Archive for July, 2007

GZA- Liquid Swords & Wu Tang Clan-Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) INSTRUMENTALS.

If you just look at the title of the site, you could probably guess we enjoy us some Wu-Tang. So we are pretty geeked that the instrumentals of BOTH Liquid Swords & Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) came out. Enjoy some vintage/classic/amazing RZA production on all of the tracks (except the last track on Liquid Swords which is a 4th Disciple production) on these 2 must-haves.


Download | Download

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Andre 3000 Whole Foods mixtape.

Before you even look at what’s on the mixtape; how can a mixtape named after an organic food store not be ML approved?

Not much crazy hot exclusive stuff like those other mixtapes but it has a lot of Andre 3000 singing rapping in one neat package.

Tracklisting:

¦ 01. Introduction (Feat.Society of Soul) 01:43 ¦
¦ 02. International Player 01:13 ¦
¦ 03. What A Job Is 01:37 ¦
¦ 04. Everybody 01:51 ¦
¦ 05. You (Remix) 00:59 ¦
¦ 06. Throw Some D’s (Remix) 01:00 ¦
¦ 07. Walk It Out (Remix) 01:26 ¦
¦ 08. A Life In A Day of Benjamin 04:42 ¦
¦ 09. Long Way To Go (Feat.Gwen Stefani) 04:17 ¦
¦ 10. Millionaire (Feat. Kelis) 03:44 ¦
¦ 11. She Lives In My Lap (Feat. Rosario Dawson) 04:25 ¦
¦ 12. Prototype 05:21 ¦
¦ 13. Pink And Blue 04:44 ¦
¦ 14. Chronomentrophobia 02:11 ¦
¦ 15. Greatist Show On Earth (Feat. Macy Gray) 03:07 ¦
¦ 16. Boogie Man (Feat. Big Gipp) 03:00 ¦
¦ 17. Nectarine (Feat. Cherokee) 03:49 ¦
¦ 18. Junglebook (Feat. Esthero) 04:35 ¦
¦ 19. Trans Df Express 00:58 ¦
¦ 20. Spottieottiedogaliscious (Feat. Big Boi) 07:05 ¦
¦ 21. Liberation (Feat. Erykah Badu, Cee-Lo And Big Boi) 08:46 ¦
¦ 22. Humble Mumble (Feat. Big Boi And Eryhah Badu) 04:51 ¦ ¦ 23. So Fresh, So Clean (Feat. Sleepy Brown And Big Boi) 03:59 ¦

Download.

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Some late weekend underground hip-hop from Kidz In The Hall & Big Treal/Big Remo.

I was notified that slept-on underground duo Kidz In The Hall are re-releasing a mixtape hosted by Just Blaze called Amazing Race.. it’s for sale on itunes, I don’t know about paying for digital mixtapes but its available.

For a sample to what to expect from Kidz In The Hall check this:

Kidz In The Hall-Lemme Show You.

Definitely expect more coverage on thrse guys around here.

Since leaving Little Brother, 9th wonder has moved on to co-signing other NC rappers, one of those is Big Treal. He is signed to 9th’s imprint 9th’s Wonderful World of Music. He appeared on the Dj Drama & Little Brother’s mixtape Seperate But Equal, joining Little Brother for the track Cross The Line. Now he drops his own mixtape Str8 Drop w/ fellow labelmate Big Remo. If you are a fan of the Justus League, this looks like a safe bet to check out.

Download the mixtape here.

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ML Hooks It Up: $50 Best Buy Giftcard courtesy of EA Sports Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 Mobile Game Winner.

The contest is a wrap, thanks to all those that entered!

The winner is Matt from Pittsburgh,PA. Congrats!

More on Stack Bundles.

It’s been a whole month since Stack Bundles was murdered, we haven’t forgotten.

It looks like the murderer has been caught…which is pretty impressive considering how often killers of rappers get caught.

Per MTV:

A suspect in the shooting of two New York City police officers was fingered by an informant as the shooter in the killing of Jim Jones associate Stack Bundles last month, police confirmed to MTV News on Thursday morning (July 12). According to New York’s Daily News, Lee Woods, 29, was arrested by authorities as the getaway driver in Monday’s cop shootings, along with Dexter Bostick and Robert Ellis. The paper said that when Woods was arrested on Tuesday, a source close to the investigation singled him out as the rapper’s killer.

After Stack was gunned down we saw a bunch of mp3 tributes on the internets.But mostly were filled with Dipset-era Stack material. It was as if dude wasn’t putting out hot verses on mixtapes years before he got down with Dipset. Anyway we hit up mixtape aficionado (and Beat Drop contributor) KoldShadow for his top pre-dipset Stack. Here is what we got…

Stack Bundles – Murder Was the  Case
Stack Bundles ft. Styles P – The Hood                                                                       Stack Bundles, Ransom & Fabolous – What Ya Hood Like                          Stack Bundles ft. A-Team – Gangsta or Snitch                                                   Stack Bundles – Bundles Hot.

Last thing, a late pass on this please, but it looks like Lupe Fiasco & Stacks were close..

from OKP Message Boards Last month:

“My Dear Friend…it hurt so much to wake up to this…So sad…I’ve watched from the humble beginnings…when he used to live with me out in Chicago we rocked together everyday…He’d write rhymes in one room and I’d be writing rhymes in the other…He was there with me through many a milestone in my life , the up’s and the downs, and I was so proud and happy to see him acheive success in his life at what he loved…Hip-Hop…Stacks was the first person that was signed to 1st&15th way back when it first started FYI…Even beyond that I considered Stacks family…My heartfelt condolences go out to his family and friends in this time of sadness…We all lost a Good Friend today…But He wont be forgotten…May God have mercy on his soul, Forgive him for his sins in this Life, and watch over him in the next…

Love my nigga, I only shed tears for a few and I shed tears for you…

Sincerely, Lupe Fiasco”

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Beat Drop: DJ Premier.

[We’re bumping this post up because we’ve received some input from a person you’d probably trust more than us when it comes to dope production — and that person is Toronto-born and Brooklyn-based producer Marco Polo, whose debut album Port Authority is in stores now, on Soulspazm/Rawkus. For more on Marco, check out his MySpace, and Lethal’s interview with him from March.]

On Common’s “The People”, one of his teaser singles off of Finding Forever, the Chi-town MC mentions that he has found “the new Primo” — no doubt referencing the track’s producer, one Kanye West. Noz of XXL/Cocaine Blunts fame, attacked this statement a while back, and though I agree that Kanye is not “the new Primo”, I’ll avoid jumping into that debate. What grabs my attention is the fact that, apparently, someone feels it necessary to label someone else as “the new Primo.”

Of course, this lyric certainly wasn’t intended as a diss to DJ Premier, what with Preem having worked with Common in the past, not to mention providing the cuts to Finding Forever‘s other teaser single, “The Game”. But, granted, “Works of Mart” just aren’t dropping like they were back in 199_ (fill in the blank). Gang Starr appears to be on permanent vacation, Jeru The Damaja and Group Home have long since severed their ties with Preem (and, not coincidentally, disappeared off the face of the planet), and the “usual suspects” for an occasional DJ Premier collabo (i.e. Jay-Z, Nas, M.O.P.) have all seemingly moved on to “greener pastures” and, sadly, appear to not need him anymore. [Or, perhaps Preem is just living comfortably off that Christina Aguilera paper.]

Whatever the case, if hip hop and/or Common feels the need to anoint a “new” Primo, then we might as well pay homage to the (so-called) “old” Primo, whose productions still sound as fresh today as they did when they first came out. When you elevate yourself as a producer to become the personification of the sound of an entire region of hip hop music (New York), during arguably it’s greatest years (mid ’90s), and you’re not even from that region (Preem’s originally from Houston), you are officially the shit. Take a bow.

The tat on DJ Premier’s arm reads “Reputation is the cornerstone of power” — here are the tracks that myself, Lethal, Marco Polo and friend-of-ML Kold Shadow hold as defining that reputation…

Read the rest of this entry »

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Strong Arm Steady-Deep Hearted Tracklisting.

Updating our previous musings about SAS; here is the official tracklisiting for the album which comes out 8.27.07

1.) Intro f/jack Nicholson & The Game (produced by Dubb Knox)                                                                                                                           2.) The Movement f/Planet Asia (produced by Thayod Ausar)                                                                                                                          3.) You Ain’t Me f/Chamillionaire & Rass Kass (produced by Da Riffs)
4.) Bloody Money f/PNB (Pop ‘n Bullets) and Jelly Roll (produced by DJ Khalil)
5.) Co-Operation f/Dilated Peoples (produced by DJ Babu)
6.) Clean Up f/Black Thought & Saukrates (produced by Madlib)                                                                                                                       7.) One Step f/Talib Kweli (produced by Blaqtoven)
8.) I Can’t Wait f/Tha Liks & Stylistic Jones (produced by Thayod Ausar)                                                                                                                                    9.) Kings Of The Deck f/Planet Asia (produced by Da Riffs)                                                                                                                                                   10.) Come N Get Me f/Ina Williams (produced by DJ Khalil)                                                                                                                                          11.) Homies f/Blaqtoven (produced by J Thrill)                                                                                                                                                              12.) Streetlights f/Talib Kweli (produced by Evidence)
13.) On The Grind (produced by J Thrill)
14.) Wreckless Words (produced by DJ Khalil)
15.) Dirty Dirty f/Juvenile (produced by J Macc)

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UGK-UGK (Underground Kingz) Tracklisting.

After many delays, a scorching single, the album is right around the corner. Check the double disc tracklisting. I fully expect this to be better than that other double cd that just dropped.

DISC 1:

  1. Swishas And Dosha
  2. Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You) featuring OutKast
  3. Chrome Plated Woman
  4. Life Is 2009 featuring Too $hort
  5. The Game Belongs To Me
  6. Like That (Remix)
  7. Gravy
  8. Underground Kingz
  9. Grind Hard featuring Young T.O.E. and DJ B-Do
  10. Take Tha Hood Back featuring Slim Thug, Vicious and Middle Fingaz
  11. Quit Hatin’ The South featuring Charlie Wilson and Willie D
  12. Heaven
  13. Trill N****** Don’t Die featuring Z-Ro

DISC 2:

  1. How Long Can It Last featuring Charlie Wilson
  2. Still Ridin’ Dirty featuring Scarface
  3. Stop-N-Go featuring Jazze Pha
  4. Cocaine featuring Rick Ross
  5. Two Type Of B****** featuring Dizzee Rascal and Pimpin’ Ken
  6. Real Women featuring Talib Kweli and Raheem DeVaughn
  7. Candy
  8. Tell Me How Ya Feel
  9. Shattered Dreams
  10. Like That
  11. Next Up featuring Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap
  12. Living This Life
  13. Outro

 

Bonus Track: Int’l Players Anthem featuring Three 6 Mafia (Chopped & Screwed

Bonus Track: Int’l Players Anthem featuring Three 6 Mafia

album drops 8.7.07.

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Introducing Knobody and the Triple i League.

Although Oakland-based collective Hieroglyphics may not drop as much new music as their fans would like — Del The Funkee Homosapien’s 11th Hour, his 1st new album in close to 7 years, is due out later this year — they continue to make moves to keep their name relevant. Earlier this year, they announced the creation of a clothing line, which is only fitting considering that the “third eye” symbol (created by Del) that has become synonymous with the crew’s work is one of the most recognizable logos in hip hop. And just recently, they announced the formation of the Hiero Imperium Triple i League, a new record label which the crew likens to a “Major League Baseball farm team.” From their press release:

In an industry where it’s common to see undiscovered talent get signed under a major label artist’s label only to get trapped in a financially parasitic situation, Hiero CEO Tajai Massey [of Souls of Mischief] makes it clear that this program is nothing like the typical industry contracts that exploit up-and-coming artists. Instead, the program is about taking artists who already have a complete package and mentoring them on the business side of the industry so that they can be capable of controlling their own careers and become the CEOs of tomorrow.

(Somewhere in Martha’s Vineyard, Puff Daddy is pissed.)

It certainly seems like a logical idea. The NBA, the last of the U.S.’s major professional sports leagues to establish an official “minor” league, is benefitting pretty well from the recently-created NBDL (National Basketball Development League) and the age limit that prevents players from making the straight-from-high-school leap to the pros. Case in point, we haven’t seen another Kwame Brown lately, and hopefully won’t again anytime soon (it’s bad enough that we have one already, and worse more that he’s a Laker). If systems like this were more prevalent in hip hop, we’d probably have fewer one-hit wonders who owe their records labels money and/or albums. Of course, probably not many rappers would want to accept the fact that they too could be victims of the music industry, and choose to turn down the quick rise to fame in exchange for a tutorial in learning the ropes of the music biz. [However, if you were to ask G-Dep, the former Bad Boy artist who spent a month in Rikers in ’07 when he couldn’t come up with $750 bail, what choices he’d have made differently if he could start from scratch, he’d probably put together a long list.]

The first Triple i League signee is a Bay Area MC named Knobody, whom Hiero member Casual compares to Eminem as far as his ability to “consistently flow on the same subject throughout a song without having to switch up.” In order words, he’s similar to Eminem in a good way. Knobody’s debut album, Tha Clean Up, is set to drop on September 18th, and his 1st single, “What U Think”, can be heard on his MySpace page, in addition to a few other tracks. If you’re already a fan of Hiero’s music, Knobody should be easy to adapt to.

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Twista – “Give It Up” featuring Pharrell (Video)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK9aVjy_wOs[/youtube]

A new spin on the “million dollar budget” music video from Hype Williams — instead of blowing money on special effects, expensive props and computer graphics, put it towards bright lighting, hot women, and lawyer fees (how many brand name logos are “borrowed” in this clip?).

Twista’s definitely putting a lot of fine-tuning into Adrenaline Rush 2007, due in stores September 18th, as he’s already changed his verses up for this single (here’s audio of the original version vs. the updated version), and this video is only a “rough cut” of what we can only assume to expect officially at a later date. I’d suggest that if anything needs fine-tuning, though, it’s that album title. Although, when you consider the other proposed album titles — Adrenaline Rush 2, Adrenaline Rush Again, Still An Adrenaline Rush — I guess it’s not half-bad.

[Credit due to The Fader, OnSmash, and anyone else who got on this before us. You’re cool, okay?] Sphere: Related Content