Agricultural Appropriation with Monkey Bizzle

There’s no sophomore slump for Monkey Bizzle; prolific in their art, these rural chav-choppers return with a second album, Agricultural Appropriation, only five years and a kazillion bongs after their debut, Idiot Music, and it be gurt lush, shaggerโ€ฆ.

Not on the guesstimate I’ve passed a thousand plays of Oi Mate, their tune from Idiot Music about the ultimate scrounger, and figured these guys know a blagger when they see one, rather on the grounds I laughed out loud more times at the opening tune than I’ve laughed at any comedy song, ever, possibly combined, I brought this album rather than requested a review copy; it’s going in my personal collection, even if you can’t skin up on an mp3.

Legend has it Malmesbury’s Corky coined the term agricultural hip hop. Brilliant though he is at penning and acoustically delivering an original, his showstoppers are usually parodies of hip hop classics; think gangster’s paradise and change to Ginsters, for example. Questioning if we’re in the same ballpark here, because Monkey Bizzle are 100% original and, save the odd spoken sample or dodgy scratch, they’re backed by a bone fide band. It’s more than rap with a capital C. Not much more but definitely more.

Monkey Bizzle, ready for court!

So, if the term is founded, we could debate the boundaries of agricultural hip hop till the cows come home, literally; ie, if you’re producing hip hop and live rurally, does it automatically class your output as agricultural hip hop? The opening title track therefore either ponders if they’re guilty of โ€œagricultural appropriationโ€ being, while dwelling rurally, they’re not farmers, as is the common misinterpreted stereotype in urban areas where hip hop trends, or, more likely, it’s just a self-deprecating exercise with hilarious consequences, as it is with many of the their songs.

In 1985 Derek Showard, or GrandMixer DXT said โ€œthe Bronx is the home of hip hop,โ€ not Bridgwater, but we’ve come this far from NY hommies, and a melting pot of west country banter, folk and scrumpy, is fine, if slightly polluted. Monkey Bizzle dived in, and the result is as funny as it is accomplished. For while they’re more Grandmaster Smelly Mel than Melle, and more whole mouth than tongue-in-cheek, still they manage to rock a rhyme that’s right on time, and that’s not just tricky, it’s tr-tr-tr-tricky, trrrrrrrrrrricky, apparently. One certainty, Monkey Bizzle keeps it realz on a geographical level close to us, and with West Country banter as twisted as it generally is, this is as raw as it could be. This album is  dope in more ways than one, and exceptionally well produced.

It’s backed sometimes by a ska offbeat, others the wailing guitar riffs of much of Caucasian hip hop-rock crossover, and boom bap, though they’d probably titter if you plural it to โ€œbaps.โ€ It’s as if Viz creator Chris Donald joined A Tribe Called Quest at Glastonbury, as the absolute filth knows no bounds, but is waxed lyrical with definite perfection. They couldn’t even hold back for the customary ballad; needless to say any song with lines like โ€œyou’ve got nits in your bits but I don’t give a shit,โ€ and โ€œI’m never gonna stop licking around your welly-topโ€ is not the song I would advise you to play in a romantic setting. But, laugh, you will. 

There’s separate odes to getting high and the fateful just popping out for a pint after work scenario. There’s one tune about a guy called Bubbles, who makes The Shaman’s Ebenezer Goode look like Cliff Richard, another appears to be a homage to shopping at Lidl, with the genius rhyming of โ€œLidlโ€ with โ€œmiddle,โ€ and one about a technophobe trying to operate the camera on their phone, questioning the worth of it all.

The disambiguation of the ironic slang โ€œillโ€ in hip hop as a positive is switched far too literally. There’s an overload of bravado as the genre requires and quips aplenty dissing their rivals, The Skimmity Hitchers, where any turf war doesn’t get dirtier than accusations of shagging badgers.ย 

But if there’s any likeliness of west country rural hip hop as a contender, convincing and earning respect from city hip hop aficionados, rather than ever remaining just a comical displacement, it’s the final tune, The Cypher. Without topic it’s a nine-minute freestyle collaboration with a host of rappers, none stating their rural or urban environment; Dr. Syntax, Cecil McFarrell Aka Mr Vocab, Chiman 101, Ez Dickens, Samantics, Finn Kinnara, Tatty MC & Fake Dave, all of whom I must research, and our favourite Bristol boom bappers The Scribes. Perhaps this flips the agricultural appropriation concept on its head, asking provided they had fun entertaining, which I couldn’t imagine them not,  if it matters at all and if anyone gives two fucks where a rapper resides, town or country.

Of course, there will always be a renounced Welsh rapping clan, UK comedy hip hop acts will always be likened to, but who’s zooming who in a world where comedy has been evident in hip hop since its inception? Think the Treacherous Three’s Santa Rap in Beat Street, along with a young Doug E. Fresh, and the plethora of carefree lyrics from De La Soul to English reggae’s legendary fast-styler Smiley Culture.

The jury is out, perhaps Agricultural Appropriation has a hidden philosophy, perhaps it lays down the possibility rural hip hop can be accepted by city folk, perhaps it’s even the album to break those boundaries, but definitely and more simply, it’s a hilarious riot, a mixture of off-colour deadpan and comedy rap, and a damn entertaining listen; I pissed me pants giggling while in backspin and sprayed the crowd like Charlie Dimmockโ€™s garden sprinkler, mate.

LinkTree


Trending…..

Dulcet Tones Rock Back to Bassett!

You’re a teenage Tom Cruise, at least you wish you were, but stay with me on this! Your parents are away, you’re home alone withโ€ฆ

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

The Skimmity Hitchers V Monkey Bizzle: The East/West Somerset Agricultural Hip Hop Turf War!

Forget the feud between Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, this is England’s West Country rivals The Skimmity Hitchers and Monkey Bizzle in a vicious rap confrontation which can only end one way; best guess, a drive-by cream tea headshotโ€ฆ.

Seems shameless merch tarts and purveyors of self-dubbed โ€œidiot music,โ€ Monkey Bizzle started it, Mrs McClusky. They put out a T-shirt with their monkey logo copulatory abusing the Skimmity’s badger at the beginning of the month, claiming they were โ€œbetter than the Skimmity Hitchers.โ€ Real hardcore insults, but not an incredibly high pedestal to pop yourself onto.

Offensive on a Carry-On Camping level

As psychologically offended as a millennial watching George & Mildred, and in the spirit of big girl’s blouses, five days ago those bonkers as badgers vegetative veterans of deliberately naff scrumpy and western hip hop, The Skimmity Hitchers hit back, waxed lyrical by what appears to be their mum’s garage, filmed it like the dicks they are, and basically tore apart Monkey Bizzle. In the Facebook video the Hitchers claimed Bizzle stole the term โ€œagricultural hip hopโ€ from its originator, Malmesbury grandmaster Corky, not very famous for the parody track Ginsters Paradise but a legend in his own Tweed nonetheless.

The Skimmity Hitchers laying it down

Factually accurate, Corky possibly coined the term and invented the subgenre, but shared the Hitchersโ€™ post on the issue without comment, therefore best to assume he couldn’t give a wurzel’s combine if โ€œagricultural hip hop,โ€™ as a term,ย  is plagiarised by either of them. Updated: Corky aligned a non-opinion on the usage of the term, but enlightened that “Agricultural hip hop has been around for years before me, and if Monkey Bizzle want to do agricultural hip hop then that’s lush. I haven’t actually heard any agricultural hip hop from them – at the moment they’re doing Scrumpy & Western rap and West Country hip hop, and I do love em.”

While this indicates it’s unclear at this time if Monkey Bizzle have ever even used the term, until they did today in a mock interview pretending this tiff was serious enough to warrant a news channel picking the story up. The interviewer has an earring, for crying out loud, itโ€™s kind of obvious they just scrubbed up a crusty mate, paid him a teenth and put him in a suit.

Corky; staying the fuck away from it all!

The only fact we must face is neither the Skimmity Hitchers nor Monkey Bizzle have progressed hip hop as a genre any further than The Holiday Rap in 1986, and MC Miker G & DJ Sven could’ve put them both, and their legal advisors/drummers on their arses, direct into the moistest cowpats in all of Somerset; thatโ€™s the point, and that’s why we love them both equally and feel it necessary to state the blinding obvious that the whole affair is banter, and a shameless and mildly amusing self-promotion for both parties. Yeah, impressive crusty dreadlocks or not, I’ll rise to that occasion, fill your muddy jump boots.

Monkey Bizzle at a barn

As fans and keyboard warriors jump the bandwagon to side online with either band, unconcernedly call for peace, complain their T-shirt is sleeveless, or conspire both bandโ€™s members are actually the same people, the war shows no sign of resolution yet. When fans conspire about the musician’s members they know they have a little problem in their hands.ย 

At the time of publication, the tempestuous testicle is in the Skimmity Hitchersโ€™ court, Monkey Bizzle hitting back from the video with their own rap video, performed by a fluffy monkey puppet, and calling for the Hitchers to stick to supporting B*Witched, which is also not fact checked. As of yet The Hitchers have not responded in song, using a Japanese proverb in a Facebook post calling the Bizzleโ€™s lyrics โ€œvinegar strokes,โ€ and mocked their usage of the stuffed toy, as โ€œhiding from the camera,โ€ and โ€œrambling randomly like a Yeovil Donald Trump.โ€ Seemingly wanting closure, or just the final word, they asked fans if โ€œany further response from The Skimmity Hitchers is really necessary?โ€ย 

Monkey Bizzle retort with puppet

As a Wiltshire-based blog, we at Devizine Towers are duty bound to remain impartial, and only bring the stupid subject up as a warning to take all necessary precautions not to bum rush the show if youโ€™re planning to cross the border anytime soon to ring-rang-a-dong for a holiday. Though if we had to pick sides in a sinking boat scenario, at least we share a common ancestor with monkeys, whereas badgers are only good for one thing around here; blaming for bovine TB when thick slices of gammon deliberately dilapidated their dairy farm in order to backhand their compensation to their building contractor bestie for a new housing estate on their landโ€ฆoopsy, too much? Of course, that Pandora’s Box is total fabrication and falsehood which would never happen around here, and I take it all back.

Wiltshire Police have published an announcement that any Wiltshire based agricultural hip hop artists living in Somerset, even Frome, should leave now for their own safety and for the sake of their pasties.

We rebuke the concept thereโ€™s any agricultural hip hop artists from Wiltshire currently residing in Somerset, or any at all save Corky. Itโ€™s simply not something we do here. Theyโ€™re not like us over the cider apple border are they? Weโ€™re all โ€˜real ale,โ€™ barbed wire fences and henges, theyโ€™re all dry stone walls and tors. Theyโ€™re as stir crazy as Shelbyville residents in The Simpsons, weโ€™re refined, donโ€™t you know, and thanking you kindly.

We may teeter on the edge of chap hop, but usually if itโ€™s not a folk or electric blues driven wet blanket weโ€™re not interested. Yet, as war often produces positive repercussions, we hope this feud will allow international attention to West Country born scrumpy & western and agricultural hip hop, cos it’s dope, literally. In the manner of fairness, though, tunes both bands are laying down are something simply worth putting up with the agro for, and Iโ€™ll drop links to them here, so we can twitch our curtains in disgust at their antics but still enjoy their porangi poetry and wackadoodle wabblings from a safe distance.

Monkey Bizzle, ready for court!

We live in hope freestyled spontaneous peace raps will commence, least The Wurzels will intervene, knock their bleeding heads together with a goldie looking chain, and they can settle the issue over a skull shaped bong, or some wacky-baccy laced fudge; you know the sort, with a postcard of the bogs at the Bridgewater drive-thru KFC poorly glued to the box.

โ€œWe love our skimmity badger buddies like brothers,โ€ Monkey Bizzle showed the love like a fucking Disney adaption of Fergie and Will I Am, indicating its all showy banter. โ€œSome of them even contain a little monkey DNA in them.โ€ This just eggs the keyboard warriors further into the conspiracy theory theyโ€™re one and the same, but even if theyโ€™re not, theyโ€™re probably related in some form or fashion; weirdos, build a dry stone wall to keep them from gigging in Trowbridge or closer, I say!


What else is up?

Whatever Happened to Pancake Races in Devizes?

It seems Shrove Tuesday celebrations in Devizes have fallen as flat as aโ€ฆ.well, you get the gagโ€ฆ Traditionally organised by Age Concern Wiltshire, and oftenโ€ฆ

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.