While the storm known as Little Brother has collectively floored the Hip Hop scene, there’s a member of the Justus League that has been lost in the shuffle. Cesar Comanche was one of the first members to drop an album (Wooden Nickles) and establish the sound that would entrench North Carolina as a city [cont.]

    Two years ago, things looked pretty bleek for Cee-Lo Green, an ex-member of Goodie Mob, who was only getting older. The former Goodie Mob frontman released two critically praised solo LP’s, Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections and Cee Lo Green Is The Soul Machine, showing steady consecutive musical growth. Problem was, Cee-Lo was [cont.]

    After the Pharcyde disbanded, many of the members chose to pursue solo ventures, but had a very hard time coming close to the success that came with albums like Bizarre Ride and Labcabincalifornia. Tre Hardson, AKA Slim Kid Tre, is one of those members whose career floundered about trying to reclaim some of the [cont.]

    Planet Asia is back with a sickness. With a solid flow and more than five years of success under his belt, it would be assumed that he would have put together a real banger, opposed to an album that could easily get played out in three to four spins.  The Sickness Part 1, appears [cont.]

   Dark and lovely. It’s the rare quality that Compton’s Most Wanted had in the 1990′s during the course of their first three releases, and it’s also one found through the illustrious and amazingly long career of Havoc and Prodigy, known better to most as Mobb Deep. Embarking on their seventh full-length project (not including [cont.]

   The original revolutionaries of rap are back, and damn, are they pissed! After spending years watching the destructional retardation of rap music and the ditieration of America, Public Enemy is back with their new album, Rebirth Of A Nation. No, this isn’t a public service announcement, its just stone cold Guerrilla Funk.      If [cont.]

     About a decade ago, a young Todd Smith spoke candidly to “Yo! MTV Raps” about his disgust with “pop rap.” Fast forward to 2006 and LL Cool J embodies the very “pop rap” that he so viciously dismissed on television. Apparently muscles and girly hooks are far superior to needing a beat, a radio [cont.]

     It’s hard to believe that the People Under The Stairs duo of Thes-One and Double-K have already gotten around to their fifth album with Stepfather, but it’s true, as the duo adds more members to their dedicated fanbase with this latest release. Promo advertising for the album shows checkboxes of what to include and [cont.]

   Okay, so let’s get the obvious out of the way before we start with this review – Dudley Perkins is not a singer of the American Idol winners circle calibur. Dudley Perkins probably knows this just like we do, and because of this we should never, ever, ever judge a Dudley Perkins album on [cont.]

  The long-beach trio of Ugly Duckling has been putting it down on the indie hip-hop scene for almost a decade now, debuting during the 90′s underground 12inch boom, which allowed several up and coming groups to show off their stuff, thanks to a steadily declining major label market.  They made the biggest splash with [cont.]

    “The Antidote” is gangsta, minus the sex appeal, hustlin’ minus the flashy steez — it’s just gully, grimey and gritty. With beats by the likes of DJ Premier and Showbiz, you know Smiley’s street to the soul, all hood. Smiley never tosses label-types a bone on this one — no joints for the ladies, [cont.]

    The producers of the recent Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy film adaptation got it all wrong. Mos Def may have the acting chops, but when it comes to suspension of disbelief, there could be no better Prefect Ford than Kool Keith. The veteran artist, formerly of Ultramagnetic MC’s, is on full display with Nogatco [cont.]

    Emcees who are about the revolution and bucking the system are pretty scarce nowadays (with the exception of dead prez, Immortal Technique and others). Gone are the days where X-Clan and Public Enemy ruled the airwaves and required every man, woman and child to rock a leather medallion and a Malcolm X hat. Today’s [cont.]

    Stones Throw is known for having some of the most unconventional sounds around in of hip-hop, funk, and soul. Everything they put out carries a distinct style, and most of the time is critically acclaimed. So in waltzes a female by the name of Georgia Anne Muldrow, with her debut album on Stones Throw, entitled Worthnothings. Judging by [cont.]

     Rap is nothing, if not all, about the story. As important as lyrical flow or a hot beat, the narrative thrust of what the emcee is presenting can set a career soaring, or halt a veteran’s momentum dead in its tracks. Like noir hero Philip Marlowe in the latter Chandler novels, or Mr. Miyagi [cont.]

    When T.I. came out with his third album in 2004, Urban Legend, he declared himself “king of the south”. Jaws dropped, feathers were ruffled. “T-who?” we all said. After all, there were plenty of dudes putting it down in South for longer, with greater track records. The thing was, while everyone post-Biggie was fighting over [cont.]

    Here’s how real Edgar Allen Floe is: go to his myspace site. In the omnipresent corner where every artist with a home computer pimps their shit via a slow-loading, first generation “jukebox,” the first sounds you hear will not be Floe’s. Instead you will be serenaded by the sounds of the woozy, rootsy “Whip [cont.]

     When someone tells you that you should check out an album by Tanya Morgan, most hip hop heads would respond “I don’t wanna hear no R&B music! I want Hip-Hop!” Well fortunately Tanya Morgan isn’t an R&B singer, but an actual group comprised of three emcees. Their back story can be rather confusing, but in [cont.]

   Somewhere Paris is smiling, because the Lost Children of Babylon may hate Bush II more than he hates Bush I.  Following in the footsteps of Paris, Chuck D, and Brother J, the Philadelphia collective’s latest album, The 911 Report The Ultimate Conspiracy, is condemnation of President Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld,  and any person [cont.]

     The last few years have been quite prolific from instrumentalist RJD2 and producer-on-the-mic Blueprint, as the Ohio bred duo have released a number of different types of projects on different labels. The first joined forces as Soul Position a few years back, releasing the Unlimited EP, and followed-up shortly thereafter with the full-length release, [cont.]