Isn't the internet great? I'm sitting here on my bed in a Cyprus hotel, preparing to play at Club Bling in Nicosia tonight while listening to the kick off of this year's HipHop Weekend and writing this all on my laptop all courtesy of wireless internet technology!!

For those new to 1Xtra, HipHop Weekend is an annual celebration of everything HipHop. The station dedicates an entire weekend's worth of airtime (60 hours to be exact) to celebrate the music and lifestyle that has influenced everything in popular culture since it's conception in the late seventies.

Check out the minisite here and remember that you can listen again to anything you miss up until next week.

I personally think it's a big look for a major radio station to dedicate 60 hours to HipHop, especially at the moment when things seem to be exciting again. What do you think? Have we hit the nail on the head this year or what have we missed? What are you going to be listening to and what are you going to be avoiding?

So looking at your comments on my Jay-Z concert review, it seems that my feelings were confirmed: that Jay did save his toppa top performance for the London crowd. He's not the first American artist to do this...I could list them, but the list is endless.

So why do they do it? Is it because there are more 'industry' people in London?

International people, let me know your thoughts too - do you grow up thinking that London *is* England?

When you leave a comment, do it profanity free please - this is the BBC after all!

Looks like you lot left a lasting impression on him...

Maybe it's because I've watched Fade to Black too much. Maybe it's because his performance at the Urban Music Festival in 2004 (where I last saw him live) was near faultless. Maybe it's seeing all the 'I Declare War' concert and the Reasonable Doubt 10 year anniversary show footage on YouTube. Maybe it was because I was tired. Maybe I was overwhelmed after warming up for the biggest act in HipHop. Maybe I was expecting too much...but Jigga's performance last night at the NIA in Birmingham while head and shoulders above a large amount of other live HipHop performances I've seen; wasn't as special as I would have hoped.

It wasn't that he didn't perform his hits or that the pyro flashes and video wall didn't visually take his performance to that next level; it's just that it didn't feel 'magic'...I didn't get those goosebumps I got while watching Fade to Black or watching him at the UMF.

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Damn Keisha, you need to see a professional. Gimme a call, my mum can sort out that mess of a weave you've got there...

Just incase you didn't see it on the messageboard

Weird Al still got the crazy parodies! Jokes!!

MistaJam couldn't make it so I'll accept this blog on his behalf. He'd like to thank all the fans.

My dad always says if you have to explain a joke, then it isn't funny. So I guess it isn't funny! If you didn't get the cryptic joke, that was aimed at last night's MOBOs (or NOSHOs as my friend called it on a text to me last night). I'm gonna stay diplomatic but you have your say on last night's MOBOs here.

So...following my post the other day about Joell Ortiz and Aftermath, more details have surfaced about Eminem's forthcoming project "Eminem presents The Re-Up". Matt White (whaddup Matt) from Polydor/Interscope in the UK has sent out the official press release:

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I'm getting really excited now...This AND HipHop weekend in the same month? Big!

In related news, isn't it funny how camera phones and generic video upload websites mean you can see things you otherwise would never get to see?

This should have been published yesterday, however, I saved it instead...IDIOT! Anyway, you may remember me breaking the news on this blog a mere few posts ago that my boy Joell Ortiz was finally signed by Dr Dre to Aftermath. Well, reading this interesting XXL online interview with Joell breaking down how the whole signing to Aftermath thing actually happened (word up Eskay) and while I'm really glad for my boy, do you reckon his material will ever see the light of day?

Thinking about Aftermath and the artists that have actually buss out of that camp; you've got:
Dre who was established anyway,
Eminem - who then went and set up Shady records, signed D12 and Obie Trice and then signed
50 Cent who brought the whole G Unit through who in turn signed
The Game who has since set up his own Black Wall Street label via Geffen.
While all this has been happening:
Stat Quo's been gathering dust with only 2 official singles to come out so far and 4 passed dates for the album 'Statlanta'
Bobby Creekwater came and went with no releases (thank god!),
Bishop Lamont has been patiently waiting,
Rakim came and went with no releases (only for all of the ideas for the Rakim album to be revamped for Busta's The Big Bang...allegedly!),
Eve got re-signed to Aftermath but now rumours are circulating that she's switched to Swizz Beats' Full Surface label after the one unofficial single with TI and
G.A.G.E has also been patiently waiting for a while now.
Add to this Marsha from Floetry (you know that project will be bad if it's ever released!), Brooklyn and Focus... it's not looking great.

Also, when you think that the only release over the past couple of years from the extended Aftermath camp that wasn't a Dre, Eminem or G Unit (or related) release was Busta's Big Bang; am I being paranoid for my boy or does the future not look to good for a Joell Ortiz Aftermath release anytime soon?

We get Russell Grant while they get Angie Stone and Bonecrusher!

and all I can say is Oh. My. God....Cringing for the whole show, but something tells me I'll be watching next week.

In other news, Flava Flav is the same age as my father. THAT is scary.

Kingdom Come. And he's officially no longer retired.

I'm getting more and more excited about this now!

Game fans - Semtex has heard it, I haven't but if you want to hear some instrumental clips and see track names and guest and production credits, check this. Here's hoping that Just Blaze beat featuring Nas and Marsha from Floetry gets the green light. And the Bob Marley sampled track featuring Fat Joe (or is that from Joe's forthcoming album?) I swear I made that beat about 3 years ago...

Food and Liqour drops on the 25th September over here. If you don't play around, you can pre-order it for less than £9. That same site has got Mos Def's new album listed for the same date. Interesting...

What shall we call Diddy now here in the UK? Sean? Mr Combs? Diddlyoddlyibbedygibbedy...?

Big shout outs to Chantelle Fiddy for putting me up on this video. Loved the tune for a hot minute, the video is bad, really love the imagery and the text even with the spelling mistakes! If only half the UK videos were as good as this, I'd still watch Channel U!

Right, gotta prepare for tonight's HipHop M1X Show, I'm out like Whitney and Bobby's marriage!

…but I was stranded for two days with no internet access and mobile phone signal at a theme park and it’s adjoining hotel and waterpark in Staffordshire. Isn’t it amazing that what we didn’t even have a decade ago is now completely indispensable? I was lost without tinternet and my phone! As for the place where wonders apparently never cease, it needs to be a little more big person tolerant – I couldn’t go on any of the rides!! Ace, Shortee Blitz, Big Ted… I’m calling on you to start that coalition I mentioned! I took the opportunity to listen to a lot of music and read a book…

This week, I have mostly been listening to Madlib’s Beat Konducta album (really good, a brilliant companion to Dilla’s Donuts – better than The Shining for that purpose. After this, there’s no doubt: Madlib has BEATS!!!); LeToya’s album (for my money, absolutely head and shoulders over Bouncy’s Bidet, sorry B’Day effort); Arctic Monkey’s album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" (Skimmed it before but had to really see what the hype is about and imho, it’s a good album but not amazing nor as groundbreaking as the NME will have you believe) and late contender for album of the year: Ty’s Closer.

Ty’s one of the most consistent album makers in the British HipHop scene (I’d say he transcends the scene) and this album is his best yet. The beats are bad bad bad bad bad! Musical, funky and as far away from the stale boom bap circa 1996 a lot of UKHH albums seem to be stuck with. His lyricism is sharp, witty and relevant and the guests (such as De La Soul, Vula and James Yarde) do exactly what a guest should do – add that extra zing to the track like hot pepper sauce on fried chicken! Once this hits the stores in October, you have to go out and buy it. And if the Mercury Music Prize committee are reading, make sure this is up there next year!

As for reading, if you a fan of HipHop and don’t have this then you aren’t a fan of HipHop! It gives you the missing album liner notes for a load of classic HipHop albums – the background stories behind some of the most classic tracks in HipHop. Can’t recommend this book highly enough!

I missed the tenth anniversary of Tupac Amaru Shakur’s passing so will be listening again to the 2Pac Ultimate Fan show (if you missed it too, check it here). While I agree that 2Pac is an icon and a very important figure for the progression of HipHop in the mainstream, I was never a really big fan of 2Pac’s music when he was alive – I was more a fan of his acting work. Juice is one of the reasons why I wanted to become a deejay and was the first time I’d seen a DJ battle – even though it was fake!

I also don’t really think that 2Pac is technically one of the Greatest Rappers of All Time – while his lyrics were always bad, his flow and delivery were quite basic. Technically, Biggie for me was the better rapper however, 2Pac is the better icon. Do you agree with me? Or have I just opened up a big can of worms…

...and I'm wearing these!

Well not really, but you get the picture! Comment on below, I need to know your thoughts - if enough are you are with me, I'll email the record label!

* Ok, maybe it wont be a number one but it will be a HUGE hit when/if released in the UK.

**Click here to hear the track in question - this way, you can read my blog without the music playing!**

I first played this on the HipHop M1X Show back at the start of June and people thought I was crazy.

When I first took it into the 1Xtra playlist meeting, people thought I was crazy.

Am I crazy?

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I gotta big up my brotha from another motha Ace. Why do the promotional companies feel the need to send us tiny T-Shirts? I think Ace, Me, Big Ted, Shortee Blitz and all the other BIG deejays in the UK need to start a coalition for bigger promo t-shirts. It's not fair that the slender deejays like Ronnie Herel and G Child get to rock those exclusive record label promotional T-shirts that scream "I get my artist T-Shirts for free" while if we want to, we gotta take a pen to an oversized tee we bought from off the net. Discrimination I tells ya! Did anyone watch this? It was really interesting and proves that it's not just big boned deejays who suffer from that kind of discrimination. For any forward thinking promo and clothing companies, mines a 5XL. Thanks.

Come back Vanilla Ice, all is forgiven! At least he's better than Robbie Williams...

All I can say to this is hahahahahahahaha!! Serves them right for BUYING Paris Hilton's album in the first place.

Everyone seems to be talking about the new Kano featuring Vybez Kartel tune. If you haven't heard it yet, it's VERY heavy and I'm trying to track down a copy of it myself. I think the collabo really works and would like to see more 'grime' artists with dancehall artists. We could have Doctor and The Doctor; Wiley and Wayne Wonder; L Dot Man and erm...Capleton! What do you think? Would Grimehall work?

The track's ill, the video's badbwoy...but do we really wanna know what goes down in Mr & Mrs Jones' bedroom?

Suppose the other question (for the fellas) is from this photo, Beyonce or Kelis?

The TerraFirma aka Klashnekoff, Kyza and Skribblah are releasing a new single and compilation album 'The Foundation: New Era'. The single is called War, check the trailer for it here

Anyone else excited?

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Don't think I'm gonna ask for people's help on this blog again...you lot are LONG!! I'mma take that ish to the message board.

While you lot are LONG, as always I remain on it (yeah right, which is why it's taken me 4 days to get round to writing this post) so let’s go through some news...

Everyone's favourite living fat Puerto Rican rapper, Fat Joe (notice I say living because everyone's favourite fat puerto rican rapper is Big Pun - and that's a fact) has recently signed a new deal with Jermaine Dupri and Virgin Records after leaving his former and 3rd label Atlantic. While this is good news for JD as he seems to have loads of decent female R&B singers signed but very few decent emcees signed (I'm looking at you Dem Franchize Boyz and Daz!) something tells me that the DITC reunion album the true schoolers (formerly known as backpackers) were waiting for might not happen. It's been quite a rocky road for Joe and record labels but it's good to know that he's signed with another major rather than the former-major-label-rapper-retirement-home or the used-to-be-dope-retirement-home (with the exception of Lord Jamar & Hi Tek of course). Good luck to him I say...but please don't feature any more dog ugly female rappers please.

Speaking of fat Puerto Rican rappers, congratulations to my boy Joell Ortiz who was recently signed to Aftermath! I predicted at the top of the year that he was one to watch and it seems like the good Dr Dre was listening to me! That's a damn good look for all involved, Joell is a SICK emcee and with the right backing, has the potential to be very big.

My favourite track at the moment, Push by Pharoahe Monch is currently getting a lot of support from both us at 1Xtra and also at our sister station Radio One (big up Zane and Annie). The video for it is here and it looks like Pharoahe's new label are spending some decent money on the project. About time too - Pharoahe's been one of my favourites since Internal Affairs (I'm a little too young to really remember Organized Konfusion) so I'd like to see this do well for him. I predict that it will actually enter the UK top 20 chart but this will only happen if people support it so don't holla at Limewire or Kaazaa for Push, buy it.

Has anyone seen the new advert for Diddy's perfume, sorry, aftershave "Unforgiven"? Even if it smells nice, the advert puts me off. Remember the cheesefests that were the Calvin Klein Eternity tv ads - where there'd be a half dressed man and woman, lots of soft lighting, waterfalls, beaches, wafting silk, soft focus and all that crap? Well, imagine that with Diddy. It's CAR CRASH TV. Someone put it up on youtube please! Never mind Unforgiven, more like Unforgivable. He needs to be careful, it's ammo for Fiddy Cent with their current beef. Diddy needs to stick to being a music mogul and signing artists like this. Aasim is the truth son! His new street song "And You Say NYC" is RIDICULOUS! You know where to go if you want to hear it!

That should do it for now. For legal reasons I've stayed away from commenting on Lil Kim vs Tanya Stephens' legal battle, Mos Def being arrested outside the VMAs and Ronald "Mr Biggs" Isley being arrested over non-payment of taxes - don't want to get myself arrested or sued!

Agree/Disagree with my views? Let me know...

So if you were listening to the show last night from 10pm til Midnight, you'll know what I'm talking about! If not, first off, you can listen again by clicking here and try to tune in live next time - the biggest club bangers around mixed and blended by my good self for the party people!

The last hour of next Friday's show needs some themes - you know when clubs theme their nights eg: a 90's New Jack Swing House Party night or a Sportswear party or a slow jams only couples party? Well, I wanna do that on the show but need your suggestions for themes. Click here to email me - you've got until 6th September to do so...and DON'T flop me on this one like you did the carnival after party tune selection....!!!

On the HipHop M1X Show this week, we kept it big and bashy. Call it a carnival remnant! Across the board back to back bangers from the likes of Blak Twang, Akala & Miss Dynamite, 50 Cent, Method Man and Snoop Dogg all featured in the show as did the repeat of Part One of the Jay-Z Beyond Reasonable Doubt mix (part 2 coming next week); the requests I didn’t have time to do when I covered for Semtex on last week’s Saturday Night Mixtape and the BIG Missy Elliott competition.

As Missy’s greatest hits album Respect M.E. hits the stores on Monday and Missy is one of the most important female artists we have within our genre (think about it...when has Lil' Kim ever pushed boundaries? She's too busy pushing down her panties!) we have 6 sets of Missy’s 6 studio albums to give away. Throughout the show, I played 7 Missy Elliott tracks. If you listen again to the show and note down the name of these tracks as they appear and then email me with your list, and you could be a winner!

Tonight, we've got the usual blend of BIG club bangers from across the broad spectrum of black music. Tune in between 10-midnight and holla at me if you have a request. Text number is 88111 or click here to email the show!

Also, as Ace & Vis are on holiday, I'm covering for them on 1Xtra Presents on Radio One TONIGHT from 3am. Spreading the good word of 1Xtra to the listeners of our sister station. Check it out here if you can't catch it live. Lets hope tiredness doesn't get the better of me and I make some mistakes...!!

The as promised news round up is coming folks, I haven't forgot, just been busy and there's so much of it around. I WILL post some news tomorrow...!