Oct
31

ASAP Rocky – LIVELOVEA$AP

Full review coming later. In the meantime, the $3,000,000 question is do you think Sony/RCA will regret giving that kind of money to a dude without even an official mixtape to his name? How much of that price tag is a reaction to the suits still mad that they didn’t pay Odd Future when they… Continue reading »

Oct
31

Freddie Gibbs – A Cold Day in Hell

The new Freddie Gibbs mixtape, just in time to soundtrack smacking Trick-or-Treaters with sacks of flour. On first listen, this is more trap-oriented than past tapes. So it goes when Jeezy appears twice, 2Chainz once, and Alley Boy on a song called “Rob Me a Nigga.” Best heard while dressed as O-Dog. Download: ZIP: Freddie… Continue reading »

Oct
31

Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes: Hunter’s Moon, Ruffled Feathers

Douglas Martin only endorses the wearing of fur in rare circumstances. In the past three years or so, girl-group garage has gone from a flourishing sub-genre to a crowded scene. From the punk fury of Vivian Girls to the ethereal bliss of Costa Rican grunge band Las Robertas, it’s gotten to the point where it’s… Continue reading »

Oct
31

Question in the Form of An Answer: Frankie P (Hazy Nights In The Heights)

It’s rare that you randomly stumble upon something on Soundcloud that truly grabs your interest, but New York native and Washington Heights resident Frankie P’s recent release “Hazy Nights In The Heights” did just that. A self-proclaimed “instrumental journey through the mind of Frankie P,” the album is produced with maturity, incorporating live instrumentation and… Continue reading »

Oct
28

Beat Traps: Knxwledge is Self

Chris Daly cons comics and not the other way around. It’s a bitch to live up to prophesy. Just ask Darth Vader. In his preordained role to reign supreme over nearly everyone, Knxwledge has demonstrated a propensity and proclivity towards Madlib-ian consistency (alliterations rule, bitch; look it up). Since the end of June alone, the… Continue reading »

Oct
28

Sach O: Fatima Al Qadiri – Hip Hop Spa

Sach O would have written more today but he had to get through this Franz Fanon book. In which an academically inclined multi-cultural beatmaker takes on the prison industrial complex and 90s Hip-Hop video stereotypes. I’ll let her tell it: “Hip Hop Spa posits an uncanny parallel between the luxurious solitary confinement of a spa… Continue reading »

Oct
27

Mix: Dam-Funk Does Beats in Space

Damon Riddick stays wrecking keyboards and minds with his third eye on high beam funk. Earlier this week, he stopped by Tim Sweeney’s Beats in Space radio show to lace us with a half-dozen unheard solo tracks, plus a Nite Jewel remix, some Steve Arrington, and other esoteric grooves that you will want to hear… Continue reading »

Oct
27

A.Dd+- Wreak Genocide

“Give us a year, we’ll probably be in a Lear.” So A.Dd+- claim on their latest cut, a declaration of faulty rap economics. Pretty much only Birdman is dumb enough to blow briefcases of cash on Lear Jets, and unless A.Dd+- get signed to Cash Money and start making Taylor Swift rap, they’ll probably be… Continue reading »

Oct
27

The Everlasting “Nothing to Lose” SDTK: Outkast, Camp Lo, Naughty by Nature, et. al

Nothing to Lose is maybe the fourth best soundtrack to a Martin Lawrence vehicle made between House Party and Blue Streak. After all, even when they were mediocre, all rap soundtracks from the 90s look pretty good in hindsight. Hip hop was supposed to have sucked since ’96, but c’mon. For Nothing to Lose, Tommy… Continue reading »

Oct
27

Detroit Has a Posse

Tosten Burks is exempt from taking Detroit 101 because he passed the AP Detroit exam in high school. This is hip-hop that makes people shout out “this is hip-hop.” A posse cut whose participants actually sound like they’re all members of the same posse. Internal rhyme after internal rhyme of cocksure, gun-cock rhythm turns of… Continue reading »

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