Mar
01

Hodgy Beats On: The Untitled EP

Tosten Burks isn’t gonna lie. He had to look up the world clairvoyance. We’re at the point where all of the mythology and controversy that fueled the Odd Future rise have become reasons why they originally got attention and not reasons why they still should. Earl is back. The cockroach has long been digested. Every… Continue reading »

Nov
27

Sach O: Mobb Deep – Water Boarding

Sach O shouldn’t have listened to this beat after a large coffee. Prodigy isn’t the most popular of rappers to champion these days but I’ll always ride by the Mobb Deep stalwart. Return of the Mac is still one of my favorite rap albums of the last decade and what Bandana P’s flow lost in… Continue reading »

Aug
22

Noreaga & Alchemist Embrace the Slime

Evan Nabavian’s favorite old school rapper is Silver Fox. If the golden age of New York rap was about ghetto scripture and taut piano loops, then the silver age was about concealed weapons and glorious Tunnel bangers. The former usually earns more homages from revivalist nerds, but Noreaga and Alchemist return to the heyday of… Continue reading »

Apr
20

A Merry 4/20 From Spitta and Smoke DZA

The lava lamp glow that 4/20 once held has turned into my more monochromatic late 20s. I need neither my weed phosphorescent nor my celebrations elaborate. Don’t need to hit a Dragon or a Volcano or a gravity bong, or some other invention from a ingenious evil engineer.  I don’t need to skip work to… Continue reading »

Nov
18

Frank & Beats: Gangrene’s Fresh Gutter Water

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I11pgTCli3c Aaron Frank rolls up spliffs longer than hockey sticks.  Rappers bragging about their weed habits is nothing new–especially in a year like 2010, with Curren$y, Wiz Khalifa, and Rick Ross hogging the sativa spotlight. But in 2008, when the Gangrene collaboration between Alchemist and Oh No was first announced, Jim Jones and Lil Wayne… Continue reading »