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The deal on these things is, you get your up and coming UK rapper to put together a mix tape of some previously unreleased tunes, guest spots and some hard edged hip hop.

Over the 19 tracks, the list of performers is long indeed. Some highlights are Micall Parknsun and Wordsmith on ‘That’s Long’ (“Blair is a w**ker” rap to classical strings!) and ‘3 Way Beatdown’ featuring Inja and Orifice Vulgatron (of Foreign Beggars).

As ever, along with the grime there’s the usual self mocking tracks like the ‘Perfect Beatbox’ about meeting the perfect woman with great beat boxing by Foreign Beggar Shlomo to the brutality of modern UK street life in ‘Unauthorised Loss’. Then there’s ‘The Internet Song’ with a message about paedophiles in chat rooms with some heavy beats and jazzy guitars. ‘Venus’ is a tale you wouldn’t want for your daughter and the beauty of jazzy backing track is not at all like the narrative.

Similarly, compare the Steve Ebola produced ‘Off-Key’ that has lots of swearing in it to the manic Zorba The Greek backing track of ‘Xoalin Monk’ to the soulful ‘Money’s A Bitch’.

Good mix of the dancehall in here also with ‘Gyal Round Here’ at one end and Jabba Tha Kut the Cut’s recent ‘Don’t Interrupt’ track he did with Dubbledge. ‘Don’t Interrupt’ is certainly one of the best collaborations, even if it is a little old skool scratchin’.

This is the prelude to Dubbledge’s debut album The Richest Man In Babylon from which we get a first listen to a snippet of ‘Nah Man’. Our man isn’t talking about being rich in terms of cash but that may come with the territory. In the meantime, Fist Of Jah! shows enough knowledge, wisdom and understanding for us to look forward to the three track 12” produced by DJ Vadim, LG and Steve Ebola before the album comes out.

Showing strength in depth on the non-US rap scene, this is good stuff.

Reviewed: Dubbledge - Fist Of Jah! (Dented/Casual) Cat No. CD Release Date: 7 August 2006

Links
www.dubbledge.com
Download ‘The Internet Song’ for free HERE.
www.dentedrecords.com
www.casuallondon.com
www.myspace.com/edgemuzic
bare-records.co.uk/jabba.htm