Better Than Heavy
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Better Than Heavy
''Better Than Heavy'' is the debut and only studio album from supergroup Mongrel. It was released on 7 March 2009. Track listing ;Disc 1: ;Disc 2: Personnel Credits adapted from ''Better Than Heavy'' liner notes. ;Mongrel * Jon McClure - vocals * Kareem Dennis - vocals * Drew McConnell - guitar, bass guitar * Andy Nicholson - guitar, bass guitar, synthesizer * Joe Moskow - effects, guitar, piano, strings, synthesizer, trumpet, melodica * Matt Helders - drums ;Additional personnel * Brother Culture - vocals * Samia Farah - vocals * DJ Moodie - scratches * Dave Fullwood - trumpet * Chris Petter - trombone * Johnny Fielding - violin * Crocodile - effects, sampler * Bassekou Kouyate - ngoni * Skip McDonald - guitar ;Production * Mongrel - production * Anthony Lueng - additional mixing * Adrian Sherwood Adrian Maxwell Sherwood (born 20 January 1958, London, England) is an English record producer specialising in the genre of dub music. He has created a distinctive product ...
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Mongrel (band)
Mongrel are a British band formed in 2008, founded by former Arctic Monkeys bassist Andy Nicholson. Alongside Nicholson in the band are Joe Moskow, both of Reverend and The Makers, Babyshambles bassist Drew McConnell as well as London rapper Lowkey from the Poisonous Poets. Mongrel released their first album '' Better Than Heavy'' on 7 March 2009. The band have announced they will play a show at London's Boston Arms on 5 November, with a four-track digital EP due for release the same day. For the album, McClure stated "We had Saul Williams come in and do a thing on it and hopefully M.I.A. is going to do something and maybe Pete Doherty. It's got a good flavour... We're really taking a few people to task, kind of like we're Public Enemy or something." In an interview with ''The Guardian'', McClure also expressed a desire to record in Venezuela and work with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez for the band's second album. Release ''Better Than Heavy'' was released on Saturday ...
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Wordplay (musician)
Wordplay (born Tao Rogers-Wright, 11 November 1984) is a musician and actor of mixed British and Black African descent. Early life Wordplay was born Tao Rogers-Wright in the south of London, where he grew up with his mother until their eventual move to the west of the city in the mid-90s. He appeared in advertising campaigns for Going Live! and Mr Blobby, television shows like '' Blue Peter'' and international films such as ''Dandi Dust''. In mid-2002, he met Lowkey, the UK rapper responsible for underground classics such as "The Mad World Remix" and the ''Key to the Game'' trilogy. With Lowkey's influence, Wordplay began taking a more professional approach to the music industry. Career Acting Wordplay gained worldwide exposure as an actor in 1998 through the Austrian Obscuro Gothic science fiction film ''Dandy Dust'' directed by Hans Scheirl. Wordplay is a member of the National Youth Theatre (associated actors include Sir Ben Kingsley, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Dame Helen Mir ...
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Adrian Sherwood
Adrian Maxwell Sherwood (born 20 January 1958, London, England) is an English record producer specialising in the genre of dub music. He has created a distinctive production style based on the application of dub effects and dub mixing techniques to other forms of electronic dance music and popular music outside of the genre. He has worked extensively with a variety of reggae artists as well as the musicians Keith LeBlanc, Doug Wimbish and Skip McDonald. Sherwood has remixed tracks by Coldcut, Depeche Mode, The Woodentops, Primal Scream, Pop Will Eat Itself, Sinéad O'Connor, and Skinny Puppy. In his role as a record producer he has worked with a variety of record labels; however, his best-known label is On-U Sound Records which he founded in 1979. Sherwood has been a member of the band Tackhead. He considers himself tone deaf, and focuses on making sounds and noises rather than melody. Career Sherwood was co-founder of Carib Gems and Pressure Sounds, and founder of Hitrun R ...
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Matt Helders
Matthew Helders (born 7 May 1986) is an English drummer, vocalist and songwriter. He is best known as a founding member of the indie rock band Arctic Monkeys, with whom he has recorded seven studio albums. In 2015, Helders collaborated with Iggy Pop and Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme and Dean Fertita to record Pop's studio album, ''Post Pop Depression'' (2016). Career Helders has said that he ended up playing drums as "that was the only thing left. When we started the band none of us played anything. We just put it together. They all had guitars and I bought a drum kit after a bit." However, Helders has mentioned the influence rap music has had on the band, saying "We were rap fans at school more than now ... it still influences us in some ways; like for me, it's the drummin'. The groove element, like foon-keh music." In addition, Helders cites seeing Queens of the Stone Age as the biggest influence on his development as a drummer, saying "the one thing that changed m ...
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Andy Nicholson
Andy Nicholson (born 13 February 1986) is an English musician, DJ, record producer, and photographer, best known as the original bass guitarist of the Sheffield band Arctic Monkeys, which he left in 2006. In 2008, he founded Mongrel with Jon McClure of Reverend and The Makers. In 2009, he became the bassist for ex- Milburn frontman Joe Carnall's band The Book Club, but left later that year to join Reverend and The Makers. He is currently producing and performing in hip hop group Clubs & Spades with Maticmouth from Reverend Soundsystem. Biography Early days An attendee of Stocksbridge High School, Nicholson was the only member of the Arctic Monkeys to not live in the High Green district, residing in nearby Hillsborough. Nicholson played bass guitar, and was seen as "the band wit, reliably swift with a self-deprecating quip". He played on ''Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not'' and the EPs ''Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys'' and '' Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys?''. ...
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Lowkey
Kareem Dennis (born 23 May 1986), better known by his stage name Lowkey, is a British rapper and activist from London. He first became known through a series of mixtapes he released before he was 18, before taking a hiatus from the music business. He would return in 2008, with appearances on BBC Radio and at various festivals and concerts including the BBC Electric Proms, Glastonbury, T In The Park and Oxegen in the buildup to his first solo album '' Dear Listener'', as well as collaborating with other British musicians to form the supergroup Mongrel. He released his second solo album, '' Soundtrack to the Struggle'', independently on in 2011. After a five-year hiatus, Lowkey released a string of singles between 2016 and 2018 to precede the release of his third album, ''Soundtrack to the Struggle 2'', released in 2019. Early life Lowkey was born in London to an Iraqi mother and an English father. From the age of twelve he began to rap, initially imitating American rappers bu ...
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Jon McClure
Jon McClure (born 22 December 1981), known as The Reverend, is an English musician. He is the lead singer and frontman of Reverend and The Makers, and ex-vocalist of 1984 and Judan Suki. He says that the name "Reverend" became his moniker because "I'm a big mouth and always running on at people". Early life McClure was born in the Sheffield suburb Grenoside, and grew up there with his parents and brother Chris. He has known Ed Cosens since childhood and in Notre Dame High School. He went on to become a poet, and began blogging on the internet. Early career Judan Suki McClure's first band was Judan Suki, which featured Ed Cosens and Laura Manuel from The Makers. The name Judan Suki is Japanese, meaning "being kicked in the weak spot". The band had around 10 members, including Alex Turner and Matt Helders of the Arctic Monkeys. Judan Suki played around Sheffield, headlining venues such as the Boardwalk and The Foundry Sheffield at Sheffield University in 2002. One of their live ...
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Skip McDonald
Skip McDonald (born Bernard Alexander, September 1949)Allmusic biography/ref> is an American musician who also performs under the stage name Little Axe. Career Early career Grounded in blues music learned from his father, a steel worker who played blues guitar at weekends, McDonald spent his early days playing jazz, doo-wop, and gospel, and eventually relocated to New York City as a teenager with his band of friends, called The Entertainers. McDonald formed the group Wood Brass & Steel in 1973 with bass guitarist Doug Wimbish and drummer Harold Sargent. The group recorded two albums before their 1979 breakup. He then became part of the house band for Sugarhill Records and appeared as a session player on many early rap albums, including " The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. Post-Sugarhill After leaving Sugarhill, McDonald, Wimbish, and drummer Keith LeBlanc began working with Adrian Sherwood, and eventually formed the trio into the industrial/dub group Tac ...
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Wretch 32
Jermaine Sinclaire Scott (born 9 March 1985), better known by his stage name Wretch 32, is a British rapper, singer and songwriter from Tottenham, North London. He was a member of the grime collective Combination Chain Gang, before forming The Movement with Scorcher, Ghetts, and Mercston. In 2011, Wretch 32 had three top-five charting songs from debut album ''Black and White'' and amassed over a million record sales, including the single " Don't Go" which peaked at number-one on the UK Singles Chart. In 2012 he was employed by both Adidas and Coca-Cola as one of the main faces of their London 2012 Olympics campaigns and on 1 July 2012, he won 'Best International Act' at the 2012 BET Awards. Early life Born in March 1985 to a Jamaican family, Jermaine grew up alongside crews Combination Chain Gang and The Movement, the latter of which featured himself, Scorcher, Ghetts, Mercston and Devlin. Continuing his MC career in 2006, Scott under the name ''Wretch 32'' released a series ...
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Stylah
Kareem Rhouila, better known as Stylah, is a South London rapper from Greenwich, London. He described himself as a black Arab, half Omani and half Moroccan. After being interested in music for some time, he decided to pursue it seriously. His first offering, 2004's ''Prince of Thieves, has'' single-handedly sold 9000 copies of on the streets of London and other cities sprung one single called "Warfare Part II" featuring Serious. ''Prince of Thieves'' caused a huge buzz for Stylah. He was soon recruited as the final piece of the jigsaw for London-based underground hip-hop group, the Poisonous Poets which consists of Lowkey, Tony D, Therapist, Doc Brown, Reveal, DJ Snips and Stylah. He is also a member of the international Catch 22 network started by Kool G Rap, which includes Immortal Technique, Ruff Ryders producer Elite, Scram Jones, Lowkey, DJ Snips, and many more. Stylah released the mixtape ''Crash Course'' with DJ Snips in 2006 and took the same approach as his first CD ...
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Doc Brown (rapper)
Benjamin Harvey Bailey Smith (born 21 September 1977), also known by the stage name Doc Brown, is an English actor, comedian, rapper, screenwriter, songwriter, and voiceover artist. He portrayed DS Joe Hawkins in the television series ''Law & Order: UK''. He is also known for portraying Nathan Carter in the CBBC (TV channel), CBBC television series ''4 O'Clock Club'' from 2012 to 2015. He also voiced a number of episodes of the popular show ''Funny Animals: Unleashed''. This show was aired via 4Music, 4MUSIC. Early life Doc Brown was born Benjamin Harvey Bailey Smith, son of a Jamaican immigrant, Yvonne Bailey, and an Englishman, Harvey Smith, who was 30 years his wife's senior. Raised in the Willesden area of north-west London, Smith is the younger brother of novelist and essayist Zadie Smith. Smith attended Hampstead School. Explaining his stage name, he has said: "Doc Brown's been my nickname since school, after Emmett Brown, the scientist in ''Back to the Future'', because ...
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