Torae is currently running a Kickstarter campaign for his new album, and today has rewarded fan’s efforts so far by dropping this unreleased DJ Premier joint. Listen below, and click here to pledge to the Kickstarter.
Category: Industry
Skyzoo, Rapper Big Pooh & Awkword – ‘Cruel Intentions’
A dope line-up of emcees including Rapper Big Pooh and Skyzoo have gathered to pay a tribute to Praverb, who died this time last year. Listen and buy Cruel Intentions on the link below, with proceeds going to his family.
Stream and purchase here.
Just Blaze on Rhythm Roulette
These new Rhythm Roulette episodes are coming thick and fast. This time its Just Blaze, and he kills it, while also taking time to explain his process. Dope. Watch below.
Sean Price – ‘Songs In The Key of Price’
Songs In The Key of Price is finally out, albeit now released under a whole different atmosphere since the sad death of Sean Price. A last minute artwork change, due to legal shit, means that early copies have now become collectors pieces, but you can stream the short but dope project below. Don’t forget that you can also still donate to the Sean P family fund here.
Eazy-E, Peanut Butter Wolf style
In an incredible bit of DIY hip-hop history, Stones Throw Records honcho and all round good-guy Peanut Butter Wolf has unearthed this from his personal archives – a cover of Eazy-E single Boyz N The Hood, with the brilliantly-named local artist Spunky Spunk Dogg on vocals, and PBW on the wheels of steel. A few years later he would go on to link with Charizma, and the rest is history. As for the collaboration with Spunk D-O Double Gizzy, this was their first and only live performance. Listen below, and read the backstory from the man himself further down.
“This recording is the only one I have with him from back then and we performed outside at the backyard of a BBQ on a Sunday afternoon for an audience of around 15-20 people. We did around 5 or 6 original songs we had made and 1 cover and for the cover, we chose the biggest rap song in LA at the time. My turntable kept skipping as it wasn’t a 1200 and nobody even really cheered. I don’t even recall people really paying attention, but we were having fun and it was our first and last show together as a group. This was in the summer of ’88, and soon after, I moved back to San Jose, where I eventually met Charizma and started all over again.”
Here’s why the Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito Kickstarter is worthy of your money
Hip-hop radio icons Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia have launched a Kickstarter campaign for contributions towards the launch of their anticipated documentary film, Stretch & Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives. Its a project worthy of your cash, and here’s why.
Goofy, sometimes ridiculously immature, but always bringing the freshest music from new hip-hop artists, the Stretch & Bobbito show on Columbia University’s WKCR radio station ran for the best part of the 90s.
Much has been made about how the show was influential in helping to launch the careers of many who would go on to be huge, most notably Jay-Z, Nas, Biggie Smalls and the Wu-Tang Clan.
More importantly, at least in our eyes, the show also supported independent and alternative hip-hop artists, championing the likes of Kool Keith when he reinvented himself as Dr. Octagon, and showing much love to groups like Company Flow, Juggaknots, J Treds, Godfather Don and countless more.
Bobbito even founded his own label to release a lot of the underground material that was appearing on the show. The much-missed Fondle’em Records helped to introduce the world to MF Doom, and laid the foundation for labels of a similar vein, including Rawkus, Stones Throw and Def Jux.
It’s therefore no exaggeration to say that Stretch and Bob played perhaps the most important role in creating that classic mid-late 90s indy boom of creativity that many of us are still stuck on today. And that is surely reason enough to throw some money their way.
Donate here, and read more about the documentary here, including upcoming screenings.
Mac Miller – ‘Pet Sounds’ feat. Sean Price
Mac Miller has posted this unreleased track recorded with Sean Price, who we all know tragically died last weekend. It has a banging beat from Nottz, and sounds nice. Listen below.
The Elephunk in the Room: We need to talk About The Black Eyed Peas
A couple of weeks ago, The Black Eyed Peas released a new video. The same The Black Eyes Peas that many moons ago was a genuine hip-hop group, before changing beyond all recognition into a pop act that polarized rap fans.
Nothing strange about that so far. But on closer inspection the new song is without Fergie, references and covers many hip-hop classics, and has a throwback video to match. Oh, and it also happens to be awesome. We let it sit there for a while, but we can’t ignore what just happened any longer.
Here’s the dilemma. As fans of what we all like to call ‘real’ hip-hop (however ridiculous that makes us sound), we can’t possibly like a The Black Eyed Peas song, can we? Of course we can. We’ll just take a bit of time to admit it.
Its easy to blame everything on the evil Fergie, but in reality, the driving force behind the move towards pop has been will.i.am, an artist at times so unbelievably pretentious its a wonder he hasn’t yet disappeared up his own back passage.
But the hark back to their hip-hop roots, and even further back to Golden Era rap, is a curious one. Its difficult to tell if this is a new (or old) direction for the group, sans Fergie, although its hard to imagine they’d turn down further mainstream success just to keep it real for a small section of hip-hop heads. It may also just be part of the celebrations for their 20-years-in-the-game anniversary.
Only time will tell. But one thing can’t be denied: Yesterday is a good record, and its ok to admit it.
If you haven’t seen it yet, watch it here.
Madvillain – ‘Untitled’/’Travis 911’
What appears to be two new Madvillain tracks have surfaced online, and now us and everyone else is losing their shit. No word if this really is the first taste of a new project from MF Doom and Madlib, but here’s to hoping it is. Listen to both tracks on the links below.
Why Ice Cube being back in N.W.A. is equal parts dope and awkward
The recent BET Awards saw N.W.A. reunite on stage for the first time in years, as part of the promotional grind for new film Straight Outta Compton.
Dr Dre was absent, and with Eazy-E long since passed, and Yella never having been the most charismatic of performers, it was a cut-price N.W.A, left to just Ice Cube and MC Ren to carry the entire legacy. From the videos that emerged online, it was largely disappointing, but not a bad effort considering what they had to work with.
What stands out most is how weird it is to see Ice Cube performing those old gangsta tracks in 2015.
Like LL Cool J, Cube is now so far removed from who he was in the N.W.A. days, and that’s not a bad thing. He’s now a family man making family films. Shit, he even hangs out with Elmo. Switching from that back to the man who rapped so aggressively and explicitly on classics like Fuck Tha Police, Straight Outta Compton and Gangsta Gangsta, is a giant leap.
That’s not to say that the likes of Cube and LL should hide from who they once were. These are two of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time (LL arguably the greatest, at least in terms of longevity), and for hip-hop fans they will always be emcees first, actors second.
But perhaps spare a thought for little Elmo when he watches the BET awards and sees his buddy kicking rhymes about AK-47s and bitches in biker shorts. No one wants the kids putting on Sesame Street and finding that the word of the day is Gangbang.
As for the no-show from Dre? Too busy counting them billions. Its a shame though, because that really could have been something special. We should probably just be glad they avoided bringing Eazy back with one of those tacky hologram joints.
Straight Outta Compton hits cinemas August.