Renaissance Gangster saw DJ Burn One feeding Memphis rapping machine Starlito East Coast sounding beats for an oddly successful marriage of country rap and old school samples. With this unreleased gem, Burn One further demonstrates his ability to make music that defies regional classification. This beat could easily go either..

I winced when I heard Big K.R.I.T. landed a deal with Def Jam off the buzz surrounding his mixtape. It’s encouraging to see Def Jam pick up a talented artist, but like many others, I’m afraid he might disappear into major label purgatory. For now, vibe to K.R.I.T.’s awesome blend..

You know, we could have had a lot of fun with T-Pain’s funny little sound, but no, artists and labels had to jump on Auto-Tune and make it the focal point of popular music for two years. Those who emulated “Buy U a Drank” and “Lollipop” should have had the..

Reality’s Future History LLC Compilation will drop next week with a strong list of hip-hop blog approved rappers, though Torae clarifies, Listen, I’m not a blog rapper, just a rapper that they blog about. It would appear that Torae is just avoiding a label with a bad reputation (who really..

T.I. put all hit aggressive street shit on a mixtape called Fuck a Mixtape to sate his core fanbase before radio plays his new Lady Gaga/Rihanna singles for eight months straight. Aside from “Ready Set Go” with Killer Mike, the only other song from the tape worth repeated spins is..