Think back for a minute to when A Tribe Called Quest released The Love Movement. In retrospect, whether it’s realized or not, this was a superb album, despite a few questionable collabos with N.O.R.E. or out-of-place aggression from Redman & Busta Rhymes. Regardless, fans and critics alike dissed the album, as many of them were still bitter over [cont.]

It seems as if a summer cannot go by, without a release from N.O.R.E.. Whether solo or with Capone, he has been one of the most consistent thug rappers falling victim only to flaky labels. Now with Def Jam and getting the overdue push he deserves, you can guarantee that there’s no stopping him now. [cont.]

   If Hieroglyphics’s wildly inconsistent discography proves anything, it proves you can count on them to deliver dope debuts. Peep game: Del The Funkee Homosapien’s I Wish My Brother George Was Here, Souls’ 93′ Till Infinity, Casual’s Fear Itself and their unifying family effort, Third Eye Vision, were the truth. Even the ostracized Extra Prolific’s [cont.]

 Probably emerging from somewhere within the crew photo inside Mobb Deep’s The Infamous LP, the trio of Ty Nitty, Twin Gambino, Godfather steps up to the plate, in attempts to carry on the legacy of Havoc and Prodigy, as well as the legendary Queensbridge projects. With a number of QB’s finest back them up, not to mention [cont.]

“I am a part of that population that grew up listening to P.E., Rakim, KRS, Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, N.W.A., Kane, Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, Stet, MC Lyte and too many others for me to name here. That population is partly bored and partly saddened by the music that is dominating [cont.]

While Boston’s Mr. Lif used Emergency Rations to get some shit off his chest about the U.S. government, I Phantom is more of a self-examination of how our hero of the downtrodden fits into the system. Billed as a concept album, (more Book Of Human Language than Prince Among Thieves), this loose-knit narrative begins in [cont.]

Remember these cats from the early 1990′s? Yet another victim of record label and corporate cutting, their scheduled sophomore release back then timed unfortunately into being shelved. Basically, Yaggfu Front were dropped from their label, Mercury. But now, under an independent Mends, The Secret Tapes puts together some of their nostalgic productions and rhymes from 1992 [cont.]

Apparently their follow-up album got caught in some sort of release limbo, thus the massive L.A. Symphony take a break from their vast individual solo releases to throw out a quick 9 song EP in the form of the cutely titled and packaged (in a baggie with a baloney sandwich on the cover) Baloney. Conceptually, they [cont.]

Described as both “a party at Dan The Automator’s house” in the liner notes, and “a look inside my head”, by Dan himself, Wanna Buy A Monkey is the first mix CD from one of music’s busiest and most well-loved producers, covering everything from raw hip-hop to indy rock, and his own stuff that lands [cont.]

Irony, pain, vulnerability, and insanity are apparent in the title before the listener hears the album. This is not music you pipe into the background at a party to boost the ambiance. This is real music – the cries of a tortured soul who lacks the ability to express himself any other way. It becomes [cont.]

 After seeing his debut, The Best Part, get massively bootlegged and go unreleased for nearly three-years, J-Live is already well versed in Industry rule #4080. Yet, at least J was proactive during his prolonged absence, as just months after The Best Part’s “proper” release, J-Live is ready to tackle the arduous task of following up [cont.]

 At this point, each release from the Wu-Tang Clan should instead have a giant question mark on the cover, rather than a yellow phoenix icon. Reason being is, that ever since the release of Wu-Tang Forever, the have been wildly inconsistent – but still would surprise us from time to time with an album like Ghost [cont.]

As the first solo act to emerge from the Weightless Recordings stable, Illogic  steps up with his second disc, Got Lyrics, and puts his flag down in the state of Hip-Hop. With many having slept on the first disc, judging a book by its cover (only a plain white background with the words Illogic -Unforeseen Shadows [cont.]



       Conjuring up images of Common holding a mug asking “Can I Borrow A Dollar”, or Eazy E dancing with a piece of cardboard in the “Dre Day” video, the Cunninlynguists debut album Will Rap For Food instead follows a different philosophy – if rappers make “jiggy shit” because they “gotta eat”, then why not rap for [cont.]

Name one up-and-coming emcee, (or, in fact, any established emcee) that does not yearn to hear their voice over the production of DJ Premier. However, for every benefit that comes from working with Primo; his signature drum claps and cut-up voice samples add an instant credibility and curiosity to any project. There are drawbacks as [cont.]

 While not the groundbreaking classic that Endtroducing was, DJ Shadow’s official sophomore release (with all due respect to the compiled efforts of Pre-Emptive Strike, and his collaborative Unkle full-length with James LaVelle), is a bold reinvention of the artist who first made a name for himself cutting & pasting rare grooves for the Solesides crew.  The [cont.]

 Brooklyn’s Non-Phixion has been putting it down on the 12-inch vinyl set for a minute now, over the last few years teasing us with a number of classic underground singles, such as “5 Boros”, “I Shot Reagan”, and “Black Helicopters”. Backed by the production of then up-&-coming emcee/producer, Necro, (who happens to be Ill Bill’s brother), [cont.]

Beantown rep Insight may be known by underground heads as the man behind the boards for a variety of tracks by Mr. Lif, KRS-ONE, and many more, but on Updated Software v. 2.5 he comes out from behind the MPC3000 to single-handedly lace vocals, skratches and deliver a bunch of good ol’ fashioned hip-hop. Being a [cont.]

Scratch (Of The Roots), if you’re not familiar with by now, is that integral ‘human-instrumental’ member of The Roots ensemble, amazing fans worldwide from stage to stage with his vocal variations in sound. Now with his first solo release, the purpose and true entertainment value of listening to a human beat box for an entire album, [cont.]