Magnets (Rap Group) & Pro-Verbs (GLS013)

Magnets & Pro-Verbs - Magnetic Prophecies

Words by Andy Votel...
For a project that has taken thirty years it would be totally inadequate to call the formation of Hypocritical Beatdown a lockdown-project. There’s a deep history and psychology in these records by Violators Of The English Language and their spin-off groups Magnets (Rap Group) and ProVerbs, that combines stage-fright, loss, pride, creative-schizophrenia, racial inequality, surrealism, personal politics, brotherhood, artistic-constipation, better judgment, love, anti-love, soul searching and much more.

The one remaining untapped energy source here is perhaps FEAR, refreshing when used correctly, but never imposter syndrome. As maligned and mutated as this British Hip-Hop might appear to be, it could not be more pure. Each member of all of the Hypocritical Beatdown crew were committed to this cause as soon as the doors opened. They rapped on stages before they had even tasted beer or lost their virginity and the curse had already taken hold in the years when these youngsters still had to be back home before dark and it has never left their bloodstreams.

That’s why this record NEEDED to be made. Completed, recorded, exorcised, committed to vinyl, rotated and liberated. Not unlike the VHS tape in a well known Japanese horror film, every listened copy, complete with its broken beats, old-school sensibilities and Marmite Mancunian accents, adds to the mystic circle… breaks the dream… some people might even like it. If you were given a chance to go back and meet your teenage self, wouldn’t you?

For you early adopters, both these albums are the first full length vinyl excursions from The Hypocritical Beatdown stable who have previously just released Rap Tapes (on cassette, obviously). They both look pretty similar, but one is on yellow ten inch vinyl released in collaboration with the amazing people at Britain's coolest pub, Golden Lion in Todmorden. And the other one is a longer 12” album with a duel-layer, interactive screen printed sleeve (in various collectible colours) that literally violates the English language when you open it. There’s a lot of attention to detail here, in all fairness it didn’t happen over night, and despite all the watermarks a communal mid-life crisis, they don’t intend to slow down at any point soon…