Its around about a year to the day that my good homie Iris, one half of rhyming duo Mole & Iris, tragically lost his life in a car accident. Its crazy that its already been that long. There’s no chance that anyone who knew him will ever forget him. The track above is a little something that I wrote a few months after Jake’s passing. I wasn’t entirely sure whether I was gonna play it to anyone, but in these last few days I thought it would be kind of apt. Dedicated to all of Jake’s friends and family. • Koaste
I may not be as much of a Dilla stan as the next man, but real recognise real, and this track is a banger. Danny Brown jumps on an unreleased Jay Dee beat and the result is this. From an upcoming Rebirth of Detroit project. This one needs some loud play. • Koaste
Something a little bit different for this morning, as Oddisee gives a new twist to the late great Marvin Gaye’s Ain’t That Peculiar. I think it works pretty well. The new album (from Oddisee, not Marvin), People Hear What They See dropping next month. • Koaste
Gutted to hear that the Beastie Boys Adam Yauch aka MCA passed away last night. Grew up listening to the Beasties, and when I did eventually get to catch them live at Wembley Arena a few years back, it was one of the best live gigs I’ve ever been to. I knew Yauch had been fighting cancer, but I guess thought he was through the worst of it as I hadn’t seen any updates for a while. He also directed most of the group’s videos under the alias Nathaniel Hornblower. RIP MCA. • Koaste
Sick Big L piece in the new Chrome & Black Brighton shop. AvK on the cans for this one. All you graf heads in the 273 need to go check out the new shop for all your paint needs. Big L RIP. • Koaste
In August last year, the Brighton Hip Hop scene lost one of its most charismatic emcees. In memory of my good friend Jake Crockett aka Iris, here’s a must have free download. Big shouts out to 184 for putting this all in motion. Along with the original version of All Day and All Night, this EP includes remixes by big dogs Lewis Parker and Evil Ed, as well as all the instrumentals. Deeply missed, but never forgotten. • Koaste
New track from Quan – I know a lot of people right now who have been losing love ones, so this goes out to all of you. Taken from his mixtape The Struggle. • Koaste
So gutted right now. One of the Massive Warriors is no longer with us, and I’m feeling pretty emotional. Since I got back from Australia, I haven’t seen Jake enough, and when I got a call yesterday I really didn’t know what to say. It was kind of cathartic to see everyone that knew him well and talk about the great memories that we all shared from spending time with him.
I’ve got many vivid memories of spending time with Jake, and life will be worse off with him not being around any more. My thoughts and sympathy go out to his family, and everyone that knew, or ever came into contact with him, both friends and musical collaborators.
In Jake aka Iris, we had one of the finest, most original voices to ever light up the Brighton Hip Hop scene, and through his music, we are so lucky to have a lasting reminder of everything the little angry man stood for and was a part of. We lost a great man this week, and nothing I can say now can ever fully verbalise exactly how I feel.
Jake, if you are listening somewhere, the guys had a great reunion last night. We relived so many memories and imagined how much you’d have been frustrated at us catching feelings about the whole thing. You were something the the Brighton scene has been severely short of in recent years. Someone who wasn’t afraid to voice their opinion and tell a cunt he’s a cunt. There are a lot of people who are gonna miss you. Big love little homie. • Koaste
