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From Essex to Compton - Rat Boy sampled on new
Kendrick Lamar track
21-year-old indie rock musician Jordan Cardy
a.k.a. Rat Boy has been sampled on Compton
rapper Kendrick Lamar’s highly anticipated
record DAMN. The Essex-born singer-
songwriter posted to social media on the
morning of the album’s release, in shock that
he had been “sampled by [his] favourite hip-
hop artist of all time.”
“I’m on the new Kendrick album… thats
[sic] mad one of my favourite artists what
a compliment damn.” tweeted the young
musician.
The song that Kendrick Lamar chose to
sample appeared on Rat Boy’s 2015 mixtape
Neighbourhood Watch, and includes the lines
“Kicked down the door and his Nike Air rattles/
Better rush the fire exit no time for battles”. The
snippet of what is essentially British garage
rap - think The Streets - is used in Lamar’s track
LUST. Written about the mundane reality of
life in which every day becomes a routine, LUST
was produced by independent Californian
record label Top Dawg Entertainment’s
Sounwave, BadBadNotGood and DJ Dahi.
Having previously worked with Rat Boy, the
latter happens to be the connection that links
him to Kendrick Lamar.
In an interview with SPIN magazine, DJ Dahi
revealed that “[The Rat Boy sample] was down
13
to me, we had worked together on some
stuff a couple years ago and he gave me the
vocal stems.”
During an interview with BBC Radio 1’s
Mistajam, Rat Boy confirmed the story,
adding that he didn’t find out about the
sample until the morning that DAMN. was
released.
“I woke up that morning and logged onto
Twitter to see thousands of tweets telling
me about the sample. I couldn’t believe it,
it’s mad.”
This isn’t the first time Rat Boy has received
recognition from an American hip-hop
artist either, last year he posted a cover of
Odd Future rapper Tyler, the Creator’s track
Cherry Bomb to SoundCloud which was
greeted with praise from Tyler himself.
Rat Boy is currently on the biggest UK tour
of his career so far; dates are opposite, tickets
available from See Tickets and Ticketmaster
Written by Tatjana
Harrington-Steward
Fyre Festival Fiasco
Disaster struck on
the islands of The
Bahamas last week, as
the highly anticipated
music festival, Fyre
Festival, fell apart like
nothing the music
industry has ever
seen before. What was
pitched as a ‘luxurious
event’ and a ‘life
changing experience’
(Cosmopolitan, Vogue)
by co-founders
Ja Rule and Billy
McFarla nd, turned
out to be the exact
opposite.
“Yachts, turquoise
seas, and sandy beaches” were what the company boasted,
alongside ‘glamping, villas and gourmet food’ on an island of
The Bahamas that was completely uninhabited. With tickets
ranging from an unthinkable $2000 to a heart-stopping
$100,000, celebrities and socialites had managed to sell out
Fyre Festival in just a couple of weeks of being on sale.
After being transported from Miami International Airport
to The Bahamas via private jet, guests arrived to the sight
of disaster relief tents and not much else. However, this was
only a fraction of Fyre Festival’s shortcomings.
Rubbing salt in the wounds was American rock band
Blink-182 who pulled out of the festival’s headline slot due to
“[A lack of] confidence that we would have what we need to
give you the quality of performances we always give our fans.”
Following this, every other act due to perform at Fyre Festival
subsequently decided to give it a miss, which
ultimately lead to the festival being cancelled. In
addition to this, almost a week later people are still
stuck on the island due to a problem with flights.
With the media and public having quickly learnt
about the disaster of Fyre Festival through
attendees’ social media cries for help, apologies
from numerous people linked to the festival have
started to litter the internet.
Influencers, such as Kendall
Jenner and Bella Hadid,
who were paid thousands
of dollars to promote the
festival, posted tweets
apologising for misleading
their fans who had splashed
out on tickets,
“I initially trusted this would
be an amazing & memorable
experience for all of us…I
feel so sorry and badly
because this is something I
couldn’t stand by.”
Subsequent to this, both Ja
Rule and the official Fyre
Festival website posted
similar apologies, promising
that
“Festival goers will be
refunded in full… Also, all
guests from this year will
have free VIP passes to next
year’s festival.”
In addition to this, the
company have accepted
full responsibility for what
had happened, stating that
“[They] simply weren't ready
for how big this thing would
get”.
Written by Tatjana
Harrington-Steward
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