Words: Saam Das December is always characterised by the battle for Christmas #1, although the dominance of the Military Wives Choir put paid to any real interest in the 2011 "battle" against whatever the 'X-Factor' song was. It'd be nice to actually have a Christmas #1 that somewhow relates to Christmas at some point though. Anyway, here are the top ten singles of December 2011. Akira The Don ft Envy - [...]
Out of the hundreds of gigs I've been to over the years I can't think of an occasion where I've given the promoter or organiser of the night much thought, beyond perhaps.. which idiot chose this support band or an exasperated, the running order says stage time 9...Its 9.20! After "organising" (in the loosest sense of the word) Oxjam Walthamstow I'll forever have a respect for the hidden promoter and their secret language of backlines, di's, breakables & get-ins. In the months between committing to put an Oxfam gig and the night itself I've gone from angst to [...]
Update: The lovely people at Londonist have listed Oxjam Walthamstow as one of their " Music Choice's " of gigs in London this week . Indie Electro pop from The Melting Ice Caps, electronic folk soul from Barbarossa, and spoken word meets hiphop courtesy of PolarBear. Oxjam Walthamstow's already varied and pretty damn packed bill just got a little bit bigger with the news that Akira The Don who's closing out the evening will be joined by a " surprise " guest. At least it was a surprise until US Rapper, [...]
On Wednesday October the 19th 2011 Music Like Dirt is organising a charity concert as part of Oxfam's month long " Oxjam Festival ". All proceeds from the night will go to help Oxfam's work and some of my favourite bands and musicians have kindly agreed to play. There are styles to suit all tastes, from indie to pop, to hip-hop to electronic soul...So great music, great cause... its a win win! Ahead of his 11 night run at Camden's Roundhouse , the highly acclaimed PolarBear will be bringing his beguiling mix of spoken word [...]
Words: Saam Das Following his brilliant cover of 'I Am Not A Robot' , rapper/producer Akira The Don partially won me over. He's back with another great track - along with some pals - Big Narstie , MC Lars , Eddie Argos and Scroobius Pip . Listen to 'Living In The Future 2.5' below. I'm enjoying the world of collaboration that we're living in - from the [...]
Since releasing his first EP back in 2004, Akira the Don has transcended from an underground singer with a message to a fully fledged hip hop star in the making. Despite not being as famous as some of his other counterparts, Akira the Don is a prime example of the UK hip hop scene. Equipped with his opinions on love, drugs and terrorism, as well as his Jarvis Cocker -esque voice, Akira the Don's latest LP stands out from the crowd in both his message and music. The music itself is [...]
Akira the Don releases new video and single "Jamie" Akira the Don refreshes your memory with the best of his mixtapes - out April 18th! Buy CDs, MP3s, more: Akira the Don on Amazon.co.uk Akira the Don on Amazon.com The phrase 'cult hero' is bandied about with a reckless frivolity [...]
Words: Saam Das For the longest time, I've thought Akira The Don was a bit of a prat. I'm not really sure why. Although his promo photos, like the one above, are hardly enamouring. And he calls himself "The Don". Music-wise though, he has some impressive credits, such as producing two top forty singles for Lethal Bizzle and collaborating with Chilly Gonzales . He combines with Envy , the rising UK female MC, on this [...]
It started out with several thousand, now only 123 acts remain as the Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition Longlist is announced. After much soul searching and epic indecision, The Last Dinosaur , Golden Glow & One Man Team Dance formed my Top 3. Now the guilt sets in over those half a dozen other acts that presented me with such agonising choices. Please take a moment to listen to the excellent AirRun, Gypsies On The Autobahn and Sons Of Mischief among others in a previous post featuring highlight from my own [...]
YES! What a great start to the weekend, Akira the Don, Envy and Joey2tits takes Marina and the Diamonds' smash hit 'I Am Not A Robot' to new amazing highs. Here's what the don has to say about the track: " You could say it's a cover. It actually started out life as as a remix. I was round Joey's one day, and he played me this incredible, fizzy piece of music, and I was like, OH MY GOD THAT'S AMAZING. And he was like, oh, I've never got round to finishing it, and it's [...]
Yes I know, enough Akira The Don already, but stick with me, this is just a brief post in honour of Music Like Dirt's walk on part in securing Hackneys favourite bleach blonde his first Number 1. After "Be Brave" , from Akira's Tribute to the music of Street Fighter Mixtape featured here last week, The Don summoned up an army of twitterers to assault the Hype Machine Twitter chart . For the uninitiated, the Hype Machine hoovers up MP3's from hundreds of music blogs and allows users to listen to individual [...]
SAVE BBC ASIAN NETWORK (AND 6 MUSIC TOO) Another delayed post featuring some of my musical favourites from the last few weeks. Hurriedly put up (in unfinished form) simply because its the last chance to fill in the BBC's online questionnaire registering your objection to the closure of The Asian Network & 6 Music. Visit here to register your objection with the BBC Trust (they make the decisions) The Asian Network recently picked up a couple of Sony Awards for its output. Nihal won Best Speech [...]
Akira The Don isn't called "DON" for no reason. Those of you obsessed with SF and SFII and SF... (you know the score) are going to love this mix of the soundscapes from the... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Akira The Don is something of an anomaly. Or he is if you try and put a label on him, at least. With numerous online projects released independently, collaborations with grime MCs such as Lethal B and having been signed by Interscope (and then dropped for making a song about AIDS) he continues to do what he likes. You may think he's a free-thinking artist, or a Hoxton-type cunt. Either way, his latest, Street Fighter-inspired mixtape is here. Akira The Don - ATD23 - The Street Fighter Mixtape by Akira The Don
. MLD Radio Podcast 11 (1hr06m) - Subscribe itunes Tracklist: Bersarin Quartett - " St.Petersburg " (with a little bit of Jim Morrison) ( Myspace / Buy ) Pilooski - " Love Is Wet " ( Myspace / PilooskiEdits / Facebook ) Desire - " Under Your Spell " - ( Myspace / Blog ) The XX - " VCR " - ( Myspace / Website ) [...]
Kanye West / South Park - " Gay Fish " (MP3) When South Park parodies Kanye West you know you're good for double the laughs. Watch the "Fish Sticks" episode above then enjoy Kanye's RESPONSE ON HIS BLOG.... SOUTH PARK MURDERED ME LAST NIGHT AND IT'S PRETTY FUNNY. IT HURTS MY FEELINGS BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM SOUTH PARK! I ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MY EGO THOUGH. HAVING THE CRAZY EGO IS PLAYED OUT AT THIS POINT IN MY LIFE AND CAREER. I USE TO USE IT TO BUILD [...]
Apologies for the lack of posting lately, things just seem to keep getting in the way. Anyway here's some awesome new cuts of music that i've been enjoying lately. Let me know what you think, your comments are always appreciated! MP3: Worriedaboutsatan - You're In My Thoughts I love it when a song takes you someplace else from where you are, purely by making you think, particuarly when the track contains no vocals and is purely instrumental. That's [...]
GIITTV's Bill Cummings spoke exclusively to ace Welsh rapper/remixer Akira The Don(born Adam Narkiewicz). His second album 'The Life Equation" is released later this year, which he promises is 'a massive pop record - massive and pop like New Order, or Meatloaf, or The Supremes'In advance he's put together an exclusive free track to celebrate the release of Street Fighter 4. Appropriately named 'Street Fighter', another idiosyncratic joint from the magician of samples, featuring three rappers skitting on Childhood fights it's a grimey slice of old school hip-hop containing mashed up sound bites from the [...]
For about 12 hours yesterday I was going to the SXSW music, film and interactive conference(s), today I'm not. Stay tuned for a heavy dose of self pity, but first some music. It's been at least ten minutes since Akira The Don got some love from Music Like Dirt. Catastrophic hard drive failures may have delayed 2nd LP "The Life Equation" but still the exclusive remixes and tracks pop up almost daily on thedon.com . You can preorder a mixtape/tshirt/album "The Omega Selection" for super [...]
Akira The Don - ' Thanks For All The AIDS (NY Master) ' (MP3) Akira The Don is a man on the mission, to create 'the best artist website in the world' . I think he's selling himself short - its already the best artist website - he needs to aim higher and go for all out ' best website ' fullstop. On a personal note until today I was at least confident that this site was easily the best blog in the world called music like dirt, but now I can't [...]
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