The physical versions landed a few weeks back, but last Friday marked the digital release of the new album from billy woods and Elucid, Paraffin. You can listen here, but also check below for our playlist covering some of their best collaborations.
Category: Playlist
Playlist: Best New Music – August 2018
Welcome to the first edition of our new monthly playlist series, highlighting much of the best new hip-hop from the last month. Listen to the August 2018 tracklist below, and then go support the artists with a purchase from wherever you buy your music. Check us on Spotify for more curated playlists.
Playlist: The Best MC’s Ever: The Other Guys – Part 1
We asked emcee, producer and rap historian Zilla Rocca to curate some playlists for us, and he didn’t disappoint. The first is spawned from a recent Twitter debate asking his followers about their favorite rappers not covered by the usual lists you see everywhere else. Listen to Part 1 below, but first, here’s the man himself with more background.
The Best MC’s Ever: The Other Guys – Part 1. Words and playlist curation by Zilla Rocca
Forget your Top 5 rapper list. We know all of those names already. It’s going to be 1-2 guys from the ’80s (Rakim/KRS/Kane/G Rap), 1-2 guys from the ’90s (Biggie/Nas/Jay/Pac/Eminem), and 1 guy from the past 10 years (Wayne/Kendrick).
The Best Rapper lists are safe and predictable because the arguments are rational – who sold the most albums? Who created the most indelible style that everyone stole? Who had a better run of albums?
Allowing only the same 15 names to be in the discussion is a waste of everyone’s time. This playlist is not concerned with any of that. It is about irrational love for rappers who haven’t been praised and canonized as All-Timers By Every Publication Since 1995.
This playlist is inspired by a tweet I posted a few weeks back asking people to list their own personal best rappers ever. Some names listed were guys who never put out actual solo albums (Breeze Brewin, Jay Electronica). Some were guys who made an album and vanished (Cool Calm Pete, Edan*). Some folks loved AZ and Styles P, who were hot 20+ years ago and keep grinding out albums and mixtapes years after their million dollar budgets dried up. My good friend Barry Schwartz will tell you year after year that Method Man is the best rapper ever. My good friend Alaska of Hangar 18 will tell you Jay Electronica is the one. My good friend Premrock even tweeted “Do 5 amazing verses from J-Treds count?” For this playlist, they all count.
This is the first part of several, randomly arranged by the responses from my tweet. I picked 1 song from each rapper, hoping it makes you remember why you love them, or if you haven’t thought about them, to go back into their catalog. No one will have Jay-Z’s career, so let’s offer victory to the hundreds of amazing rappers who stick with us and never made any lists before.
Track list:
1. Jay Electronica – Exhibit C
2. AZ – The Come Up
3. Edan – I See Colours
4. Wise Intelligent & Gensu Dean – Game of Death
5. Ghostface – Mighty Healthy
6. Sean Price – P Body
7. Atmosphere (Slug) – Scapegoat
8. Blueprint – Two Headed Monster
9. Aesop Rock – Cat Food
10. Blu – Doing Nothing
11. J-Live – The Best Part
12. Planet Asia – Place of Birth
13. Sick Jacken & DJ Muggs – El Bario
14. Danny Brown – The Greatest Rapper Ever
15. GZA – Labels
16. Pimp C – Friends
17. MF Doom – Rhymes Like Dimes
18. Big Boi – General Patton
19. Bun B – Let Em Know
20.MC Lyte – 10% Dis
*Editor’s note: Come on, Zilla Rocca. To say Edan made one album and disappeared is sacrilegious.
Prime Cuts: Ka – A Playlist by Nick Gauder
We’ve been pretty damn excited about the new album from Ka, Orpheus Vs The Sirens, recorded with Animoss as the Hermit and the Recluse. Someone else excited is Ka fan and curator of all good new hip-hop, Nick Gauder. Today we welcome him on board as a new contributor to Grown Up Rap, and to celebrate the release of Orpheus Vs The Sirens he’s selected some prime cuts from Ka’s incredible catalog for our latest Spotify playlist.
Check the 13-track playlist and listen below. Follow Nick on Twitter here.
1. 247365
2. Children
3. No Downtime
4. Up Against Goliath
5. Jungle
6. Soap Box feat. Roc Marciano
7. Fall Of The Bronze
8. To Hull & Back
9. Day 13
10. Day 22
11. Grapes Of Wrath
12. Mourn At Night
13. I Wish (Death Poem)