V/A - Eight Ball Mixtape Vol. 2

Many of the Scottish cuts on this mixtape have a back-to-basics, Mobb Deep approach to beats, while the lyrics are, for the most part, far more literate and technically savvy than what passes for mainstream US hip-hop. By virtue of its tinyness, Scotland's hip-hop scene has become a pressure cooker - MCs like Eastborn and Matchstick Men are transcending their lack of finance and support to produce committed, old-school values hip-hop that can confidently sit side by side with Phi-Life Cypher, Roots Manuva and Braintax, as it does on this mixtape. Highlights come from Great Ezcape, Blakhart and Hype, Granite Emcees, The Remedies, and Kashmere, whose What Would Happen is worth the price of admission – a tale of Transformers and X-Men smoking crystal-based alien life forms (really). An underground hip-hop directory of UK headz to watch, here the Scottish scene stands proud with the best the rest of the island can offer. [Bram Gieben]