Although they saw the pinnacle of their success with their later singles “Watch Out Now” and “Off The Books”, most longtime fans of The Beatnuts will argue that the group was at its best during the Intoxicated Demons and Street Level era. During this period, which spanned 1992-1994, the ‘Nuts released the aforementioned two classic [cont.]

Always a man of mystery, M.F. Doom has a long history of rhyming under different names and aliases, and subsequently releasing different albums with many different record labels. Having worked with many of the top indie imprints in the biz, including Fondle ‘Em, Stones Throw, and Rhymesayers, this time Doom is found back at Lex [cont.]

The female voice behind Timbaland’s mega-hit, “The Way I Are” was a virtual unknown for the longest time, even in spite of the song’s massive success. Starting out as a songwriter for artists like Ciara, Britney Spears, and Usher, Ms. Keri has been doing her thing behind the scenes for a minute now, even making [cont.]

Today’s music fan believes that if artists truly want us to put down our hard-earned money for their products, they have to stop treating the music as disposable. But perhaps the other side of the argument can be presented instead: why should an artist put forth his or her best work on a project when music [cont.]

Joe Budden can pretty much be summed up as “the average rapper,” defined. A walking one-hit-wonder, Budden broke through in 2003 with his Just Blaze produced single “Pump It Up”, but was deflated when his not surprisingly self-titled debut made little noise on the charts. While “Pump It Up” was a certified club banger, it [cont.]

Just who or what is N.A.S.A? That’s a question bound to be asked by many, once they see lineup included on the group’s debut album, The Spirit Of Apollo. The album boasts guest appearances from: Kanye West, M.I.A., Santogold, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kool Keith, Tom Waits, KRS-One, Jurassic 5, Z-Trip, DJ AM, Chuck D [cont.]

Madlib’s Beat Konducta series of instrumental albums began as a series of beat-tapes handed out to artists like De La Soul and Talib Kweli, and then soon ending up in the hands of fans. Given official release through Stones Throw, each volume has been released in pairs, with volumes 1 & 2 aka Movie Scenes [cont.]

As the story goes, Madlib impatient and wanting Doom to record new tracks for the official sequel to the 2005 classic, Madvillainy, went ahead and “reworked” the original album, with all new beats and skits. First released as an elaborate Stones Throw box set, this $125 package (yes, you read that correctly), included the CD, [cont.]

Ugly Duckling stepped onto the scene in 2001 with their 2001 debut, Journey To Anywhere. Here, this LP found a trio of classic hip-hop enthusiasts recreating their favorite era with sample and breakbeat rich tracks that one might find on De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising. With their second LP, 2003’s Taste The [cont.]

The term “helter skelter” is used to describe something that is in complete chaos or disarray, made infamous in the 1960′s by Charles Manson, who suggested his murder spree was in preparation of an apocalyptic race war by the same name. But Ruck and Rock boiled it down to simply “Heltah Skeltah means war”, with [cont.]

Little Brother’s Phonte Coleman and Netherlands based producer Nicolay reunite as The Foreign Exchange, following up their critically acclaimed 2004 debut, Connected, with Leave It All Behind. As legend has it, the duo had met on OkayPlayer.Com, and began recording music, sending it back and forth via instant messenger, completing and releasing the album without [cont.]

Another year has passed, and in the wake of “eleven number ones” as he casually mentions on “Lorraine Interlude”, T-Pain delivers another LP of millennial computer love, with Thr33 Ringz. Comparing the rap game to a circus, Pain crowns himself the ringleader, as he essentially is the main ingredient to every other artists’ respective hit [cont.]

Murs has released 13 albums in the last 11 years (not to mention a handful of EP’s and compilations) proving he is quite possibily the hardest working man in indie hip-hop (next to Madlib, at least). While many of his Living Legends brethren have nowhere close to the sizable catalog that he does, it’s more because [cont.]

In just over three years, Miami based Khaled Khaled (yes, that’s his first and last name) has gone from being Terror Squad’s DJ, to being one of the biggest names in the business. He is now mentioned in the same breath as other superstar hood DJ’s, like Funk Master Flex, DJ Clue, and DJ Drama, [cont.]

DJ Babu’s Duck Season 3 is bittersweet. If you haven’t been paying attention to what is happening in the world of subterranean hip-hop as of late, Duck Season 3 offers the perfect snapshot of what’s currently hot in backpack land, and also, exactly what is currently wrong with the scene. More than just a mixtape, [cont.]

Kool Keith has always been one for reinvention, but also one to revisit the same concepts over and over again. On one hand, we’ve seen Keith perform under various identities and member to numerous groups, each of his respective projects coming with a different sound or style. However, the most successful of these offshoots was [cont.]

Detroit’s current resident soul singer, Dwele, is no stranger to the scene, having released three albums over the past eight years, prior to the release of his latest opus, Sketches Of A Man.  Sharing a long history within his local scene, Dwele collaborated numerous times with J. Dilla, on projects like Welcome To Detroit, as [cont.]

It’s been a hot minute since we heard from Immortal Technique – five years to be exact – who last blessed us with a pair of albums in the form of Revolutionary Volumes 1 and 2. With back to back releases from the politically charged Harlem-by-way-of-Peru emcee, it seemed as if the third volume in [cont.]

Coming somewhere off the Chicago-Detroit expressway is buzz-worthy new act, The Cool Kids who recently signed to local indie imprint Chocolate Industries. Poised to move on the majors any second now, the duo made up of Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish have ironically caught a huge buzz, named as one of 2008’s top 10 artists [cont.]

The U.K.’s Dizzee Rascal became a bit of a household name a couple years back with his hit single, “Fix Up, Look Sharp”, which found the grime/garage rapper flexing over Billy Squire’s “Big Beat” sample, in his dirtiest British accent. Embracing his culture to the fullest, Dizzee’s an emcee who’s never been one to try [cont.]