Man Bites Dog Records has been on a tear over the past couple years, with recent albums from MHz Legacy, Stu Bangas & Vanderslice, Copywrite, Vast Aire, and more. And with a busy year still ahead, including upcoming releases from Eddie B & Harry Fraud, Illogic & Blockhead, Roc Marciano, and others, label founder R.M.L. is first excited to release MBDR Volume 2, out today and available for free download via the label’s SoundCloud.

Volume 2 is full of original, exclusive songs that will only be available on this album, and the project includes features and production from the likes of Copywrite, Bronze Nazareth, Hayze, Curly Castro, Killah Priest, Stu Bangas, Double A.B., Vanderslice, Kount Fif, Reef The Lost Cause, Jason Rose, and more. And while the label could have easily released this project through retail, label founder R.M.L. is instead offering the project for free download as a thank you to the label’s supportive fans. “In this climate, anyone can download music illegally,” remarks R.M.L., “so I wanted to reward our fans that do the right thing and pay to support our records.”

As a follow-up to MBDR Volume 1, released a few years back, Volume 2, which was mixed and mastered at Royal Crown Studios offers fans an updated look at the label’s talented roster. “I think this is a good introduction to some of the new faces on the label, both emcees and producers,” explains R.M.L. “For fans, it’s a nice warm welcome to what makes Man Bites Dog Records special.”

Early in 2012, Man Bites Dog Records released what may be one of the best producer compilation albums in hip-hop this year, Kount Fif & R.M.L.’s The Swashbuckler Vol. 1: The Viking Wars. Standing alongside Stu Bangas & Vanderslice’s Diggaz With Attitude, also released via Man Bites Dog Records, The Swashbuckler, with production mostly by Kount Fif and R.M.L., has a feature list that includes some of underground hip-hop’s most revered talents, names like Copywrite, Roc Marciano, Torae, Planet Asia, Nine, Royce Da 5’9, and Heltah Skeltah, amongst dozens of others. Now, as the year winds down, Man Bites Dog is presenting the latest visual from the album, for the song “Arkansas Toothpick,” which features Roc Marciano and Jason Rose.

Directed by R.M.L., the video features an aggressive breaking-and-entering courtesy of Roc, who busts into a project apartment following a blunt-smoke-filled backseat performance of his verse. For the second verse, the visual switches up, focused on Jason Rose as he works his way through a robot build, an interesting parallel to the role he played in the recent MHz Legacy “Mechanical Me” video. And while the two scenes seem divergent, it’s Kount Fif’s beat, a haunting, string- and keys-sampling affair that brings the track together.

Last week, MHz Legacy released their long-awaited album, MHz Legacy, via Man Bites Dog Records. Already the accolades have been rolling in, including a XL-rated review from XXL Magazine, and today, following the release of last week’s Blu-featuring “Yellow + Blue,” MHz Legacy is excited to release a new video, this one for the album’s latest single, “Mechanical Me.” The song is produced by Jason Rose, who also provides the track’s sung chorus, and, as the album closer on MHz Legacy, is one of the most adventurous, ambitious tracks the Columbus crew has released to-date, an up-tempo affair with clear, well-executed pop sensibilities.

The video, directed by R.M.L., and premiered today by PrefixMag, is equally ambitious. Shot in a tormented medical lab, the clip features Jason Rose as a mad scientist, working on his captured victims — Copywrite, chips implanted on the operating table; Tage Future caged awaiting his own transformation — alongside his own Frankenstein creation and tight-clothed nurse.