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Now this post is pretty long so I recommend taking it in bitesize chunks! It would have come a lot sooner *and* would have been split up over the past few days however this week so far has been complete and utter madness!!

Monday night was spent on my final date on the 1Xtra University Fresher’s tour at my home town of Nottingham, this time at Nottingham Trent University’s Fresher’s Ball. As per usual, the Nottingham Trent University crowd were well and truly on it and with a line up of me, Punjabi Hit Squad and Semtex; you know that black tie, ball gowns and 1Xtra is a good look! I have a new regular club night starting at the Glo Bar which is part of the Nottingham Trent student union building from the 1st of November called Heavyweight. Open to students and non-students alike, the night launches with me alongside my 1Xtra bredren the remix kid Seani B and new UK R&B group Trinity Stone. If you’re in Notts on 1st November then check the for full info and see you there!

Last night I was at at Digital in Newcastle kicking off my new monthly residency! Newcastle is always off the hook and last night they didn’t disappoint. As is per usual at the moment, the biggest response of the night was saved for Fedde Le Grande’s Put Your Hands Up For Detroit. It’s a bit of a marmite record (you either love it or hate it!) but there’s no denying that it’s doing damage on dance floors across genres right now: whether at the most traditional of House clubs or your now standard R&B and funky house night or even now at a more traditional Urban music night like LoveDough or Twice as Nice. Keep your ear to the ground for the bootleg of Fedde Le Grande and Rick Ross’ Hustlin…

It doesn’t stop because Thursday night, I’m back at the helm of the Hip-Hop M1X Show on this fine station after Doc Jnr and Reality? did a very good job filling in for me last week. It’s Black History Month so we’re celebrating 4 decades of Hip-Hop with a different decade in the mix each week. This week it’s the 1990’s so expect to hear some pure unadulterated classics from that era. Also DJ Kayper from the Asian Network will be doing a nice guest mix for us!

Friday night, it’s all about the club bangers! Make sure you tune in live and get your requests and shout outs in! Also on Friday night, after the show I’ll be kicking off another new monthly residency at the at Bar Rumba in Central London. If you’re around, make sure you pass by – there’ll be bare P Diddy giveaways as it’s also the launch party for his new album Press Play.

Speaking of Press Play, I managed to get my copy last week promo style and have been listening throughout my travels ever since. The verdict? I personally like it. The beats are the best thing on the album and without a doubt some of the biggest heat of the year. That said, the ghostwritten lyrics are sharp and on point but it’s Diddy’s flowing of the lyrics that lets the album down. In fact, I’m sure that if it wasn’t for P Diddy being on the album, it would be lauded as one of the best albums of 2006. It is a little schizophrenic and as such flows more as a compilation than studio album – going from straight up future classic Hip-Hop (Everything I Love with Nas and Cee Lo is without doubt one of Kanye’s best beats so far) to R&B club tracks (Tell Me with Christina well and truly stealing the spotlight is a definite highlight and an instant club banger) to 80’s Prince clones (Special Feeling especially). While it’s worthy of a 7/10, I can’t help thinking that if Diddy had given these beats to his new artist Aasim and cut out the ego-stroking interludes, the marks would have been a lot higher.

You’ve only got a week left to vote for who you feel deserves to win Best UK Hip-Hop at the first annual BET Hip-Hop Awards to be held in Atlanta, USA on 12th November 2006. so we need to make sure that we put the right person through who will represent the quality of our scene. The choice is between Blak Twang, Sway, Kano, Dizzee Rascal and Plan B – personally I think we have the mix of artists right: they are all artists who have made power moves internationally in raising (bar Plan B) and all (including Plan B) have worked hard to push the envelope of what British Hip-Hop is with really strong releases and excellent live performances. At the moment, the international community All are deserving of the title so to all those on the message boards, moaning to UK Hip-Hop is what a lead is to a dog so stop fronting and get voting here

As always, I want your comments. Do you agree with me? Do you think I’m wrong? Do ya think I’m sexy? Holla back below! I'm off to research this Game/Mike GLC thing before I write about it...