Weekly World Report: The Streets, South Africa, Buck 65, The Ukraine

British rapper and songwriter Mike Skinner aka The Streets received accolades for his sophomore album A Grand Don’t Come for Free, dubbed the best album of 2004 in Q magazine’s list of the top 50 albums of the year. "A Grand Don’t Come for Free captured the country’s mood in a way no one could […]

British rapper

and songwriter Mike Skinner aka The Streets received accolades for his sophomore

album A Grand Don’t Come for Free, dubbed the best album of 2004 in

Q magazine’s list of the top 50 albums of the year. "A Grand Don’t

Come for Free c

aptured the country’s mood in a way no one could have predicted,"

said Q Magazine representatives, according to BBC News UK Edition. "It

went from cult classic to bestseller in no time." The Top 50 list features

American acts as well, including Eminem, and is assembled by Q magazine, Britain’s

best-selling serious music publication. Also on the list was British MC Dizzee

Rascal at number 12. The rapper has just launched a new label, The Beats. The

first signing is The Mitchell Brothers, both featured on the single "Blinded

By The Lights."

A group of South

African DJs and turntablists will perform in South Africa from Dec. 9 to 11,

with a stop in Botswana first on the line-up. The group’s leader, Que Lebatha,

told the Botswana Press Agency (BOPA) they wanted to present Botswana with an

early Christmas celebration before they continue on their three-week tour to

different towns and cities in South Africa, including Mozambique and Swaziland.

The group will set the stage at Mc Ginty’s on Dec. 9, then on to Urban Brew

on Dec. 10 and the Lizard Lounge on Dec. 11. According to Lebatha, the performances

will be a mixture of different genres and will feature an MC performance with

The Durban MC Battle of the Year champion, Raheem, along with a one-hour live

turntablist show judged by the audience. The tour includes renowned hip-hop

DJ Richard, the only certified Stanton Scratch trainer in South Africa and Cape

Town native DJ Kent, who perfected his scratching, beat-juggling and beat-cutting

techniques at a young age. Others include African East Coast radio DJ Papercut

and Obita, a Johannesburg MC, who won the 1997 Botswana Hip-Hop Bonanza.

Canadian rapper

Buck 65 aka Richard Terfry or Stinkin’ Rich, will release his first major American

album through the American division of V2 Records on Jan. 25, 2005. The album

is a compilation of songs from Buck’s previous Canadian releases, including

Vertex, Man Overboard and Talkin’ H#### Blues. Buck

recently appeared in Chart Magazine’s Sexiest Canadian Musicians issue and was

designated as the Hot Indie Rapper in Rolling Stone’s annual Hot List this year.

Singer Roman Kalin

and guitarist Roman Kostyuk of Ukraine have produced a song, set to a hip-hop

beat, using slogans that protested the results of the controversial Nov. 21

presidential election in their native town Ivano-Frankivsk, in the Ukraine,

according to Reuters. "Our song came out on the second day of the revolution…we

have our own studio and we wrote and recorded it in four hours," Kostyuk

said. "The words were already written by the people, so we just had to

come up with the melody." The first verse of the popular song is taken

from slogans and banners displayed at presidential hopeful Viktor Yushchenko’s

rallies. Protesters allege that Yushchenko was cheated by current Prime Minister

Victor Yanukovych and that poll results were manipulated. The Ukrainian Supreme

Court is expected to rule on the allegations today (Dec. 3), which have divided

the country in half. "We could not stay on the sidelines. Either you are

with the people or just sit at home and drink coffee," Kalin said. "We

played five nights in our own town and then we came here and have been here

ever since." The group also encouraged people outside of the Ukraine to

listen to the song, which is only available on the Internet.