The Coup’s Party Music, originally planned to feature a cover image of Boots Riley blowing up the World Trade Center, while Pam The Funkstess waved a composer stick, an image created before the events of September 11. While Boots has stated that the cover was meant to symbolize the destruction of Capitalism – not the [cont.]

 Following contributions from Jay Dee, Pete Rock, and Wil.I.Am Of Black Eyed Peas, legendary producer Marley Marl delivers his entry into the Beat Genration series, and his Re-Entry into the rap game. Many a hip-hop classic have emerged from Marley’s House Of Hits – with an incredible production resume, from mapping the entire blueprint of the [cont.]

 When the industry blackballs an artist, it’s incredibly hard for that artist to reclaim the place that they once were. Ma$e? Laughable. Public Enemy? Sorely missed. Ice Cube? Forget about it. Hammer? Proper. These rhyming heroes (and zeroes), were each at the top of their game at one point. Each of them owned a piece [cont.]

?Quite possibly one of the hardest-working producers in underground hip-hop at the moment, The Five Deez’ Fat Jon has his hands full with so many projects, that he is not only determined to make a name for himself, but to actually make two names for himself. Enter Maurice Galactica  – an instrumental alter-ego of the Ohio [cont.]

Hip-Hop’s firestarters have returned, although this once eight-man crew has diminished down to three core members, Q-Unique , Jise , and Swel 79 . But the idea of the crew’s demise doesn’t stop the remaining Arsonists from continuing to set microphones on fire, as they note on the title track and album’s opener “As the [cont.]

 For the past few years, the Wu-Tang Clan has stood on its last limbs, stringing its remaining fans along between releases, with listeners hoping that each of these albums would be the one that would return the Clan to it’s throne. While recent albums from solo members like Raekwon, Cappadonna, and Inspectah Deck have not lived up [cont.]

 Worshipped as gods of super-white genius rap with the release of The Overcast, Atmosphere’s direction has taken a slightly different turn with the release of its Lucy Ford LP. While several years have passed since The Overcast loomed over listener’s heads, in that time, Atmosphere’s lead emcee, Slug, has taken things to a much more [cont.]

Fat Joe The Gangster. Joey Crack. Don Cartegena. Throughout his career, Joseph Cartegena has assumed many aliases, but with his fourth album, J.O.S.E (Jealous Ones Still Envy), he hopes to take the title left unclaimed when Frank White died, the King of New York.      Unfortunately, J.O.S.E. shows that Joe is more of a follower [cont.]

        On the real, are heads even looking forward to the new album from Kurupt? First and foremost, the single, “It’s Over”, couldn’t be worse, and with an album title as corny as Space Boogie: Smoke Oddessey one would think the label would have stepped in and at least have spelled the word “odyssey” correctly. [cont.]

 He was introduced some five-plus years ago on The D&D Project, a loose knit compilation of up & coming artists backed by people like DJ Premier and The Beatminerz, shortly following a 12″ bid during the independent boom with “Closer To God”, a true to life tale about catching a bullet, with DJ Premier again manning [cont.]

Much like your typical popular rappers, (all whom are biting his originality, as he would be sure to tell you), Kool Keith brings his latest project, just under a year since his last solo effort. Picking up somewhere where Matthew left off, Spankmaster should hold over the legions of Keith’s fans for a while, bringing [cont.]

 Arising from the ashes of what was once Company Flow, Mr. Len delivers Pity The Fool, the first of three solo projects from each of the group’s members. Once sharing production duties with El-P in his Co-Flow days, Len uses his debut to test his beats out on other emcees; a close knit family of independent allstars [cont.]

Who the fuck is Aes Rock? As he states on “Coma”, the self described “result of Dragonball Z / Speed Racer gene splicing”, is one of the most talked about abstract underground emcees on the rise, graduating from do-it-yourself discs to a deal with El-P’s Def Jux imprint. Aesop Rock is an obvious graduate of the [cont.]

In essence, the release of Binary Star’s Masters Of The Universe (also known as Waterworld) was comparable to Brandon Lee’s untimely death while filming The Crow. Here was an album that was recorded in 1997 and 1998, but was held in the vaults until the year 2000, when it was finally released. It received a [cont.]

“I ain’t made a record in three years and that’s why you rich,” laments the emcee on “Let ‘Em Live”, as before there was the multi-platinum success of Eminem , Chino XL preceded him, with amazing freestyle gymnastics and equal amounts of celebrity bashing hilarity. While his debut album, Here To Save You All was [cont.]

After turning heads with last year’s “Ill Bomb” on Funkmaster Flex’s The Tunnel, LL hopes to regain his spot in the sunshine with his forthcoming release G.O.A.T. “Imagine That” gives us the usual player shit that we?ve grown to expect from Cool J, but this one takes it back to the “Big Ol’ Butt” / [cont.]

First introduced to the world by Jeru The Damaja, Afu Ra has built a steady fan-base through a consistent string of 12″ singles, despite the major-label woes that delayed the release of his debut album, Body Of The Life Force. Although his former label, Gee Street, folded, Afu has maintained a presence in the underground, and [cont.]

 Hot of the heels of Jay-Z’s The Dynasty comes Roc-A-Fella’s youngest in charge with his sophomore release, coming one year after his debut, Coming Of Age. As his first album hardly broke any sales records, Memphis Bleek is attempting to redeem himself with this quick follow-up, hoping to catch a bigger wave the second time [cont.]

Imagine the shock the art world would feel if they had stumbled upon a vault of never-seen-before paintings by Pablo Picasso, some one hundred years after his death. Or imagine what the buzz would be like in the film world, if they discovered a completed Kurosawa film from 1972, which was locked away in his safe. [cont.]

 Easy Moe Bee’s name might not yet by as synonymous with beats as Dr. Dre’s or DJ Premier’s, but over the years it’s snuck onto the production credits of various B.I.G. and 2Pac  tracks, as well as countless others albums, you just never noticed it. Using his long list of customers and collaborators, Easy Moe now [cont.]