24 Nov, 2008
Dub MD got a bunch of up and comers to pick a beat and… wait for it.. rhyme over it.
Check the tracklisting.
01.) The Genesis (Intro By DJ Unexpected)
02.) 6th Sense – Hip Hop Renatus (Produced By Erick Sermon)
03.) Mr. Live feat. Earl Blaize – The Bitch That You Are (Produced By Oddisee)
04.) Sic Osyrus & Donny Goines – Why Lord? (Middle Fingers Up) (Produced By Khrysis)
05.) Karniege – The Kush (Produced By Jake One)
06.) Skyzoo – Bang This (Produced By The Alchemist)
07.) Dominique Larue – Role Play (Produced By 9th Wonder)
08.) Emilio Rojas – E To The M-I-L-I-O (Produced By J Dilla)
09.) Access Immortal – Stay Strapped (Produced By DJ Premier)
10.) Melodiq feat. Nikal Fieldz – Bottom Of The 9th (Produced By 4th Disciple)
11.) Diablo Archer feat. Myk Dyaleks (of BrokN.English) – We The New Era (Produced By Domingo)
12.) Sha Stimuli – Today We Living (Produced By Nottz)
13.) Fred Knuxx – Air ‘Em Out (Produced By Hi-Tek)
14.) Laelo Hood – Extra, Extra! (Produced By DJ Khalil)
15.) Supastition – Sound Of Reform School (Produced By Black Milk)
16.) Black ELement – Feel The Hunger (Produced By DJ Scratch)
17.) Droppin’ A Message (Interlude)
18.) Zero Star – On My Backpack Shit (Produced By Large Professor)
19.) Little Vic – Let The Dollar Circulate (Produced By Ayatollah)
20.) Cymarshall Law – This Is The End (Produced By Salaam Remi)
21.) Donnan Linkz – Buzz Kill (Produced By Oh No)
22.) Cy Yung aka Cyrano – OK Corral (Produced By Madlib)
23.) Tislam The Great – Once Again (Produced By Questlove)
24.) Faro – Love Me Or Hate Me (Produced By Scram Jones)
25.) Arsun F!st – I’m In Here (Produced By Marco Polo)
26.) Sense-I – Sense-I’s The Name (Produced By Nicolay)
27.) Wordsmith feat. Kontact & Black Knight – Signing Day (Produced By Pete Rock)
28.) Journalist 103 – Til’ The Trumpets Blow (Produced By Illmind)
29.) Clap Cognac feat. Jedi Knight – Chosen Ones (Produced By Havoc)
30.) City Scholar – The Rebirth (Produced By Evidence)
31.) Detroit Red – Hip Hop Redefined (Produced By Buckwild)
32.) D.V. Alias Khryst feat. Retsam Da Prince – It’s Da Govarmynt (Produced By Marley Marl)
33.) Nametag – Champagne Bottle Flow (Produced By Ski Beatz)
34.) Panama aka Da Spanish Kid – Born Ready (Produced By RZA)
35.) Hi-Coup feat. Spectacula – My Father Told Me (Produced By M-Phazes)
36.) Preach Jacobs feat. N’telligence – Mic Check (Produced By Rockwilder)
37.) The Exodus (Outro By DJ Unexpected)
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24 Nov, 2008
Dope Lessondary/Tanya Morgan producer and friend of the site Aeon just sent over a nice little beat tape of joints he produced between 2005-2006. Highly recommended.
Aeon is also working on an instrumental full length called The Perpetual Contenders, that I’ve been looking forward to for a minute. Stay tuned to Aeon’s blog for news on that as it develops.
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13 Nov, 2008
I was turned off by the bleepity bloops at first, but Zion I has grown on me. On side A, MC Zumbi and producer AmpLive remix some hip-hop classics and on side B is more on the electronic tip. You’re going to want to put this on and do a thousand crunches. This mixtape comes before the release of Zion I’s album The TakeOver January 27th.
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Alien MC’s
2. The Rebel
3. Paper Thick f/ Rakaa Iriscience & Richie Cunning
4. Til Tha Breakadawn f/ Codany Holiday
5. Rawww f/ Mr. Davin, Deuce Eclipse, and Bambu
6. Gotsta Chill (Temperature RMX) f/ Talib Kweli
7. All Tha Jazz Interlude produced by Headnodic, horns by Adam Theis
8. Push the Button produced by Sean Christian
9. The Choice Jump Off
Side B
1. Juicy Juice
2. How Does It Feel f/ KFlay & Del the Funky Homosapien
3. Mama Told Me produced by Beat Camp
4. MGMT vs MGMT f/ Mickey Factz
5. The D Interlude
6. Santogold One RMX f/ The Grouch
7. Weird Fishez f/ Young Deuce
8. Fight for the Right (Muse RMX)
And look! Some tour dates:
11/17/2008 Neumo’s- Seattle, WA
11/18/2008 Satyricon- Portland, OR
11/19/2008 Domino Room- Bend, OR
11/21/2008 Club Underground- Reno, NV
11/22/2008 Grand Ballroom- San Francisco, CA
What up, Stephen!
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11 Nov, 2008
Via Von Pea’s blog
Von Pea from Tanya Morgan does original, dope tracks over Madlib’s beats from the 2nd Quasimoto album, The Further Adventures of Lord Quas. You need this in your life. Hey, and it’s Von’s birthday today so go wish the man.
Did I mention how much I love that album cover?
Check out our interview with Tanya Morgan if you haven’t already! Oh, one more thing: Grand Vonye is a classic. You need to listen to that. “Progress Report” is my jam.
Dj01 Edit: Happy Birthday to Von as well!!
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28 Oct, 2008
This is easily the best thing I got out of CMJ Week. I met Magestik Legend at Fat Beats. I was talking to the crew there (what up to DJ SAV*ONE and The Audible Doctor, who produced the Brown Bag AllStars joint from awhile back) and they passed me a copy of his mixtape. He later came out himself and made sure I had a copy as well as his number. Adamant but cool, like anybody on their hustle should be. Now, I had been getting copies of stuff all week and about 95% of the music I get from unknown artists just plain sucks (I still listen to all of it though!). To my surprise, Magestik Legend’s Free doesn’t suck at all and actually kicks ass.
Magestik is original and clever without the gimmicks (not pointing any fingers, you gimmick-ass rappers know who you are). The first song, "The Legend," isn’t just a laundry list of brag raps. Rather, he references the Bible, ancient Greece, ancient Egypt and other "legendary" whatnot. His skills also show on "In N Out". On the first verse, he talks about everything in him, ending every line with "in me" and on the second verse, he uses "out" in every line. OK, that’s a little gimmicky, but it’s still dope how he pulls it off.
Unlike most underground rappers, Magestik Legend can actually write a hook, a rare skill. His greatest asset by far is his flow, which is constantly changing and always bonkers. He’s easily on par with most dudes in today’s underground scene.
The production, soul samples and the like, is done by mostly unknown producers. The only name I recognized was Nick Speed. The beats are far from amateur though. There aren’t any that you’re going to tell all your friends about tomorrow, but it doesn’t have that cheap mixtape sound either. Magestik has the perfect backdrops to go nuts.
Definitely don’t sleep. You can stream it here too.
Peace to Magestik Legend!
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26 Oct, 2008
I got an email a few days ago from Chicago emcee Nico B promoting this EP he put together. I don’t normally post stuff by people who don’t reach out to me directly, but this album is ill. Sabada Gigante is Nico’s tribute to salsa legend Hector Lavoe, produced entirely by DJ Noble. The beats are dope, all based around Lavoe samples, and Nico is pretty nice on the mic, although he does quote classic lyrics a bit excessively at times (lemonade was a popular drink in the 90s and apparently still is!) Can’t forget that fantastic album cover either.
I got into salsa pretty recently through the great Willie Colon compilation, A Man & His Music: The Player, and I’ve been wanting to flip salsa samples for a while. This EP is a breath of fresh air and very welcome on a shitty winter day, highly recommended. You can stream tracks off the tape at Nico’s MySpace too, if you’re not sold.
Let me leave you with Hector singing “Periodico de Ayer” in 1978:
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15 Oct, 2008
Another Charles Hamilton mixtape. And it’s hosted by the Rosenthals! He’s more conservative with the beats on this one but not to the point that it stifles his creativity, which is a good thing overall. And he doesn’t shout out his websites this time around.
via 2dopeboyz
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2 Oct, 2008
My apologies, EL, I promised I’d post this a week or two ago. I’m dealing with a lot of school work right now, so I’ll be scarce around these parts for a bit.
Oh, and don’t sleep on Jelani neither. (Peep his free album, Wait, You Can Rap?!?! here)
A Major Minority is still on its way, and we’ll hear a revised album release date soon hopefully.
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25 Sep, 2008
K. Sparks and Pajozo comprise the duo Definition. Here’s their free album Definition which features the song "Definition". Yeah.
In all seriousness, Queens rapper K. Sparks and Swedish producer Pajozo make a pretty slick duo. They have a jazzy sound which at times is reminiscent of Pete Rock production from the CL days. Some songs are kind of generic, but the album (mixtape?) is solid for the most part.
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22 Sep, 2008
01.) Get Ya Ass Up! (Intro)
02.) Heltah Skeltah – Everything Is Heltah Skeltah
03.) Brooklyn Academy – Raise Ya Hands (ft.Jean Grae)
04.) Fresh Daily – Get Over
05.) D. Black – The Come Up (ft.Skyzoo)
06.) 50 Cent – Make A Movie
07.) Supastition – Thankful (ft.Kil Ripkin)
08.) Naturel – The Bullets
09.) K.O. (K-Otix) – 48 Seasons
10.) Torae – New Blood (ft.Skyzoo, Emilio Rojas & Fresh Daily)
11.) Fortilive – The Come Up
12.) Broken English – Different World
13.) Skyzoo – Lyrically Inclined (ft.Wale)
14.) Naps N Dreds – Do What I Should (ft.Copywrite)
15.) Quan – Geez Like Deez (ft.Rapper Big Pooh)
16.) Naturel – Resurrect
17.) 8th W1 – A Fool’s Lullaby
18.) Faro-Z – Clap Ya Hands
19.) A.P.E.X. – One More Time
20.) LL Cool J – Queens (ft.Prodigy, 50 Cent, Kool G Rap, & Tony Yayo)
21.) Wannabe? (Outro)
I actually haven’t heard this yet since my internet is fucked with a tiny download capacity, but trust if it’s Illmind, then it’s dope. Great selection of recent Illmind produced tracks. I’m impressed by the way he and Jake One balance the mainstream with the underground. An example to follow, to be sure. Oh, and Illmind has a blog, but you already knew that.
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