About

Hip hop found Dan Love (that’s me) in 1993 at the ripe old age of 11. Having heard something about a group called the Wu-Tang Clan, I managed to get a hold of a dubbed tape with Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) on one side and the Lords Of The Underground’s first album on the other. I was sold. Although the formats have been variable, from CDs to vinyl to CDs and mp3s, hip hop has been a constant in my listening habits for almost as long as I can remember.

The name of the site is a reference to one of my favourite jams off Here Come The Lords, a track that still brings back memories of walks to school on cold, winter mornings in the not-so-badlands of suburban north London, and is also meant as a homage to the culture’s distinctly urban foundations. People from all walks of life may dig on a little beats and rhymes nowadays, but it is impossible for me to listen to hip hop without feeling the weight of over-crowded urban existence heaving behind it.

FDB started out in December 2006 and was originally conceived as an album blog with a clear focus on seminal or overlooked works from the past. In May 2007, I decided to move away from this format and offer up only a few tracks from featured works, and this has in fact led to a broader variety of content that now includes beat/rhyme deconstructions, discussions of sample sources, live reviews and interviews that collectively cover music both old and new.

Enjoy your stay.