Metal Lungies

I’m all about progression, man. I only deal with innovation and elegance and shit, like, I don’t give a fuck. I have three dicks.

–Action Bronson

Chuuwee’s Wild Style is like Joell Ortiz’ Covers The Classics mixtape, but more subtle. He pays tribute to the spirit of the golden age rather than individual records. Grab favored cuts below.

Download: Chuuwee – Rise & Grind (ft. Dceased) (produced by Bounce Brothers)

Download: Chuuwee – 40 Oz’s & 40 Sac’s (produced by JTN15)

Download: Chuuwee – Pissin Me Off (produced by Large Professor)

Atlanta rapper Ra Ra shines on this gem from his mixtape Higher (even if he takes the spelling out words thing a little too far on the hook) and then Big Sant crushes it.

Who remembers the time Ja Rule spelled ‘Murder Inc.’ wrong on a diss track? A Google search reveals that his weed carrier told MTV that Ja spelled it wrong on purpose to avoid incriminating himself. #iloverap

via DJBlackBillGates.com

Today, gangsta rap is supported by a crutch. A crutch named Gibbs.

On some 2012 mixtape marketing steez, Gibbs released Baby Face Killa with DJ Drama tags, but you can buy the deluxe version minus said tags and stream it at DJBooth.net. “Breaking Bad” and “Fuck Them Niggaz” only appear on the deluxe version and “The Diet” and “Every City” only appear on the Drama version. Maybe we’ll get them all on one disc on the tenth anniversary box set.

Download: Freddie Gibbs – Baby Face Killa

Shout out to artists who are smart enough commission Paul White’s work as a producer and double shouts to Charli XCX for recognizing Paul White’s talents beyond hip-hop just like Turkish singer/DJ Ahu did in 2010 with “To:Love”.

Danny Brown and friends can rap over anything. Trapped out 808s? You got it. For some reason, both “Errthang” and “Jooky” are edited, so you’ll have some trouble transcribing these on Rap Genius.

Blu strides over the corpse of ringtone rap, friendless but for his DJ, past the perfidious radio station and the leering A&R and onto the stage where the true and loyal await his funky proclamation.

Five years later.

Blu has the most frustrating career  trajectory of any of the inaugural XXL Freshmen, unless of course you were a Charles Hamilton fan (don’t you dare use that search bar — I was young once). His initial buzz petered out into a Jay Electronica-like nothingness, not for lack of talent or vision. His releases appeared online seemingly by accident as extremely rough drafts and were usually yanked days later only to be properly released by B-grade indie rap labels. He’s managed to establish and redouble a mystique to rival Madlib’s much to the chagrin of fans who just want to listen to his damn music. And yet it’s hard to be mad at the guy when he drops material like this.

Two fairly conservative boom bap singles for your listening pleasure. Let them hold you over until the next time Blu emerges to dump some mp3s from his hard drive.

via 2dopeboyz

Filed under New York rap crews that matter. “Say It Now” is an awesome postmortem for starry eyed blog rappers.

As a bonus, here’s a cut by Top $ Raz produced by Brown Bag’s Audible Doctor.

Local Natives announced today that they not only have a new single but that they will be releasing their sophomore album, Hummingbird, in January 2013 (!!!!). Fans have been waiting not so patiently for something new from the band whose first album was one of the most solidly produced albums I’ve ever listened to.

Local Natives’ new single, Breakers, proves that they are still able to knock it out of the park even after a 3 year break. It has a hint of Grizzly Bear’s sound that seems so popular this fall BUT Local Natives has done it right, they still sound uniquely like themselves with their harmonizing and  solid percussion.

Listen here:

Tour dates listed here.

(image by Deirdre Maloney)

Jay-Z just christened a billion dollar plus arena with 8 consecutive sold out shows.. in Brooklyn, NY. Re-read that and let that marinate. At this point Jay-Z can pull a Wayne Newton and just perform there as his exclusive home, I’m not even sure Brooklyn Nets fan would mind. I’ve been slightly salty that I didn’t plan better on making it out there and witnessing this historic run. I debated the latter half of this week of just taking a train up to NYC and yolo-ing out. That saltiness was watered down greatly with news that Hov’s home on the internets, Life + Times will be live streaming the closing show of his run, tonight at 9:30pm. Consider your Saturday night agenda set.

If you are really about that streaming life, Virgin Free Fest is also streaming, with Santigold, Alabama Shakes, Nas (at 6:20pm), M83, Jack White & Skrillex (amongst others) at this very moment over here.