Angus Batey
Angus Batey has been writing professionally since 1988, sometimes as a member of staff, but since 2000 as a full-time freelance. He has written for a wide range of magazines, including NME. His writing about music is extensive, with a particular focus on hip hop.
List of articles in the library by artist
Age of Chance's Bangers and Mash-ups
Retrospective and Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, October 2009
Sampling, dance-rock, cross-genre cover versions ... Age of Chance did it all 20 years ago, but no one was listening. As their back catalogue goes ...
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, NME, September 1998
SO, JUST WHAT do you do when love breaks down? When the fabric that holds the fundamentals of your life together finally unravels? You probably ...
Interview by Angus Batey, NME, September 1998
SO, JUST WHAT do you do when love breaks down? When the fabric that holds the fundamentals of your life together finally unravels? You probably ...
Profile and Interview by Angus Batey, CMJ New Music Monthly, October 2000
YOU'RE LISTENING to The Hour Of Bewilderbeast, the acerbic, eclectic and often quite magical debut album by English eccentric Damon "Badly Drawn Boy" Gough. ...
Mary J. Blige: Mary J Blige: Material World
Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, June 1997
WHAT'S THE most embarrassing item of clothing you've ever bought? ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Hip-Hop Connection, 2002
BUSTA RHYMES has a heavy cold and a brutal schedule, and he's already running three hours late. ...
Busta Rhymes: Bump'N'Grundies!
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, NME, December 1997
Pants! Lewdness! Spinal Tap-esque shenanigans! Yes indeedy, it's rap megastar BUSTA RHYMES giving it his inimitable 'Woo hah!' on a Stateside hip-hop extravaganza. On the ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Times, The, April 2002
IT'S JUST another rainy night in April, and the Green Mill, a bar on Chicago's north side, is hosting its regular Monday resident. Opening with ...
Terry Callier: The Jazz Cafe, London
Live Review by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, March 2008
ABOUT 40 MINUTES into this riveting performance, Terry Callier cuts to the chase. "We've talked about so much stuff now," he says with a shrug, ...
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, CMJ New Music Monthly, November 2000
"MY EYE'S REALLY hurting. I'm really stressed. I worry because my hair's falling out, and I don't know if that's important. Will people still buy ...
Bootsy Collins, Outkast: Funk: Bootsy Collins & OutKast
Interview by Angus Batey, Dazed & Confused, December 2001
What is funk anyway? A type of music? A sound? An attitude, a style, a feeling? ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, March 1995
Ice-T, Ice Cube, LL Cool J... The West Coast of America is famous for its frozen rappers. Now cometh the latest million-selling iceman: Coolio ...
Retrospective and Interview by Angus Batey, Mojo Collections, 2002
STEVE SCIPIO pauses. The bass player and songwriter with Cymande is trying to recall what exactly his band's biggest hit, the reggae-funk masterpiece 'The Message', ...
Snoop Doggy Dogg: Now Is Not The Time To Talk To Snoop Doggy Dogg.
Interview by Angus Batey, unpublished, May 1994
Originally written for the NME, this article was not published ...
Fall, The: The Fall: Totale's Turns/Slates/A Part Of America Therein, 1981 (Essential/Castle)
Review by Angus Batey, NME, May 1998
"I DON'T PARTICULARLY like the person singing on this LP," opines Roman Totale XVIII in his sleevenotes to Totale's Turns. "That said, I marvel at ...
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones: Live Art
Review by Angus Batey, NME, July 1997
PERIPATETIC FOOTBALL manager and TV raconteur Ron Atkinson once memorably berated an errant striker's inability in front of goal by claiming that "he couldn't hit ...
Ghostface Killah: Coronet, London ***
Live Review by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, October 2006
"IF YOU listen to my lyrics, you'll know I'm a soul baby," confesses Dennis Coles midway through a typically eccentric set. "And you've got to ...
Grand Wizard Theodore, DJ Kool Herc: DJ Kool Herc and Grand Wizard Theodore
Interview by Angus Batey, NME, May 1997
DJS KOOL HERC and Grand Wizard Theodore, who recently played in London as support to the Chemical Brothers, may not be up there with yer ...
Review by Angus Batey, NME, March 1998
SOMETIMES THE simplest words are the most powerful. Plain statements. Single syllables. Don't pull your punches – hit 'em hard. ...
Ice-T: 'Bring Me The Head of Charlton Heston'
Interview by Angus Batey, NME, March 1993
America's most wanted... public enemy one... ICE-T's reputation is just about as real as he wants it to get right now. Ever since the 'Cop ...
Incredible Bongo Band, The: Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band
Interview by Angus Batey, MOJO, November 2000
THE AVUNCULAR 56-year-old American sat in a suite in London's Dorchester Hotel doesn't immediately strike you as a rock'n'roll type, but Michael Viner has quite ...
Wyclef Jean, Canibus, LL Cool J: LL Cool J, Canibus and Wyclef Jean: The '4,3,2,1' Beef
Interview by Angus Batey, Hip-Hop Connection, 2000
WHEN CANIBUS recorded a verse for LL Cool J's '4,3,2,1' in 1997, he can hardly have realised what was about to unfold. ...
Wyclef Jean, Tom Jones: Tom Jones and Wyclef Jean
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Touch, November 2002
SO YOU'RE sitting there, in the London Metropole hotel, chatting to Wyclef Jean about his new LP, Maqsquerade. ...
Profile and Interview by Angus Batey, Hip-Hop Connection, 2001
FROM THE drivers' seat of his black GMC jeep, Kool G Rap stares intently at the police car. Despite the air conditioning being turned up ...
Profile and Interview by Angus Batey, Hip-Hop Connection, 2000
"I ALWAYS like the idea of people getting together, like The Power Station, the Travelling Wilburys, groups like that," says Raphael Saadiq in all earnestness. ...
John Mayer: 'You can't make music as a famous person'
Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, November 2009
"I BASICALLY VISUALISED a record called Battle Studies as a way to sum up the last two years of my life: what I've learned and ...
Report by Angus Batey, Dazed & Confused, March 2001
"I'm a person just like youBut I've got better things to doThan sit around and fuck my headHang out with the living deadSnort white shit ...
Ne-Yo: 'Do I Have To Sell My Soul?'
Profile and Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, July 2008
He's an R&B singer, and songwriter to the stars. But when the music stops, Ne-Yo vanishes from the spotlight. He tells Angus Batey why that's ...
The Notorious B.I.G. (1972-97)
Obituary by Angus Batey, NME, March 1997
NOTORIOUS BIG, born Christopher Wallace, had risen from poverty to become one of the most influential figures in the hip-hop world in an incredibly short ...
The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur: Tupac Shakur: War Of The Words
Report by Angus Batey, NME, September 1996
TUPAC SHAKUR's death has once again highlighted the feud between the East Coast and West Coast rap communities. ANGUS BATEY takes a look at hip-hop's ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Hip-Hop Connection, January 2007
JERRY HELLER may just have the most undeservedly bad rep in the history of hip hop. ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Vox, June 1997
The songTHE SECOND single to be taked from Primal Scream's forthcoming Vanishing Point LP, 'Star' finds Bobby Gillespie drawing on his personal vocabulary of revolutionary ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Hip-Hop Connection, April 2009
I GUESS you could say he's been away. But he's never strayed far. ...
Profile and Interview by Angus Batey, NME, November 1997
THERE'S A shadow across Rakim's face, but his brown eyes are shining. The man who is for many the greatest rapper ever to have picked ...
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Hip-Hop Connection, 2006
ONE OF the most unexpected meetings in English Parliamentary history took place in late October, when Rhymefest sat down with Conservative Party leader David Cameron. ...
Roots, The: The Roots: Hip Hop Erudition And Wit
Profile and Interview by Angus Batey, MOJO, January 2003
"I'M ALIVE NOW!" BARKS AHMIR ?uestlove Thompson, drummer and de facto leader of Philadelphia hip hop band The Roots, and music press consumer of impeccable ...
Roots, The: The Roots: It's Like A Jungle Sometimes...
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, April 2008
They are a hip-hop purist's dream, constantly touring and constantly praised. But behind the scenes, the Roots have a fight on their hands. Angus Batey ...
Roots, The, John Legend: John Legend and the Roots: Hearts, Minds and Soul
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, October 2010
John Legend and the Roots' album of '60s and '70s protest songs is no mere history lesson – it's an open letter to a divided ...
Profile and Interview by Angus Batey, MOJO, November 2001
Lightning banjo picker Earl Scruggs was there at the birth of bluegrass. Over half a century later he's back with a new album and a ...
Interview by Angus Batey, NME, December 1998
IN A SPARTAN East London front room, two of the '90s most innovative dance music pioneers are attempting to explain where they've been these past ...
So Solid Crew: 'What We're Doing Is Bigger Than Music'
Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, January 2010
After a dramatic rise and a messy, destructive fall, So Solid are back. This time they intend to keep the tunes – and the money ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Arena, November 2001
BARELY 18 months ago they were an indie covers band, nervously dropping their own songs into a set comprised of other people's hits. But this ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Daily Express, March 2005
WHEN YOU'RE a pop star, life rushes by at a furious pace. And things are so hectic for Joss Stone right now that the only ...
Timbaland: "I'm up here. Everyone else is down there."
Profile and Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, August 2006
TIM "TIMBALAND" Mosley, the most in-demand music producer in the world, is tired. But the task of staying awake is made easier because, right now, ...
Ultramagnetic MCs: Critical Beatdown (Roadrunner/Next Plateau)
Review by Angus Batey, NME, September 1997
KOOL KEITH is Liam Howlett's favourite rapper. And this relic from an age before 'Diesel Power' and Dr. Octagon shows why. ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Daily Express, May 2005
"LIFE'S GREAT," says Jim "Midge" Ure, smiling as he sips a soft drink at a corner table in a tiny upstairs cafe in Bath. "If ...
Interview by Angus Batey, Dazed & Confused, August 2001
SAUL WILLIAMS runs his hand through his dreadlocked mane and grins. Fighting off a heavy cold a few hours before his first UK headline show, ...
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Hip-Hop Connection, September 1994
THURSDAY 1st September, Backstage stairwell, The Forum, Kentish Town, London. ...
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