In a perfect world rappers would be paid based on their rhyming skills and not the label’s marketing skills. Unfortunately we do not live in an ideal world and rappers like O.C. have yet to achieve the financial success they deserve. By refusing to conform to the candy rap standards, O.C. may never experience [cont.]

   Dose One’s Ha is as disjointed and weird as you would expect from Anticon’s oddball emcee. With songs that encompass a wide array of production techniques and rapping styles, one can surely find something they like-or hate-from this album.    The title track finds Dose singing over strange, slow moving melodic bleeps and clicks. As [cont.]

   Everyone knows that Bigg Juss can sermonize.  The man made a career of nursing the obtuse and started a movement as a founding member of Company Flow.  When Pastor Bigg Jus takes the pulpit on Poor People’s Day, expect fireworks.  He’s a preacher with a steak knife and a sharp tongue, spitting fire and [cont.]

      J. Dilla aka Jay Dee, has come a long way since his early days as 1/3 of The Ummah, alongside Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Mohammed. Initially, people hated the new sound of A Tribe Called Quest found on “Beats, Rhymes, and Life” and “The Love Movement”, because it was a change from the classic [cont.]

    The windy city has been responsible for birthing several respectable hip hop acts in recent years. With Chi-town’s different flavors of emcees, picking one to suit your musical needs is almost like selecting ice cream from Baskin Robbins. Enter Vakill, who first made a name for himself with the surprising debut album The Darkest [cont.]

     Boston has always been Robin to NY’s Batman.  We usually don’t give this a second thought, but isn’t it strange that one of America’s premiere cities is almost never looked at as such?  Within the context of hip-hop, how has there not been a big-name rapper reppin Beantown at this point?  Whenever recently fired [cont.]

   If we’ve seen it once, we’ve seen it a thousand times (or like three). A battle emcee reaches the pinnacle, is touted to be the next big thing in rap music, signs a record deal, then the public doesn’t even bat an eye when the album drops. Jin’s blessing was also his curse.     [cont.]

     Billie Holiday’s ghostwriter, Lewis Allan, coined the term “strange fruit”, through the song of the same name, referring to the Black bodies hanging from trees after a lynching. While paying respect to their southern heritage, the new album from the Cunninlynguists instead takes the term and applies it to a more biblical sense, as [cont.]

    Chicago has become a haven for finding talented hip hop artists. From Kanye and Common to Da Brat and Twista down to Lupe Fiasco, Chi town is really holding it down in terms of producing quality artists from the mainstream to the underground. Enter emcee Racecar and producer/DJ K-Kruz – together known as Modill. [cont.]

   “Now you can call it positive / you can call it backpack / you can call it street shit / you can call it nerd rap / but no matter what you call it / y’all the fact is we got the phat shit”    “Feeding Einstein” is one of those albums that take [cont.]

     The Rhymesayers Entertainment camp pretty much got off the ground thanks to Atmosphere, of course with contributions from lesser-known local acts such as Musab and Eyedea & Abilities; the latter both receiving mixed reviews from their respective audiences. However, in the last couple of years, we’ve watched RSE step up their roster by signing [cont.]

   When Biggie passed away almost a decade ago, the hip hop world lost a truly captivating lyricist. What was unfortunate was that Biggie didn’t leave a ton of material behind for us to gush over like his counterpart, Tupac, who has so much material some think he still roams the earth. Enter B.I.G.’s good buddy, [cont.]

    Smif-N-Wessun is one of the most beloved underground acts of the past decade. “Dah Shinin’” is still on heavy rotation in this listener’s stereo, as it is for many of you readers. Their most recent “Reloaded” was more than worthy, but it’s only natural that the duo of Tek and Steele would try their hand with solo [cont.]

  While the South dominated the hip-hop scene in 2005, it was through a somewhat different sound than what was popular in 2004. Good old-fashioned crunk music was almost nowhere to be found, traded instead for the chopped and screwed sounds of the Swishahouse family, or the so seductive invention of Mr. Collipark’s “intimate club music”. [cont.]

   Sure as the sunrise, you know that Rasco will drop an album. It’s like clockwork. So as Rasco continues his foray into the hip hop game one has to wonder “will things be different this time around?” For most Rasco fans, they already rely on Rasco to give them consistency. But sometimes consistency just [cont.]

   In 2004, after ten-plus years in the game, Twista finally saw breakthrough success with his Atlantic Recordings release, Kamikaze. Led by two chart topping, Kanye West produced singles - “Slow Jamz” and “Overnight Celebrity”, respectively. The album not only revamped the career of a rapper that could have easily been left in the 90′s, but [cont.]

     As 1/3 of the Portland, Oregon throwback hip-hop crew, Lightheaded, it would be easy to pigeonhole the Brooklyn born emcee/producer/graphic artist, Ohmega Whatts, as just another underground artist. It might even be easier to tag him as yet another Christian rapper, more concerned with thumping a bible, than making good music to thump in [cont.]

     I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a card-carrying member of the Dipset fan club.  Nothing personal, but in my passing spins of their catalog, I just don’t see much difference between them and any other rappers spittin’ the same content.  There are more of these cliques than you can count on [cont.]

   With funk and soul revivalists still in high demand, Staten Island’s The Budos Band makes a welcome entrance onto the scene with their somewhat familiar and always soulful brand of afro-influenced instrumental music heard on their self-titled debut. Unlike other modern afrobeat, funk and soul groups like Antibalas or Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, [cont.]

    Two producers. Two legends. Two originators. The year of 2005 has brought together some nice collaborations, but this one could have the most credibility.  GZA — one of the founding members of the Wu Tang Clan, and creator of the classic Liquid Swords.  DJ Muggs — a multi-platinum producer for Cypress Hill, House of [cont.]