Canadian MC Moka Only and American producer Ayatollah join forces for this track off their full-length collaborative project Bridges, in stores everywhere on April 10th 2012.

Doodlebug of the legendary 90’s Hip Hop group Digable Planets will release an album project entitled Doodlebug Feat DOR – “Futuristic Sci-Fi” on September 27th  via Soulspazm/Fatbeats Records. “Futuristic Sci-Fi” is a collaboration with his tour DJ and producer DJ Alex J. of DOR. The album will be a double disc set  and features guest appearances from Blame One, Don Will (Tanya Morgan), Moka Only, The Tones, LMNO of the Visionaries, Kai Chi of CFO & many others (the 2nd disc is a Free Digable Planets Mixtape). This album represents Doodlebug aka Cee Know’s 1st major project away from his usual Digable Planet family and has created quite a buzz on the blogosphere with the album leak “Do What u Do” feat Moka Only and Don Will (Tanya Morgan).

LISTEN: Doodlebug (Digable Planets) – “Do What U Do” (feat. Don Will + Moka Only)

For those who haven’t followed Moka’s career with a microscope, Lime Green can work as the perfect introductory piece, yet it may also alienate newer listeners that aren’t ready to step aboard Moka Only’s audiotistic life journey.

The most impressive thing about Moka’s projects - Lime Green included - is the fact that, for the most part, this kid produces his albums entirely by himself, thus churning out an average of two each year. Not only that, Moka’s got a keen sense of musical taste, as his beats are massive as they are melodic, and perfectly catch the essence and emotion that he is trying to portray in each track. On tracks like “Invisible”, “Not The Man I Used To Know”, or “August Asphalt”, the listener can feel Moka’s sentiments from the synthesized beats alone, as these musical landscapes are created from nothing but the feelings in his heart.

Lyrically, don’t expect to find an overabundance of aggressive battle rhymes, heavy vocabulary, or super-clever metaphors from Moka Only, but instead simply the diary of solo artist. More than just an emcee, Moka Only is documenting his life and times, with lyrics that read like poetry: “I’m writing in my book / what a simple pleasure / or is it necessary to document this measure / of time / whether defined or not / I’m going to find the top / of my personal climbing rock”. Some might find this type of lyricism a little bit too introverted, yet those that enjoy the personalized touch that groups like Living Legends or Atmosphere provide will love it.

While Moka’s beats are like fresh fruit, his lackadaisical attitude and la-la hooks can get tiring after while. Midway through the album, guest appearances from fellow Battle Axe Warriors - LMNO (“Team Work”), Swollen Members (“Crunch”), and Abstract Rude (“Rolling Along”) - show an obvious need for the sharing of mic-time, most likely something that the Perfect Strangers (Moka Only + Madchild) album hopes to master.

Lime Green will work as Moka Only’s big introduction to the U.S. and the rest of the world. Whether fans will embrace it or not remains to be seen, but with the obvious amount of heart and soul he’s put into it, he shouldn’t have a problem. Looking for self-sufficient hip-hop with a personal touch? Take a sip of Moka Only.

Entirely produced, mixed and arranged by Moka (not to mention rapped), his ambitious steps prove to be a success as Road Life unravels beautifully into a subtly pleasing brush of sharp Korg notes and bountiful bass bumps. Character and style exude from this work as Moka encompasses rhythmic crooning in a classical b-boy stance, with a simplistic freshness that has drawn comparisons to Common and Slum Village from some critics yet remains irreplaceably unique in it’s own right. Tracks like “Good Times Stack” (feat. Ishkan), “Whole New Day” and “Most Prolific” find Moka at his best, having fun interacting with the track like the underground vet he is. Even throw-back concepts like “Chek My Style” and “Detectives” work well under his guise, proving accessible to the masses, yet respectable for the elitists.

Finding fault in Road Life is relative to the taste of the individual, abrasive or intruding he is not. Moka is the glass of water on a hot day, a relic in the vast sea of complicated facsimiles of other Hip-Hop artists. Consumers are constantly complaining about notbeing able to listen to album all the way through anymore, enter the extra prolific sleeper, the Guru of the next school, that is if Slick Rick  and Casual happen to mate somewhere in British Columbia.

If it was just these two, the 12″ would be great, but they add two more songs for the B-side, both produced by Paul Nice: “This That” and “Crunch”. While neither deserves the gas face, they don’t necessarily add much more to the listener’s impression of Moka. He sounds like he’s dropping that ’92 flow on “This That” and “Crunch”, despite guesting Swollen Members, is mad generic – the same kind of pseudo-posse cut that every underground MC seems to generate. What I mean to say is that there’s nothing on this 12″ which is quantifiable bad, but that doesn’t mean it’s all great either. I suppose those into freedom of choice will like the four song selection, but I always thought shorter was better so long as the material was tight.