70s tributes come out every week, but Stone Rollin’ is all about pre-Motown soul. Saadiq has a full band including a harmonica player. This is not for Bruno Mars fans. The only modern element is the sweaty, thick-booty dancer in the video.

I’m still taking baby steps with this dubstep stuff, but I dig this. Lex NV (whoever that is) uses disembodied voices and an ambient orchestra to create an epic beat that’s more accessible than some harsher, mechanical sounding stuff.

Download: Lex NV – Broken Sunrise

via Hardrive Records

My conversation with Curren$y last Wednesday (March 23) never strayed far from weed. We sat down in a makeshift den at a Warner Music Group office in New York and he immediately snatched up a plastic bag of weed from the glass coffee table, delighted that no one took it. He implored his publicist to make sure their driver wouldn’t mind his smoking on their way to lunch, “Please, just ask him to be cool and I will roll a window down, I will buy a Lysol from Duane Reade if he want me to, I will Scotchgard his shit. Please.”

Curren$y’s career includes chapters with Master P, Lil Wayne, and Dame Dash as well as an independent run that included eight free mixtapes and two albums on Amalgam Digital. He released Pilot Talk and Pilot Talk II, which were distributed by Def Jam, with Dash. He also did a mixtape with Wiz Khalifa. Despite a career worthy of a three hour documentary, Curren$y is as nonchalant as a college kid and his music reflects that.

His new project is another sharp career turn. He’s teaming up with Alchemist to release Covert Coupe for free on April 20 through WMG. In our interview, he talks about leveraging hip-hop blogs, his group with Mos Def and Jay Electronica, and the “Choppa Style” video.

ML: You’ve come a long way since [the 2008 XXL Freshmen cover], right?

Curren$y: I guess. I’m still on the grind though. I still feel like that just happened even though clearly it didn’t. They just had the Freshmen cover concert yesterday.

ML: Were you there?

Curren$y: I got there at the last minute. It was like the end of Yelawolf’s set. Everybody was coming out when I was about to walk in. So I was like, ‘Well, shit.’ I just high fived a couple people and got back in the car.

ML: You often get lumped in with the younger generation of rappers. Why do you think that is?

Curren$y: Because it took a minute for that lane to be carved. That groundwork of that took years of waiting even for the game to be ready for something like that. And now, all the music doesn’t have to be the drug music, the gun music to make it. You can kind of just be chillin’. So, it’s easier now. But that time – 19, 20, 21, all that – there was no lane for me at that point. All of that time, it was me carving the lane and waiting for the world to even be receptive.

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Like so many other rappers, Snoop Dogg is only as good as the producer on the track. Luckily, his new album has a lot of good producers on it. Jake One, Battlecat, and DJ Khalil contribute beats as well as Mr. Porter who laces “My Own Way” with some gangster shit. Doggumentary is out today and a great listen if you cut out the fluff. If you need a laugh, listen to Snoop’s new Juan Epstein.

Dense rhymes and Statik Selektah cuts. You already know. Add a full length with Action Bronson to the long list of projects Statik is working on.

“The Cookout” serves as a reminder of how much fun rap can be. No apocalyptic warnings or excess vulgarity, just crazy rhyming. If New York ever has warm weather again, this is at the top of the BBQ playlist. Taken from Jermiside’s Live & Let Live.

Download: Jermiside – The Cookout (ft. Donwill, Spec Boogie) (produced by Von Pea)

via rockthedub

Kind of redundant as we just posted a Jackie Chain song about weed, but still dope. “Getcha High” has Rittz’ double time edge as an added bonus.

[audio:http://ia600608.us.archive.org/12/items/YoungStruggleFeat.RittzJackieChain-getchaHighprod.ByDavidRay/GetchaHigh.mp3]

via The Smoking Section

Rap songs about weed have gotten predictable. You’ve got the woozy 808 heavy Wiz Khalifa/Curren$y weed songs and West Coast Devin the Dude smoker joints. Da COD veer off with a psychedelic rock sample and a raucous, comical, chorus. Green never fails to inspire.

If you’re in NYC, this is where you belong tonight. G-Side are in New York. DJ01 came away from their SXSW set a changed man.

When I heard the legendary (and I’m not using that term in a throwaway fashion) Nate Dogg died, I was in a near panic attack mode getting ready for SXSW, I couldn’t even get myself together to verify it at first when I saw it. Well a few hours later, it hit me, that the hook master was gone. There have been some great tributes going up on the internets, including a series from Passion of the Weiss. Another of my favorite tributes was from longtime ML friend/supporter Yumi Sakaki who drew a very unique and impressive piece called ‘All Dogs Go to Heaven’, that you see above.

From Yumi