Northern Structure, the six man hip hop collective, deliver their latest project in the form of ‘started off local’, a 28 track mixtape featuring both new and old material mixed by NSR’s DJ Mr Cosmo. After a year of touring and supporting hip hop heavyweights such as Ugly duckling, Jeru the damaja, Gza and Pharoahe Monch, the underground clan have now turned their attention to distributing some of their well known, no frills hip hop that has gained mass recognition and praise since they first landed on the scene three years ago.

DJ Mr Cosmo has managed to blend together two years of collaborative and solo NSR material in fine style fusing club banger style beats with boombap classics visiting old school jams along the way. The Project represents the ever present versatility of the rap group presenting posse cuts, freestyles and solo gems that have long been due to be released by the label.

Production is handled by an array of beat makers including NSR founder ‘Bambu hands’ (out there, feedback, Splatterhouse remix), long-time collaborator ‘Pro P’ (started off local, Jump up, flies in the soup) and NSR’s latest addition to the crew ‘Unkle Citrus’ (spider fruit, tent dwellaz, take it back). Guest production comes from Verb T on the track ‘Failure’ and Ro Jista contributes the soul laced Blackpool to Liverpool banger that is ‘Wrong man’. The Mix is supported by two singles, ‘out there’ and ‘spider fruit’ which can be both viewed on the northern structure official youtube page.

It’s been over six months since Spider Jaroo released his solo ep ‘writing for commision’ and the crew are now ready to begin slowly pushing out a new collection of projects which have been in the works for the last 18 months. This Mix represents the first of the projects due to come out in 2012. Following in the footsteps will be Evileyz’ long awaited solo Album ‘The Wash basket’, Amos’ conceptual masterpiece ‘Indian ink’, Bambu hands and Spider jaroo’s collaboration album ‘The Artform’ and finally the 2 complex (Evileyz, Spider Jaroo) LP ‘moon biscuits’ all due to be dropped before Christmas.

2012 has been an explosive year for the independent group, still managing to reach global audiences without the power of major label backing creating a cult following along the way and it’s looking like things are set to get even bigger over the coming months with a wealth of live shows lined up including huge UK hip hop festival ‘boombap’ in September.