At long last, we welcome the return of Manchester’s most iconic music duo since the Gallagher brothers; rappers Black Josh and Sleazy F Baby. Since their emergence as teenagers around 2011/12, they quickly established themselves as vehement young spitters; often sharing stages to perform hectic, memorable nationwide performances, whilst releasing multiple collaboration singles over the following years. This inevitably captured the attention of the North’s most certified underground hip-hop label, Blah Records. Due to the duo’s energetic efforts, they were recruited into Blah’s revived Children Of The Damned supergroup which was renewed under a revamped alias - Cult Of The Damned, releasing their self-titled Cult Of The Damned EP in 2015. Both Josh and Sleazy made standout contributions to the self-titled Cult Of The Damned single that COTD reemerged with, which quickly became Blah’s most viewed and acclaimed music video to date.

It’s no understatement that one of the biggest upsets of the following year in 2016, as COTD began recording their highly anticipated follow-up album, was the ambiguity behind Sleazy F’s decision to step back from the Cult. He continued making music nonetheless, trialling commercial elements of new-wave hip-hop, whilst also maintaining his capabilities of providing urban grittiness with grimey flows and realist, street-smart rhymes. Sleazy also began vlogging his journeys for fans to follow him, from UK all the way across Europe as he went on to provide lyrical support for his close friend, Ocean Wisdom’s sell-out ‘Wisdomville’ Tour of 2018 - further propelling Sleazy’s experience and renown. 

Josh on the other hand continued building on his successes with Blah, becoming one of the label’s most sought-after emcees on account of both his music workrate and performing finesse. Releasing multiple solo projects, Blah collaborations and shelling down countless headline shows, it appeared Josh also showed absolutely no signs of slowing down regardless. By the time Cult Of The Damned were set to release their follow-up Part Deux: Brick Pelican Posse Crew Gang Syndicate album in 2018, rumours still persisted that a falling out had occurred between Josh and Sleazy, despite this never being officially confirmed or even addressed publicly by either party. These lies were eventually put to bed however by a simple instagram story that emerged in 2019, in which Josh and Sleazy both appeared alongside smiling and joking about shit talkers, essentially claiming they will always be tight like brothers - to the ecstatic delight of their long-term followers. 

History aside, let’s talk about their first collaboration single in over four years which premiered yesterday on Blah Records - Wannit All, produced by their childhood affiliate, Metrodome. Greazy is the first impression springing to mind, the bass-booming instrumental layered with boom-bap percussion and discordant tempos provides an unnerving yet head-banging atmosphere to vibe with. The track title is self-explanatory, the lyricism follows similar themes. Sleazy begins by laying down his traditionally aggy vocal style known for instilling hype, flowing like a freestyle whilst wyling out with rhymes like, “get rich or die trying? Fuck that, get rich or clap iron.” Without much pause for a chorus aside from chanting “We wannit all,” Josh then accentuates his illicit persona with bars such as “seen more pot than your kitchen sink,” before continuing with more references to making cheddar which only trappers could relate to, but with an overall subject of essentially making a success - something which surely everybody could get down with. 

This has been a long time coming, but even after multiple listens our excitement still can’t be contained for the anticipation of more collaborations from these two to come. Wannit All is a single lifted from Black Josh’s upcoming Mannyfornia album, set for release June 10th. To support, pre-order following the link below.

PRE-ORDER BLACK JOSH - MANNYFORNIA: HERE