Looking to keep rappers trained in the martial arts of his musical mastery, Ski Beatz is keeping the lights on at his dojo well through 2012 with 24 Hour Karate School Presents: Twilight, his third LP in three years. With DD172 footing the bill, regular pupils in $pitta, Smoke DZA and Stalley are returning for extra assurance in the project’s quality. Read the rest of this entry »

While most albums you see at your local record store will have a generic photo as the cover, certain projects call for something extra to lure the consumer in. Whether it’s because the album carries a certain theme, the group can’t agree on a setting, or the act just plain looks like Mimi from The Drew Carey Show; snapping photos for artwork isn’t always the best idea. That’s when another type of artist comes in: the illustrator. Read the rest of this entry »

No matter the weather or a series of untimely delays, you can’t ban the Snowman. After two blacktop-burning mixtapes this year, it seems like Young Jeezy was waiting for the perfect time to peel the polar caps off his competition’s heads with the studio album. And he’s finally iced down a final release date with Read the rest of this entry »

Enough about his teeth, his hair, and his sartorial choices: Danny Brown can flat out rap better than you and he’s set to prove it on August 15 when he drops his Fool’s Gold debut XXX. Read the rest of this entry »

The 9th Wonder of the world has recently been taking heat for his opinions regarding Watch The Throne’s quality but come September 27th, 2011, the producer will have the opportunity to prove he can do much better. It’s The Wonder Years, starring 9th Wonder, in his 137th full-length feature presentation that will surely be an ultimate dream for followers of his movement. Read the rest of this entry »

Ms. Deb’s boys are back together again officially and looking to help send summer out with a bang. Ferrari Boyz drops on August 9th and, for the bold and dangerous, there’s a pre-order up for the “street bundle” Read the rest of this entry »

The R.E.D. Album shouldn’t be hard to locate if you find yourself wandering into the local record shop looking for Jayceon’s new album on August 23rd. Read the rest of this entry »

Shrouded in secrecy, concrete details about Watch The Throne have been hard to pin down. Along with Wayne & Em, the billing of Kanye and Jay poses one of rap’s most bankable billings thus the rumors and speculation have been full throttle since word first emerged confirming the project was indeed in the works. And now, MTO got their hands on what they report will be the album cover. They also throw in the requisite Illuminati mentions, almost immediately discrediting themselves.

Toss the new cover in the bin with the other previous guesstimatations regarding the album.

– Tentative tracklist after tentative tracklist.

– We’ve had a single called “Lift Off” slated to feature Beyonce & Bruno Mars.

– The album cover will be made out of metal, perhaps “golden.”

– Jay did indeed put the onus on ‘Ye for finishing the album with his statement that “Ye is just in an extraordinarily creative place—so much so I need to get him to focus so we can finish this,” Jay says. “But music is his refuge right now.”

– The album was rumored to drop on Monday, July 4th without any promo, but it sounds as if that speculation was quickly defused.

– Ryan Seacrest has even gotten into the act by saying a single will be delivered by mid-July.

Over the years, time and again the net has taught me one valuable lesson: avoid the buildup and hype as much as possible and just wait.

Update: DDot says the cover above is the cover we’ll be seeing…whenever we see the cover.

Update: And like that, Jay’s site confirms the cover and Def Jam has the album up for pre-order with August 2nd as the release date. Quite a bit of movement in one day for an album that previously was traveling at glacier speed.

Kendrick’s Section.80 ranks as one of the most anticipated summer releases and the wait will be over come July 2nd. With all of the anticipation, the weird part is he’s eclipsed everyone who was making noise before him. Read the rest of this entry »

Disappointed in Bad Meets Evil’s latest endeavor? Well, Royce fans, you’re in luck. Nickel Nine is going for five–as in his fifth album, 5 Cigs and 5x platinum–with Success Is Certain. While Bruno Mars is a no-show this go around, there’s still a couple of Wu-heads, a mad drummer and the melanin-challenged rhyme maniacs of Shady Records to fill the slots. Read the rest of this entry »

At first I was confused as to why K.R.I.T. was dropping R4: The Prequel at all. Essentially, just four songs from an album that didn’t need to be shrunk and a six-month-old remix, this mini-listen is almost completely unnecessary for any of his legitimate fans. Then again, maybe that’s not who it’s intended for. Read the rest of this entry »

2011 has already been a trying year for Hip-Hop, with controversy piled over top outrage surmounted by confusion, only to all overshadow the handful yet memorable pieces of music we laid claim to. Goodbye to the days where the musician created a celebrity. Hello to the fully visualized dawn where the more outrageous, bizarre or inconspicuously wack you are the better your chances are to skip a few steps and find yourself in a graduating class typically reserved for the talented. Read the rest of this entry »

And we thought Lil B caused a tizzy by saying he was going gay for his next album. Gaga probably had a few fans ready to commit that once she released her new album cover, which features her morphed into a motorcycle. Read the rest of this entry »

Think back to the early fall of 2009. A semi-forgotten yet resolute rapper by the name of Raekwon was poised to get his solo career back to where he wanted to be by releasing a heatrock underneath our unsuspecting asses in the form of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2. Although he released his 2nd [official] album the same day as Jay-Z’s neo-genesis The Blueprint 3; losing an inevitable sales battle; Raekwon won over audiences by giving them something new that was actually quite old. Read the rest of this entry »

Without the proper buzz window and overdriven promotion, releasing an album in these dire times could be a wasted effort. Good thing the folks over at Def Jam have a bulletproof blueprint that no penny pincher can shoot down. By deviously planting unforeseen albums in stores during the holiday hustle-n-bustle, they’re bound to scan a few discs just of the principality. Let’s envision the scenario: Read the rest of this entry »