Metal Lungies

Virgin Mobile Festival is proving once again to being a good way to spend the weekend, expect HM & I to be back in full force Mondayish..

Till then I just quickly glanced at the e-mail stash and read the NYTimes article on Kanye blogging on Kanye Universe City..

I wonder if he is going to mention this (Which makes me think of that bar from Diamonds Are Forever– “some of my plaques still say Kayne”):

Via Baltimore Sun.

Via The Urban Daily

I don’t normally like to just quote large sections of interviews, but my man Jerry Barrow posted an excerpt of an interview with Pharaohe Monch with some info about Troy’s upcoming projects. After 7 years of waiting, the floodgates are opening, holy shit:

His first project, Let My People Go, should be out later this year and hopes to bridge the gap between some of today’s artists and fans of his peers.
“Music should be a little more free. We shouldn’t be criticizing as much as we do,” he told The Urban Daily. “The artist and the radio are just as much at fault. But here is a piece of music that you can like. There’s a lot of collaborations. Where as Desire was more just me holding it down, this is going to have some special appearances.”
His second project is a double EP called Rock Vs. Disco. The concept CD is a period piece that takes place in the late 70s and early 80s when Disco emerged and challenged Rock.
“ I grew up on both so this project is like a double EP with a rock influenced side and a disco influenced side. I’m gonna have t-shirts that say Rock vs Disco: Which Do you love?
“Then I have a concept record called the Verses Project with producers I’ve never worked with before. It’ll come out like a comic book and be distributed digitally. It’ll be like Pharoahe vs. Premier and Pharoahe vs RZA. Then you can purchase the whole [series] for . “
In addition to preparing a Making of Internal Affairs (the ten year anniversary of the classic disc is next year) Monch will be releasing “The Hidden Years” which is the music he recorded between Internal Affairs and Desire.

While we wait for brand new Pharaohe, here’s a few new-ish Pharaohe tracks I’ve been digging lately (the last track is from ’07 but I hadn’t heard it until a week ago.)

Download: Pharaohe Monch – Broken Heart

                       Erykah Badu – The Healer (rmx ft.Pharaohe Monch)

                      King Reign  – One More Time (ft.Pharaohe Monch)

(L.E.G.A.C.Y. on the bottom right, for those not in the know)

Produced by Khrysis, who keeps getting better as a producer. Props to Khal.

Download: L.E.G.A.C.Y. – 14 Grams

Via 2dopeboyz

1. The Entrance
2. Hot: Sizzling, Scorching, Torching, Blazing
3. ‘Maica Living’ feat. Killa Sha and Guardian Leep
4. Pump Ya Fist feat. Mikey D Lotto
5. Party Time
6. In The Ghetto
7. Hardcore Hip Hop
8. Frantic Barz
9. Sewin’ Love
10. Ru Dope feat. Jeru Tha Damaja
11. Dap feat. Lil Dap
12. Noyd feat. Big Noyd
13. Classic Emergency
14. Rockin’ Hip Hop
15. Large Pro Says
16. To The Meadows
17. The Hardest feat. AZ & Styles P

Drops September 30th, the same day as Termanology’s album. I recommend copping both. I can’t wait to hear this.

Some thoughts on the track listing:

-I like that he got Jeru, Killa Sha & Noyd on here. Dope NY emcees from the golden era deserve more shine.

-Lil Dap? Really? Maybe it’s just an interlude.

-“The Hardest” already appeared on both AZ & Styles P’s albums. It’s a dope track, but did it really need to appear here?

-Like Extra P’s solo debut, The LP, this album suffers from awful song title syndrome (nothing here is as bad as “Funky 2 Listen 2”, fortunately)

Let me leave you with the ridiculously dope intro track, “The Entrance.”

Download: Large Professor – The Entrance

Gutta is a hardcore rapper from Pheonix, Arizona. A city where they love ML. He just signed with Babygrande Records and hooked up with Blue Sky Black Death, the producers who worked with Hell Razah last year. We really loved the BSBD Hell Razah album, and judging from this song Gutta’s album is shaping up to be some ridiculous shit.

His music is hardcore in that Jedi Mind Tricks/Ill Bill sense. Some really hard shit, but definately don’t crank this at the office.

Gutta- Thrashin’ (Produced By Blue Sky Black Death)

Our Rock The Bells homie Jabari holds The Clipse hostage in a car and interviews them, Pt.2 later.

Jabari doesn’t stop grinding cause he also found the time to talk to Cory Gunz about A Milli.

Read the rest of this entry »

I was catching up on my 2dope readings and noticed they posted Jane Doe Ft. Black Thought & Talib Kweli – Bullshit off the Black Star affiliate’s shelved EMI album. Well let me lace you will a little ML-Unreleased-HGH-supplement for that track:

Download (Mp3):  Jane Doe Ft. Mobb Deep – Mind Over Matter

Download (Mp3): Jane Doe Ft. Smif N Wessun –  Clear Da Route

Download (Mp3): Jane Doe – Cold War

PS (is there any photographical evidence of Jane Doe, hell even an article? my google skills aren’t lacking  and I couldn’t come up with anything  outside of all sorts of articles on un-identified bodies).

Even Just Bleezy and Green Lantern kick a few bars. If I can take a second to get nostalgic for an era I was too young to experience, isn’t it great to see cats just having fun and passing the mic? Just Blaze actually surprised me with his bars.

“Roc Boys (And the Winner Is)…” is the second single released from Jay-Z’s 2007 album, American Gangster. The song is produced by Diddy, Sean C & LV. “Roc Boys” is all about the upbeat, celebratory horns, sampled from the Menahan Street Band’s “Make The Road By Walking.” A funky guitar lick plays in the background through most of the song, and the sample is topped off with some thick, thudding drums (must be Diddy’s contribution there!) The beat quickly became the go-to instrumental for rappers to freestyle over, with rappers like Asher Roth and Wale still using it in 2008.

The video for “Roc Boys” has cameos from basically everyone. Look for appearances by Rick Ross, Memphis Bleek, Diddy, Freeway, Nas, Tru Life, Young Gunz, Jadakiss, Swizz Beatz, Beanie Sigel, Cassie, DJ Clue, Larry Johnson, Tristan Wilds, Just Blaze, Zab Judah, The-Dream, Irv Gotti and Mariah Carey.

Producer K-Def remixed American Gangster and released his set of remixes online, entitled Real Live Gangster. Def’s version of “Roc Boys” is a complete about-face from the original’s feeling. It’s slow and downbeat, centered around a series of jazzy electric guitar riffs. Every few bars, the guitar is joined by urgent strings and police sirens. The remix switches the drums to light, live sounding drum taps. K-Def’s stripped down instrumental is compelling enough to demand attention by itself, while focusing the listener’s attention on the lyrics.

Which version do you prefer? I really dig the whole Real Live Gangster remix album, and as much as I liked “Roc Boys” when it came out, the original is a bit played out for me. So the K-Def version is a compelling alternative. Given the massive amount of American Gangster remix albums, if you don’t care for either version highlighted here, you ought to be able to find one that floats your boat.

You can download Real Live Gangster here. I can’t recommend it enough, regardless of your opinion of the original AG album.

Download: Jay-Z – Roc Boys (And The Winner Is…) (American Gangster, 2007)

Jay-Z – Roc Boys (K-Def Remix) (Real Live Gangster, 2007)

Coney Island’s Torae snatched up a lot of attention earlier this year with his solo debut, Daily Conversation. His New York flow, potent rhymes and excellent beat selection made his name a necessary inclusion in any discussion of NY’s underground. He’s been consistently dope ever since, hence this mixtape of collaborations and unreleased material. If you’ve been checking for Tor, chances are you’ve heard a few of these tracks already, but it’s a solid collection nonetheless.

True story: Torae was my first interview. This was pre-ML for my college newspaper. Not even gonna link it because I screwed it up so bad. Maybe I’ll post the mp3 ten years from now when Torae is either an underground legend or a Jay-Z-level superstar.

Download: Torae – Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself

via okayplayer