Marvin Sparks

Tonight, saw the final episode of The Bill. I tweeted The Bill "kept black actors in business". Sensing sarcasm? Then you are on the right road. So on to tonight's episode, what was it about? Blank gang done for gang raping a girl and a murder with some drugs thrown in there. So was there a big bang ending? Nowhere near. The pigs had a conference, that ended on some talk about respect, because the black kids murdered the other guy because he "disrespected". Smart innit? Nah I didn't think so either, patronising piece of... Show was pants anyway. Only two things I liked about it was I'd point out local areas or see people I knew and the end credits. It never continued, so why should I watch again? Yeah, laters fam. Stupid program

A reader of my blog sent me this tune in relation to this post in attempt to convince me UK funky isn't dead. I was supposed to blog it last week, but been rushed off my feet with these deadlines maaan. Anyway, low and behold DJ B tweeted the video today. Hasn't this happened before? Oh yeah, the previous post This tune BANGS!!! Had it on repeat that day. Shout out to James Simon. As I said in my reply email, "Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez this tune 'It's What You Do' is doing a LOT for my system!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness! Wow. Both are quality but that one in particular is a skankers." The other tune I'm referring to is Rian Peters featuring Wiley Yeah, I'd never heard it before. I shall be looking out for more from them. See readers, if you disagree, email me or comment. I'll see it, may not be able to get back to right away, but I will, and I'll post it if I like it. Thanks again James. On the uk funky vs. dubstep debate, I wrote this to Jame

Another week, another American jumps on the dancehall wave. I tweeted about this song after hearing it on Robbo Ranx's 1Xtra Dancehall show (a must listen for the biggest tunes). Then the next day there's a remix. Thankfully I tweeted it before the remix. No bandwagon hopping around here. Teairra Marie is the girl that was sisgned to Roc-a-fella just as Jay-Z had taken over Def Jam, came out the same time as Rihanna and Neyo. Her first song was Make Her Feel Good followed No Daddy . Rihanna killed off all her chances with Pon Di Replay. Neyo had So Sick and Sexy Love. All dancehall inspired beats. Now Teairra's on it? Realisation maybe? Anyway here's the tune: Big up Snocone, riddim mad Last week we had the hottest female rapper in the game Nicki Minaj tweet the lyrics to Ricky Blaze's Just You and I , and stating she wants Vybz Kartel for her album Pink Friday (not forgetting frequent use of Jamaican patois), Estelle on Wayne Marshall's My Heart , Americans

Yeah, back with another installment. The dancehall takeover on MTV UK's urban site. Last one with Popcaan proved a big winner. Twitter was going crazy from the tweets I managed to see whilst on holiday in Jamaica (the grind doesn't stop). Seems like everybody wanted to know "Wah gwaan Popcaan?!" as it was posted on at least 14 other websites including many leading dancehall ones. Thanks for that. Appreciate it. (Yeah I typed "marvin sparks" & "popcaan" into Google. It was raining + I was bored) This time around, I interviewed Wayne Marshall. Yeah, interviewed him outside the studio of a popular hitmaker, but all in good time. Back to Wayne Marshall, some of you may know who he is, others may be wondering "Who?" or "The washed up G-Spot singer", but you'd be wrong. Not only is he a member of Bounty Killer's Alliance along with Busy Signal and Mavado, he has one of the hottest songs bubbling in dancehall circles right

Welcome back to FlashBack Friday ; a moment we all take out to reminisce. Well I do, hopefully you enjoy reading it and get that warm fuzzy feeling inside (no Ready Brek). This post was inspired by the 9th year anniversay of Aaliyah's passing on Wednesday. You'll see where I am going with this in a second. Remember back in the days when they released a BANGER(!!!) of a single to promote a movie? For some strange reason, you felt as if the quality of the track reflected the movie. To be honest, I can't remember feeling like I'd been missold, so it wasn't that inaccurate, I guess. Well, apart from Robin Hood = Bryan Adams 'Everything I Do, Do It For You', Bodyguard = Whitney "When I COULD sing" Houston 'I Will Always Love You', Titanic = Celine Dion 'My Heart Will Go On'. Big tunes, but I've never watched any of the films in their entirety. Disclaimer: I'm not a film guy, so if I see a movie is any longer than 120 minutes (UNL

Only kidding with the "again" (not really but I don't want to appear like I'm getting gassed). Anyone that follows me on Twitter will see that for the past few Thursday's, I have pointed out that I have featured all 5 of Robbo Ranx's top 5 on this very blog at least a month before it appearing on his chart. You may remember this blog post where I predicted the hottest songs for the summer. The title say top 5, but I gave 6. Well when I say 6, I gave 4 single songs and 2 riddim mixes. Anyway, I am pleased to say all of those have been on Robbo Ranx's chart. 5 of 6 have been playlisted by 1Xtra (all except for Jazzwad 'Your Place or Mine'), special shout out to Gyptian's song got remixed unofficially by hottest female rapper in the game Nicki Minaj, Clarks which has received national newspaper coverage over here in England, racked over a million hits on YouTube, stormed dancefloors and "Wha' gwaan Popcaan" ( click to find out who Po

Loick Essien (featured on Bashy's Black Boys and Chipmunk's Beast) brings this absolute beauty of a tune. Well I'm not sure if its his or Labrinth's doing. The beat is ridiculous You can watch the official video here . This not letting people embed really gets on my nerves. Why not? Your related videos come up. Doesn't it count towards YouTube views? I'm sure it must do in 2010, surely. Anyway, this got me thinking; this beat sounds grimey to me, a grime MC could spit on this with an r&b hook and get a top 10 simples, innit? I know Tinie Tempah did that with Pass Out, but this sounds grimer than Pass Out. Will UK "urban" DJs knock this?

As you may have seen a few posts down, I am part of the Bloggers Delight crew. It aired this past Wednesday. We spoke about: What do you really hate in a man? What do you really hate in a woman? Blackberry vs Iphone? Cheating footballers? Should HIV infected people be punished if they do not disclose that they carry the virus to any person they get initimate with? BLOGGERS DELIGHT 18/8/10 by misslala I was really tired before this recording, but I really enjoyed it. Very fun, and I never said anything I regret (from what I remember) unlike the first time. If you are interested in hearing the first one, good luck finding it Check the website: Bloggers Delight and happy searching

I wasn't around to hear this tune before, so may be a touch late. Had to post it though. See what I mean about "What's that smell face"? Tell me your face isn't scrunched up like someone dropped a silent x violent one. Swerve and P Money smelt it, so evidently they dealt it (that was clever wasn't it? I smiled to myself in appreciation). Shouts to DJ Swerve on the production. D Double E's Street Fighter knocked, so does this! I remember seeing the radio DJ on Kiss tweeting Dready about producing. Good to see what it has produced (made it sound like I was part of the process innit? SICK!). I guess this is where the line between grime and dubstep is blurred. Not saying Swerve reps either scene, but based on sound it's hard to define. Either way that bassline is durrrty P's too sick. Like beyond gone. He has everything; hype bars, sing along's, deep bars, war bars, clever and witty punchlines, sits on every beat, and (he has what a lot of skippy g

Sup people dem! I was away on holiday-e-a-e-a a-e-a-e-a (pronounce the letter as you would in the alphabet) as Chevaugn sung, so haven't done a FlashBack Friday (click for previous episodes) for a hot minute. Before that I was probably too busy to do it (or so I'm telling you muahahahaha). Anyway, I'M/ITS BACK! Today, for some random reason a song came into my head. I have them word association moments from the smallest things, so it could have been anything. Anyway, I heard searched it in YouTube, listened to it, and yes it was still as cheesy and crap as it was over 10 years ago. This inspired me to post about the 3 cheesiest knock-off's of UK homegrown sounds. Disclaimer: Well, sounds that to my knowledge are UK homegrown (go easy you keyboard warriors, mistakes happen). 1st up, the song that inspired this all. According to ever-reliable online encyclopedia, this group formed in Finland. That's right Finland. ( This is the reason for the above disclaimer because

I'm a panelist on a new radio show called Bloggers Delight. It's basically a bunch of opinionated Blogger's scouted by Mr Silk and Miss Lala (no they aren't a couple, the Mr & Miss just coincidental (I think)) having a round table discussion about current affairs. When I say current affairs, I'm not talking that Government type of politics, I'm talking political stuff like popular celeb stories to lacefront weaves, and other stuff us normal people regularly converse/debate about. Conversate is a better word than converse , why isn't it a real word? Check out the website, meet the panel, ( mandem there are a few hot girls in there so check the pics if you can't be arsed to read. One of the hot girls faces isn't on the site sadly, but truss me!!! And they have brains too), listen back to the shows, but most importantly, tune in to Bang 103.6 FM Check the website out here: Bloggers Delight Ohhhhhhhhhh yeah, my pic is the same as my Twitter

Yeah, so I was away in the homeland, JamRock! Had a great time as per usual. A whole host of highlights of my life that I will remember forever. Think I may give a quick rundown soonish. Anyway, while I was away I kept reading about this Shardinay chick. Now not only is that a blonde girls name, it's a rubbish name. Moving on, the song Nothing to say about the quality of the song that hasn't been said before. Check out an interview she did if you haven't heard it So bet you're wondering the point of this post is? I mean it's an eom after interest in the story has dwindled. Well I thought I'd ask "if this was a UK Funky song, would the vocals have been under such scrutiny?" I mean, it isn't too far from what we've heard on hit funky tunes. And speaking of funky, how is the Are U Gonna Bang refix Dash Down by Mr M so big? People "claimed" to hate Funky Dee's tune, yet like this one? Ok

Naomi's back. Tune's hard and all that yeah, but I want to know whether this was arranged and recorded before Mz Bratt's Selecta (which when you type "Selecta Mz Bratt" into Google, that is the top result :) ) , because if it was done after, I guess we can tell where the inspiration came from. Not like Bratt wasn't kinda flowing like others, but she did what she did on Selecta. Jammer tweeted Dynamite that he had this beat for his album, but Ms. Dynamite paid 50 bags (£50,000 for the un-street urchins). First of all, producers still make that sort of money off one beat? Secondly, where my cracked version of Fruity Loops go...

If the name doesn't ring a bell, "Wah gwaan Popcaan?!" from the tune of the summer Clarks by Vybz Kartel should. Marvin Sparks speaks to Jamaican artist Popcaan for The Wrap Up about his troubled upbringing in the ‘Gangsta City,’ avoiding temptation to enter a life of crime and tells us what makes Clarks an essential purchase for the summer... and the winter! The Wrap Up: Where did the name Popcaan come from? Popcaan: Me and you can reason about that name at a different location one day [laughs], but it was from a friend who passed on. TWU: How would you describe yourself? Popcaan: Hot skull, fry yiy [eye], boil brainz! [laughs]. Where my families concerned, I'm a loving person, where the ladies are concerned I'm a very loving person and I'm full of hype. TWU: What have you learnt from being around Vybz Kartel? Popcaan: I've learnt countless things from Kartel. You see di Teacha, he is the real teacher. He's taught me loads of things outside of mu

Yeah I described it as "siiiiiiiiiick". I don't need to express myself in a formal way, ah my blog dis, weh dem feel like? Oh! Anyway, even if you aren't a fan of dancehall music, I think you should check it as a music lover and appreciate a living legend full stop. The reggae industry such as King Jammy (man who created Killer's first hits), international artist Shaggy, world-renowned DJ Tony Matterhorn, and leaders of the new school Aidonia, Agent Sasco (formerly Assassin), Wayne Marshall and more pay tribute to Bounty Killer prior to his recent honarary by Reggae SumFest for his outstanding contribution to reggae music. To me personally, it's what he has contributed to music full stop. I was lucky enough to bear witness to Bounty Killer and Beenie Man sharing the same stage on Sunday night. I'll try upload footage soon. I realised late last night, I can say I've seen Nas & Jay-Z share a stage, now Bounty Killer and Beenie Man. Both scenarios ar