It’s been a while since I’ve actively searched for new, un-tapped music – but today I stumbled upon a gem. 19 year old Angelo Mota is a New Jersey rapper with some serious, serious talent and clearly fits into the mould that we here at VYNLY would like to coin as ‘the next big thing’. […]
Read more "Angelo Mota – Pigs"Having now returned to the motherland, I’ve been on a solo mission to eat anything and everything that most of my British peeps would’ve cringed at the sound of. Chilli Bamboo shoots, ‘Rojak’ (a fruit and vegetable salad covered in a tamarind and shrimp sauce) and Chendol (a cold dessert soup) just to name a few. […]
Read more "Breakfast #3 – You Tiao"“I’m rushin’ in like Vladimir Putin, What you want son?” Recently, I’ve been smashing through old episodes of The Champs podcast (for those of you who aren’t on that podcast game…The Champs is a [fortnightly?] podcast run by two fantastic comedians – Mosche Kasher and Neil Brennan) and something was mentioned on one of the […]
Read more "Joey Bada$$ – No. 99"“I’ve been shelved for over 4 years cos of Scooter Braun” Ouch. After heading to Truth Studios for the Nottz produced, in-studio release of ‘Rasputin’ back in March Asher Roth has now released a trippy video for a single that shows why he’s still one of the top MC’s out there. Truth be told, I […]
Read more "Asher Roth – Rasputin"There’s nothing better than a grilled cheese. Whether it’s simply a plain cheddar concoction or a mix of savoury tidbits that taste better when covered in melted (insert cheese here), I don’t think I would ever say no. There’ve even been food bloggers throwing Grilled Cheese Parties – something I am growing supremely jealous of […]
Read more "Breakfast #2 – Breakfast Grilled Cheese"With only a few weeks left here in the UK, I’ve been trying to do everything quintessentially British (or Welsh depending on how you look at it) – I went to my first ever rugby game, I’ve started saying ‘bins’ rather than ‘the trash’ and I’ve had chips with most meals – carbo loading for […]
Read more "Bipolar Sunshine – Daydreamer"“Ok, it’s 3.17am. You’re tuned in with your main man, Tom Inglethorpe This next song is gonna keep you Warm on a cold, cold night So if you don’t got a lover, Just close your eyes, and Listen, to Honne” This release couldn’t have come at a better time. With the sudden assimilation of the […]
Read more "Honne – Warm On A Cold Night"After waking up with a slight temperature yesterday, I decided to call in sick and spend the day wallowing in bed trying to recover before my arch nemesis in FIFA and joint favourite Jafarzadeh, Ryan, cruises to Cardiff for the week. It’s been a long time coming this reunion; having not been home since my […]
Read more "Breakfast #1 – Banana Buckwheat Pancakes With Cacao Nibs"So, Mac’s back. It’s been a while since we’ve seen him put anything out and the last thing I personally remember seeing him in was his Entourage style TV show; “Mac Miller and the Most Dope Family,” (which is serious jokes by the way – I’m probably going to get in trouble for uploading this […]
Read more "Mac Miller – Just Some Raps, Nothing To See Here, Move Along"Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night and fourth meal. To most of you these words are completely abstract and mean nothing, but to me, they are the opening words to one of my favourite things in the world – the Juan Epstein podcast. It’s the hip-hop equivalent to Doug at the Movies or […]
Read more "Juan Epstein"Dear Sean, Hi. We’ve never met but I’m a massive fan trying to come up with a new way to show you my appreciation. I don’t even know if mail this long is a thing anymore, but I’m old school sentimental and know that if I ever were to finally make it famous, I’d appreciate […]
Read more "Dear: Big Sean"If my new song came out in 10 minutes, what website would it be on? — Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) October 16, 2014 Using the fact that we’re over the pond here in the UK and that I’m not as glued to my Twitter feed as I used to be, I wasn’t able to catch […]
Read more "Chance The Rapper & The Social Experiment – No Better Blues"Something I’ve learnt about myself recently is that I’m a fan of the upbeat hip hop (if you will.) What I mean by this, is that 8 times out of 10, I’m probably going to choose someone like Luke Christopher over Pusha T. Their styles couldn’t be more different and DON’T GET ME WRONG – […]
Read more "Luke Chrisopher – The Boy Is Here"Why Do I like Jaden Smith? Let me just start this existential pop culture question by stating that I absolutely love Will Smith. I grew up watching the guy from West Philadelphia, born and raised. To this day I can still quote verbatim everything Geoffrey ever said, “VOLLEY AND THUNDER!” Men In Black was one […]
Read more "Why Do I Like Jaden Smith?"“The 30th of September would be the perfect date to get VYNLY up and running again.” Seemingly innocuous words from my Singaporean cohort and bro Ben Rynjah a couple of weeks back prompted us to get off our arses and do exactly that, get VYNLY going again. If you’ve been a fan of the site […]
Read more "Comeback Season"The summer of 2012 has been a titillating one from start to finish; we had the heroics of Team GB and London 2012, which included me and Ben sitting in the nosebleeds during Dream Team Mk.2’s record breaking tally win against Nigeria, notwithstanding the Nigerian point guard that completely shattered James Harden’s ankles into a […]
Read more "Summer Mixtape – ‘J’-Side"So It’s finally summer here in Cardiff – although it would be hard to know it with all this rain and wank weather – but on the bright side, I did manage to get some hardcore gardening done in preparation for the numerous amounts of barbecues I predict I’m gonna want to have over the course of […]
Read more "Curren$y; Chasin Paper feat. Pharrell"On our previous episode of Real Talk Radio, we had a short segment where we talked about the numerous BEEFS that were had within certain hip hop collectives at the moment. After a quick Wiki search on air (obviously…I mean who ever plans radio shows/I fucking love technology) and a hilarious conversation that ended up […]
Read more "Lil Wayne; My Homies Still feat. Big Sean"Unfortunately I’ve been horrendously busy of late, and reviews have been a bit thin on the ground. However, I did catch up with The Temper Trap‘s drummer Toby Dundas ahead of their upcoming UK tour for The MMP last week, and I thought it would be rude if I didn’t share it on my own […]
Read more "Interview with The Temper Trap"Let me just start of by saying, I hate being carded. I really hate being carded. I get that I look like a 14 year old prepubescent Asian boy who wears big framed glasses just like every other Asian hipster kid…but I’m not. I’m 22 and I need my glasses to kind of see the world. […]
Read more "Wu Lyf @ The Union Transfer"TUPAC’S ALIVE! You heard it here first, well probably not, but we’re really excited. Isn’t technology great? I didn’t think anything could top the Rubik’s cube MP3 player, but that was blown out of the water at Coachella by the surprising appearance of a Tupac ‘’hologram’’ during Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg’s headline slot on […]
Read more "Coachella 2012 Recap"As Ben alluded to the other day, we fucking love Odd Future, it’s bordering on an obsession for me lately, especially after I managed to catch their live show at the O2 Academy in Brixton a couple of weeks back. Ben’s intensely obsessed with Frank Ocean, and I am to a certain degree, but Earl […]
Read more "Odd Future – Oldie"I think it’s gotten to the stage where we can start calling soul singers the next John Legend, his legendary status is ubiquitously established and that’s exactly what I intend on doing in the blog post. His heir apparent this time is a South London crooner who goes by the name of Josh Osho. I’ll be […]
Read more "Josh Osho – Giants (feat. Childish Gambino)"When VYNLY began hosting a student or ‘college’ hip-hop radio show, we were really focussed on themes for some reason, as If it was the sure fire way for us to become superstar DJ’s overnight. One of our first ever themes was largely based around Drake’s sophomore album, ‘Take Care;’ which looking back, was up […]
Read more "Drake – Take Care/HYFR (Videos)"If you’ve been following VYNLY and our escapades here on this site, you’ll probably already know 3 things about Jamie and I – we’re extremely pretentious bastards, we have incredible football trivia and that we love music too much that it would be hard to tell you which genre ‘is our favourite’…BUT, we have been pretty […]
Read more "BADBADNOTGOOD; BBNG2"So, I was fortunate enough to join the rest of the Wolf Gang at the O2 in Brixton last week; I would have written a live review of Odd Future had I not consumed copious amounts of Heineken and Red Stripe (mixing drinks) before the gig. If I was to sum it up in one […]
Read more "Kilo Kish – Homeschool EP"I think it’s the effect of the disastrous personal events that followed my not-so-disastrous spring break trip to the Dominican – but I’ve recently come off the kush and OJ beats and have swung back again to the sweet sweet sounds of the powerchord. Adding to the fact that rhymes about fucking bitches and hoes just isn’t […]
Read more "The Neighbourhood; Sweater Weather"“I got power like a m*ther f*cking X-man” After having ‘James Franco‘ on repeat for a stupid number of weeks back at the start of 2nd year, Hoodie Allen kind of faded into the oblivion for me. I was hoping that this 22 year old wasn’t just going to lead with 2011 Summer album ‘Leap […]
Read more "Hoodie Allen; No Interruption"The Mac is back with another mixtape, this one he called ‘Macadelic,’ which is a most dope name I think we’d all agree. There are crazy feat.’s on it also including that paragon WEEZY, ye I said it, Weezy graces a Mac Miller mixtape track, if anything it shows how high Mac’s stock has risen […]
Read more "Mac Miller – Macadelic (Mixtape)"Is this blog too cool for Justin Bieber? or is Justin Bieber too cool for us? While we’re asking questions, remember when everyone was asking what’s going to happen when JB’s balls drop? Now we know; he grows up, starts freestyling and puts out records reminiscent of ‘Justified.’ His brand spanking new single ‘Boyfriend’ was […]
Read more "Justin Bieber – Boyfriend"If you ask most hip-hop fans or even artists who they think is the greatest of all time, the answer you usually get is Pac, Big, Jay or Nas, which is fair enough. They all may have unequivocally changed hip-hop forever, and put the groundwork in for what we have today, but one of these […]
Read more "The Notorious B.I.G. R.I.P 1972-1995"So I’ve been a fan of video games since I first picked up a Sega Mega Drive controller when I was around 5 or 6, Streets Of Rage was always my game of choice way back then, with Golden Axe coming in a close second. I’ve also been a fan of Guy Manuel & Thomas […]
Read more "Da Chip Vol.2"You’re the brightest rapper in the game you say? You now have 2 million followers on Twitter you say? You’re releasing a little something to celebrate you say? Something for the fans? I see what you’ve done Jermaine but we’ve all been there, done that, bought the Mac Miller T-shirt. Maybe I’m being a bit […]
Read more "J.Cole – Grew Up Fast"I re-watched Bedrock by Young Money the other day, and it actually surprised me how stacked the line-up was, albeit Lloyd was on the roster, which actually stiff baffles the shit out of me. I always remember Drizzy and Minaj as the standout breakout artists of the YMCMB movement at the time, and especially on […]
Read more "Tyga – Kings & Queens (feat. Nas & Wale)"It isn’t a well kept secret that in the past I haven’t been the biggest Chiddy Bang fan; I think this is primarily down to them using the MGMT’s ‘Kids’ sample on their debut single ‘Opposite of Adults,’ a sample that I find sacrosanct. Having said that, I’m beginning to warm to Chidera & Xaph, […]
Read more "Chiddy Bang – Extra Well (feat. Chip Tha Ripper)"To say that the VYNLY boys like Donald Glover would be a gross understatement, we love Community, his producing, his writing, his rapping and we fucked pretty hard with Camp. In fact, one of our Twitter handles is influenced by our favourite ‘oreo’ artist (@childishjambino.) So it’s safe to say that once we heard that […]
Read more "Childish Gambino – Heartbeat (Official Video)"Sup, today is an important day for the world of hip-hop, it’s Friday the 10th of February, 2012; it’s also the posthumous 38th birthday of the greatest beat maker to ever screw and chop a sample, J Dilla. I remember the first time I ever stumbled across some Dee, it was in the library of […]
Read more "J Dilla 1974-2006"Let me start of by saying that my perception of what America was before moving here, was completely wrong. Maybe it’s cause I’m looking for my own things, but what you see on TV isn’t what you should think this place is all about. Now, It’s been a while since this blog has drifted away from hip […]
Read more "Shlohmo; Vacation & Places"So we’re 5 days into 2012, the new years resolutions are out, the gym memberships have been acquired and it’s about time we knuckled down with important issues like, which hip-hop albums are we most anticipating this year. Well, the good folks at CraveOnline have compiled a list of some of the most eagerly awaited […]
Read more "The Most Anticipated Hip-Hop Albums of 2012"Maybe I should have been a little faster in writing this article – Jamie has some of my picks. You have to remember though that this was bound to happen because we’re pretty much the same person, except I’m Asian, and he doesn’t know how to set phone alarms. (a little bit of trivia for […]
Read more "(VY-NLY) Ben’s Top 10 of 2011"2k11 was a hell of a year for music. I went to 2 of the best festivals that I have ever been to, started VY-NLY, became a hip-hop DJ and stood 3 feet away from James Blake‘s white keyboard; oh and I also saw Wiz Khalifa live and went to Halloween dressed as Justin Bieber. […]
Read more "(VY-NLY) Jamie’s Top 10 of 2011"The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 8,400 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many […]
Read more "2k11 Vy-nly Review"The King of the Blumpkins has definitely grown on me. I’ve always been a fan, but recently I just feel like he’s stepped it up a notch. Mr. Roth, along with VYNLY’s favourite Wiz Khalifa are probably the two guys in the game right now, that I would want to share a doub with, solely on […]
Read more "Asher Roth feat. Action Bronson; Choices"It seems like an absolute age since the Vy-nly team set off for Brixton, armed with some Corvo, some samosas and the Mac Miller debut – Blue Slide Park, to go and hook up with Wiz Khalifa and the rest of the Taylor Gang at the O2 Academy. Wiz was phenomenal that night, which prompted […]
Read more "Wiz Khalifa – ‘California’"On the D12th day of Christmas my Real Talk gave to me: One Beki Dingwall, 5 Top 2011 albums, 3 Top 2011 Mixtapes, 21 Questions and a Boys v Girls Battle in a Pear Tree… For the penultimate edition of Real Talk aided by friend of the show Beki, we discussed our favourite albums and […]
Read more "Real Talk w/ Jamie & Ben feat. Beki"Theres nothing we can really say that would make up for the incredulous lie that we told about a month ago…we didn’t continue blogging. Yes, we did start uni again. No, we didn’t write any new articles. We have however, finally started our new side project that might be of some entertainment value (depending on […]
Read more "VYNLY – Real Talk W/ Jamie and Ben"Guess who’s back? Back again, Vy-nly’s back, tell a friend. Guess who’s back? Guess who’s back? Guess who’s back? guess who’s back NANANANANA…yes ladies and gents, we are back, unfortunately duty called and we were forced to spend some time at our respective journalist placements/mini Ping-Pong training camps; so it’s been difficult to post in […]
Read more "Joy Orbison – J.Doe"”I’m not sure if it’s love anymore, but I’ve been thinking of you fondly for sure. Remember what your heart is for.” I’m sure everyone under the sun has heard the age old saying, ‘too many cooks spoil the broth;’ this phrase might be spot on most of the time, but there’s a glaring exception, […]
Read more "Los Campesinos! – By Your Hand"Well what else would you expect a band named RUMSPRINGA to sound like? There’s no synths or drum machines here. These guys are nothing but classic, warm, rock n’ roll from the 21st century; a rare breed nowadays. I’m not going to go to great lengths to write chunks of passages about the history of […]
Read more "Rumspringa / Shake Em Loose Tonight"Suburban, White, Jewish boys learn how to be cool, by uhhh…not being cool… Remember that one weird friend you always had in school? You were his only friend, nobody else liked him and you got funny looks when you decided to sit next to him at recess. Why choose him over your other trend-following, socially […]
Read more "Why? / By Torpedo Or Crohn’s"
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