There are two lines of thought when it comes to dealing with the past. You can either do your best to forget it and put the best foot forward or you draw from those experiences to better handle the future. Von Pea, of Tanya Morgan, wisely chose the latter when the time came to begin work on his debut album Pea’s Gotta Have It. Taking the “Nati” off of Brooklyn, Von takes listeners back to the simpler days of of his time in high school. Read the rest of this entry »

Off the top of your head, how many rappers can you name who have consistently been getting radio spins for the last fifteen years? If you didn’t name Twista, you wouldn’t be alone. However, with storied hits such as “Celebrity Overnight,” “Let’s Go,” and a personal style mimicked into the ground, you also wouldn’t be giving credit to one of the genre’s most well-rounded artists, either. Read the rest of this entry »

Strength is generally found in numbers and the pairing of one of Hip-Hop’s most studious lyricists along with a divergent producer proves just that. Live From The Tape Deck, the remarkable collaborative LP from Skyzoo and !llmiind, has plenty of heads reminiscing back to the days when all you needed was a JVC stereo and Shell-Toe Adidas to get by. Read the rest of this entry »

Waka Flocka Flame.

No need for formal introductory irrelevance. You know the name well since you first saw it embedded into your eyeballs and you had to convince yourself that his name was actually WAKA FLOCKA FLAME. But from all the preconceived notions built around the man who bullied his way into our headphones with “O Let’s Do It” a year ago, how much of has the media portrayal affected your views of him. Read the rest of this entry »

Considering the renewed interest in the female rapper, you’d think Eternia & MoSS would shove their advantageous disposition in the faces of all who passed by. But that’s not what Hip-Hop is about and neither are these two qualified professionals. Hailing from two different spots on the map, learn how an accomplished musician and domineering wordsmith crossed paths to create At Last, their first LP together. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the deluge of MCs fighting for your clicks and ears these days. TiRon is well aware of the saturated talent pool and managed to etch his own path with substantial rhymes over honest, personal themes. His role in an emerging Los Angeles Hip-Hop movement alongside his peers in Pac Div, Blu and Nipsey Hussle shouldn’t be ignored either. He’s dropped three noteworthy projects for free.99 and is determined to sharpening his skills as an entertainer. Read the rest of this entry »

A decade is a long time when considering basically anything imaginable but for most Hip-Hop heads, it was time well spent absorbing the lone album that was bestowed on them by the classic MC/producer tandem of Reflection Eternal. Sporting a rapid-fire, metaphorically inclined wordsmith from Brooklyn by the name of Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek, an extremely diverse soundman out of Cincinnati, the pair garnered critical acclaim from a multitude of fan niches with their seminal classic Train Of Thought, in late 2000. Read the rest of this entry »

If resilience were a music certification, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s legend would have grown to folklore years before this point. Arguably the most successful Hip-Hop group in terms of sales to longevity to song quality ratio, the Cleveland, Ohio quintet have endured every debacle the industry could possible heave at them and have still emerged as supreme victors. Read the rest of this entry »

2009 was a year full of rapper/singer hybrids fighting for your attention. Outasight managed to separate himself from the pack with an unique sound and a host of feature efforts. The Internet favorite dropped two tapes, including the critically acclaimed Further, and his output throughout the year led to a deal with Warner Music Group. Despite his steady rise, he doesn’t seem complacent with his current situation. The Y-O native calls himself a “relatively unknown” artist among the mainstream crowd and is well aware of the road ahead of him. Read the rest of this entry »

Actual intelligence is an undervalued aspect in Hip-Hop. The art of fabrication, or artificial intelligence however, seems to dominate a listener’s perspective and conception of the culture. As an artist, you’re allegedly supposed to uphold certain guidelines as to maintain the characteristics of actually being an artist. But what if you’re able to see the gray area and highlight the color associated it with it? Then you’re probably a member of Kidz In The Hall. Read the rest of this entry »

TSS Presents Smoking Sessions With Yelawolf from The Smoking Section on Vimeo.

“My aim is to create a movie for your ears. I just want you to become a part of the music so you can feel like I felt when I love emcees for the first time. And people have lost that, in my opinion. There’s just not many artists out there that give you that feeling.”

Known to some for years as a musician with yeoman’s work ethic and a tremendous stage performance, YelaWolf has toiled under the radar for many years before now. From once being underground and unheard, his music and career have both picked up at a fast clip, thanks to the release of Trunk Muzik mixtape. With a mix of brash honesty and artistry paired with an eclectic set of influences – both music and cultural – Yela is poised to position himself as one of the new faces and voices from below the Mason-Dixon.

While at SMKA’s The 808 Experience: Vol. 2 release party, our cameras catch up with Wolf. Listen as he speaks on his career before now, the concept for the “Pop The Trunk” video and his goals for 2010.

Filmed by the incredible The SP Agency.

For more info, visit www.MySpace.com/YelaWolf.

On his own steam, Wiz Khalifa is living the life most of us can only dream of. Don’t get jealous, though. Get familiar. This 22-year-old Pittsburgh pen pilot has landed in a world fueled with private planes, purps by the pound and skillet-handling women who are as bright as they are beautiful by doing one thing and one thing alone: staying persistant. In the four years since his first forward-thinking album, Show & Prove, this hustler has dropped seven of the most sought-after mixtapes in the business, using them as leverage to justify openly leaving behind a major label deal that most artists would sell their soul for. Read the rest of this entry »

Words by Jesse H.

Growth & Patience. These are the two themes that Trackstar the DJ selected to title his Royce Da 5’9” compilation. Appropriate choices as well, as these are two themes that an MC in Royce’s shoes must have to survive in this industry. Read the rest of this entry »

If ever there was a Smoking Session that needn’t nary an introduction, this would be it. A living legend and mythical mononym, Rakim builds with TSS Crew’s TC about his forthcoming album The Seventh Seal and how a pioneer can still break new ground amongst an even newer generation. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo Credit: Honey Mag

Fayetteville’s own Jermaine Cole exploded on to the scene in 2009 and began climbing your favorite MC’s favorite new MC list. Everybody was surprised by the new kid making waves, his lyrical depth and cadence, and that refreshing sound he brought to the Interwebs and radio this year. In reality, J.Cole has been manhandling the microphone since his mid-teens in North Carolina. Read the rest of this entry »