It’s been said that “Virginia is for lovers,” however, lately they’ve been known in Hip-Hop circles as having some hot-ass producers. Starting with the original “rumpshaker” himself–Teddy Riley–to today’s A-list knob turners the Neptunes and Timbaland, Norfolk, VA native Nottz has been doing his best at carrying on the tradition. Having produced recent fire-starters for [cont.]

    As a hip-hop fan, when you think of Roc-A-Fella, besides Jay-Z and Kanye West, you think of all the wasted potential of M.O.P and what Beanie Sigel has become.  Your first thought when the label was mentioned wouldn’t necessarily be that “Young Gunz” had anything worthwhile to contribute to hip-hop.  On the contrary, these young kids from Philly [cont.]

     While John Legend may only be beginning to become a household name, the truth is that he has been putting in work for years. He collaborated with Lauryn Hill on “Everything Is Everything”, sang background vocals on Alicia Keys’ “You Don’t Know My Name”, and along with Kanye West, is responsible for propelling singles [cont.]

    MED isn’t a new jack to the rap game. As a matter of fact, MED has made a name for himself via numerous guest appearances over the past few years. With that, the question lingered as to when would he get around to dropping an album. Finally, the answer has arrived in the form of Push Comes [cont.]

      It started as a one-off “super-group” project between Blur’s Damon Albarn, Dan The Automator, Del The Funky-Homosapien, Cibo Matto’s Miho Hatori, and cartoonist Jamie Hewlett, but instead blossomed into a cult-classic record. The Gorillaz self-titled magnum-opus caught on like wild-fire, spawning legions of fans, two offshoot discs (G-Sides and Space Monkeys Vs. Gorillaz), and [cont.]

    In hip-hop you have four different kinds of emcees. You have your conscious emcee, your battle emcee, your jiggy emcee and your filthy street emcee. Some try to fit into two or more categories (ie 50 Cent’s “Street/Jiggy” persona), but all emcees lean toward one more than the other. When Heltah Skelter dropped Nocturnal almost a [cont.]

   The now five-man Oddjobs crew made their national debut in 2000 under the umbrella of the burgeoning Minneapolis/St. Paul hip-hop scene. Since then, they have avoided direct affiliation with the Rhymesayers crew and attempted to forge their own path, always growing and never settling into a specific sound.    As far as the overall [cont.]

     “They say the crocheted pants and the sweater was wack, they seen ‘The Corner’ and said that ni**a is back.” Have truer words been spoken? While each One Day It Will All Make Sense, Like Water For Chocolate, and even Electric Circus were championed by this critic during the nine-year existence of this website, [cont.]

    With the emergence of Chicago Hip-Hop courtesy of Kanye West and Com Sense, the mainstream is starting to take notice. Let’s not forget the numerous talented underground crews that grace the Chicago landscape, including All Natural, Grav (M.I.A.), and the one and only Juice.  Each of these crews has paid their dues in the [cont.]

Compilation; no rating given     Sway and King Tech, legendary hosts of the world-famous syndicated rap show The Wake Up Show, are taking it back to the basics. Their show has showcased a plethora of emerging talent like Eminem, Jay-Z, Nas and others, and has launched them into the limelight (Sway on MTV for example). [cont.]

    The Justus League train continues to roll with no signs of derailment. As each member steps out to test the water with their solo efforts, a duo comes forth seeking to create a similar magic that has become the staple for the North Carolina collective- but without 9th Wonder. Emcee Sean Boog and producer [cont.]

     Hip-hop experimentation is hit or miss.  Common seemed to hit rock bottom when he dropped the organic-heavy Electric Circus, while Outkast’s Andre 3000 “Hey Ya”‘d his way to diamond sales.  Fred Durst and his Limp Bizkit couldn’t even gain acceptance in the hood with a Method Man cameo, but Jay-Z’s “Encore” meshed perfectly with [cont.]

      When everything is said and done, the short-lived “dynasty” that was Roc-A-Fella Records gave birth to a pair of household names that stood above the rest of the label’s roster. Of course there was co-founder, Jay-Z, who delivered some eight albums over the past few years, and carrying the torch for the Roc after his [cont.]

     In the aftermath of the dissolving of the Native Tounge family, we’ve seen several groups pick up the pieces and travel in their own directions of sound with them. Of course hip-hop’s original live band comes to mind, The Roots, and extending somewhere from those branches is Slum Village, Detroit’s own post-Tribe, pre-Eminem trio, [cont.]

     Perhaps the only person in the game with more alter-egos than even fellow wild card producer Madlib, Guillermo Scott Herren has dropped two acclaimed albums of his distinctive glitch-hop sound as Prefuse 73, whilst spreading out into traditional Catalan songwriting (as Savath & Savalas) and Rhodes explorations (Piano Overlord), amongst other temporarily discarded directions. [cont.]

     Tonedeff is known for battling, Tonedeff is known for rhyming fast, Tonedeff is known for creating “Happy Fuck You Songs,” but if that’s all you know about Tonedeff, then you really don’t know him at all. Archetype is not only an album, but a musical journey that lets you travel through his thoughts, feelings and [cont.]

     North Carolina’s Justus League crew has made tremendous noise over the past couple of years. When Little Brother’s debut album The Listening dropped, it brought hip-hop back to the golden age with rhymes that spoke more than guns and ice and beats that truly made the neck brace an essential item, due to all [cont.]

    First it was Z-Trip’s Uneasy Listening Vol. 1 of 2001, where he and DJ P blended his signature ‘mash up’ classics of rock and rap like Bruce Hornsby’s “The Way it is” with Run-DMC’s “It’s Like That,” or Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise” with Naked Eyes’ “Promises Promises”. Although today he may still be known [cont.]

     Aaron Warshaw is just another white rapper trying to find his way into the game, right? Wrong. The emcee, who goes by the name of Awar, may sound like a cat who will just become another casualty in this game called hip-hop, but this statement is much further from the truth. With his initial [cont.]

      Many of the longstanding problems with hip-hop music can be summed up into wise old adage which says “rappers want to be hustlers; hustlers want to be rappers”. Granted, there are a few out there who are good at both (Jay-Z, for instance), but when it all comes down to it, most are really [cont.]