Akala’s new Fire In The Both shows once again that Akala brings the full package of lyrical skill, content, flows, relevance and personality. Forget all these wannabe gangsters and autotune bubblegum rappers! Akala has set the standard. Who’s rising to the challenge?

Akala’s mixtape ‘Knowledge Is Power vol 1’ will be released on 28 May. Preorder it here.

If you haven’t seen Mic Righteous’s new Fire In The Booth yet… get on it! Intensity, passion, conscience, honesty, lyricism, verbal dexterity. Not that I 100% agree with what he says about the riots, but it’s an important and valid contribution to a debate that the youth has been largely excluded from. And it’s great to see rappers talking seriously about issues that the music industry doesn’t want them to talk about.