Metal Lungies

Dude caught my attention when Sit Down Stand Up posted his Pete Rock-produced Oxygen, which as my friend Grant points out, sounds a lot like Hip-Hopcrisy off PeteStrumentals. Conveniently enough, he dropped a new mixtape last week.

Hosted by Rapper Big Pooh of Little Brother and mixed by Cosm Roks, A Change Gon’ Come is a nice collection of sharp lyrics and classic-sounding sample-based beats, which you might like if that Curren$y mixtape wasn’t your thing.

Download: Rashid Hadee – A Change Gon’ Come

via Kevin|Nottingham

Gotta love the lousy photoshop. Is that the new Audi that doesn’t cast a shadow?

A new mixtape from New Orleans’ own Curren$y. His chill vibe and smooth voice are the perfect antithesis to your angry east coast rappers and his beat selection is always on point. I was worried when his last mixtape, the west coast themed Higher than 30,000 Feet, didn’t live up to expectation, but Welcome to the Winner’s Circle sees Curren$y moving from airplanes to race cars and it’s fresh from beginning to end. Splitting with Weezy might have been the best thing he ever did. My House = generic/tired/wack

Download: Curren$y – Welcome to the Winner’s Circle

via OnSMASH

Maybe he was just having a bad day, but apparently Busta Rhymes got a little miffed at a listening session for his new album I’m Blessed when some journalists weren’t bobbing their heads quite enough.

If you niggas is gonna continue to do that—leave. Fuck the reviews.

Complex had an audio clip of Busta’s outbusrt, but it’s gone forever at the request of Interscope. Busta gave journalists a similar scolding on the outro of the excellent Dillagence mixtape. In between singing the praises of J Dilla, he declares that journalists write about other people because they have no lives and also drops this gem on the haters:

Fuck you, suck a thousand dicks and die a million deaths. I know it sounds real bad, but I mean it.

I can’t remember the last time I read anything bad about J Dilla. While Busta slams the critics on the late genius’ behalf, he’s really just venting his own frustration. And while I do indeed have no life, that gives Mr. Rhymes no right to be mean to me. Fun fact: I got Busta’s autograph when I was in fourth or fifth grade at a Discovery Zone. We were cool back then and I’m sad to see our friendship fall apart like this. Now I really feel bad, because Aaron was calling our boy out a minute ago too. I’m going to be the first to extend the olive branch to Busta Rhymes. I liked The Big Bang and I’m actually looking forward to his new album. See? I’m a nice guy. By the way, his new mixtape kinda sucks.

I’d really like to hate on this guy (Lil’ Boosie sounds like either a new hip malt beverage or one of those nicknames lame people have for their pets), but I can’t deny some fiyah when I here it. Check the myspace here.

I’m off to crack a dutch to this; I suggest a similar course of action.

Download (zip): Lil’ Boosie-Da Beginning

Between Wale, Bless 1, Blu & Exile, Jay Electronica, and The Knux the future of hip-hop isn’t lookin too shabby. Heres a new mixtape from the recent interscope signee Wale, brought to you by DJ Maf.

Plus some preview videos for the W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E. track off of 100 miles and runnin’ here and here.

Download (rar): Wale-The beast of the beltway

This is a few days old, but still definitely worth posting. Some of the forum members over at Crate Kings collaborated to put together a mix project. Crate Kings, by the by, is a valuable resource for any producer. But anyway, a group of producers got together to flip Henry Mancini hip-hop style. Its a great listen…hope you like it. Big up to all those involved in the project.

Check the original post here.

Download (mp3): Crate Kings vs. Henry Mancini

We haven’t been excited for a Lil Wayne mixtape like this since that little mixtape from late last spring (mainly because this one is oh so close to the release of The Carter III, even though last spring’s The Drought 2 was supposed to serve as a preview of The Carter III).

Tracklisting:

1. Carter III Is Coming (Grand Closing)
2. I
3. Walk It Off
4. Open Shop
5. Done It
6. Introducing Milli
7. Milli
8. Damn I’m Cold feat. Bun B
9. I’m A Dog Ya (Freestyle)
10. Stunt When I See You
11. We Hustle
12. I Got My
13. Lick The Rapper
14. Certified
15. Girls All Around
16. Single Again
17. Drought Is Finally Over
BONUS TRACKS
18. Too Clean feat. Lil’ Chuckie
19. Nike Boots feat. Wale (Official Remix)

Download (Zip): Lil Wayne-The Drought Is Over 5 (Grand Finale) . Shamelessly link jacked from 2dopeboyz.

Edit: Damn, will we ever see a dirty copy of Nike Boots (Remix)?

There are so many awful mixtapes out there right now. For every brilliant mixtape with great songs and a cohesive concept, there are a million more with a lame rapper rhyming the same words over the instrumentals for whatever songs are hot right now. So I want to reach out to the rappers, DJs, promoters, anyone putting out these tapes. I want to show you how to make a better mixtape. Step by step, let me break this down.

• First of all, BEATS: use fresh beats! The beats don’t need to be original or exclusive to the tape; in fact, it might be hard to get decent original beats, as XXL’s Scratch Blog explains. But if you are going to use original beats, make sure they’re good enough to warrant paying for them. None of this sub-“Laffy Taffy” shit bought off MySpace for $5.
• If you’re not planning to rap over beats made specifically for the tape, use some beats that haven’t been used to death. So many talented producers have released instrumental albums, but no one has really tried rapping over them. Cats like Madlib, Large Professor, Pete Rock & K-Def are some notable examples – there’s a fresh idea for you to try.
• A theme is a great idea and really holds the mixtape together cohesively. Think of a conceptual theme for you to base all your songs around. A few ideas: Spit over other genres of music or pick an artist and sample their work exclusively for the beats. Some great themed mixtapes of recent memory:

–Caltroit-Bishop Lamont, Black Milk & DJ Warrior :West Coast rappers & producers meet Detroit rappers & producers.

–Man In The Mirror-Rhymefest & Mark Ronson : A dedication to Michael Jackson, where ‘Fest raps over MJ songs and both old and new beats sampling Jackson.

–Dillagence-Busta Rhymes & Mick Boogie : Busta raps over J Dilla beats, released and unreleased.

• No intros, no outros, no DJ shouts. Skits should probably be avoided if you aren’t Prince Paul; most people can’t do funny ones.
• Think about putting the tape together like an album. It should flow nicely from track to track without any jarring transitions. See the point above- don’t confuse including an intro and outro as making the tape cohesive. Actual blending is nice, sometimes too- if you’re a DJ hosting the tape, you’d better be doing some mixing.
• Listen to the GZA on the issue of brevity:

“Keep it brief, son / Half short, twice as strong”

Self-explanatory.

• Features are nice if you can get them. Don’t just rap over another rapper’s song, keep their verse and list the track as “featuring ______”. Reach to out to older and/or unsigned rappers. There are so many talented dudes who aren’t putting anything out.
• Finally and most importantly, have a unique voice as an emcee. Have actual song concepts with fresh ideas. Tell a story! Talk about lyrical themes that aren’t commonly discussed. As a rule, consider the following song themes covered:

-how many drugs you sell

-how tough you are

-how good you are at rapping

Of course, I’m not saying you can’t rap about any of those subjects. I’m saying if you do plan to, try to bring something new to the table. Put a fresh spin on a tired topic.

• When it comes to promotion, know your intended audience. Who would enjoy your tape? If you’re going to send it to bloggers, writers, whoever, make sure you know who you’re sending it to. If a blogger raves about Little Brother & Talib Kweli, they might ignore your tape of freestyles over 50 Cent beats. The vice versa may also apply.
• These are generalizations, but it won’t hurt to know your audience. Pay attention to what they’re writing about and approach them as an individual person instead of a magical promotional device. Mass mailing is probably a bad idea, because it means whatever you’re sending out is no longer an exclusive. A lot of writers may also just ignore something that’s been clearly been mass mailed.

Hope this helps. Step your mixtape game up!

Any rapper can talk about drugs and money. The difference is, I believe them.

Cop it here.

Update (02/06): The Drama and Non-Drama fully mixed versions are available here. Thought the original sounded a bit weird.

Before you even look at what’s on the mixtape; how can a mixtape named after an organic food store not be ML approved?

Not much crazy hot exclusive stuff like those other mixtapes but it has a lot of Andre 3000 singing rapping in one neat package.

Tracklisting:

¦ 01. Introduction (Feat.Society of Soul) 01:43 ¦
¦ 02. International Player 01:13 ¦
¦ 03. What A Job Is 01:37 ¦
¦ 04. Everybody 01:51 ¦
¦ 05. You (Remix) 00:59 ¦
¦ 06. Throw Some D’s (Remix) 01:00 ¦
¦ 07. Walk It Out (Remix) 01:26 ¦
¦ 08. A Life In A Day of Benjamin 04:42 ¦
¦ 09. Long Way To Go (Feat.Gwen Stefani) 04:17 ¦
¦ 10. Millionaire (Feat. Kelis) 03:44 ¦
¦ 11. She Lives In My Lap (Feat. Rosario Dawson) 04:25 ¦
¦ 12. Prototype 05:21 ¦
¦ 13. Pink And Blue 04:44 ¦
¦ 14. Chronomentrophobia 02:11 ¦
¦ 15. Greatist Show On Earth (Feat. Macy Gray) 03:07 ¦
¦ 16. Boogie Man (Feat. Big Gipp) 03:00 ¦
¦ 17. Nectarine (Feat. Cherokee) 03:49 ¦
¦ 18. Junglebook (Feat. Esthero) 04:35 ¦
¦ 19. Trans Df Express 00:58 ¦
¦ 20. Spottieottiedogaliscious (Feat. Big Boi) 07:05 ¦
¦ 21. Liberation (Feat. Erykah Badu, Cee-Lo And Big Boi) 08:46 ¦
¦ 22. Humble Mumble (Feat. Big Boi And Eryhah Badu) 04:51 ¦ ¦ 23. So Fresh, So Clean (Feat. Sleepy Brown And Big Boi) 03:59 ¦

Download.