#dangson

Me: Did you just

Asad Jafari

Real Lies - North Circular Remember The Streets? Mike Skinner's first two albums under his UK pseudo-rap moniker were honest documents on growing up and making a living in a less than glamorous neighbourhood not unlike what you'd find in a lot of Chicago and LA-based rap coming out today. Skinner's monotone delivery added a certain weight to his better than average storytelling and both albums (his third being conveniently forgotten) had real moments of emotion that never felt out of place. Remember Trainspotting? A movie that still holds up to the test of time, some of the lasting influence it's had is not the portraiture of heroin culture in the 80s but rather the timeless depiction of boredom and the results it leads to. Having lots of free time and little money to spend it with is a theme that is revisited throughout popular culture but rarely hit on as well as by this film. As we get further and further from the decade, there's been a real embrace of many themes from the 90s in recent years. Real Lies' North Circular is another UK track that sounds similar to recent releases from other up-and-comers like Mount Kimbie or King Krule; however many sources Real Lies shares with his current compatriots though, it's Mike Skinner and the Underworld-soundtracked final scene of Trainspotting that are the major references coming up for me here. I don't think Ewan Mcgregor's final speech mentioned anything about choosing a 90s revival though.

DJ Rashad - I'm Gone It's rare that I register any emotion at all in response to a public figure passing. Having never met any of these people, never having really shared anything tangible with them beyond even worshiping, in some cases, their artistic output I've always found it a little strange personally to be that emotional. So it is with surprise that I can still picture walking down the street and checking my phone, still remember the audible gasp I made when reading the news of DJ Rashad's passing. Having discovered him less than a year previous, maybe it was the notion that I'd miss out on more of this new-found fascination in Footwork. Maybe it was that you could see that his career was just to ramp up, just starting to get recognized for what it was and what it could be. For however an incredible record Double Cup was when it came out, it was a secret to no one that this wasn't even close to what he was capable of achieving. You could see it, inch by inch, slowly building. Hell I had just missed a show with him the previous week. And so it's maybe that it's shocking and saddening because we've all had or heard stories of someone on the cusp, only to have that ripped away. This one, surprisingly, hit me hard.