North London's Avelino, who appeared in our Best New Artists of 2016 feature, has teamed up with Tiggs Da Author to release "Ring The Alarm." The powerful video begins with the story of the Mangrove Caribbean restaurant and how it became a centre of the black community before gentrification and police pressure led to its closure.
This is the first track to be released from the XL Recordings backed NEWGEN project, a collaborative album between the label and 17 members of the burgeoning UK rap and grime scenes. The artists involved include Stormzy, 67, AJ Tracey, Nines and Ray BLK, who have been collaborating together in XL's New Gen Studio.
The project began life as a playlist created by GRM Daily editor Caroline Simionescu-Marin, who since working for XL as an A&R has expanded the project into a full album. According to XL, the NEWGEN project is designed to be "a timely snapshot of London’s burgeoning underground music scene, as well as an introduction to those who may have missed these exciting young artists up until now.”
XL have also said that the sound of the album will be "between trap, grime and new wave R&B, the melting pot which has typically come to represent the New Gen sound." We can't wait.
