Truthfully, I’ve been waiting for the rap, Harry Potter crossover for a long time. And by crossover, I mean rap referencing Harry Potter in a substantial way, not some dumb CollegeHumor parody or a Lonely Island video. It was a matter of time, really. Harry Potter is practically as big as Star Wars and I’m sure every rapper under 25 can name all seven horcruxes. Don’t believe me? Both ASAP Rocky and Kendrick Lamar told Dee Vazquez that the last book they read was a Harry Potter book. ASAP picked Goblet of Fire and Kendrick did not specify.

That said, T.I. and his weed carrier ensemble delivered in a big way. The song is called “Harry Potter.” Boom. And I would have settled for Jay Electronica twisting “wingardium leviosa” into a rhyme. The glorious hook:

And if they ask, we got that whip game proper,
That brick game proper,
We make it disappear and we just call it Harry Potter.
Got the whip game proper,
My clique aim choppers,
We make it disappear and we just call it Harry Potter, mane.

And the even more glorious bridge:

And we just call it Harry Potter, mane, mane,
And we just call it Harry Potter, maaaane,
And we just call it Harry Potter, mane,
And we just call it Harry Potter, mane.

It helps that the song is an apocalyptic banger produced by Hit-Boy and not just novelty mixtape trash. Think about it: somewhere, people — grown men, even — are balling their hearts out to “Harry Potter.”

Rap music, I love you sometimes.

Download: D.O.P.E. – Harry Potter (ft. T.I.) (produced by Hit-Boy)

See a great moment in Photoshop history after the break:
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Those who wait for the Starlito verse will be handsomely rewarded.

Download: Eldorado Red – Road To Success (ft. Starlito) (produced by The Agents)

via GreenHitz.com

Back to your regularly scheduled Lungies in 3, 2, 1… BRIIIIICK SQUAAAAAD!!

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My stomach hurts and my throat is on fire. I wish I could sit on the toilet and re-read all seven Harry Potter books, but I can’t do that right now. I’m a working man. Kind of. I have to put in some good hours so that they’ll hire me at the end of this internship. I miss college so much, but I try not to dwell on the good times I took for granted — Halo 3 marathons and staying up until 3:00 with no repercussions. Time to be a grown up.

New York City is freezing and my blood is barely moving by the time I get to Penn Station. I get home at 11:00 and spare an hour of sleep to listen to LiveLoveASAP again. 2011 was rough. We lost Amy Winehouse, Gil-Scott Heron, Heavy D, and Nate Dogg. There were riots and protests all over the world. But I’ll sleep soundly tonight, heartened by the fact that my new baby cousin has all his toes and fingers and that this year, the following beats were dope.

As is tradition, we gathered some friends to each pick their five favorite beats of the year. 2011′s swaggiest are…

Pete Rock – Soul Brother #1

Big K.R.I.T. –  Mississippi maestro

Mark Ronson - DJ, super-producer, the man

Dave1 – 1/2 of Chromeo, expert funkateer, style guru, life long hip hop connoisseur

Waka Flocka – Hardest in the paint

Georgia Anne Muldrow – Stones Throw lady

Nick Speed – One of Detroit’s finest

PT PrimeTime – 1/3 of Untamed Ent (The 6 Day Equation)

HL – Droptops & Stacy Laptops

Jensen Karp – Pop culture junkie, Gallery 1988 owner, rapper pension plan beneficiary.

Craig S. Jenkins – Potholes In My Blog

Rebecca Haithcoat – LA Weekly

Joey – Straightbangin

And your humble editor, KNOBBZXL aka Evan Nabavian

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Psychedelic ‘tryna make it’ rap from G-Side. “Trip” appears on the Japanese retail version of iSLAND.

Says Chuuwee of the tracks conception,

The last 3 or 4 months I’ve seen like 60 different “backs.” That shit is dumb to me so I was just like, ‘If I’m going to bring some shit back, it’s going to be forreal forreal. That, and the fact that a lot of people sleep on Amalgam. I fuck with Amalgam tough, them is my peoples. So I was like, “I’m bringing Amalgam back.”

Perhaps the only tribute to the often forgotten label/online music store.

As a bonus, here’s a cut from J’s forthcoming 2057 EP.

via rubyhornet

Willie the Kid paints a detailed portrait of a hip-hop stock character.

I listened to the whole song waiting for a Kurupt verse. I also would have appreciated a Montell Jordan cameo. So yeah, I’m comfortable with this vibe. Don’t listen to this if you don’t like fun. Off Cold Day In Hell.

PT PrimeTime of Untamed/Block Beattaz gets it. On his new single, he preaches about local harsh realities, et al. over a gospel-flavored track, but he doesn’t make any dramatic changes to his cadence or his diction. He doesn’t put on airs to distance himself from tracks like “Facebook Freak.” Still the same PT, just a different side. That’s why it isn’t that corny when he raps, “You can achieve if you believe.”

“Crazy” will appear on his debut solo album “Thoughts of a Leader.”

Download: PT PrimeTime – Crazy (produced by Block Beattaz)

When I played “Lean Back (Remix)” for the first time on the radio with Angie Martinez, the city stopped. The whole earth stopped. She was like, ‘I heard you got this remix, and I heard it’s crazy. But I don’t know who’s on it.’ And I was like, ‘Yo, I got the white boy.’ And the whole place got quiet.

-Fat Joe