Acknowledgements
Thanks to Specifik for the recording.
Introduction
Firstly, apologies for the delay in this article, which was intended for last Thursday. Here at Rhythm Obscura we experienced some human difficulties this past week. We will, however, bring you two articles this week to compensate, the first of which follows and reveals a recording of some questionable and challenging merit.
We would also like to inform you that HEADZ-zINe 2.2 is well on the way to being complete, and we are thrilled to confirm that Evil Ed and Junior Disprol will be the in-depth in-conversations for this issue!
Freestyle in the moment
It was cold. Cold in a way that the only thing that could stop us thinking about how cold it was, was the fucking rain. Untiring in its lashes, assiduous in its attention to soaking every object on the surface of the terrain. I imagined it soaked through to the core of the planet, sizzling sodden mass of goo below mantles which lay frigid, awash with lukewarm, insipid water. I’d never felt rain like it.
For us five, Sharp, Longhead, Tall, Scheme Beta and me, the point of departure from this torrent was piling into the cramped spaces of Sharp’s Mini. The insides of the glass steamed up with immediate effect. This suited us, as, parked underneath the buzz of an orange streetlamp, we could skin up hoons galore inconspicuously. Or, so we led ourselves to believe. The reality of the scene is that we were undeniably up to something.
Yet, that something was the most immediate improvised form of creative practice in hip hop: freestyling. The mini filled with blue and grey smoke. We stank of cheap vodka, stinky slate and Rothman’s red, and as Tall, Scheme Beta and I were compressed into the back padded pew, Longhead and Sharp craned round from the front seats, cake holes aghast, as Tall threw a beatbox and I started to rap. Sharp, being the ever intrepid archiver – even in the most challenging circumstances – recorded the whole thing on his Dictaphone.
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