Posts in the New Releases Category
I've never heard of Asher Roth, but this track, "The Lounge," showed up in my inbox this afternoon (props to kathryn) and I'm impressed: he has one of those smooth, simple flows that sounds great over this beat, which is on some easy-listening-throwback shit (think Typical Cats). The title of the song, "The Lounge," is fine, but after listening to the entire track I would have stuck with something more to the point, like: "What Makes a Rapper," which is the central question of Asher's piano-backed flow.
This kid is white, from Philly, and he's not ashamed of his background at all. The entire song is a discussion of just what it means to be an MC. From questions of street cred, to skin color and gender, Asher spends the track hunting for a definition of 'rapper.' It's all about identity and full of rhetorical questions, but the song doesn't take shots at anyone--after all, it's called "The Lounge," and the beat is anything but confrontational.
Look for Asher Roth's upcoming mixtape with DJ Drama and Don Cannon, dropping Friday, June 13th. Man, that should be fucking fun!! (Drama, Cannon and Asher Roth on a mix together? I'm not even sure what to expect, but can't wait.)
The most revolutionary of rappers, Immortal Technique, is dropping The 3rd World on June 24th through Viper Records and KOCH. I can't wait for this thing. Tech has been holding it down in the vacuum that dead prez created when they stepped out of the limelight. Everything he talks about is essential. After listening to his words, you can truly say he's down for the struggle and has a firm grasp on just what the fuck is happening in the world--you're either with it or you'll never get it.
Here's three tracks off The 3rd World 12", props to Viper Records for the hookup.
Immortal Technique - The Third World
Immortal Technique f. Mojo - Reverse Pimpology
Immortal Technique - The Payback
Check the line on "Reverse Pimpology": "Free markets make money disingenuously / but I invest in agriculture, biochemistry." Any rapper bashing the free market certainly has their head in a different place; Tech has been shedding light on this fucked up system for years, maybe some more ears will perk up with The 3rd World.
It looks like the New York Times also cares about Lil Mama. There's not too much hilarity to be had there, except for an attempt to coin "hip-pop" as a phrase. Because, apparently, the New York Times lives in a world where hip-hop and pop music haven't been in conversation with each other for, oh, the last two decades.
I'm not sure what the purpose of this post is--maybe just an attempt at solidarity with Ian--but, dudes, Lil Mama's debut album dropped today. I bet none of you knew and I bet none of you cared, but seriously, check this out. And maybe it's just my biases towards good pop, good lady rappers, and colorful clothes, but I'll be damned if this lady doesn't go places. She's talented as hell and if her songs, deliciously pop, pro-woman, and hip-hop as anything else you'll hear this year, can't convince you of than that then maybe her ripping up a cipher will convince you:
I mean, come on! She's barely 18 and she's ripping it up like this? I can't wait to see where she ends up. And while I would prefer that you went out and bought her album, I'll note that it may be possibly to grab it for free.
Vast Aire, one half of the legendary underground rap duo Cannibal Ox, has fixed June 24th as the release date for his solo project, Deuces Wild. This will be his sophomore solo-LP, and drops on One Records.
I'm praying that Vast isn't still stuck on the sinking ship that is post-2003 underground hip-hop mentality. You know what I'm talking about: the underground was really making waves but then fell off big time as so many players tried to latch on to the aesthetic that made groups like Can Ox great. That's to say, the underground was diluted bigtime, and even supreme efforts--like from Vast Aire--were lost in the mix. The fact that all that music was "underground" made it just that much more difficult to sort out the goods from the chaff--being in the loop just wasn't enough.
But it's not 2003 and the underground has been long dead now. It's time for Vast to come back and come back strong, but I'm not going to make any predictions about this thing, especially considering what happened with Del and The Eleventh Hour, a disc seven years in the making. In any case, I've got one mp3 off the upcoming disc, "Mecca and the Ox" featuring Vordul Mega.
Vast Aire f. Vordul Mega - "Mecca and the Ox"
Also, check out the tracklisting after the jump.
Anyways, your favorite blog (but apparently not everyone's) posted a few excerpts from an interview with Weezy F that'll be front page news in Vibe's May issue. Daps. I'm always interested in what's going on in Wayne's mind. Here's a couple of 'em excerpts:
On his legacy:
I wanna be a Bob Marley. I wanna be a Tupac. Their lives mean so much. I wanna mean so much after I’m gone. Y’all still gotta do shows, tributes, dedicate 20 whole minutes to me on every show. I want that.Wayne on his love for making music:
I love the studio. It feels like going into a classroom, you know you didn’t study everything, the test gets in front of you, and you’re like Damn, I know all the answers. That’s how I feel when I get in the studio, like Damn, I know all the answers.Lil Wayne on wanting respect as an artist:
I still feel like I’m not being respected. I still feel like I don’t have the crown. I still feel like there’s something I have to do that hasn’t been done.
Wayne's right, and we know geniuses need love too, so hook the lil homie up. Despite all of his efforts, singles, mixtapes, features and Bad Ass Grasshoppers, Wayne still doens't get any love. It's like the rest of the industry is hoping that if they ignore him long enough he'll simply disappear, or get dropped (not like Joey Crack, I mean like pap pap).
Seriously, Wayne destroyed every rapper last year, but I don't hear him on the radio around these parts--not without Akon's broke voice whining a chorus. Weezy knows what's up, he's being ignored by a large portion of the market and he shouldn't be.
Even Eskay seems to think Curren$y flys higher than Wayne:
"Remember when Wayne kicked this kid out of Young Money because he was afraid somebody was gonna realize that he was better than him? That was fucked up. Nah, lemme stop, that’s (probably) not what happened."
You even listen to music dude? (probably not)
That being said, does anyone even know how many songs Wayne recorded last year? We know it's more than the 77 Vibe cataloged as the best, and fuck you thinking Fennessey, putting "We Takin' Over" in the top spot? I'm gonna have to come back with my own best of list; Whatever's Good, Weezy's Better 'The only songs your iPods need til C3.' It's time to set the records straight.
Back to business. Even though last year's strategy didn't reap the big rewards, awards, nor the crown for Wayne, it looks like 50 cent and the Goon-Unit are gonna take a page from the hip-hop king's diary anyway. Buildin' buzz. They've dropped one mixtape already (RIP Joe), have multiple discs slated for release in '08 and continue to build a solid fence around the blogosphere with all the posts their affiliates are front page posting over at thisis50. That still doesn't make their music any better, but here's the jam anyway. Newest single from the upcoming G-Unit album:
One of Cali's finest, The Grouch, is returning on April 8th with a new disc, Show You The World. I've been down with the the Living Legends crew and their affiliates for nearly a decade--they are giants in Bay Area hip-hop history, and Grouch helped lay the foundation. Dude has been producing for everyone in the Bay that matters, and for a long-ass time now.
I had a chance to peep the new album, and it's fire. Definitely getting some votes for best of 2008. Grouch blends lyrical sensibility with a hyphy aesthetic that is just magic, something I haven't heard since Zion I and DJ Shadow's most recent efforts (which were panned by hip-hop pundits). It's not all Rick Rock or anything; it's fun without being overpowering, and maintains diversity throughout.
There's a lot of accumulated wisdom on the disc, with Murs, Bicasso an others showing up for some features. I can't recommend it enough.
I was feeling a little left out of the theme post game around here, so I took the iniative and came up with Mixtape Madness.
The concept breaks down like this--there's a whole lotta music out there and absolutely no real way to be on top of the "Next Big Thing" and obviously that is the most important part of being a music fan. So every week I am going to download a random mixtape (preferably from an artist completely unknown to me), give it a few spins, and write about it here.
Now, I went into this project expecting that most of what I'd be doing would be making fun of a whole lot of truly terrible mixtapes and while I still believe this, the first one I picked actually turned out to be...sorta decent.
I don't know anything about U-N-I except that they are from Inglewood, CA and their title (Fried Chicken and Watermelon) caught my attention. It's a bit hipster rappish, but with a nice California flavor (old school, what up?). The beats and the lyrics are solid, but not really overly clever, which only turns me against it because I've been bumping clever shit for so long I forget that other types of music exist. I give the whole effort a solid pat on the back--it got my head nodding enough not to hate, but I doubt I'll be playing it in a month. Still, it's not entirely disposable and that's more than I was expecting from this endeavor. Kudos all around.
The following tracks are the one that caught my attention the most. Despite what I said above, the first has a dope beat and a clever rap game/video game analogy going on. The second is a nice little Wu sample and is for my sneaker loving frenz:
God, I love the Yay Area. At once I both understand and fail to comprehend everything they are talking out, but who cares, because they are damned enthusiastic about it.
Plus, E-40 and Lil Jon? Oh yea. Check out the (clean) version of "Turf Drop", courtesy of Cocaine Blunts:
I caught the Grammys and all but I didn't get a look at Nas's attire. Also, check out how totally over his last album he is.
On a related note: when this album drops, does that mean I'm gonna get to see everyone in the media grope around trying to decide whether or not they're allowed to say The N Word? Because oh man, feeding frenzy.
Like a blogger lemming, here I am, another person on the internet letting y'all know that the Re-Up Gang released We Got It 4 Cheap, Vol. 3 this weekend, with a quality sound mix (and DJ Drama-less) version being put on their site today, which you can cop here.
I've only had a chance to give it a couple of spins, but, as expected, it's hot shit. Clipse is one of my favorite groups and this mixtape gives 18 convincing reasons why. For a bunch of cats that only talk about coke, they always manage to stay fresh, and, as pointed out on "Show You How To Hustle"--"If all I talk abut is coke/let that tell you something".
Right now I'm digging their version of "Roc Boys", because it was always a sweet beat and now it has some decent rhymes on it, but I'm sure that will change once I move beyond the initial flash.
It's always fun when The New York Times writes about hip-hop, like they do today with this article on All $Star's latest mixtape, $tarlito's Way II. They manage not to sound like complete fuddy-duddies, and yet still seem as if they just discovered that gangster rap involves a lot of swagger:
"Somehow this sounds even better coming from the same guy responsible for a (great) track called “Gangsta-est Swag of the Year.” On these two CDs bluster and self-consciousness fight to a draw."
In any case, you can cop the mixtape in question here
CURREN$Y (via MixtapeTorrent.com): Independence Day
Haven't listened to this sucker yet--too much homework right now--but wanted to post a link because what! I kinda love the kid. He always sounds like the Cash Money fam's baby brother who fell asleep in his footie-pyjamas in the next room and had to be woken up for his verse.
The Clipse are coming with heat once more. According to the Re-Up Gang blog, there's some raw on the way, in the form a a third We Got It 4 Cheap installment.
Should be good music--We Got It 4 Cheap Vol. 1 & 2 were on permanent rotation--but the cover? I've seen my mom's 5th grade students do better during their "9 layers in Photoshop" tutorial. Get Malice away from the keyboard and back in front of a mic.
Also, anyone got an explanation for the tagline? "Spirit of Competition" is somehow not making any sense in my brain. Maybe it's some drug-trade free-market insider talker, some real Stringer Bell shit.
Will this shit ever come out? I was steady believing the hype for a few months, especially after Return of the Yardfather dropped, but I'm going to need to hear something new to stay on the Saigon bandwagon. In any case, here's the alleged tracklist for his debut, The Greatest Story Never Told--or maybe more appropriately, the "Greatest Album Never Sold":
1. Station Identification
2. The Invitation feat. Q-Tip & Fatman Scoop
3. Come on Baby feat. Jay Z & Swizz Beatz
4. The War
5. Enemies
6. Friends
7. The Greatest Story Never told
8. Clap feat. Faith Evans
9. Preacher
10. Its Alright feat. Marsha Ambrosius
11. Believe It
12. Give it to Me feat. Raheem Devaughn
13. What the Lovers Do feat Devin the Dude
14. Better Way feat. Layzie Bone
15. Oh Yeah
16. Pain in my Life feat. Trey Songz
17. Enemies Live feat Bun B
A track with Devin and another with Layzie Bone? I mean, I'm not hating but Saigon's been spouting off about this going to be the best debut ever, and I'm saying, why so many unnecessary features?
But which track am I salivating for? The anchor: "Enemies Live," with the greatest guest feature in rap music, Bun B.
It's finally arrived, and without the annoying Empire DJ drops that littered the original releases of these songs--though I have to say I did grow quite fond of the occasional, holy shit! where did you find this shit?!?
...and though I'm hating on Fat Joe, I'm loving "Crack House."
Streets have been waiting for this shit, a definitive, comprehensive Leak release by the man himself, and the best part is that we get to see Weezy's chosen track order and song titles: but what the fuck is "We Come About It" doing tacked on to the end? That shit is fire and should have been first and last. Twice as nice. I'm also wondering about the track titled "Time To Give Me," because were I in charge, I would have dubbed it "Runnin" or maybe just "You're Second Place."
For your New Years present, I've delivered the full album plus a link to the first in case you slept.
Lil Wayne - The Leak 2 (zShare)
Lil Wayne - The Leak (mininova)
Word on the streets is that this is a possibility... I guess this means that he's not dropping the "er" after all?
The typography is alright but I'm not a fan of the pic. I'd prefer something more in the vein of the Stillmatic "flying monkey".
Scarface has the slow flow that I love. This is a blessing and a curse: dude's albums are rarely strong from beginning to end, but there's always some gems.Same goes for his most recent effort, M.A.D.E.. Lots of filler, and a bit of killer. I'd like to share some of it with you now. Check out Git Out My Face, I'm sure it will brighten your Friday, especially if you have to deal with haters all week.
Solid album. I got my leak today and I'm all about it: RZA's beats are on point and the lyrics flow nice. Very early NYC sounding, not exactly gritty, but much more Jeru/Pete Rock style I'd say. I love this kind of stuff: it's real hip-hop and it's a return to form for RZA, at least. I heard a lot of complaining coming from within the Wu ranks, most of them running along the lines of "RZA likes guitars too much." My only response to that is: suck it haters, RZA won, you lost. This album will get critical acclaim--even with that dumb cover.
So RZA's good, but as far as the group goes, well, there will never be another 36 Chambers; never another Wu-Tang Forever.
You can cop a leak here if you've got a torrent client and stuff. Great album.
I'm about to put you on to the Girl Talk slaying mix-mash-man known as Easter Egg. This is something like A-Trak's Dirty South Dance,
but not exactly: it has ADD, is on Adderall, and doesn't know how to
stop--which is fine, considering it is a dance mixtape and as such,
demands chaos.Get your copy of Hipsters & Wiggers Vol. 1. Download, rinse, repeat. I should mention, this is a bona fide mashup: you're going to get about 60 or 70 different tracks and artists, compressed down into an hour of listening. Just see if you can stay seated.
