In the four-years since the Rebel INS dropped his slept-on Uncontrolled Substance (which still went Gold with virtually no input from RZA) debut, it seems that heads have nearly forgotten about one of the Wu’s sharpest blades.  On the heels on Wu’s Iron Flag, Deck has experienced further growing pains as a solo-artist, jetting from [cont.]

Ugly Ducking’s Taste The Secret, in a nutshell, is perhaps the most consistent indy release of the year – a concept album that doesn’t stray off course, packs incredible production, laugh-out-loud lyrics, and quality throughout just about every track. But while giving Ugly Duckling 4.5 @’s in today’s industry probably isn’t quite a hip-hop fashion [cont.]

Since Little Brother’s been likened to A Tribe Called Quest, comparing their Justus League crew to the legendary Native Tongues is no surprise. However, no current cliques are remotely close to being as forward thinking and melodic as the squad that boasted the Jungle Brothers and De La Soul as members. Despite unreasonable comparisons, Justus League is varied [cont.]

A vocal exception to a crew renown for production prowess, Molemen founding member Vakill’s specializes in microphone assault. The Chicago rhymer is still an underground MC, but has been around for over a decade. In fact, Vakill once partnered with veteran rapid rapper Twista and was involved with disintegrated record deals with both a corporate giant [cont.]

Charged from a ten-year-plus run in a business as forgiving as the Supreme Court, Prince Paul  has seen it all — from his underrated days as Stetsasonic’s DJ to forming his own failed Def Jam  subsidiary imprint (oh, the Doo Dew Man Records) and his long-running, now-defunct relationship with Tommy Boy (for whom this album was [cont.]

    “Cause I’m cool like dat/I’m out.”  After releasing two seminal efforts (1993′s Reachin’: A New Refutation Of Time and Space & 1994′s Blowout Comb) as a member of Digable Planets, Ishmael/Butterfly (alongside Ladybug and Doodlebug) played a major role in redefining the Jazz/Hip Hop infusion.  Yet, almost as quickly as they rose to prominence, Digable [cont.]

Over the past five or so years, The High & Mighty’s record label, Eastern Conference has struggled to raise above levels of obscurity through several releases that they have somehow played a role in, whether it be DJ Mighty Mi lending his production to Tame One’s album, or Mr. Eon rhyming alongside Cage as the Smut Peddlers. [cont.]

Straight out of Detroit and hot off of Slum Village’s biggest hit to date, “Tainted”, comes neo-soul crooner Dwele. The producer/eMCee turned producer/singer (he tried it just for fun and it worked….ha who woulda guessed!?!?) attempts to serve up this so-called nu-soul revolution with its most innovative piece yet… SUBJECT. Good news; Dwele has mastered [cont.]

 Latest out the gate from the Def Jux stable is MHz (MegaHertz)’s Camu Tao, along with fellow Ohio rhyme merchant, Metro, who team-up to form S.A. Smash for Smashy Trashy, which is described as a party record that brings it back to the days of The Alkaholiks with “all of the rowdy-rowdy, none of the bling-bling”. While press-releases [cont.]

Since the opening bars of “Stranded on Death Row”, Kurupt has had heads open.  Yet, despite this fact, Kurupt’s solo career has generated a decline in interest with each successive release. Though the West Coast’s kin of Keith Murray continues to stay visible, most of that can be attributed to all of the drama, rumors, innuendo and [cont.]

“I’m so high, you so high, I be getting money till the die that I die.”  With that chorus (and the unforgettable Buckwild production that accompanied it) ringing loudly from every borough in N.Y.C., Mic Geronimo’s “Masta I.C.” became an almost instant block anthem in 1995.  Yet, while Mic sounded like the next emcee in line [cont.]

    Next to DJ Spinna, Ohio’s Fat Jon is perhaps the hardest working beat-machine in underground / instrumental hip-hop, continually pumping out full-length opuses of soothing, blunted jazz, and on his latest effort Lightweight Heavy, ain’t nothing changed.      While each of his previous instrumental releases have had a recurring theme, Lightweight Heavy is no different, [cont.]

Bleeding from the very veins as DJ Shadow and RJD2 comes the Nigerian born, middle eastern bred, and Morehouse alum Science Fiction with his stellar debut Walls Don’t Exist. Utilizing the same techniques that created the monsters known as Deadringer and Endtroducing… Sci Fi injects his own persona into the stew. If Rjd2 is adrenaline and Shadow is [cont.]

Though still without a “proper” debut, Phil Da Agony has injected himself into every nook and cranny of Cali’s underground scene.  From various freestyles, to guest appearances, to his Likwit Crew membership, Phil has managed to appear everywhere underneath the warm California sun.  Although Smokefest can be considered Phil’s freshmen solo endeavor, this self-released endeavor sure doesn’t [cont.]

Craig G is an emcee you can’t help but root for.  After all, as a member of the Juice Crew he and his brethren created a catalog of old-school classics; including one of the most crucial posse-cuts (“The Symphony”) to have ever been cued up on a pair of Technics.  But that was then, and This Is Now, [cont.]

Many people may think of a 70-year-old pianist and completely write off that they could be a major contributor to hip-hop.  However, if you did so with Galt MacDermot, you’d be making a huge mistake. Galt is best known to the general public for composing the incredibly popular Soundtrack for the film and play Hair, [cont.]

So many underground hip hop artists fall into the cliche category, whether they just follow the flavor of the moment-or just follow the hip hop status quo album formula.  The Justus League crew out of North Carolina, who have virtually exploded onto the scene with the help of Little Brother’s The Listening, are trying to [cont.]

It was since 2000 that emcees Prozack Turner, Marc Stretch and DJ Design dropped their debut, Kidnapper Van: Beats to Rock Whilst Bike Stealin’, one of those street-corner, free-spirited LP’s that took them on tours around the U.S. and overseas. Foreign Legion return with Playtight, a continuation of their focused efforts to demonstrate how goofy, silly [cont.]

    After making noise on the indy 12″ scene with his Eastern Conference certified banger “Internet MC’s”, catching some attention from his 2001 EP, and sharing the stage on Mr. Lif’s live album, the latest to emerge from the Boston scene (one that mirrors a late 80′s NYC) is Akrobatik, with his graduation to full-length status [cont.]

Although this is only Family Tree’s second release following Planting Seeds, as any Chicago hip-hop head will tell you, their history goes back several years.  First starting off as an alliance between All Natural, Daily Plannet, and Mr. GreenWeedz, the crew eventually expanded to include MC/drummer Iomos Marad and Rita J, the crew’s sole female mc. This [cont.]