Metal Lungies

Brake Lights recalls the belligerence of Game’s older mixtapes where he recklessly swung at G-Unit and whoever else shot him a funny look. But those rivalries are long dead aside from the occasional snide remark in an interview. Nowadays, Game is struggling to get a single on the charts and a release date that will stick. Game seemed pretty blasé about his album situation in a recent interview where he made it seem as if it’s just a matter of time before his big radio record comes along. And while he waits, here’s an entire street album of original material.

You have to admire Game’s enthusiasm. Rather than moping about leakers and record execs that don’t see his vision (hi Lupe), Game uses his connections and resources to record a project that’s pure fan service. Interscope would never release such a haphazard album without records carefully tailored to appeal to different markets and demographics. Despite completely original beats, it’s apparent that Brake Lights was recorded on an impulse. Game rambles about sex and homicide in glorious excess over surprisingly dark production from assorted b-grade producers. It’s all been said and done before, but Game’s charisma and audacity is magnetic.

Download: Game – Brake Lights

via XXLmag.com

Update: Here is the untagged version of the mixtape. “Stop” featuring Rick Ross is missing because DJ Skee doesn’t have the untagged version. I took the liberty of fixing the metadata, which was a jumbled mess.

Download: Game – Brake Lights (The Raw Files)

via Rap GodFathers Community

De La Soul pays tribute to GrandMixer D.ST over an 80s electro beat. Remember kids, DJs can do more than ruin mixtapes.

Download: De La Soul – The Return Of DST (produced by Posdnous)

via Frolab

Slim Thug dumped a ton of unreleased tracks on Twitter, but the one that stuck out to me was his collab with Hi-Tek who provides a slow contemplative horn loop for Thugga to wax poetic about the elusive bad bitch in his life.

It’s becoming standard procedure for rappers to leak tracks that won’t make their albums. Big Boi supposedly (almost certainly) leaked his collaboration with Andre 3000 that Jive wouldn’t clear and Black Milk gave us “Don Cornelius” which got stuck behind sample clearance.

Download: Slim Thug – GottaGetta (produced by Hi-Tek)

via Slim Thug

This rap shit can be awful cruel. Both Drake and Wale played the sensitive rapper card. Wale’s talent grabbed him a dedicated following, an Interscope contract, and Roc Nation management, but disappointing first week sales. Drake came out with an unremarkable bubblegum rap album and had Jay-Z, Kanye, and Wayne on his nuts. Attention Deficit was flawed, but not the 10th grade love affair that was Thank Me Later.

More About Nothing is more fully realized than anything Wale has done before, effectively a concept album looking at relationships from multiple angles. Seinfeld dialog once again provides strangely pertinent interludes. Wale sounds equally comfortable over pop tracks and Southern thumpers and he uses his dynamic flow to make them get along. The tape is proof that Wale makes better music when left to his own devices and that his mountain of hype may get him somewhere yet.

Download at HipHop-N-More

Sudanese rapper/producer Bangs stole our hearts last year with “Take U To Da Movies,” a bullish use of a green screen that seized the online audience not unlike rising star Antoine Dodson. Aside from dropping a new smash, “Meet Me on Facebook” (above), and appearing in a Honda ad, Bangs recently gave a blowout interview where he broke down his creative process. Prepare yourself.

On “Take U To Da Movies”

I just make the beat, ya know, and I listen to the beat. Put pen on paper and listen to it for a while and I said, “Let me make a song about the movies.”

On the video

It was free for free ’cause I work with someone he’s a director. He got his office with green screen and all that so he told me, “I want you to do a short movie for me like two minutes or three minutes. I tell him, “Okay,” I did the movie and I told him I want to shoot a video clip ’cause I got a song. He tell me, “Okay, alright, we see how we go.” I let him hear the song and all that we shoot “Take U to Da Movies,” he edit it and I did the rest.

On 50 Cent

He called me last year, December or so. He tell him I want to shoot video with him, “Take U to Da Movie (Remix).” I tell him, “Okay.” Since that day, ya know, he ain’t call back yet.

On influences

Chingy, Sean Kingston, ya know, who else…?

On using the word “Thurr”

I’ll be singing it, “Shawty right thurr. I say right thurr, when I say right thurr it feel like it’s a better mix with the beat to be kinda good to make it hip-hop. Right thurr.

Girls he wants to take to the movies

Raven, like That’s So Raven. Or Eve… Keri Hilson, Jordin Sparks. Good kinda girls I go to movies with, if I go to the U.S. and collaboration [sic] with them.

Bangs is like the rap version of the crazy American Idol reject. Talking to a viral sensation is usually awkward, because you don’t know if the person understands why he’s so funny. See also our interview with Mr. Chi-City.

via XXLmag.com

Here’s a new EP from local hero turned hip-hop legend J Dilla. James Yancey’s beats have become sacred following the mania after his passing in 2006. Donut Shop includes three unreleased Dilla beats as well as three instrumentals for Q-Tip, Busta Rhymes, and Mos Def. Vinyl collectors will want to get their hands on the physical version, which looks beautiful. I’m dreading all the songs that will come out using these beats, proudly labeled as “produced by J Dilla.”

Download: J Dilla – Donut Shop

via Stones Throw Records

As a bonus, watch RZA talk about how the Dilla-produced “10 Bricks” is the only successful emulation of the Wu-Tang sound.

(image)

The buzz surrounding Yelawolf is ear-splitting at this point and I can’t help but say I told you so. Since we last checked in, Yela earned a guest appearance on Big Boi’s album, a cosign from Eminem, and now a collab with Southern heavyweight Gucci Mane. It remains to be seen how the masses will respond to Yelawolf, but I have an unsatisfiable craving for Bama anthems.

Does Gucci call Yela “Yellow” at the end?

Update: video here.

Wale remains the most deft rapper in the game when it comes to the topic of relationships. On “The Eyes of the Tiger,” Wale explores the plight of everyone’s favorite horndog golfer.

As the above mesmerizing gif indicates, the song comes from More About Nothing, the sequel to The Mixtape About Nothing, which drops Tuesday.

Download: Wale – The Eyes Of The Tiger

via Rap Radar

Bonus: Wale – The Manipulation

from The Mixtape About Nothing

Oddisee’s beats always veer close to over-produced, but stop short at a sweet spot where they sound enormous and fill the room. California rapper Trek Life’s Everything Changed Nothing is produced entirely by Oddisee; it’s available digitally right now and comes out on CD and vinyl August 10.

Download: Trek Life – As The World Turns (produced by Oddisee)

via Audible Treats

Gutter Water drops October 12. Jaylib 2010??

Download: Gangrene – Chain Swinging

via 2dopeboyz