Hip-Hop is a fluid genre, one that borrows inspiration from the unorthodox. On their latest mixtape, Champloo, Ohio-based crew Team Yizzo draws from a cartoon to create a guttery, grimy sound. Pretty far removed from the superficial, name brand braggarts that populate the radio, the members of Yizzo take their latest somewhere new. The entire mixtape was engineered using the soundtrack from classic anime Samurai Champloo and, for those that aren’t hip, expect something dark and hard-hitting. Tracks like “Star Target” beg to be played on a loop, hitting like a dulled sword from one of titular series’s samurai. Champloo is one of the most unique projects to surface in months, perfectly embodying the subject materiel from which it draws inspiration. Make room on your radar, folks. 2012 could be a big year for the Yizzo collective.

Download — Team Yizzo – Champloo Mixtape