Recordkingz - 'Heavyweight' album review

Nurturing a vinyl addiction since the age of 10, manifesting as the link between some of the hottest producers such as Just Blaze (Rocafella), Alchemist (G-Unit) and Havoc (Mobb Deep) and officially the first UK artist-producer to garner widespread acclaim and support with the release of landmark LP, ‘The Weight’ in 2000, Juliano ‘Recordkingz’ Creator is back with his long-awaited sequel, ‘Heavyweight’. Littered with contributions from big in the hip hop game artists such as Mobb Deep, The Beatnuts, Little Brother, Aftermath’s Joell Ortiz and Bad Boy’s Assim to name but a few, and doused with the very rare breaks and loops Juliano himself sourced, it would seem that the album title is not a far cry from the truth.

Would you expect anything less from the founder of http://www.recordkingz.com/, the leading source of rare records for collectors and producers alike, and an individual who not only surrounded himself with, but was also well respected by the likes of Funkmaster Flex, DJ Spinna and Stretch Armstrong? If you did, you need to become better acquainted with Google.

‘Heavyweight’ is a compilation of all of Recordkingz favourite artists who he has met and worked with over the years. When opportunities to record came up, Recordkingz would hit the road running with a bag of beats, the end result being tracks like ‘Rock Ya Shoulders’ featuring The Beatnuts recorded in London, ‘Heat’ featuring Mobb Deep recorded in Paris, ‘Take A Walk’ featuring Joell Ortiz recorded in New York, ‘Playin’ To Lose’ featuring Little Brother recorded in LA and ‘Hip-Hop Throwback’ featuring Guilty Simpson recorded in Detroit.

With a healthy 18 track playlist featuring exclusive hit after exclusive hit, in true hip hop fashion, ‘Heavyweight’ features 4 skits, one being the intro, ‘The Heavyweight Muthaf**ka’ which introduces ‘that fat ba****d yet to be mastered’ Juliano Creator in all his glory. From there on out, the listener is treated to head bopping beat after head bopping beat (without which a hip hop album would be lost), many permeated with an obvious old skool, rare groove, gangster vibe, and paired off with some perfectly delivered hip hop lyrics working to fully reinforce the album title.

A fan of Mobb Deep, my favourite track has to be ‘The Heat’, which in true Mobb Deep fashion delivers the ‘realest’ talk about just how hard they really are. However, covering all topics essential to a hip hop album; money, drama, street life and illegal substances, ‘Heavyweight’ presents all of the featured artists, established and upcoming, on one equally impressive platform, the common link being Juliano Creator’s innovative production.

Truly international in its nature, all in all, I predict that ‘Heavyweight’ will bring the quality of many a hip hop listener’s album shelf up a notch or two and be a notably welcome addition to the collection of anyone who can appreciate good music. Delivering pure enjoyment from intro to end, the fact that Juliano is representing the UK is a very good look.

Words by Susanne Singh

Be sure to check this review out on the Origins Media website - http://www.originsmag.com/origin_pages/origin_content_main.aspx?thetable=reviews&thenum=54

No - No- No - NOTORIOUS

Everyone who loves them some hip-hop, will know a little something about one of the games most talented lyricists, Christopher Wallace better known as Biggie Smalls or Notorious BIG. For example it’s not too difficult to find out that he was born on May 21 (a date that has borne many greats *cough*ME*cough*) 1972 to Voletta Wallace and George Latore who left them when Biggie was only two. However, did you know that Biggie kept all of his rhymes in his head until freestyling them on the spot, that his mum used to call him ‘Chrissy Pooh’ and that he attended the same highschool as Busta Rhymes and Jay Z? Probably not, but all bar the latter fact are just a few of the points portrayed in NOTORIOUS, Fox Searchlight Pictures latest depiction of the remarkable rise and untimely fall of Christopher George Latore Wallace.

Directed by George Tillman Jnr (producer of such films as Roll Bounce, Barbershop and Soul Food), NOTORIOUS was in fact the creation of a joint collaboration between some of the people that knew Biggie the most intimately. From his mother Voletta Wallace to Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs, and screenwriter Cheo Hodari Coker who had not only had hours of one-on-one interviews with Biggie himself, but also had in-depth conversations with many of the principle figures in Wallace’s life, NOTORIOUS offers a no-holds-barred portrait of the A-Class student, turned on the corner crack dealer, turned innovative rapper from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Beginning with scenes from BIG’s last moments on March 9, 1997 just before he became the second fallen victim to one of hip-hop’s most controversial and conspired about fallouts, the audience is then taken back to Biggie’s younger and more innocent years, played by his son, and mirror image CJ Wallace. Here we learn that Biggie was sheltered from the Brooklyn streets he grew up on as much as possible by his stern, yet loving mother who would walk him to and from school and then forbid him to leave the front stoop from thereon out. However, learning that the good kids were easy targets for the gangsters and longing for all the flashy things in life, it wasn’t long before Biggie turned to drug dealing to make money, something which in turn led the straight A-student to be a highschool dropout.

In between drug dealing, becoming a father, serving time in jail for drug dealing, beginning an intimate relationship with Lil’ Kim and drug dealing some more, Biggie would freestyle quick witted tales about life on the streets amongst friends which gained him great respect and led to his demo tape falling into the hands of upcoming producer Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs. Wasting little time in signing him to new label Bad Boy records, it wasn’t long before Notorious BIG was a globally recognised artist and one of the major players in the hip hop game. Young, popular, successful, managing his own group, ‘Junior Mafia’ and recently married to artist Faith Evans, it was at this point as prophesised by friend and fellow artist Tupac Shakur that things started to go badly.

November 30 1994 saw the beginning of the Eastcoast Vs Westcoast rap war between Biggie and Tupac as Tupac blamed Biggie for his attempted murder whilst visiting his recording studios. Spiralling out of control, NOTORIOUS illustrates the events that followed including the released diss songs ‘Hit Em Up’ by Tupac and ‘Who Shot Ya’ by Biggie, which in turn led to the untimely deaths of Tupac Shakur in 1996 and Notorious BIG in 1997.

Understandably favourable at times, NOTORIOUS depicts an all round vision of Biggie from a mummy’s boy to a street dealer to a heartless player to a true friend, lover and innovative rapper. Coupled with a great cast, from a near identical Biggie, crouch grabbing Lil’ Kim and of course two stepping Sean Combs, NOTORIOUS is a must see movie for all hip hop fans, providing the perfect opportunity to understand the life and death of the late, great Christopher George ‘Notorious B.I.G’ Latore Wallace himself.

NOTORIOUS is released on Friday February 13. So ‘if you don’t know, now you know’.

Film review featured on Origins Media website at http://www.originsmag.com/origin_pages/origin_content_main.aspx?thetable=reviews&thenum=53

Also featured on Flavour Mag website at
http://www.flavourmag.co.uk/?p=1345#more-1345

Updates Soon Come

So, it's been more than just a hot minute since I last updated my official blogspot, http://www.ambitiousheights.blogspot.com/. My sincerest apologies, but please let me reassure you that my absence has not been time wasted, and I will be bringing you a taste of what I have been up to, as I continue to strive for that 'life less ordinary.

And so in the meanwhile, and doubling up as a tribute to my eldest brother Johnny who first got me into hip-hop, let me leave you with a hint of what is to come very soon ... One of rap's finest, Notorious BIG

That day I interviewed Angela and Vanessa Simmons

Certainly not ones to follow the crowd, the young, ambitious and innovative daughters of Run DMC rap legend Joseph ‘Rev Run’ Simmons are busy showing the world that they have troughs of talent in their own right. From acting and modelling to singing and writing, Vanessa and Angela Simmons have also found the time to pioneer their own fashion brand, which after taking the States by storm is now being launched in the UK. Flavour caught up with the talented duo to have a chat about fashion niche’s, family values and … Pastry!

1. So your brand is called Pastry, what’s your favourite pastry?

Vanessa: Well the whole collection started with the cake collection because that’s what everyone thinks of when they think of pastries so I’m going to have to go with cakes, but I’m good at baking cookies

Angela: My favourite is cupcakes

2. Why the name ‘Pastry’ for your company?

Vanessa: What woman doesn’t love pastry? It’s like that guilty pleasure that you have to run off all the time on the treadmill and we like baking, so when we were coming up with a concept we were like why not …

Vanessa & Angela: Pastry!

Vanessa: It’s like fun and interesting

Angela: And it’s different, there’s nothing like it out there, it’s really girly and feminine

3. Who came up with the name ‘Pastry’ initially?

Angela: Well it was like a joint collaboration. We kicked around a lot of names. One day we just sat at home, sat in my room and we were just going back and forth with different things like cake, and then cake was the initial and then we were like no Pastry! That would be cool.

4. What exactly can people expect from the Pastry line?

Angela: Well right now, we’ve already expanded to clothing and we’ve got handbags and eyewear. What else?

Vanessa: Everything, we’re just hoping to expand to a full empire and they can just expect fun. Everything in the sneaker/ athletic world is very male driven so what we used our initiative and we made stuff that girls like us would wear and we made it more fun, more chic and more feminine

5. Why did you decide to design trainers rather than shoes?

Vanessa: Because that void was just missing. In the market there was nothing out there for females made by females, there was nothing cute. Nike or Pumas or Addidas it’s just so male driven, so we went ahead and made the first silhouette which was the Cake Runner, then we branched out to Fab Cookie, and then to Glam Pie. We’re working on Fruit Tart right now and Secret Sundae. The list is expanding by the day it’s just really really exciting!

6. You said you like cakes and cookies do you have a specific trainer you like the best or a design?

Angela: Right now I’m still on the Glam Pie’s but the Fruit Tarts are going to be so cute!

7. So with Barack Obama winning the U.S Presidential election, everyone is talking about trendsetters, would you consider yourselves to be trendsetters?

Vanessa: Absolutely I don’t follow in the footsteps of anybody else we kind of just blaze our own trails and you know just do what we do.

Angela: I think this is definitely completely different to anything else that’s out there so I would say so.

8. How long has ‘Pastry’ been in the making?

Angela: Almost two years

Vanessa: Well it’s been around for about two years, but I would say like three years. We started a year before the actual launch which is a really really fast turn around time

Angela: Wait did it even take a year? I think even less time

Vanessa: Probably about seven months, eight months, very fast turn around

Angela: It was a lot of hard work but fun

9. So you guys launched Pastry in March 2007 in the States how have things gone in the past year?

Vanessa: Fantastic, I mean the percentages that we were getting in sneaker stores were unheard of. All the retailers were like really excited and I mean just being here in the UK and launching it, it’s like wow I mean when we started it started as a dream, as a vision

Angela: Just an idea

Vanessa: An idea and we’re here talking to you! I mean to have your sneakers in footlocker that’s like top of the top like that’s where people want to have their footwear

Angela: When we started off we had like one or two

Vanessa: Well like a couple of retailers but very few people actually believed in the idea, but we were so strong in it that we just kept pushing and kept pushing and the next thing you know we were having all of these amazing reviews and it was just like honestly it was such a dream come true

Angela: Yes it was

10.What are your specific job roles within the company?

Angela: Well we pretty much do everything, it’s like a 24-hr job we’re always having conference calls ,we’re pretty much on top of everything. We design and everything, and even though we have a large group of people that work with us we’re very on it and always come up with ideas and new ways to expand Pastry so we definitely own a lot of titles

Vanessa: We have a fantastic group of people that understand our vision that we bought on board afterwards and they work with us and they help us to delegate our ideas correctly and explain to us what’s good and what’s not. Angela went to school for fashion I went to school for business and communication so I feel like we make the perfect team when it comes to running a business

11.What separate qualities do you both bring to Pastry?

Vanessa: Angela’s flavour woman. She’s has great great fashion sense. I feel like I’m a little more classic.

Angela – I’m probably willing to walk on the edge more with fashion but it’s that bit easier when you’re going to school for it and you’re around it 24/7 its like you’ve seen the wildest of the wildest so you’re willing to experiment with stuff.

12.How do you find working as sisters?

Angela: It’s cool, what’s great is you really don’t have to hold your tongue with your sister. You can be like listen I don’t think you’re idea is going to work or I love that, it’s just easier to communicate because you already have that communication open. So when it comes to working for business it’s easier.

13.With your dad, uncle Russel and Aunt Kimora all already established icons in the fashion world do you feel pressure to live up to expectations?

Vanessa – Sometimes but I think that pressure makes a diamond so we accept that pressure rather than try to get it off of us

Angela – It’s good pressure it helps us to

Vanessa – Aspire to be better

Angela – Exactly!

14.What has been the best piece of advice you’ve received and who gave it to you?

Angela – My best advice definitely comes from my dad and one of the things that I learnt from him was just ‘Try your best and forget the rest’ and that’s just always stuck with me in life and its such an easy one but it just goes with everything.

Vanessa – My life mantra kind of comes from a combination of things that my dad has told me over the years and I made it my own words of wisdom. My thing is to ‘Expect a no but never to accept a no’ because people are going to try and put you down, they’re going to be like ‘That’s not going to work’ but don’t accept that because if you believe in your heart that that’s what you should be doing or that’s your thing then you should just be going for it and not listening to negativity or anything else around you

15.You are both very busy ladies, so with all the things that you’re doing where do you find time for family and boyfriends?

Angela: Any relationship you want you just make time. Family is number one so there’s always going to be time for that because that’s what keeps you grounded, that’s what keeps your mind sane. I think right now Pastry is my number one boyfriend.
Vanessa: I just don’t talk about my relationships just to keep something private to myself, but yeah we always make time for the things that we want to do, you have to have me time because that’s what keeps you peaceful and keeps you going and that’s what keeps us actually aspiring to be greater.

16.Would you say with everything you have done have you fulfilled all of your ambitions in life or is there more to come?

Angela: There’s always more to come. I just feel like the more we do the more there is, there’s just always new ideas and things to do so who knows in ten years what I’ll be doing there’s just so much that I want to do.

Vanessa: Yes the sky’s definitely the limit so that’s how we look at life and approach every day with a new mind and accept any challenge that comes our way in anything we want to do

17.Pastry is definitely sweet, chic and unique and has blown up in the States in the past year, are you hopeful that the same will happen here in the UK?

Angela: I hope so, I mean we hope everybody is receptive and likes it so we can’t wait to see

18.What do you think of the British fashion sense? Honestly

Angela: It’s cool! We got to go to Topshop the other day. I love it I think you guys have some stuff we definitely don’t have in the States.

Vanessa: Yeah you guys are more fashion forward and you do your own thing and I love that a lot.

19.Have you thought of adding a British edge to the line?

Vanessa: Yes absolutely you guys have to have your own special thing

Be sure to visit http://www.pastrykicks.com/ for further information on the Pastry line