Thursday, April 29, 2010

Dominique Young Unique- Show My Ass



High BPM hipster club rap + an 18 year old Trina soundalike from Tampa= pretty good shit

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

April 23rd


I see you folks from North Carolina coming to County Bounce. You should be here on Friday.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Inkrowd- Southern Funk


Inkrowd- Southern Funk

New one just sent over tonight from the Don of Huntsville, Codie G. This is from Birmingham, AL rap duo Inkrowd, with what is presumably a Block Beattaz production (EDIT: Codie G informs me the production was done by Inkrowd themselves!). The beat is classic Block Beattaz in sound: hitting a perfect sweet spot between futuristic, electronic synths and country rap tunes. Great late night smoker's music. Inkrowd come correct themselves. Enjoy.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Something New, Something Old, Something Extra

Something new...

Kristmas- Kristmas International (over S-X's "Woooooo Riddim")

Kristmas goes innnnnn over this grime riddim from the UK. Seriously, he kills it. There aren't many rappers in America that would bother to even try to rhyme over a grime track, much less do it so well. This is the third great track the SMS/UK connection has produced ("Can't Outwork Em" and "Get It" being the other two), and it is exciting as hell...

Something old...



Dizzee Rascal feat. Bun B- Where Da G's

I think Bun B is the only other US rapper I've ever actually heard rhyme over a grime beat, guesting on this Dizzee Rascal track from 2007's Maths + English (edit: the album mix includes a Pimp C verse, which I had forgotten about). He was pretty nice on that, knocking out some great double-time raps similar to what Kristmas pulls here. Dizzee returned the favor on 2007's Underground Kingz, on the track "Two Types of Bitches".

Something Extra...



Pimp C feat. Bun B and Mike Jones- "Pourin' Up"

This is just some straight up great Texas shit from UGK and Mike Jones, off of the Pimp's return album, 2006's Pimpilation. I stumbled across it yesterday and had totally forgotten what a fucking banger it was.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Songz Is My Name



My good friend Jade just reminded me of how much I love this Trey Songz version of "Paper Planes". Arguably the finest moment for both Songz and "Paper Planes". It's the only version of the song I still really listen to.

Quarterly Wrap-Up



The best shit you oughta have listened to from the first quarter. Starlito could have taken up at least 3 spots on the albums list and probably 50% of the songs list, fyi. I decided not to order these, these are just 10 albums/tapes and 25 tracks I thought were the best and most essential shit from the first quarter of 2010.

Albums/Mixtapes

Starlito- Tenn-a-Keyan 3.5
Starlito and DJ Burn One- Rennaissance Gangster
Big K.R.I.T.- The Last King
Yelawolf- Trunk Muzik
Davinci- The Day the Turf Stood Still
Davey Boy Smith Presents...Era of the Six
Ben Frost - By the Throat
Alley Boy- Definition of Fuck Shit
Dirty South Joe & Flufftronix- Luvstep
Supa Villain- Antwan Swisher

Tracks

Mr. 706 feat. Lil Bruh- Da Hell Wid Chy'll
G-Side feat. Chris Lee- Money In the Sky
G-Side feat. PT- Dreamz
DB49- Ready to Go
Big K.R.I.T.- Hometown Hero
The-Dream feat. Young Jeezy- Love King (Remix)
Curren$y feat. Stalley- Address
Freddie Gibbs- Crushin' Feelin's
Alley Boy feat. Young Dro- Tall
Trae feat. Lil Wayne and Rick Ross- Inkredible
Z-Ro and Killa Kyleon- Swang Real Wide
Starlito- What Was I Thinkin'
Yelawolf- Pop the Trunk
Gaslight Anthem- American Slang
DJ Paul- Hi Way (I'm Gone)
Wochee feat. Lil Boosie- Rear View
Po- Make It
Big K.R.I.T- King
Ben Frost- Killshot
Proton- Fuck the Economy
Trash Bag Gang- When We Come Around
Big K.R.I.T.- Dat All
Yo Gotti- Touch Down!!!
X.O.- How Does It Feel?
E-40- The Server

Loose Joints 2

I'm breaking that one big post into 3 smaller posts.



Big K.R.I.T- Children of the World

K.R.I.T and Creative Control continue their winning partnership with this video, which is a bit more ~metaphorical~ than the last couple, but which still fills the screen with all the deep soulfulness that the K.R.I.T. track is imbued with. K.R.I.T. Wuz Here was supposed to be released April 5th, but apparently it's been pushed back to May 3rd, which kinda sucks.

DJ Ayres feat. GLC- Got Me Gone

This is kind of a weird partnership, with hipster DJ extraordinaire Ayres teaming up with Kanye-associated rapper GLC (remember him from "Spaceship") for a single on Ayres' T&A label. The beat is sampled from Omni Trio's mid-90s hit "Renegade Snares", which is far and away the best drum and bass track ever made, and GLC's raps are basically really nice pimp talk, which sorta positions this track pretty close to Jackie Chain's deathless anthem "Rollin". I'm diggin' it.

DJ Eleven- Eleven and the Dude (right click to download)

Speaking of DJs, one of Ayres' partners in the mobile party unit The Rub, Eleven, has just released this AMAZING mix of some of Devin the Dude's career highlights, framed in a concept parelleling Devin with another famous Dude, Jeffrey Lebowski from The Big Lebowski. Don't sleep. This mix has me real excited for Devin's upcoming concert in Boston.

Nate B feat. 6 Tre G, M.A., Kristmas, Play Cousans, Bentley, Swagg Buddies, DJ Cunta, Slash, Jackie Chain, ST 2 Lettaz, J. Griff- Huntsville StarZ Anthem

So, yeah, this is Huntsville's Massive Mixtape Posse Cut, and it's pretty good. Interestingly, the script gets sort of flip in that a run-of-the-mill mixtape beat is used here instead of a gleaming Blockbeattaz style production in order to show off the skills of the MCs. S.L.A.S.H. is really starting to get notice from me, she's got the best verse on this track. That whole "no answer/same answer" couplet is kinda retardedly great.

Untamed- Country

Another new one from the Huntsville camp. It's cool to hear Blockbeattaz take on country rap tunes so effortlessly when they want to. Everyone obsesses a bit too much over their trance-rap sound, I think.

Das Racist- Shut Up, Dude

This really should be terrible on paper, and maybe it is, but shit, this mixtape sounds so loose and fun that I can't help to vibe to it. I feel like I will be bumpin this shit a lot during the summer. The dudes are witty and funny and sometimes overly clever in the way that you might expect Brooklyn-based hipsters from Wesleyan would be, but at the core of it all this horribly-named mixtape is driven by an authentic love for rap music. The final product is something pretty unique and engaging. Also, I'm glad someone finally realized the onomatopoeic glory that the word "telenovela" is, and that they made a song saluting the greatness of Arizona Iced Tea ("One Dollar Can").

Here's "Nutmeg" from it.

Trae feat. Rick Ross and Lil Wayne- Inkredible



I'm not really sure how I missed this the first time around when it was released in January, but the video was released a couple days ago and just, holy shit. This probably wins for the hardest beat to come out in the last 6 months. Shit is just so schizophrenic, with an utterly massive bass drop. Trae, Wayne, and even Ross all come strong here too, each playing to their strengths (nimble double-time monotone rap, super-blunted free association raps, and corporate thuggin', respectively). Check this shit.

Cam'Ron feat. Vado- Ric Flair



Pardon me Juelz, but I think Vado might be what the NY rap game's been missing.

It's Been a Long Time...Live Shows


So yeah, sorry I've been so absent on this shit for the last few weeks. Real life been gettin in the way. Anyway, live shit that happened/will be happening:

A) checked the Yelawolf/Wiz Khalifa show up here a couple weeks back. Met up with the homie DJ Burn One and Will Power with Yela before the show and talked a bit with them, cool dudes. Yela killed it as you might expect, but I was really surprised with Wiz as well. I was not a big fan of his coming in, and didn't know much of his material, but he has a legit rock star presence onstage. It also helps he has a DIEHARD core of young fans, some of whom were obnoxious in their fandom (shouts to the Becky that hit me in the face before Yela came on when I refused to let her in front of me because I literally had nowhere else to move). However, dude is nice live. Noz had a pretty accurate write-up of the show in DC. Also check Will Power's pics he took to see just how insane this tour was. They sold out nearly every venue they played, from what I understand.

B) I'll be headed down to Greensboro, NC with my homie Nate next weekend to check this Huntsville show at Guilford, featuring G-Side, G-Mane, Kristmas, Bentley, and Jackie Chain. I am beyond psyched for it. Nate's a super dope photographer and hopefully I'll be returning from it with a bunch of great pictures and ridiculous stories to share.

Edit: I made this long ass post 3 smaller posts for easier digestion.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

G-Side feat. Chris Lee - Money In The Sky (prod. Basmo Family)



"Walkmasterflex told me watch who I hang with."

They got me workin 50+ hours this week and I really haven't had a chance to sit down, but I'm egotistical so I had to post this. Great track from G-Side working with Norwegian production team Basmo Family this time. Plus they shouted me out, so I'm geekin a little.

EDIT: the single is now available for download.



G-Side feat. Chris Lee- Money In the Sky (prod. by the Basmo Family)