Hostile Reconnaissance

In this episode, Sunny sets Marcus a challenge: Listen to some carefully selected Bhangra tracks, analyse and evaluate them, and then give feedback without upsetting about 190 million people.

Bhangra originates from a folk dances of the same name from the Punjab region in South Asia, traversing the modern-day Indian and Pakistani borders. The Punjab is famous for its agriculture, but has been the location of political, cultural and religious disagreements over the years (understatement definitely intended). However, the music that grew out of the area is widely recognised world-wide, centred around the sounds of Dhor drums and Tanpura.

With the growth of the diaspora in the UK and USA from the 1970s, the incorporation of elements of hip-hop and popular western music has created what is normally described as the catch-all for Punjabi music: Bhangra.

We all love hip-hop, why else would you be listening to this podcast, but there are times when you hear something and go full Black Rob "like, Woah!"

This episode is about all those moments when you've been shaken to your core by something so new or so amazing. Those moments change your life and make you see things differently. From albums, tracks, or even just a beat drop, these are the moments that stick with you forever. Sunny and Marcus pick some of their favourite wow moments and explain why it had the impact it did.

The Spotify playlist for this episode is something special, and we can't wait to see what you add to the Collaborative playlist (or listen to it).

Hit us up on Twitter or Instagram if you want to join the conversation.

Nope, this isn't episode looking at the sporting prowess of athletes turned hip hop stars, this is a weird thought experiment where we try to match the personalities, styles and technical abilities into our imagined hip hop football (soccer) and cricket (like baseball but with more cream teas) XI.

Sunny and Marcus go through their criteria and thoughts to come up with their own XI, and eventually agree on a combined team for both sports. We know the Venn diagram for people who like hip hop, football and cricket is largely a bunch of independent circles, but we enjoyed it.

Who will be our crazy left back? Who will be the star striker? Who will open the batting? Find out in this episode.

Remember we have Instagram and twitter if you want to tell us we are wrong, and we've got Spotify playlists (ours and collaborative) for you to enjoy.

In this episode, we take a closer look at one of the most underrated and important albums in hip-hop, dead prez's 2000 debut 'Let's Get Free'. Although the lead single, Hip Hop, is well known - even making it into a VW advert - but the rest of the album is embarrassingly slept-on.

Sunny and Marcus pick through the tracks and explore some of the themes within what is initially a straight-forward album, and discover layers of complexity and depth.

Let's Get Free is dead prez's debut album, released in 2000 by Loud Records. It is unapologetically militant, socialist and pan-Africanist in nature. It is also a complicated, sometimes contradictory album. Although it could be argued that sometimes the music lets it down, and M1 and stic.man are not the best MCs (note: they're still damn good), this album is one of the most important releases in music. Of all genres.

Don't agree, or want to join the conversation, then let us know on twitter or Instagram (@hostilerecon). And check out the album in full on Spotify.

Following on from episode 14, where we looked at Small Town Rap, we started to dig deeper into some of the reasons why there was such a paucity of rappers from outside the metropolises of the US. Sunny managed to mention all his favourite philosophers (including himself).

This is a long one, but hopefully an enjoyable one.

Hit us up on twitter or instagram, and remember to check out the Spotify playlist from this episode, or contribute to the collaborative Spotify playlist.

When we think of hip-hop and rap, it is often inextricably linked to place. Most often, these places are the densely populated urban areas in America; after all, hip-hop was born in those places, and they contain all the ingredients needed to create the environment for hip-hop to report on.

In this episode, we look to those small towns, the ‘other’ places were hip-hop has grown and flourished. We are still limiting ourselves to USA, but we look at a number of artists from smaller towns and analyse their music and their impact.

As usual, instagram and twitter are there to continue the conversation. Listen to the music from the episode or add tracks from your favourite ‘small town’ rapper to our collaborative playlist.

They fell off, they came back harder. This episode looks at artists whose careers took a turn and celebrates their triumphant return to form/status/notoriety.

In this episode, we try to look beyond the typical examples of Nas, Common and Dr Dre, and focus on some less obvious examples. We hope you enjoy it.

If you want to join in the conversation, remember that we have twitter and Instagram, we’d love to hear your feedback and comments.

As always, we have our Spotify playlists too, one of the tracks in the episode (if you prefer the music without our voices over the top) and one where you can add your own comeback hits!

Remember when you heard that one track, and immediately rushed out to get the album? (Or set about saving your pennies in order to buy it). Well this isn’t an episode about that track. No, this is about the hidden gold on those albums.

First of all, you listen to the big track on repeat until you know every word, you feel every drum beat, and absorb each sample. Then you start exploring the rest of the album, and after a few listens, other tracks catch your attention. As you listen more, you are drawn in, until you realise that it soon becomes your favourite track on the album.

In this episode, Sunny and Marcus explore some of those ‘second hand love’ tracks – of varying quality. Sunny’s tastes were of a slightly higher quality, maybe.

Want to reach out to us and join the conversation? Hit us up on Twitter or Instagram, listen to our playlist or add your own tracks to the collaborative Spotify longlist.

In this episode we follow on to a conversation on twitter, where someone claimed Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince was the ultimate summer hip hop track. Others (Dart Adams, et al.) said Fight the Power by Public Enemy was the epitome of Summer. 

We take a step back, and make some suggestions for the most apt track for each of the four seasons (in temperate climates – apologies for our lack of flexibility on this issue).

So what is it that makes a track ‘summer-y’, and what on Earth is an ‘autumn’ track? We don’t have answers, but we have some suggestions.

Let us know your thoughts on twitter or Instagram. As always, check out our playlists, and add your own suggestions.