Swedish MC Prop Dylan released his first video (I think it was his first) a couple months ago. It’s for the song “Top Of The Top” and features Promoe of Looptroop fame and Caribinghi.
Check that!
In collaboration with his production buddy Logophobia, dude also dropped his second EP (“The Morning After EP”) for free not too long ago. Download link and more info on his blog at HisSpace.
Back in 2007, the two had already released “The Afternoon EP,” also for free. Get it here. It was also in 2007 that his debut full-length dropped: “A Garbage Pail Kid” with features by Wordsworth and Pumpkinhead, among others. Cop it here.
Dope shit. Don’t sleep on this cat.
In May of last year I was lucky enough to have caught the man at a live gig where he opened for J-Live. Read about it here.
My beat man Dert just put out a remix a few days ago. Apparently, the new Mary Mary album features a song called “Dirt.” So Dert jumped on it turned the beat around. Here’s the result…
Dert – You Need A Little Bit Of Dert To Grow
And make sure to check out HisSpace (link above) for a bunch of free beat tapes. Hot! Apparently, he’s also got some new things in the works. Now let’s all be excited together.
Pace Won & Mr. Green just dropped a new video today. It’s for their banging track “Children Sing” off of their incredible debut “The Only Color That Matters Is Green.” (I’ve posted another video a few months ago.)
This thing turned out beautifully and I just had to share it with y’all. Be sure to buy the album. Best of the year in my opinion. You won’t be disappointed.
Iraqi-Canadian power emcee The Narcicyst has been working on his first solo album for quite some time now. Latest news is that it’s coming out in January 2009 and it’s gonna be called “P.H.A.T.W.A.” (initial title was supposed to be “The Illuminarcy”).
A few days ago, Narcy released the title track off that new album. And it’s a fucking banger of the best kind. Sick beat, crazy lyrics, dope flow. It’s everything you can ask for. I can’t wait for the album to finally drop. But listen for yourselves…
The Narcicyst – P.H.A.T.W.A. (Alphabet Boys) from “P.H.A.T.W.A.” (2009)
Peoples, I’ve been away from this blog thing for a while and should actually be doing something else right now as well. But fuck that, I got some more video goodness to share with you.
First watch, then read on.
That track kills me every time. The beat!! Phew. What I don’t understand is how the crowd can stay so immobile during this crazy-ass banger.
As you could see at the beginning, these two guys are 5th Child and 7even:Thirty and the joint was “5th’s World.” 5th is the guy with the dreds and 7even is rocking the pink hat. They’re two solo emcees hailing from Jackson, Mississippi, who also happen to do be pretty good friends and are doing a lot of live gigs together. This particular performance was at Tipitina’s in New Orleans.
These cats are as underground as it gets, unfortunately. Sure, they are starting to get props in their area. But apart from that, not a lot of people know about these two rhyme beasts. And not only can they rap, but most of their tracks are also self-produced. 7even has released one album so far and 5th is just about to wrap up his third joint, and the dude’s only 22 years old and just graduated from college.
This should be it for now. More about them in a future post. So prepare yourselves.
I’ma let you off with two more vids. First up, 5th Child doing his track “Hip Hop” backed up by a live band and then one of 7even:Thirty’s joints, namely “1 Point 21 Jiggawatts” from his debut album “Star: The Seven Thirty Experience.” If you want to see more of these videos, check out 5th’s YouTube channel.
The first person who can tell me what 7even:Thirty is referencing all the time in the song gets the download link for the entire album. It ain’t that hard.
I’ll make this one short and let these crazy-cool videos do the talking.
First up is C.R.A.C.’s music vid for their utterly wicked song “Buy Me Lunch” with Noni Limar, from their highly innovative debut album “The Piece Talks.” This is my favorite track from the LP, so I’m glad it got turned into a clip as well.
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Now we’re takin a leap from L.A. to Jersey, more precisely to Pace Won & Mr. Green. These two also released their debut, “The Only Color That Matters Is Green,” not too long ago. This album is off the fucking chain and on heavy rotation on my player. I could listen to it literally all day long. Pace’s rhymes are right on the mark and Green’s beats are hot as hell. Together with Damu, he’s my favorite producer at the moment.
The following video was the first one they filmed for the new album. It’s for the aptly titled song “Hip Hop.” The overall production on this clip is very good, especially the opening segment is really beautiful; and watch how the camera work is synced up to Mr. Green’s scratches towards the end of the vid.
Montreal is all about Hip-Hop. It is probably safe to say that it is Canada’s Hip-Hop capital. There’s a bunch of great emcees, cool radio shows like WEFUNK, the local paper covers the scene quite frequently and extensively, and now they even have a program that helps children who have different kinds of learning problems. (Okay, the program did start in Toronto, but who cares…)
This very promising undertaking is called “Literacy Through Hip-Hop” and the folks at CITIZENShift put together a short documentary (directed by Alex Redgrave) which follows the Montreal pilot-study group of kids as they produce their own rhymes and learn how to perform them. Let me tell ya, these shorties are doing a hell of a nice job. An old “friend” of ours also paid them a visit. Watch the vids to find out who I’m talking about.
It’s some really interesting and inspiring stuff. Somehow I wish we’d had something like this, too. More info about the project, the documentary, and a link to subscribe to CITIZENShift’s podcast can be had at their blog.
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While we’re talking about children and Hip-Hop, let me also point you to The Dino 5. Producer Prince Paul teamed up with some of the high-class emcees in the game to put together this Hip-Hop album for kids, with the obligatory educational twist. And before I do too much talking again, I’ll just link you up to some of the relevant places.
To get an idea of what they sound like, peep this free track right here.
The Dino 5 – What About Ten
It’s kinda weird hearing these cats rap on a level that is absolutely childproof. Wordsworth without a “fuck” in his rhymes is something you don’t get every day.
While you’re at it, watch the video for the “Dino 5 Theme” below.
And now for the download. Go get it. Although the album really is made for kids, it’s still very listenable, even to the trained ear.
The Dino 5 – Baby Loves Hip Hop Presents The Dino 5 (2008) @ 160 kbps
1. Dino 5 Theme
2. Story Pt. 1: Pick Out A Book
3. I May Be Big And Scary (But I’m Really Pretty Nice)
4. Story Pt. 2: At The Playground
5. Yeah Me Too
6. Story Pt. 3: Back To His Buddies
7. Tell Me More
8. Story Pt. 4: Play Date
9. That’s Funny
10. Story Pt. 5: Basement Jams
11. Jump
12. Story Pt. 6: Night Turns To Day
13. What About Ten
14. Story Pt. 7: Talent Show
15. Dino 5 Theme (Long Play)
16. Teo Start It Off
17. Sometimes I Like To Scream
18. Story Pt. 8: Burp Talking Dino Wins
19. Glad That We Came Now We Have To Go
20. Story Pt. 9: Good Night Momma
And to put you in the picture of who’s who on this joint…
(left to right) DJ Stegosaurus (Prince Paul), Teo Pterodactyl (Scratch from The Roots), Billy Brontosaurus (Wordsworth from eMC), Tracy Triceratops (Ladybug Mecca from Digable Planets), and MC T-Rex (Chali 2na from Jurassic 5)
Long-term Hip-Hop wunderkind Count Bass D has a new album coming up some time in the next few months on 1320 Records. His new baby is called “L7″ and he released a first MP3 as an appetizer.
(FYI, depending on your connection, the stream may take a while to load. It’s a 320 kbps file.)
Count Bass D – Can We Hang Out Tonight? from “L7″ (2008) (Track 4 of 10)
Lately, it seems that everyone who is somehow involved in the Hip-Hop game is dropping releases for free. There’s mixtapes, beat tapes, remix tapes, instrumentals, digital LPs, and all other kinds of weird shit. Especially the released-for-promotional-use-only-shortly-before-the-official-album mixtape is really hitting it off these days, cf. HipHopDX, Mixtapekings, or Rapmullet among many others. Mick Boogie alone seems to be throwing out one mixtape every other week, or at least has his name on all of them. And that is not to speak of the thousands of (mostly wannabe) MySpace producer “heroes.”
While that is good for us, the listeners, cuz we’re finally getting some nice material that is legally downloadable for free, it is really hard to separate the goods from the not-so-goods. To make the choice minutely easier for you, I’ll throw you a few links to some of the better stuff I’ve come across in the past weeks/months (no particular order).
J.Rocwell (& Mike Waxx) – The Diary (an exclusive “illRoots” release)
You definitely have to check out track #20 “Let’s Get Fucked Up.” That shit is absolutely sick. Put those subwoofers on full blast and let the beat do the talking. Insane!!!
J.Rocwell & Mike Waxx – Let’s Get Fucked Up from “The Diary” (2008)
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Spectac & 9th Wonder – The Corner Of Spec & 9th (a “Kevin|Nottingham: This Is Hip Hop” exclusive)
Download here (link provided by Kevin|Nottingham). The fairly long story about how this collab album came into existence, an interview with Spectac, tracklist & back cover, and a lot of other ish can be had right here.
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Omer Saar – The Green Album (a UniverSOUL Productions release)
This is a very special remix album I stumbled upon a few weeks back. It mashes up Al Green instrumentals with classic Hip-Hop acapellas. Notice the subtle play with colors in the title on the cover, GREEN ALbum. Much better than calling it AL GREENbum. Anyhoo, this is some seriously dope ish that you have to get, no matter what.
Download here (link provided by UniverSOUL Productions). This album’s history, covers, tracklist, etc. can be got here. Read through this and let the man know how big of a production genius he is by dropping him a comment. Once you hear this joint, you’re gonna bump it at least twice a week for the rest of the year. Be sure to check out track #17 “Travelin’ Man (Mos Def) feat. T Money Green.”
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Damu The Fudgemunk – Spare Time
I know I’m late on this (the joint already dropped in January), but I had to give it some props. Damu is a 23-(maybe by now 24)-year-old producer hailing from DC who makes up one half of the über-duo Y Society (together with Insight). “Spare Time,” as the title suggests, is comprised of the material he doesn’t quite have commercial use for but still considers good enough to be let loose on the public for free. Well, I’m glad he did cuz this baby right here is a true beauty. Fuck, I’d even pay good money for it if he’d released it on wax.
Most of the stuff is instrumental, but there are also some Y Society bonus tracks (also off of the foreign versions of their LP “Travel At Your Own Pace” (go cop that)) and other ones with vocals.
Download here or here (links provided by Damu himself). And so you don’t have to search for a proper one, here’s the tracklist nicely sorted out…
1. Last Ole (2005)
2. Rather Unique 2 (Instro) (2005)
3. Colorful Storms – Ruff Instro (2005)
4. Leo The… Part 1 (2006)
5. Coffee Table (2005)
6. Ego Trooping (2005)
7. Y Society – What’s Next (Damu Remix 1)
8. 2004 Beat Original
9. Randi (2006)
10. Work In Progress (Instro) (2005)
11. Pulse – Fudgemunk Instro (2006)
12. To RBI (2004)
13. L.B. (2005)
14. Leo The… Part 2 (2006)
15. Colorful Storms – Final Mix (2005)
16. Pulse – Fudgemunk Remix (2006)
17. Y Society – Rather Unique 2 (2005)
18. Kev Brown – Work In Progress (Damu Remix) (2005)
19. Y Society – Paranoid (Japanese LP Bonus Track)
All of these 19 are great, but I especially enjoy the first one, “Last Ole (2005).” Six minutes and change of pure dopeness. This guy is my new hero. Show him some love at his space and be sure to check out his great YouTube vids right out of his production basement which would give every claustrophobe the creeps.
As an appetite whetter, peep this one right here. It’s a snippet of a live session he did at Fat Beats. By the way, there’s no memory upgrade in his MPC, only the stock 2 MB. The man’s a fuckin miracle worker.
Been absent for a while, but there’s a few posts today which should make up for the lack of same over the past two weeks.
First up is a graffiti video I came across while looking through the forums at QN5’s website. Peep this baby, entitled “Muto,” right here. It’s iller than ill.
While you’re at it, have a look at the website of the people who are responsible for this amazing piece of street art. There’s a ton of material there and they’ve got a blog, too.
Somehow, this made me think of Promoe’s video for “These Walls Don’t Lie.” Both the video and the song are dope. Have a looksie…
And to come full circle with the topic, QN5’s PackFM released a video for his underground graff anthem “Click Clack & Spray” about two weeks ago. Shit is pretty tight, and you’ve probably all seen it by now. If you want to carry this video round on your iPods or somesuch, just subscribe to the QN5 podcast (to do that, copy-paste the following URL into the “subscription dialog box” of the podcast software of your liking: http://www.qn5.com/radio/wqn5_radio_01.xml / iTunes users just click this link). Pack’s vid makes up one of the episodes, and the other eps are funny as fuck, too. So be sure to check them out.
Background info about this video can be had here. The Yankees cap Pack is rockin is hella nice. If any of you know more about it (name of the design, or whether it’s custom made, or whatever), please drop me a comment.
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