take is actually pretty good. The pair have voices that work very well together and because of this I think that they should actually lay down vocals on an original song together, I’m sure they could come up with something dope!

Here I have the audio to the video of them recording the track, which you can download off SoundCloud here.

Selected by DJB

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AZEALIA BANKS

‘NEEDSUMLUV (SXLND)‘

Recent Universal signee, Azealia Banks lays down some (less explicit) vocals over Machinedrum’s Aaliyah-sampling SXLND which Banks dropped on Monday in a kind of ode to the late Aaliyah (it would’ve been her 33rd on Monday) It’s quite weird hearing Azealia talk about love and being the other woman…I feel like she really opened up on this track! I love Azealia, granted she may be a little OTT for some; but her versatility, punchy lyrics and overall attitude is what I’m in love with.

Selected by Tara

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ERIC TURNER x KARDINAL OFFISHAL x PROFESSOR GREEN x WRETCH 32

‘Style Changer‘

American singer and songwriter Eric Turner had a breakout 2011 collaborating with Tinie Tempah on the anthem ‘Written in the Stars’ and Lupe Fiasco on ‘Break the Chain’. Now he’s back with a new single entitled ‘Style Changer’. Featuring the rapping talents of Kardinal Offishal, Professor Green, and Wretch 32 – incidentally one of my favourite rappers right now – this is set to be another certified hit. Produced by Ishi and Charlie Bernardo, the beat will instantly have your head in full nodding motion. Like the title suggests, the track oozes innovativeness; even the video is suitably unique. Eric Turner’s debut album is out later this year. Consider my appetite whetted.

Favourite lyric: ‘I’m the Rhyme Minister, you can do the voting’ – Wretch 32

Selected by Amon