HipHope.com

Diego Heat of the Kinfolks crew out of Orlando, Fl by way of Joliet, IL.  New hot video Buried Alive, check the video and the music and video pages for more updates.  Diego Heat, one of a dying bread of  pure Hip Hop artists left out there.  MTV and the Clear Channel need to start looking more towards the streets and find some pure artists!

YouTube
Diego Heat ReverbNation
Kinfolks ReverbNation

Kool G Rap is now teaching rapping, he released a book entitled, How To Rap: The Art And Science Of The Hip Hop MC.  Sounds like a great idea and no better person to teach than him.  Back from the early 80’s through the 90’s

Kool G Rap blazed the mic and was listened from West Coast, Down South and East Coast back when the coast wars were going on. Check the video for his song On The Run was considered a classic in the art of story telling.  HipHopDx.com has an extensive interview with him on their website.  It’s informative and long, you may have to come back to read the whole thing.  So this could set a trend and get Hip Hop taught in school since it’s part of our culture more than anything.  Listen to the lyrics in this track, it’s wonderful MCing (wow, I just made a new Hip Hop phrase, Wonderful MCing!)  I love it in this video when he says, “Wake up stupid we gotta go!”  Check it, let me know what you think….

Common is coming back after a very well put together album in 2007, Universal Mind Control.  Not the best album of the year but still a decent album.  But Common isn’t supposed to be known for putting out decent material.  Now in 2010 he’s working with Kanye West and No ID.  Talk about keeping it real, Common’s been working with No ID since before he was signed or even famous.  Working with two producers from his hometown Chicago, sounds like it’s going to be a banger.  Chicago artists have been putting out some good music lately by signed and unsigned artists.  The album is currently being worked on the album is entitled The Believer.  Although there’s no official release date Common said he is hoping to have the release by fall of 2010.  Common describes the album as “soulful Hip Hop.”  Well thanks for that bit of information, Common’s been making soulful Hip Hop for years now.  “It’s ‘good’ music,” he said. “The themes are street music and elevation, things that I feel like I always embody when I rap. But here there’s new situations, new solutions.”  I hear that we are looking forward to hearing some new Common music with some No ID beats behind it.  Check back for the album review a few weeks before the album comes out.

Scarface is coming out with a new album on May 11th, MP3 release May 4th called Dopeman Music.  A promotion through Amazon.com he’s giving away a free sample of this album in a 3:30 minute megamix.  The joint is mad blaze and it gives the album a good preview, there’s some dope beats and good Scarface-flowing rhymes on here.  Make sure that you download it because I’m sure it’s not going to still be here after the album is released.  In an interview on MTV, ‘Face stated that he is not only a musician but a pioneer and needed to change the way he delivered his music.  Here’s a link to download the song, it’s blaze.  DOWNLOAD

As I’m surfing through youtube I came across this song.  I had to share because this song is so Hip Hop and many songs sampled this. Let me know if you remember any of them….

Lately the Wu Tang Clan members have been making a come back.  The only member to make any real noise was Ghostface Killah in the last several years.  Ghost’s been persistent and making some real good music.  Wu Tang is trying to change all of that by coming out with albums in consecutive months.  Can Wu make the comeback to bring them back to the glory days, let’s see.

Return Of The Wu and Friends an album by Wu Tang Clan produced my Allah Mathematics from unreleased material from 2000-2008.  This is the perfect album for Wu-heads who have been fiending for some prime Wu Tang material.  This album is produced so good, seems like he made each beat to fit the flow of the artists.  There are several stand out tracks on this album, John 3:16, Clap 2010, It Is What It Is, Keep Pace and a few others.  What really makes this album is the production by Mathematics no doubt.  The rhyming is gritty and very NYish, but as a whole this album is worth it especially if you’re a die hard Wu-head like me.  Method Man was really feeling himself on this album he seemed to take it back.  I’ll give the album a 78% out of 100 no doubt.

Wu Massacre is an album with just Meth, Ghost and Rae.  Seems like they were trying to take it back to like the original Wu bangers like Only Built For Cuban Links and Tical.  The stand out track on this album is Criminology 2.5, with an updated beat of the original Criminology but the song is too short.  I have to admit like most of the beats on this album.  Another stand out track is Our Dreams featuring Inspector Deck and Sun God, great sample, great beat lovely rhyming on the track.  A beautifully RZA produced track, seems like they were all feeling it on this on.  Only two tracks are produced by RZA, most of the other tracks are produced by Allah Mathematics and Scram Jones.  One track a piece by E. Meal, Digem Tracks Production and Ty Fyffe.  The album is only 30 mins long so watch how much you spend on it.  You can get it from Amazon for $10, fair price, click the hot new releases in the side bar on this site to check it out.  I’ll give the album 75% out of 100, mostly because of the beats and grit of the rhymes.

HipHope.com a place for real Hip Hop and Hip Hop inspired artists to shine.  I get a lot of artists sending me music, a lot of them aren’t that great or don’t put a lot of effort into making their music sound good.  Lately I’ve been getting a lot of artists and models from Chicago.  Chicago has been going hard for a min.  Let me introduce to you Rapper Prophecy.  I have to admit I’m slow in getting around to listening to music and posting it, I’ve been sitting on his music for a while.  But as I listened to it, I’ve found that it’s hot.  Got music for the streets, the club and just to sit back and blaze too.  So here’s a widget to his music and if you want to see and hear more, the links to his sites are under that.

SoundClick

Myspace

ReverbNation

FaceBook

This is from Vibe.com people, Khia (I didn’t know she was fine like that) goes off on Nicki Minaj on her Vibe.com and on her quite famous blog.  Check it…..

VIBE.COM: Many folks don’t think it’s a coincidence that photos from your new video came out a few weeks after you were taking shots at Nicki Minaj. She recently did a UStream video talking about how haters use her for publicity, what do you say?

KHIA: Publicity stunt? Honey, what do I need publicity for? I’m a talker, I’m a blogger, I’m controversial, I’m a creative writer, I’m a damn s**tstarter, but this isn’t for publicity at all, this is the industry. And I’m glad she didn’t mention my name on that UStream. That would’ve been bad. Everybody knows that I’m against the Barbie thing. I’ve always been real. My hair is as nappy as an African after a rainstorm. We’re all beautiful just the way we are. I’m against the butt shots. I’m not into the wigs. I’m not into the Barbies. No.

I’d rather listen to my husband Weezy, than hear [Nicki] talking about what sounds good to Lil Wayne. She’s in the studio with men writing her shit, saying it’s hot, but only because it’s what they want to jack off to. She doesn’t make music for girls. It’s a difference when I say ‘My neck, my back, my p***y, my crack,’ because it’s my own. You should be making men bow down. I respect myself. Love yourself, hoe.

But if [Nicki] was talking about me, that was so cute. Right now, I’m in the lead. You can be a feature whore and when it’s your time to drop, you’ll have nothing to drop. Your single is horrible, your voice is annoying and they’ve heard it too much. Sit down, contemplate your album and give us something wonderful. What makes [Nicki] think that Rihanna is going to let her headline her tour with all of these features? Are they going to be on stage with you Nicki, honey? I need to do a seminar to help this girl. I’ll acknowledge she has a hot song, when I write it [laughs]. Sean Garrett wrote [“Massive Attack”]? I think she needs to call me.

Here’s a small treat for you, I put together album covers from several Hip Hop inspired and inspirational albums of all time.  Of course I don’t have enough room to put everything up because it’s a very long list, but I did what I could with the space that I have.  Check this and let me know what you think….

Inspirational Hip Hop albums and the albums that inspire Hip Hop

Back in the late 70’s and eartly 80’s graffiti artists were king in NYC.  Graffiti artists helped shape Hip Hop into the culture that it is today.  Hip Hop consists of DJing, Rapping, Breakdancing and Graffiti art.  All of these art forms worked together to form Hip Hop.  Even though Graffiti has out a little bit since the red subway cars that washed off the ink really easy, it is still very much a part of Hip Hop.  Graffiti started out as simple tags and turned into whole subway cars and eventually a crew called the Fab 5 did a whole train (10 cars).  These bandits back in the day were like celebrities.  I remember the most famous ones like Blade, Comet, Lee, Seen, Phase, Pink and many more.  If someone said that they knew them we’d be like, “Word!”  There were also crews because you had to stick together to not get caught, crews like, TC5 (The Crazy 5), TAT (Top Artist Talent), TPA (The Public Animals) and the most famous was TF5 (The Faboulous 5ive).  TF5 made the famous whole train and had artists who appeared in the first Hip Hop movie ever made Wild Style.  The most famous member of this crew was Fab 5 Freddy (not his tag name due to protect the guilty), these artists were on the most wanted list as were a whole lot of them.  You can find some famous artists in this movie like Lee and Pink aka Lady Pink.  The most famous tag I’ve seem the most were done by Blade and Comet.  The most famous tagging place was 149th st and the Grand Concourse in the Boogie (Down Bronx for those that don’t know).  Read more about the history of NYC Graffiti writers and the history of Graffiti art at this great site that I found called @149st.  I’ve posted a few of the pics from this site below, but check out the site because they have tons more and they are great and the site is very informative.  Makes me proud to grow up in the Boogie back in these days.

Blade

Fab 5 Fred

Lee

Nicer

Pink

Seen

Malcolm McLaren

Malcom McLaren the self proclaimed inventor of Punk Rock died Thursday April, 8th in a hospital in Switzerland from mesothelioma.  He was 64.  Know most for managing the 70s punk rock bank the Sex Pistols, but us Hip Hoppers remember him more for his early 80’s smash Hip Hop hit with the World Famous Supreme Team, “Buffalo Girls.”  The Supreme Team were a group of scratch and mix DJ’s from a radio station in NYC, WHBI that played Hip Hop early in the morning during the week in the early 80s when no other station would play too much Hip Hop at all (how many times was I tired staying up for this during school).  So Malcolm hooked up with them made a Hip Hop scratch song from and old Country song and it took off.  I think we can not only call him the inventor oh Punk Rock but the first white boy in Hip Hop.  Check out the video for “Buffalo Girls” below and enjoy.

I know I said it before, but I cannot stress enough, Chicago gals are hot.  Remember us introducing the lovely and spit-fire Tina B from Chi-Town?  Well we couldn’t get enough of her and wanted to share some of her music with you.  Click the link below to check her out on Myspace, her personal website is coming soon.  Her music is raw, mad lyrics from the young lady coming from one of the roughest cities in the world.  Don’t forget the fact that she looks mad good too, what else can we ask for?  Hmmm let’s see, does she watch sports and play video games?  But let’s stay focused, check out some of her music that she bangs out, NICE!  The world needs an MC like Tina B because of all the Nicki Manaj’s out there.  Tina please show them how it’s done star!

Tina’s Myspace

Erykah Badu

Erykah Badu has been Hip Hop’s sweetheart for a very long time.  Her weirdness, beauty and soulful voice is somethingwe couldn’t resist.  But Feb 2008 was a terrible year for Ms Badu.  After not coming out with any new music since Sept 2003, she comes out with the album New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War.  Until then Badu has been known for many things, making a wack album was not one of them.  But after listening to New Amerykah Pt 1 it was terrible.  Only two good songs on the whole album, not really an album more like an EP.  I was disgusted because I’m the biggest Erykah Badu fan in the world.  I even tried to listen to the album over and over to see if it would grow on me.  Nope!  But now here comes her new album New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh out March 30th, 2010.  Ahhhh a refreshing Badu is back again with her soulful Hip Hop inspired music.  She’s sounding a little Billie Holiday-ish on the album.  Very very nice!  The first track 20 Feet Tall is like a 3 minute intro to the album.  Window Seat the second track on the album is very soulful almost jazzy.  Agitation I guess is like another intro with some hot instrumentals.  But the banger on this EP is the song Turn Me Away (Get Munny) is crazy!  With Jr Mafia’s Get Money sample with a soulful music and Erykah’s Billie Holiday-sounding self is off the chain.  The next track Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long is another hot Hip Hop inspired soulful Erykah song.   Umm Hmm is another nice Badu track, sounds very Mama’s Gun like.  Love is like a funk track, nothing special, it’s just OK.  You Loving Me (Session) is Eryka’s attempt at comedy I guess, I didn’t find it very funny, I’ll let you hear it for yourself.  Fall In Love (Your Funeral) is another great song by Badu being very honest about falling in love with her.  Another Biggie sample in here, singing “There’s gonna be some slow singing, flower bringing if her burglar alarm starts ringing.”  Yeah no doubt look at Andre and Common!  Incense Feat. Kirsten Agnesta is some soulful bugged out

New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh

mostly instrumental high Badu song.  Out of My Mind Just In Time is a weird outro that you would expect from Badu.  All in all I give this album like an 85% out of 100.  I would’ve gotten a 95 or 100 if it was a full album.  Almost a classic like Mamas Gun but not enough, get it for only $10.  If you’re in NYC you can probably get it for like $6 or $8 in the village.  Check out her video for Window Seat, the path she walks is the path JFK got shot, the X is where he was shot at. The video was shot Guerrilla style, in one take with no extras.  So the people in the video were just chillin’, LOL!  Damn look at the fat ass on Badu, damn she’s fine than a muh fhuqua!

OK Badu said she was making a statement against “groupthink.”  Groupthink is a way of thinking, those who use the groupthinking ideology try to limit or eliminate conflict from a discussion without properly analyzing the opinions and ideas that were presented over the course of the conversation.  Boy oh boy, there’s going to be some highly mad people behind this video.

We’ve talked about Luda’s upcoming album Battle of the Sexes before.  As the album comes along he’s trying to recruit some other artists for his upcoming project.  So far sounds like it’s going to bang.  So far he has Nicki Manaj, Lil Kim, Eve and Trina.  But as he tried to enlist Lauryn Hill to make an appearance, she said no.  Luda sounds disappointed as he tells the associated press, “I think Lauryn Hill is like extremely talented and I can say I did try to do that , it just didn’t work itself out.”  Lauryn Hill hasn’t recorded since the 1998 Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.  Oh well I guess she’s just too busy doing other things.

Pharoahe Monch is teaming up with Duck Down Records to release his next album called WAR (We Are Renegades).  Monch is a veteran MC that has always made good music and keeps it real never making pop songs.  His most famous joint is “Simon Says,”  a song he got sued for using a Godzilla movie sample in.  Monch says about his new partnership, “I’m incredibly excited about my upcoming release W.A.R. (We Are Renegades) and my new partnership between my company W.A.R. Media, LLC, and Duck Down Music. I am working diligently to finish the work for a summer release and I am honored to join forces with the Duck Down family during their 15 year anniversary.” Man doesn’t that sound like the yearbook answer huh?  But any way the new album is going to have featured artists like Vernon Reid, Jean Grey, Styles P and Black Thought.  Sounds like another hot album from Monch, his last album Desire back in 07 was very good, not great though, but a solid album.  We look forward to another solid effort and hopefully more with the line up he has so far.