Generic list post: May 2025

Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when Mac Dre appeared as an option in one of the Daily Mirror's quizzes. Gotta be the first time Mac Dre's name has appeared in a British newspaper. Bring back Derek McGovern's gambling column IMHO.

Roxanne Shante vs. Sparky Dee - Round 1 (1985)
Edan - Eyeblink (2nd version) (200?)
OnlyHeaven - Text (2025)
Ezale - How Much Dope (2025)
Seiji Oda ft. Trunk Boiz - No Fillins2 (2025)
Seiji Oda - Sleeve Jobs (2025)
X-Raided - Queen of Hearts (2025)
Lord Sko ft. Grand Puba - Girbaud Talk (2025)
Slade - Them Kinda Monkeys Can't Swing (1974)
Real Lies - Down & Out (Where E-Girls Dare) (2025)

Bonus bloggin: 1nce again I'm gonna use my monthly wrap-up post to keep track of the best movies and TV shows I've been watching. * indicates rewatches dunnit.

Movies I watched and liked:
Accident (1967)
Slade In Flame (1975) *
Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975) *
Vampire's Kiss (1988)
The Boy From Andromeda (1991)
The Surfer (2025)

TV shows I watched and liked:
Neighbours (new episodes) (2025)
Mastermind (grand final) (2025)
Toy Shop On Tour (final episode) (2025)
Brentford vs. Man United (2025)
Southampton vs. Arsenal (2025)
Crystal Palace vs. Manchester City (2025)
Inter Milan vs. Barcelona (2025)
Barcelona vs. Real Madrid (2025)
PSG vs. Inter Milan (2025)
Match Of The Day 1 and 2 (new episodes) (2024)

Other stuff: I made a playlist of my top 10 favourite non-2025 Rap songs I've discovered in 2025; enjoyed Party Sparty's post about Peter Cushing's first Dr. Who movie.

Born To Audiomack: Top 10 2025 Late Pass Faves

~~ Top 10 2025 Late Pass Faves ~~

1. O.Z - It's A Black Thing (1990)
2. Three Below Zero AKA MOOD - Mr. Everything (1995/2016)
3. Edan - Eyeblink (2nd version) (200?)
4. Dru Down - I Rock (2002)
5. Murs ft. Shock G & Humpty Hump - Risky Business (2003)
6. Murs - The Night Before (2003)
7. Juvenile ft. Mannie Fresh - Party (2024)
8. Mello Buckzz ft. G-Herbo - Hmm.. BD (2024)
9. DCG Shun & DCG Bsauv - Steppers Freestyle (2024)
10. 504icygrl - Throw Me Something Big (2024)



No shotz @ youse ol' McRib ass bloggers who only show up to show out once a year, but I feel like my blog got dust in it from not bustin' it this month. Even when I'm busier than a blue-arsed fly IRL I've still got an itchy posting finger for the URL. And so, here's a playlist of 10 killer non-2025 Rap songs which I've discovered this year. Murs gets 2 slots on the tracklist because Risky Business and The Night Before are both equally brilliant in completely different ways.

If you go down to the woods today you're sure of a big surproiz

Seiji Oda ft. Trunk Boiz - No Fillins2
(From HUMAN+NATURE album; 2025)


Seiji Oda already recorded a homage to the Trunk Boiz Cupcake No Fillin back in 2021. Now he's recorded a sequel featuring none other than the Trunk Boiz themselves. This ain't Cloud-Rap, this is Incense Smoke-Rap. Even your new age hippy missus can catch a vibe to this shit when she's treating her chakras with her collection of painted rocks healing crystals.

Ladies, please!

Roxanne Shante vs. Sparky Dee - Round 1
(From Round 1 EP thingy; 1985)


Mid 80s Tuff drum-machine excellence! Spyder-D lit the fuse on Roxanne Shante & Sparky Dee's tampons and then let them rip the living piss outta each other back-and-forth on this little known 80s track. And it really should be more known because it's one of the most vicious dis songs of the 80s. No matter the medium, there's little more entertaining than a cat fight.

Good top, very philosophical

Seiji Oda - Sleeve Jobs
(From HUMAN+NATURE album; 2025)


Some Oakland rappers go on Sway In The Morning, while other Oakland rappers make legit slaps which are as gentle as a field of wheat gently swaying in the morning breeze. It's a paradox in the Baytrix which Seiji Oda has been exploring/exploiting since Like This in 2020 and continues to explore/exploit in 2025 with Sleeve Jobs.

Rewind for Seiji's best song of 2025 so far which isn't on his new album for some unfathomable reason. He actually coaxed an excellent, no Auto-Tuned cameo out of Iamsu - summat which hasn't happened in a decade.

Ice Cream Man back!

"I got a way with words
And it ain't for nerds
I just hit the gas on the offi-cers"

Ezale - How Much Dope
(From Town Taxes album; 2025)


R U Still Dru Down? Another new video for a song from Ezale's new album which will go platinum on my TV, laptop and tablet. Ezale's so full of Disco-power, there ain't a Got To Be Real cover version he can't devour. I grab my pencil, papers and pad, I listen to Ezale's music like it was my dad. Best of Ezale Audiomack playlist still available for your streaming pleasure.

They found Nemo, but they not gonna find you!

X-Raided - Queen of Hearts
(From Queen of Hearts single; 2025)


Best old man West Coast Gangsta-Slap song of 2025 so far? That Strange Music video budget moolah bought X-Raided a whole 1930s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie set.

Random relared thought: my pick for most underrated Young Bleed deep cut of all time has gotta be Walk Like Uh Hustla from his album on Strange Music.

Unexpected 2025 Grand Puba appearance!

Lord Sko ft. Grand Puba - Girbaud Talk
(From Piff album; 2025)


Lord Sko's Pimp Socks is my mfing jam, but I'd mentally filed him away as a One Song Wonder™ and kept it moving. Guess I'm gonna have to slang humble pie & St Ides in the same sentence because he now has two mfing jams to his name. Puba is on good form delivering a verse and the chorus, and Sko is 100% correct when he says "this shit sound like a fever dream..." - that beat is the audio equivalent of one of those sweaty, delirious 6:40 AM sleep hallucinations which would be the best dream you ever had if only you could remember it.

(Possibly not that unexpected of a 2025 Grand Puba appearance since Lord Sko is Dante Ross' artist.)

E's are good

"Emcees be suckin' like black holes
It's like their work was done at Habro
Tryna dog me out because they think my style is Alpo
But F**K NO!
Tell an enemy that I’m the pedigree
Feed him kibbles n bits until he dribble 'n' spit
Pitiful shit is what I am hearing on the airwaves
That stuff is soon to die out like that jheri curl hair phase"

Edan - Eyeblink (2nd version)
(From no idea where; 200?)


Here at The Martorialist we don't approve of jheri curl disses, but we do approve of this Edan song. Eyeblink is a Top 3 song on Edan's debut CD-R album, but here's a 2nd version of it which is even better. It's the same beat and lyrics, but with re-recorded vocals where he delivers his lines with more boldness. Song is that vintage super-scientific smartarse Percee's Boutique type Edan shit where he says "as a syllable spitter, I kill a bullshitter/my rhymes are skull-grippers which frustrate ya like dull scissors". Lewis Recordings or one of youse boutique raer materialz labels to stop effin' around and give Artchitecture the deluxe remastered reissue treatment on CD with this song and Drop Some Smooth Lyrics as bonus cuts. Make it happen like Ultramagnetic.

My copy of that thst book about independent Rap circa 1995 to 2005 arrived a few days ago. Alas, the author doesn't argue the case why Edan & his m8 Eric "Skillz" Ferguson were a better Rap duo than Mos Def & Talib Kweli. And on that note, I let the facts float: Mos Def & Kweli have two killer tracks together, while Edan & Ferguson have three killer tracks together.

5th Ward Breezie

OnlyHeaven - Text
(From KISS (Keep It Short & Sweet) EP; 2025)


I'm like Heaven, everybody wanna get to me; how'd I make it to three posts without realising OnlyHeaven is the reincarnation of 5th Ward Weebie? The chromosomes might be different, but the characteristics are the same: a short, tubby New Orleans rapper who makes expertly crafted Bounce music which is both very funny and very smutty. For me, Text is the best song on OnlyHeaven's recent EP: a risqué R&Bounce jam with a Can't You See interpolation which will have you shouting "BABY, BABY!" Let me find out this song is a beast, heard it's been killin' my speakers, rest in peace to the deceased.