Watch Tha 4orce and Dubbledge’s new video “My Brother’s keeper.”
Hip-hop veteran Tha 4orce and King of the Beats Records present new album ‘Setting Standards’, featuring Confucius MC, Dubbledge, Cyclonious, Jae Mann, Gee Bag, Poynt Blak, King Kashmere, Wan-Cee, Arise King, David, Ray Vendetta and Lady Sanity, set for release this Spring.
The MC/DJ/producer has collaborated with his favorite MCs to drop a track from the album every month, showcasing the wealth of talent in UK hip-hop. Every song will be accompanied by a visual, shot by Global Faction and hosted on their popular Youtube channel. With this, Tha 4orce will also be introducing the ‘Hip-Hop Movement’, a collaboration with the legendary Aerosoul clothing, combining high quality music with high quality threads.
Speaking on the project Tha 4orce explains “The aim is to now inspire a new generation of youngsters, musicians, beat makers, MC’s and DJ’s, learn your craft, be the best at it, concentrate on your craft of being creative and inspirational for the culture, as opposed to having an attitude of creating to make money or seek fame.”
Two singles have already been released; January’s selection sees Tha 4orce (AKA Steve Ellington) team up with South London’s Confucius MC on ‘More to it’, a single that shows his sheer lyricism on shattering beats – an advocate for the power of the ‘Hip-Hop Movement’. He has previously worked with Eric Lau and Micachu & the Shapes whilst also supporting Mos Def and Slum Village as one half of live duo =CoN+KwAkE=. Confucius MC is a unique voice, rising above the noise and cutting through the clichéd conversations. February’s single ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ is a collaborationwith Dubbledge, a skilful MC whose distinctive style, lyricism and flow matches perfectly with Tha 4orce’s production on this future classic. ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ definitely keeps with that high bar level people have come to expect from both these heavyweights. Dubbledge has featured on a number of UK hip-hop releases, such as Foreign Beggars, Genesis Elijah and Braintax’s ‘Panorama’ album.
Ellington started his career with Ronin, a hip hop crew of the late 1980’s where he saw national success with their single ’Who Got The Last Laugh’, which later soundtracked a Wrangler Jeans advertising campaign in 1990. Later in his career he progressed into music production and engineering, working for Hit and Run Music Publishing where he achieved impressive production credits, including Amy Winehouse, Ms Dynamite, Blackstreet, LL Cool J and Common to name a few. You may also recognize him as the DJ on the hit Friday night show ‘Da Ali G Show’ on Channel 4.
April 2017 will see the physical release of a limited edition colored vinyl album and CD version of ‘Setting Standards’, with artwork photography by the legendary Normski, plus special packages of ‘Hip Hop Movement’ T-Shirts from Aerosoul with Vinyl or CDs. Through this album, Tha 4orce aims to bring hip-hop back into the forefront, representing the UK and spreading the music, message and movement worldwide. Be original, don’t do the same thing as everyone else, always set the bar high, shine and continue to keep setting standards.
