There has been heavy speculation regarding whether Chipmunk has been dropped by his label Jive (Sony) due to a reshuffle and a desire to cut costs. His track Champion which featured US R&B superstar Chris Brown is reported to have cost £90,000 for the feature alone. With costs like these, Chipmunk's latest chart positions have not been viewed as value for money. Costing more revenue than he is bringing in.
Add this to his recent Twitter rants and the comments made on his recent F64 with SBTV, does the news of him being dropped really come as a surprise?
It hasn't been officially revealed that Chipmunk has parted ways with his label, but to many industry insiders this comes as 'old news'. Reports are currently being rubbished, but eventually time will tell.....
Let's keep it real, if you're not heavily into grime, you probably never heard of East London's Maxsta until he dissed Chipmunk during the build up of Pow 2011, but if you're totally out of touch you probably missed that too....
Coming up under the wings of Roll Deep's Danny Weed and DJ Target, Maxsta grabbed the attention of many with the release of 'East London is Back' during 2010 and has continued to graft his way up.
Part of the Adidas 'We Are London' advertising campaign, Maxsta is due to release his debut single..... While he is heavily tipped as one to watch in 2011 on the underground, there seems to be a heavily mixed reaction. Some feel that Maxsta has gone back on his word and has already diluted his sound to approach the mainstream market, while others feel that he has replicated the exact same person who he has openly dissed - Chipmunk.
I'm not sure what the tribal dancer element of the video was trying to achieve, but I'm a good parent so I'll be telling my son to listen to Max.....
You mean to say that after Chipmunk found his face in the camera so often during making Skepta's Hello Good Morning video with Diddy, he only managed to spare a 2 second cameo?
Lethal B featuring JME, Wiley, Face, Chipmunk, P Money, Ghetts & Kano.
The track highly anticipated and going up against Tinchy Stryder's Game Over to be favoured within the grime scene, collaborates a number of artist to revive the classic original from Lethal Bizzle released in 2004. The video, directed by Carly Cussen, was also highly anticipated and reached over 50,000 YouTube views within 2 days.
Wiley's lack of attendace has been noted once again and not appreciated amongst the ranks..... But most are loving the video and track, whilst some feel that the classic should've been left alone. Released for download in February 2011, the figures will speak for themselves.
The hype and opinions that exploded off the back of this track were phenomenal!! Within 24 hours the video had over 100,000 views on YouTube and over 2,000 comments. Whilst also trending on Twitter within the London region.
Here are some of the things that we're said about the video/track:
@SwerveOnKiss: Game Over [Remix] is a different kind of incredible - beat + lyrical levels are too much - who made this beat? I need to shout them out
@SwerveOnKiss: if when playing #gameover you actually wheeled it the amount of times it deserved it would be over and hour long no?
@Shinobidan: Pro green is da best mc by miles on game over #realesttalkever
@PrincessRemz: Giggs definitely took over the whole of Game Over!
@CaramelCrumble: Just heard the game over riddum and it's pants. A couple one liners absolutely no bars.
@BigDirtz: if you thought the game over video was good then ur ah ediat
@WileyArtist: Example was meant to Be on the tune obviously I wasn't I respect tinch for that game over tune don't hate
@WileyArtist: Please don't try it with tinchy it's his song and if he asked me I would of said no anyway
@MikillPane: Chipmunk's verse on 'Game Over' could probably put a new roof over his head...it's been slated that many times. Nobody's feeling it. :-(
@MikillPane: In fact, when I watched 'Game Over' & saw comments about Chipmunk's verse, I hadn't seen that many slaters since I last watched EastEnders.
@GustoNBT: Everyone is gassing up the game over track and I cant see or hear why. I must be hearing something very different.
@TinchyStryder: I love how everyones leaving their different opinions on #GameOver on YouTube... Interesting too see so many different view points!
So what were the YouTube comments saying??
Well most were slating Chipmunk saying that his game is in fact over and he sounds like he's trying to be an English version of Lil Wayne, but loads others were also stating that Wiley, Skepta, Ghetts and a few others should have been featured on the track. However many show gratitude for the beat and it seems Devlin, Professor Green and Example have received the most praise.
Personally I think Ishi 2Stripes has produced one of the hardest beats we've heard come out of the UK during 2010 and whether the track is liked or not, Tinchy Stryder has done a great job as everybody has been talking about it.
I'm sure there are many out there who think they can do better and will be re-making their own versions. We shall see.....
Everyone is talking about the MOBO Awards but I'm not getting all gassed up this year..... Firstly I don't understand why it's being held in Glasgow?? What I mean by this is, hardly any of the winners turn up when the ceremony is held in Wembley, do you think more people will make the effort to turn up if it's held in Glasgow? We shall see.....
With many UK acts holding nominations however from the likes of Chipmunk, Dizzie Rascal and Tinchy Stryder to Yolanda Brown who is up again for Best Jazz Act (she won the 2008 Award) and Donaeo who is up for Best UK Act hopefully UK will be able to dominate the award winners. I have to wonder what was going through the thoughts of the board that picked some of these nominees on the other hand, as many of them just simply don't make sense.
Anyway, it's MOBO time again..... The question really is whether anybody actually cares anymore??
