Sometimes an emcee comes that changes the way that one listens to hip hop. An emcee that manhandles the English vocabulary to a point where one can almost forget all that’s been heard and said before. We have had a few poets in our generation (Nas and Rakim ) whohave clearly shaken up the hip-hop [cont.]

     Jean Grae  is self-aware, if nothing else. At times captivated by a world of fantasy to hide her real thoughts, for the most part she is brutally honest with herself and the listener. Delivering her personal mantra on her second solo effort, the Babygrande release is as lyrically visceral as they come - a great irony [cont.]

 While hip-hop’s latest trend maybe implementing urban soundscapes into gaming outlets, its predecessor; label’s emptying their vaults, enabled a slew of previously unreleased LP’s to finally hit the shelves— Juggaknots, Last Emperor, Pep Love, Del, Dooley O, Nas, Charizma & Peanut Butter Wolf, among many all finally saw the light of day in either 02 or 03.  Granted, fans [cont.]

    Since his 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z has not only released an average of 1.2 (solid) albums per year, but has also helped redefine what hip-hop albums sound like, notably doing so in an era that’s afraid of breaking new ground and setting new trends in creativity. While his outer shell seems like merely [cont.]

    Straight out of West Philly,  former Ill Advised member Baby Blak has set his sights on the streets with his debut album Once You Go Blak. Since the departure from Ill Advised, Blak has been featured on a number of joints, spanning from his assist on the High & Mighty’s “Open Mic Night” to his more [cont.]

      After the release of Sage Francis’s Personal Journals, a lot of “true heads” weren’t ready for the emotional onslaught that he delivered with that LP. While this LP was excellent, taking it’s time to grow on listeners (this critic wishing he could revoke that 3.5 and bump it up a notch), it was indeed [cont.]

    With so much negativity in our world, it is always refreshing to hear a group with a positive message without sounding corny. Thus the unique combination of the emcee (Lil Sci) and the Femcee/songstress (Stacy Epps) bring to life Sol Uprising (Lil Sci + Stacy Epps). Sol Uprising combines the perfect balance of male [cont.]

   Sometimes Hip Hop needs to stop taking itself so damn serious. With all the negative images, wack emcees, and cliched terms of endearment, hip hop just isn’t fun anymore. Who else could make a clever joke out of the industry than somebody who doesn’t have a deal, somebody who is hungry, somebody who just [cont.]

     While the indy hip-hop network is mainly built upon new artists’ affiliations with pre-established artists or labels, Diverse has struggled to insert himself within the scene, not only because he remains outside of New York or Los Angeles, but also because he hasn’t had the luxury of guest appearing on albums from established indy imprints such [cont.]

     Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have been able to catch at least a glimpse of MTV’s/P. Diddy’s smash success of a “reality show”, The Making of Da Band.  For the uninitiated, Da Band is a group of six-emcees with drastically different backgrounds forged together after various “talent” searches throughout the country.  [cont.]

    Heads are always skeptical of the new guy. You know the type; cats who won’t give dap to the new flavor of the month rapper because they didn’t hear about him before he blew up. And with good reason, as most of the crappy “artists” that are played on the radio are simply slickly [cont.]

     When an aging RZA takes a look back his accomplished career, the premier beatsmith/emcee can smile because he knows he is an element of the movement that rejuvenated the east coast and gave birth to one of the greatest groups of all time, the Wu-Tang Clan. He revolutionized production as a whole and became arguably [cont.]

New S-O-U-T-H!!  KRS-ONE has gone on record to say that Eminem and Dr. Dre are the physical manifestation of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream Speech”. And as an urban example, KRS’ comparison is certainly valid; as who could have envisioned five-years ago that a white kid from the trailer parks of Rock City would team up [cont.]

    Kool Keith’s back again, and this time around he isn’t Dr. Octogon, Dr. Dooom or Keith Matthew, but he is the Kool Keith you have all come to know, and maybe love too.  He still has the lyrics that cannot be compared to those of any other MC, clowning rappers and females, talking about animals [cont.]

    Weightless Recordings has come of age. For those of you who haven’t been exposed to Weightless you are missing out on an entity which will become a force to be reckoned with. Consisting of emcees Inkwell, Pdunbar (formerly Manifest), and the highly visible emcee/producer Blueprint, Greenhouse Effect attempts to hijack your sense of sound with their [cont.]

    Thanks to artist egos, industry politics and record label red-tape, it’s taken years for most super-group / collaborative projects to get off the ground, some never even coming to fruition. While projects like Ice Cube & Dr. Dre’s “Helter Skelter” and the Golden State Project (Xzibit, Ras Kass, Saafir) never saw the light of day, others [cont.]

     If you still require proof that Hip-Hop isn’t just some passing fad waiting to join the Spice Girls and Pogs (or Spice Girls Pogs, for that matter) into the annals of obscurity, first of all, come out of your cave!  Secondly, check out the career of the Hieroglyphics crew, who went from major-label darlings to [cont.]

     On “The Message”, Tragedy Khadafi delivers a blanket statement: “We plagued with media propaganda.” He appears to have taken the saying “rap is black America’s CNN” quite literally.  However, staying true to his conspiracy theories and anti-establishment ethos, the former Intelligent Hoodlum is less beat reporter and more hood documentarian. With Still Reportin’…, the Queensbridge [cont.]

    With thirteen full-length projects under their belt, Eastern Conference has established itself as one of the premier New York based independent hip-hop labels, a foundation that was built of the High & Mighty’s 1999 debut Home Field Advantage, which was ironically distributed by Rawkus records (who also helped offshoot Def Jux, for better or for [cont.]

    Artist, producer, and DJ extraordinaire, Lord Finesse, has dug in his files only to locate what his loyal fans and followers have been waiting for… From The Crates To The Files…The Lost Sessions. The longtime D.I.T.C. member has traveled the turntables of timeto reveal quite a few gems that have never been uncovered to his [cont.]