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!


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Monkey Bizzle Supports Boot Hill Xmas Bash at The Southgate

Not as greater deal of options for entertainment as recent weekends gone, I still had a double-booked dilemma. As much as nipping to the Sham for Train to Skaville appealed, I can rest assured this gig would go off based on past experience. Similarly, though, whenever those crazy canal-type Boot Hill All Stars are chalked on the Southgateโ€™s board, their unique and often comical frenzy of gypsy-folk-ska is a hoedown not to be missed, despite seeing them plenty before.

I opted for the latter, partially being anything longer than a fortnight without attending the Southgate and I get withdrawal symptoms, but more so because The Boot Hills were supported by Monkey Bizzle, who Iโ€™ve yet to witness live. Aware of this bunch of bananas too, though, after fondly reviewing their debut album Idiot Music, back in July, a fine primer to convince anyone checking them out is a must.

So, it was to be, a rare thing; a single record deck united with conventional instruments awaiting a show at the ever-dependable Southgate Inn, Devizes, and intrigue set in on how some of the, shall we use the term conventional again(?) punters would react to this. Our own reviewer, Andy looked ominously at the addition, even when Monkey Bizzle kicked proceedings off, and I wagered he was pleased to see me, knowing Iโ€™d cover anything more my cup of tea than his. To mark its greatness though, it must be said, aside from not busting into crazy legs and finishing off with a back spin, Andy reported how much he unexpectedly enjoyed it.

Though just like the Southgate, we are limited to suggest anything about both bands in this double-header are anywhere near conventional, and with corsets, props and handmade geetars from recycled produce, the Boot Hills did their own thing, in their own tried and tested way, and itโ€™s something to behold.

But not before Monkey Bizzle set the scene alight with their outrageous brand of rib-tickling hip-hop. In many ways, despite a different pigeonhole, the two bands complement each other with west country folk background similarities; even sharing drummer, Cerys. If The Streets injected something of urban capital life into UK hip-hop witty commentary, and Goldie Looking Chain did likewise for Cardiff, Monkey Bizzle do it for the west country. Though we mayโ€™ve hinted comparable before with the utterly fantastic Corky, while this one-man band offers pastiches of hip-hop classics via an acoustic method, five-piece Monkey Bizzle subtly fuse rock, reggae and ska into original compositions, scratching and rapping over hip-hop beats.

As self-confessed when waxing lyrical, the result is โ€œidiot music, for stupid people,โ€ and โ€œif you think this is stupid, then youโ€™re a fucking idiot,โ€ yet all presented here is tongue-in-cheek. The mocking irony of the egotistical rapper bigging himself up isnโ€™t something entirely new-fangled, neither are pot smoking, blagging mates or akin subjects covered, but Monkey Bizzle boons the concept with an agreeably local touch, and it works so very well.

Was it enough to delight da Southgate posse, hardly being the rock steady crew and all? I believe it was, and kudos to Deborah and Dave for bringing them, something different, to town.

Yet the show was only half-baked, and despite a few sounds hitches and the missing member due to sickness, professional rebels the Boot Hills came on to do what they do best, bring the house down with this insatiable zest for energetic folk rock, as danceable as ska, as cavernous as blues and as west country fun as the Wurzels in Toy Town.

Yes, itโ€™s rude and crude, comically entertaining, with anarchistic, often blasphemous themes where female masturbation references, puking on a night bus and frenzied Dolly Parton and Toots & the Maytals covers come under banjo turmoil goodness. If it sounds like madness, it totally is, but I wouldnโ€™t have it any other way, and it has become something of a personal Christmas treat tradition now; a predictably, but still absolutely fantastic night at the Southgate.

For the Boot Hills, the Xmas party continues next weekend closer to home, at Bradford-on-Avon leading pub venue, The Three Horseshoes. Meanwhile The Southgate hosts Phase Rotate next Saturday, the 18th, followed by Sundayโ€™s unmissable Christmas party with Itโ€™s Complicated. Anything succeeding this will be stuffing Quality Street and cold turkey sandwiches.


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Idiot Music, is the Monkeyโ€™s Bizzle

This is isnโ€™t the favoured way to start a review, but this is idiot music for stupid people, if you think this is stupid then youโ€™re a fucking idiot, and thatโ€™s a quote, from the opening title tack, which ends on, โ€œoh, there it is, up my bum; can I eat it now?โ€

If Goldie Looking Chain is all too millennial, but hip hop, for you, should be served with massive chunks of deadpan sauce, west country tongue-in-cheek sarcasm and general silliness, Monkey Bizzleโ€™s debut album, Idiot Music might just be the thing to pick off the menu.ย ย ย 

Through the Pythonesque nature of Idiot Music though, wailing guitars, proficient drumming (from Cerys of the Boot Hill All Stars), and substantial dope beats means this is far from amateurish, and will rock the festival circuit. In fact, the Somerset five-piece sold out the album launch party at The Barge on Honeystreet a fortnight ago; I see why. This drips with Scrumpy & Western charm, like Gloucestershireโ€™s Corky, Wurzels meets the Streets, the elements of โ€œagriculturalโ€ hip hop make this apt for our local crusty scene. Yet with wider appeal, it is, simply, parental advisory fun.

Primates tend to be a running theme, a particularly danceable funky signature tune named Monkey Funk, a King Kong themed rap, another including David Attenborough samples. There are also drug references aplenty, the reggae-inspired Heavy, or Doves (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) needs no explaining, but in it, it mocks the chav culture in such a way you mayโ€™ve thought only Goldie Looking Chain could. Something itโ€™ll inevitably be compared to, but more so than the humour drafting this side of the Seven, what makes this so appealing is its nod of respect to hip hop rather than mocking it, is greater than that of Goldie Looking Chain, in a similar way thereโ€™s was with Beastie Boy satirists Morris Minor and the Majors, if you get as old skool as I!

One thingโ€™s for sure, Monkey Bizzle isnโ€™t to be taken seriously, but for the most part itโ€™s listenable to as a hip hop album rather than pure novelty too, unique rappers Skoob and James make this so, especially as the album trickles on, both CU Next Tuesday and Ha Ha Ha being particularly entertaining, Oi Mate ripples with The Streets’, Give Me My Lighter Back but under a ska riff.

Nothing here is going to become next summerโ€™s banging anthem on Radio Oneโ€™s Big Weekender, an honour theyโ€™re clearly not bothered by or striding towards. To face facts, what you get is a full album of highly entertaining flip-flop and amusing lyrics of daring themes, wrapped by gifted musicians only playing the fools. And for which, Idiot Music has got my name all over it!