All City Dublin strikes again with the seventh entry in their continuing series of 10″ releases. Each one pairs up two producers who bang out instrumentals tailor made for beat-heads. Daedelus, who was on the last edition with Teebs, called All City “a celebration of beats.” LA Series #7 pairs Dam-Funk and Computer Jay. “3012” is a masterstroke of funk. Also peep the glorious West Coast homage that is Dam-Funk’s “Hood Pass Intact” video.
Imam Thug is the go-to hook man for CNN street anthems. See also: “Thug Planet” Watch Nore boast about drinking Ketel One with no hangover in the behind the scenes clip for the video above.
I’m starting to like Ketel One. That’s the inner whiteboy in me. Pause.
via 57thAve
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Yep, that’s a jam. On “Shot Glass Magnified,” Soul Khan and Sene play the underground everyman MC. Soul Like Khan drops for free on Tuesday. Those who listened to Koncept’s Playing Life EP know to expect quality from the Brown Bag AllStars crew.
Bama’s best represent over a mighty Block Beattaz production.
Hold it, that’s a Janelle Monae sample. “Neon Valley Street,” to be exact. Dope track, but I feel like they should have asked me before they sampled my wife like that.
The verdict is still out on J. Cole, who’s a solid rapper, but hasn’t done much to distinguish himself from the legions of competent rappers. His mixtape, Friday Night Lights drops today.
Also, watch out for J. Cole on the next Beat Drop. Long. Over. Due.
Peep it at DreamVillain (J. Cole’s spot)
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Finally something Japanophiles and hip-hop heads can agree on. And if you hate anime, don’t worry, you can just pretend Akira is the name of some fly colored Asian.
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The beat on “Freshest Rhymes” recalls the unmatched emotive power of a vinyl sample. There’s a reason why records are the tools of a real hip-hop producer. Alchemist and Oh No have teamed up as Gangrene to remind listeners of the arresting warmth that only analog sound can provide. I’m going to stop dropping cliches about golden age hip-hop and let you fools listen to this shit.
“Freshest Rhymes” comes from the Sawblade EP, out now. Gangrene’s full album Gutter Water drops November 23. Safe to say it will be a last minute addition to many best of 2010 lists. Watch the greatest listening session of all time after the break.
The clean version of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy leaked today (November 9). I’m going to reserve judgment on Kanye’s new album until I’ve given it some more spins, but my initial problem, which we all saw coming, is that I’ve heard almost all of these songs already. I didn’t hear anything totally new until I was ten tracks in. Usually, when this much of an album leaks so far in advance, it spells doom for sales. Artists will tell you that excessive leaks are bad, bad, bad.
BUT WAIT, Kanye released most of these songs HIMSELF. Nefarious bootleggers and bloggers only got their dirty hands on three songs ahead of schedule.
Here lies the blogger’s dilemma. We crave new music, leaked or official. The most well known rap blogs pride themselves on exclusives and posting new songs the moment they drop. Can I complain that the album is stale if I’ve been diligently downloading and posting all of Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Friday leaks? Maybe the insatiable appetite of the hip-hop audience is to blame.
So is a stale album the price we pay for a twelve week marathon of Yeezy love? Maybe it doesn’t have to be.
Kanye isn’t the first rapper to have a promo campaign based on weekly releases. That distinction belongs to Crooked I (I think), whose Hip-Hop Weekly series of freestyles dominated rap blogs between 2007 and 2008. But G.O.O.D. Fridays became much more than a promo mechanism. Friday nights, and when he was running late, Saturday mornings, became synonymous with exciting new Yeezy tracks that you could collect like Happy Meal toys. It helped that they were real songs with high profile guests. It was the most exciting buildup to an album release since 50 Cent set the world on fire prior to the release of Get Rich or Die Tryin’ in 2003.
The advent of iTunes and the mp3 player has cast doubt on the future of the album format. The focus has undeniably shifted to individual songs, rather than full albums. Artists, industry types, and even fans have complained about how audiences have become fickle, forgetting about albums a week after they drop.
So instead of releasing songs every week to promote an album, maybe the twelve week promo campaign could replace the album entirely. Rather than teasing the audience with videos and mixtapes, the artist could fully engage fans over the course of months like Kanye did with G.O.O.D. Fridays. Weekly sponsorships could even possibly supplant album sales.
People have toyed with the idea of serial music releases before. Ditching the album format would require a giant leap of faith on the part of record labels and artists. The logistics are daunting, but it’s something to think about. Personally, I had a lot more fun with G.O.O.D. Fridays than I did with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
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Def Jam is that last place you should check for R&B, but Chrisette Michele, who has provided hooks for Nas, Jay-Z, Game, and Rick Ross, gives an emotional and extremely polished performance on her new mixtape. “Black Boys Still Die” is as powerful as the title suggests and “Its Not You Its Me” is a lighthearted funky breakup song. She also accommodates different generations of hip-hop fans with awesome renditions of Wale’s “90210” and KRS-One’s “Step into a World.”
Focus…’s homage series continues with a tribute to A Tribe Called Quest producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad. To recap, The former Aftermath producer has paid homage to DJ Premier, J Dilla, Pete Rock, Dr. Dre, and now Ali Shaheed.
via 2dopeboyz
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