While you were out burning off the Turkey Day calories with a little extravagant shopping, P. Blackk was organizing a community block watch in Blackk Friday, his new militant offering which showcases exclusive production from iYeball of Fly.Union. Read the rest of this entry »

A lot of rappers like to jaw jack about a whole lotta of nothing but D.R.G. don’t want to waste your valuable time, seeing they’re trying to take it to the top the old fashioned way: with dope music. Imagine that. With that, they call up their co-defendant, Stretch Money and talk some Southern gospel from a Midwesterner’s point of view. Read the rest of this entry »

Someone, please send Shawn Chrystopher an apology letter on our behalf. When his Silent Movies For The Blind EP dropped back at the beginning of October, we really did have every intention of posting it. However, amidst the chaos of being a seamless online publication that actually digests timely material, it took watching a video for “The Credits” of said project to realize we’d missed the initial opportunity by a good thirty days. Read the rest of this entry »

Stop browsing around the Internet and get 2 Chainz’s new tape, T.R.U. REALigion, right here. The artist formerly known as Tity Boi cashes in on the buzz that has him as the architect of one of the more anticipated projects this fall, retail or not. To make the situation official, the mixtape world’s almighty landlord, DJ Drama, joins the festivities to add the Gangsta Grillz stamp of approval. With the make up favoring more album than tape, the Codeine Cowboy assembles a who’s-who cast of producers and features. Read the rest of this entry »

You probably haven’t heard of The First Street Heat and you haven’t heard anybody like The First Street Heat. But if funk, soul and Hip-Hop happen to be your music of choice, you may want to give them a spin. Born in the rolling Appalachian hills of Athens, Ohio, The First Street Heat are musical alchemists. Their sound is something funky, borrowing melodic Motown soul with elements of jam bands like Phish and, for good measure, rap. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s something unique about hype and anticipation. Eventually, it all boils down to the product to validate them. For ASAP Rocky, rap’s new wonder kid of the moment, the time is now. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s an MC for all seasons and The Boy Illinois is trying to be Hip-Hop’s solstice for the 2K11. Enter “Yer.,” a poppy jam with a bouncy cadence that still manages to grip a hold of some sort of rap sensibility. Read the rest of this entry »

You should know by now ASAP Rocky spends his free time letting his mind get lifted like Apollo 13 in a cloud of blunt fog. No biggie. He’s young and the cannabis is bringing out the best of his wonder years and his linking up with super production outfit The Olympicks proves it. Read the rest of this entry »

Everybody feels entitled to lay claim to an audacious ranking.

Whether or not they’re deserving of that ranking is up to the quality of their music, however. You may see Luck-One ripping a show in Sacramento, dodging raindrops as he hustles his way through the Seattle streets or politickin’ with partners out in Portland and he wants to be treated the same in each of those regions. Read the rest of this entry »

While the rest of the Crew was at A3C, I stayed in the N.O. to enjoy the second annual NOLA Underground Hip-Hop Awards. Last year’s show was a huge success, but the sequel took things to a new level. Read the rest of this entry »

Lecrae did a little sumthin-sumthin in this year’s BET Cypher (while David D. was taking a piss, no doubt) but not many seem to have a clue who he is. Statik Selektah knows exactly the talent he possesses and he’s using it help maintain some Population Control as his new album nears its release date of 10.25.11. Read the rest of this entry »

Navigating all the music that releases resembles combing the beach with a metal detector. One day you’re finding loose change left and right, while other days all your coming up with junk metal. Mr. Muthaf*ckin’ eXquire is the penny that you almost toss aside before noticing it’s one of those rare pennies worth a couple hundred bucks. Read the rest of this entry »

Phil The Thrill’s going for it at this point. “It,” you ask? The world and everything this round ball of water and land mass encompasses. Chances are the lump sum of people coming across this have not heard of Phil. He’s been in XXL, but aside from that, no major co-sign is attached to his name. Read the rest of this entry »

The title may look like Pig Latin but P. Blackk is speaking perfect English on his new audio biopic. Laced with a funky video game-esque composition from Fly.Union’s soundman and fist-pumping concentration, Blackk Friday colors its lines with truthful swag. In other words, Blackk is comfortable in his own skin. Read the rest of this entry »

Lungz is dead serious in his mission in killing his competition’s dreams and his latest audio statement features him and Sir Michael Rocks having a party 30,000 feet in the air. Flexing some verbal diversity, the Chicago native sounds more than ready to deliver his forthcoming tape hosted by Don Cannon to unsuspecting eardrums. Read the rest of this entry »