Tag Archives: dre skull

HDD at Simple Things Mixpax Showcase

We are really excited to be part of the Mixpak showcase this Saturday at Simple Things Festival in Bristol. Catch us at Crown Court alongside Dre Skull, Jubilee, Florentino and Serocee. Set times here, advance tickets here.

Konshens x Don’t Worry

“Don’t worry, just wine” is a pretty good rule to live by these days! Konshens‘ Don’t Worry is produced by Dre Skull and is out on Mixpak now. Out to HDD family The Large who co-directed the excellent video, which is giving us a hint of the I’m Still In Love video with added up to di time dancehall moves.

Dre Skull x Blacklight Riddim

Whenever we hear that Dre Skull is releasing a dancehall riddim we know we are in for a treat, Smoke Machine, Kling Klang, Loudspeaker are all staples in our sets and Blacklight Riddim was another favourite from the minute we heard it. Dre Skull also has a skill of picking the perfect artists for his riddims, with four cuts from Konshens, QQ, Spice and Tifa all giving it their best, there’s no need for any more.

Check out Dre Skull chatting to the Fader about the riddim here and go buy it here.

Popcaan x Where We Come From

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Yesterday Popcaan released his debut album Where We Come From on Mixpak with help from strong production team Dre Skull, Dubbel Dutch, Anju Blaxx, Adde Instrumentals and Jamie Roberts and trust us it was worth waiting for. On the production side each producer has excelled and every tune on the album is sounding clean, crisp, considered and perfect for Popcaan’s vocal styling.

Popcaan has really grown as an artist and on this album he proves himself as the Unruly Boss, stepping  away from party anthems like Ravin and Party Shot for a second to lament over a solitary steel pan on Ghetto (Tired of Crying) and to give his commentary on the status quo on  The System. The album of course has some tunes that are more on the slack side like Number One Freak, Love Yuh Bad, and Cool It with Poppy showing his Gallis side with brilliant lines like

any line from Naughty Girl weh mi quote,  pum pum run like Usain Bolt

The album  includes Everything Nice which has become an anthem since its release. We’ve seen artists like Konshens, Aidonia and Stylo G show their support for the tune on instagram, videos of crowds call for forwards at JA parties, and people vibing to it as the lights turn on at the end of our parties.

Our favourites so far are Addicted, Cool It and Ghetto (Tired of Crying) but as twitter conversations yesterday proved the favourites will probably keep rotating. This is truly the sign of a great album.

The album ends Popcaan telling his story on the title track, which reminds us a little of Drake’s Started From The Bottom. Popcaan is reflecting on his journey so far from dreaming big to meeting World Boss to ‘bussing a spliff in the dream car’ while never forgetting his beginnings.

Real thugs never forget the dump land or where mi come from

As the tune fades out it makes you want more and there is no doubt in our minds that there is a lot more to come from the Unruly Boss.

Stream the album below or buy it here.

Popcaan – Where We Come From (Full Album) by Mixpak

Mixpak x Kling Klang Riddim Videos

We have been playing Kling Klang Riddim for a good few months now – our World Carnival #3 mix opened with Champion Bubbler and the riddim produced by Dre Skull was one of our top tunes of 2012 and the soundtrack to our World Carnival party video. The video for Popcaan’s cut So We Do It dropped two weeks ago and Tifa’s Champion Bubbler video dropped yesterday and boy were they worth waiting for! They were both directed by Andrew Capper on location in Jamaica and they are some of the best dancehall videos we have seen for some time – the Popcaan one is so good that Kazabon was worried about Popcaan’s safety! You can read more about Andy Capper’s work and his recent projects with Dre Skull in this interview by Suze Webb over on the Mixpak blog.

HDD’s Top 20 Tunes of 2012

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As 2012 comes into its last few days we decided to  repeat last year’s near- impossible task of picking our top 20 tunes of the year. Based on the tunes we have been playing out and the tunes we have been listening to at HDD Headquarters, in no particular order, here are our top hip hop, dancehall and tropical tunes of 2012.

Atumpan – The Thing
Kerwin Du Bois – Bacchanalist
Miguel  – Adorn
Jeremih – 773 Love
Vybz Kartel – Party Mi Say
Machel Montano – Go Down
Kanye West feat Big Sean, Pusha T, 2 Chainz – Mercy
Konshens  – Stop Sign
Dom Kennedy – My Type Of Party
Kendrick Lamar feat Dr Dre – The Recipe
Cham  – Wine
Frank Ocean –  Pyramids
Murlo – Next To You
D’Banj – Oliver Twist
Future  – Turn On The Lights
Trojan  – Check Your Weight 
The Dream  – Dope Bitch
Popcaan – Party Shot
Jessie Ware – 110%
Dre Skull – Kling Klang Riddim

Picking just 20 tunes that summed up the year in music for us was extremely difficult so here are the tunes that came close but did not quite make the top 20.

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E40 – Function
Kaakie –  Toffee Pon Tongue
Gappy Ranks –  Wickedest Slam In Di Garrison
Busy Signal –  Real Spender$ (Theory Refix)
Burna Boy  – Like To Party
Omarion feat Wale – MIA

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Santigold – Disparate Youth
Poirier – Bring It On feat EJ Von Lyrik
Kakal – Saltfish (Magaroze Riddim)
Lexx Blake feat Serocee & Rubi Dan –  Let Your Booty Riddim 
Stylo G  – Press Up
R2Bees feat Sarkodie & Nana Boro –  Agyeeei (Dubbel Dutch Re-Riddim)