Everything You Need To Know About The 2014 Notting Hill Carnival [Written By Aimzy K]

Carnival is coming!!

  The vibe is like nothing else, which is why you will hear everyone hyping about it all year.

The whole event is two days of seeking out the best floats and stages, picking up cans of Red Stripe and safe-spudding all the familiar faces. That almost rhymed, so you KNOW I’m excited!

  Aside from the flowing rum, nothing says Notting Hill like a multicultural mix of people coming together to celebrate life with good music and a box of curry goat. And obviously when gyal wine and wuk up our waist too. In fact, the only downside to Carnival is paying a Pound to pee in a stranger’s house - last year this inflated to two whole English Pounds, so it’s safe to say the street urination levels are going to be at an all time high. Girl’s, ensure you have a mate look out for nosey drunk men and, obviously, the police. Or if you are lucky like me, you will have at least 2 friends that you will force to take you to their house so you can have shots with their mum and relieve yourself.

  Even smelling of BBQ smoke and going home with those classic bruises (my blog is making me sound like an abuse victim, but I swear its all life enjoyment scars) is all worth it for two of the best days of the year.

  Set to be highlights are Boxfresh’s event with Rinse FM on the Sunday, and Toddla T’s stage over by Kensal Road on the Monday. Pree Instagram for who will be about.

  As ever the pre-parties will be paaaaaappin - that means more ‘popping’ than usual yeah.

Open up your diary now because it pretty much starts this Thursday at Visions Video Bar in East, which see’s the likes of Spooky, Spyro, Footsie and D Double E plus more.

  Then Friday Good ole’ Carny fave Ms Dynamite will be performing in Kensal Rise, with even more Grime over at Birthdays from Flava D, along with Terror Danjah for your heavy Jungle fix (the after-party lineup here sounds sick too).

  Saturday is a mad one, with Hot Wuk Truck Party at KoKo providing a tropical delight of a float up inna di club, and even closer to home Paradise is hosting an event at Notting Hill Arts club blasting warm up tunes from Mo Fingaz and Kiss FM’s DJ MK. I can’t wait for this as we’ve been promised a special party set to remember! And it’s free on guestlist! This will be perfect if you plan to stagger to Carnival the next day. Just try not to scare the kids.

  Wait! I’m still not done! Female Takeover in Camden will be showcasing female MC’s (YAY), including the likes of Ms Banks and Bow Promise on Tuesday 26th, so pick yourself up from your hangover and make effort for the ladies.

   

  As always there will be tons of men ready to charm. My favourite lines to date are ‘Do you have BB’ and ‘Are you on o2 babes?’.

  Let us remember that we are celebrating a wealth of culture, and this alone should be the source of the love and energy that surrounds us all this bank holiday.

P.S don’t wear open toe shoes, no one needs that kind of negativity.

Written by Aimzy K (She once drank 2 magnums and pushed a carnival float around for 2 hours on her own!) http://www.Twitter.com/AimzyK

Bubbling At Big Narstie's #BDL Pre-Tour Party [Written by Aimzy K]

You'll be pleased to know that my gun fingers have made a full recovery after Lovebox, so I'm, going to take a moment for the ladies that do it big; Lady Leshurr, Ms Banks and C Cane repped it haaaaard for the females last night, getting the crowd shouting louder than even some of the more established artists! Far from holla-back girls, they shone as individuals, with Lady Lesh spitting her Shurraq freestyle - it was a proud moment to be amongst a group of women watching top girls spraying talent all over the place.

    The build up to Narstie continued with Shizz and Discarda forcing the crowd into hype mode, along with West Londoner (brap) Scrufizzer's super sharp flow.
I have to mention President T for his TV satellite stance, and Gino (no no no - thanks for getting that stuck in my head) who also heightened the atmosphere. 

   If you still don't feel pissed that you missed it then hollup hollup hollup...

   Time for me to get seriouusssss....JME did what JME does best: comes to a rave and shuts it down. Even the buzz in the crowd was taken to a different level of adoration, but the golf playing vegan kept it straight Grime, previewing new bars as well as classics. 

   Now for the BDL heads.
A smashing combo of Big Narstie and Flirta D was what we were waiting for to top off the night and there were no disappointments, just a ton of bangers both old and new - and even a cheeky appearance from Angry Shopkeeper! Lordie had to throw me a face towel so need I say more? #Sweat #Base #YouFuckedUpIfYouMissedOut

   A personal shout out to the super fan in the red tshirt who got chucked out after buying a base pen. The front of stage just wasn't the same without you. 

   Hello high to everyone who showed love, keep your eyes peeled for footage to come.

Written by AimzyK [@AimzyK] aka Junior Samsung ON her Samsung on the night bus at 5.36am #Pain

The BDL Pre Tour Party & Why You Need To Be There [Written by Aimzy K]

We’ve all had those nights out where the music wasn’t really inspiring our best moves, and

you go home wondering why you didn’t stay at home with a cuppa watching American Dad.

   This will NOT be one of those nights.

   The Base Defense League pre tour party has the best line up a flyer has seen in years - a Big Narstie mirror image and the Union Jack are on it for gods sake!

Because of this, you need to get yourself down to Camden on Wednesday, as if big names like JME and Lady Leshurr won’t pull you in, then the promise of Cameo and Sir Spyro bringing hot DJ heat should. I haven’t even begun to mention the other Grime favourites from around the UK.

   To get you in the mood you can have a listen to the main man himself by coppin “Whats the story? Brixton Glory’, and I strongly advise you get your Uncle Pain fix here.

   So, I have made a list of common excuses and will attempt- and succeed - in helping you to understand why this will be a good night for your soul;

1)  ‘I have work the next day’ - The next day is Thursday, you are able to bang out a few hours at work and then go home to sleep. The day after that is Friday, you can sleep all weekend if you desire.

2)  ‘It’s too far man’ - Nothing in London is unreachable by the mighty night bus, but if you aren’t tempted by the puke laden floors, then all hail Uber Cab. You’d only spend that 20 quid on food right? Time to make a packed lunch.

3)  ‘I’m not into Grime’ - If you have been alive for longer than 18 years (which is the legal requirement to get into the club, so you should be) then you need to snap out of this and realise that you ARE Grime.

4)  ‘I’m on tag’ - Fair enough, we don’t ever condone breaking the law. Base Pen what now?

   Bring your energy in the form of a base laced baggy tee, and something comfy for your feet - leave the pain in your German Whip (yup, he’s coming too). See what I did there? That’s exactly how much fun it’s going to be.

Written by Aimzy K [@AimzyK] aka Junior Samsung (Legend has it Aimzy told Chief Keef to grow dreads & try rapping)

A Hot Day In Birmingham With Invasion Alert, DJ Big Mikee & Grimmy [Written by Aimzy K]

If you haven’t been on a night out in Birmingham, then why not?

   Ahead of big names such as Maxta and Sox performing at the ILuvLive event, we took a trip up to Brum to witness the rapid growth of the Grime scene in a relatively small area.

[Jaykae]

   Hooking up with Invasion Alert, JayKae took us through a Five Pound Munch that came to...well I can’t ruin it if you haven’t already watched!

   We also spoke to the lads about music and Lord Of The Mic clashes (hold tite the preeing mandem, you might feel abit sore after you see what they had to say), as well as more serious topics like Gaza (Free Palestine) and ‘Lyfe’ in Birmingham.

It has to be said, the solidarity for each other and the wider community is there in ways that we don’t see much of in London anymore. This may be something to think about, especially as Grimmy (who turned up with legend DJ Big Mikee) believes that Grime in London is dead. Not a call to war, Londoner’s should see this as encouragement to go harder as we see a younger Grime scene overtake us in passion, if not talent. Stop being boring London!

[DJ Big Mikee]

   Just for good measure, and because we like a laugh, we had to ask about THE trainer of Brum - of which there are tons of brands the lads wouldn’t be seen dead in, and unfortunately for me this included ‘Vans’. Won’t be wearing those on a Midlands trip anytime soon...

   Less A$VP dresses and skinny jeans were also the order of the day.

Always a difficult one, we pressed for answers on the top 3 hottest chicks in the UK. Dapz On The Map mentioned Beyonce. Erm...It was hot like Miami so we will let that one slide.

[Dapz On The Map]

   As the day went on, member by member, the boys slipped in from the rooftop we were chilling on to jam in the studio, proving that time waits for no man when there’s work to be done.

   We took this opportunity to film a Five Pound Munch with Big Mikee, which was particularly special to him as he was back in his old bits as he got to discover the magic that is Chewits Xtreme AKA Molly. Man doesn’t stray from Walkers either fyi.

[Grimmy]

   Then Grimmy made FPM history by finding a suspect product...check back for the drop at 12.30pm tomorrow!

[D2]

   No matter your views on this area and that area (we ain’t tryna start a turf war here guys!), Birmingham have produced some amazing artists within the Grime scene, with lots of future projects in the pipeline. We’ll be paying a visit again soon, and we suggest you do too. If not for the music, then for the Five Guys with practically NO queue.

                                                                              

 Written by Aimzy K aka Junior Samsung @AimzyK