[Tracklist] Casual x J Rawls - "Respect Game or Expect Fames"

One of the founding members of Hieroglyphics is nothing short of a lyrical monster, yet many of his latest albums has ended up being dissapointments in the beat section. The Nature Sounds August 28 release, "Respect Game Or Expect Flames", will hopefully not fall into that category as the Oakland native has enlisted Ohio beat maestro J. Rawls to completey handle all production on the disc. J. Rawl's has produced such jazzy classics as Black Star's "Brown Skin Lady", "The Gibbous" by Makeeba Mooncycle, "We Bouncin'" by Makeeba Mooncycle, a whole bunch of joints for Lone Catalysts and many more.

In other words this this will most definitely be a new sound for both parties involved (J. Rawls said he had gone for a new style for this project), and I for one am eager to hear the final result. I wasn't blow away by the first single,, but looking at the tracklist and the involved names this looks like an interesting LP to say the least. Thoughts?

TRACKLIST
01. "Reign" (Ft.. Pep Love & Allana Reign)
02. "Respect Game or Expect Flames" (Ft. Del The Funky Homosapien)
03. "La Danse Du Fessie"
04. "Craziest Story"
05. "The Authority" (Fr. The Mystery Schoo)l
06. "Surely, I’m Right"
07. "Fly" (Ft. Allana Reign)
08,. "Nota Problem Part II"
09. "Hier-O-Dot" (Ft. Copywrite, Phesto, Tage, Tajai, Opio & Jakki Da Motamouth)
10. "Aint Tryna Hear"
11. "Find a New Remix" (Fr.. Rene Dion)
12. "Emergency" (Ft. Kurious)
13. "Give Respect"
14. "Upper Echelon"
15. "We Servin’ Y’all" (Ft. The Liquid Crystal Project)

[Tracklist/Info] DJ BRANS - "The Branstorm"

DJ Brans is a producer and turntable wizard, who through recent years, have got gor some major placements on mixtape including Nutso, Vinnie Paz, Alibi Montana, Dirt Platoon and a few others. Now he's heading into the solo lane with his debut album, with the fitting title "The Branstorm"; hoever when the  Effiscienz imprint. 
The LP consists of nineteen tracks,featuring nineteen artists. Cameos are handled by legendary emcees suh as Blaq Póet, Armageddon (!), Meyhem Lauren & Gab Gotcha, M-Dot, Dirt Platoon, Shaz IllYork,+Jaysaun, and more. Powerful production, heavy verses and 1200's turntable work.seals the deal; this is 2012 true school at it's finest as far as producer album goes. 

Check out  two more videos from DJ Brans from the forthcoming album; "Megatron B-Boys" featuring Spit Gemz and Shaz Illyork; "Worldwide" with M-Dot and Armageddon. I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy all these songs, and as I mentioned earlier the album is already out; head over to iTunes for the digital download or order it on CD directly from the label.

Reks & Statik Selektah LP coming

REKS has been one of the most promising young cats to constantly knock out heavy music in a pure hip-hop tradition since he truly broke through on the underground scene with his last two albums, "Grey Hairs" and the recent "Rhythmatic Eternal Supreme King". The Boston representative has proven time and time again why his music is worth the support of the true hip-hop head. Lyrically and flow-wise he is clearly one of the the illest emcees out there doing it in 2012 with full control of his masterful delivery, lyrics of substance and clever concepts.  But a dope lyricist can only take an album so far by himself.  Luckily Reks has with both his previous couple of LP:s more than proven his sense for picking fierce boom bap production that often compliments his talents to perfection.

With REKS' third full-lengther since his official comeback in 2005, Corey Christie takes it back to his beginnings in the game by enlisting his original producer for the entire project - DJ Statik Selektah. "Straight No Chaser" will be released on Statik's Brick / ShowOff Records on 2012-04-24. Already now we can now check out the tracklist, artwork and listen to the first single ("Chasin'") which is sounding very promising. Another official hip-hop release to look forward to this year!

01. “Autographs”

02. “Sit/Think/Drink”

03. “Power Lines” (Ft. Ea$y Money)

04. “Riggs & Murtaugh” (Ft. Action Bronson)

05. “Such A Showoff” (Ft. Kali, JFK & Termanology)

06. “Cancel That” (Ft.Wais P The Pimp)

07. “Parenthood”  

08. “Break Ups” (Ft. C Sharp!)

09. “Chasin”

10. “Sins” (Ft. Alias)

11. “Straight, No Chaser” (Ft. Slaine)

12. “Lost In Translation”

13.. “Regrets”

14.. “730” 

REKS x STATIK SELEKTAH - "CHASIN'"

J. Period / Pharoahe / Black Thought....

The great mixtape DJ, J. Period, has teamed up with TrueElements Music & FLuD Watches to release what might turn out to be the future of mixtapes in this digital age we're living in. Called "Mixtapes Are Not A Crime", a limited edition USB collection, a one-of-a-kind stainless-steel jump drive, laser-engraved with J. Period's "MIXTAPES ARE NOT A CRIME" logo, and packaged in its own jet-black miniature flight case, designed by FLuD. Register and order your copy now @ J. Period / FLuID Release and if you're still not sure check the content and download two exclusive Black Thought and Pharoahe Monch takes on some classic Tribe at the bottom of this post. Enjoy ma'fuckas!

Included in the package are a shitload of exclusive material:
J. Period & Q-Tip - [Abstract] Best Vol. 1 (12" Singles Deluxe Edition)
J. Period & Q-Tip - [Abstract] Best Vol. 2 (Seven track sneak peak)
J. Period & Mary J-Blige - "Queen Of Hip-Hop Soul" (Vol 1, 2 n 3)
J. Period & K'naans - "The Messengers" [Instrumental Collection]
J. Period, The Roots & John Legend - "Wake Up! Radio" (12" Singles Collection)
J. Period Bootlegs: Unreleased Remixes From Tha Vaults

BLACK THOUGHT - "STEVE BILKO" [J. PERIOD Rmx]
PHAROAHE MONCH - "MIDNIGHT" [J. PERIOD Rmx]

Muneshine / Statik Selektah readies LP's

Brandon @ Crates of Jr. put me on to the intriguing news that Canadian rapping producer Muneshine will release his full-length, "There is Only Today", later this year and will be his fourth album so far. Even if you're not familiar with the artists previous work, there's still good reason to check out the album when it drops as it will include prouction work from not only Muneshine himself, but also cats like DJ Spinna, Illmind, M-Phazes, BoomBaptist and a few others but most importantly one of our favorite producers here at The Lost Tapes - D.I.T.C. veteran Buckwild who will also bless the project with his presence. I'm checking this for sure.

Another artist about to finalize his fourth solo album is DJ/producer Statik Selektah who really built a rep as one of the fanbarers of boom-bap these days. While previous LPs has showcased a range of legenary emcees ripping up the respected DJs beats, his new body of work, "Population Control" will feature a slightly different approach from previous album and a rather cool one at that. Statik is out to showcase the young but worthy emcees and providing them with proper beats. He will of course occassionally throw them on tracks with the true veterans of the game. His goal is to show the older rap heads and fans that there's plenty of raw youngins out there doing their thing as well as showing the kids following these new artists, how the OG's in the game get down. Sounds like an interesting idea for real - let's just hope the execution is proper.

Revealed guests so far are Reks, Skyzoo, Chace Infinite, Freddie Gibbs, Ternanology, Joell Ortiz, Jon Connor, XV, Rapsody, Smoke DZA, Action Bronson, STS, Chuwee, PUSH Montana, LEP Bogus Boys, Ea$y Money, Nitty Scott MC, Scram Jones, Colin Munroe, Slaine, Kid Daytona, JFK and that wack ass homo Mac Miller (again? wtf is this; ban this fuck) in one ringcorner and in the other ringcorner we got Lil' Fame, Strong Arm Steady, Tslib Kweli, Bun B, Brother Ali, Sean Price, Styles P and DJ Babu. Hmmmm ... 18 tracks in total and we can expect the album in retail stores on the 25th of October.

Announcement: Upcoming releases

Two of my favorite hip-hop artists have just announced their respective upcoming exciting projects. First off is Queensbridge's finest, Tragedy Khadafi, who's blessing the market with the third installment in his "Thug Matrix" series. This will be the veteran rapper's first album since finishing a three year bid on narcotic charges. The 10-tracks project will be released via his own 25 II Life imprint and distributed through Aura/Distrolord Digital. Hopefuly the small amount of songs will mean absolutely no filler and all killer; Tragedy's albums, while always being good, haven't really lived up to his true potential as an MC since '93s "Saga Of A Hoodlum". "Thug Matrix 3" will be available on September 20, check out the tracklist:

01. "Narcotic Lines" [prod. Araab Muzik]
02. "Ill-lumnious Flow" [prod. Now & Laterz]
03. "Black Prince" [prod. Ayatollah]
04. "Free Thinkers" [prod. Shroom]
05. "Each One, Teach One" [prod. Audible Doctor]
06. "Gorilla Warfare Status" (Ft. Killa Sha) [prod. Astmatik]
07. "The Wake Up" [prod. Booth]
08. "Still Breathin'" [prod. Now & Laterz]
09. "Outstanding" [prod. Audible Doctor]
10. "Best Of Both Coasts" (Ft. Killa Sha, Planet Asia & King David)

In other news, Billy Danze of M.O.P. revealed that his duo with Lil' Fame has started work on their next album; a collaboration with another duo, German production team Snowgoons. Even though an M.O.P. album without any DJ Premier involvement always seems a little weird, this project has extreme potential for being something out of the ordinary, something really amazing. Danze says they have recorded about eight tracks so far and that they are planning to keeping it light with the features. The LP will be released through BabyGrande and if everything goes as planned, they will be able to make a late 2011 release. Shouts to HipHopDX.com for this announcement as well as providing the audio of the interview you can listen to/download below.

BILLY DANZE INTERVIEW AUDIO

Neek The Exotic & Large Pro drop LP

Large Professor is amongst my absolute favorite producers, i like his wordplay and every collaboration he's done with Neek The Exotic in the past has been thrilling; yet, this completely went under the radar for me and most likely a whole lot of other people. If it wasn't for my man Jaz, who's always on top of things, I wouldn't have a clue this was coming out at all until probably several months down the line. Large Pro is underground but is still a pretty well known cat so I wonder what the hell happened to the promotion here?

Well, can't complain too much about that now that I am aware because this is definitely a happening that should be on every true school heads watchlist in 2011. It will feature 11 songs of Neek as the main rapper, partly sharing mic time with Large over boom bap bangers supplied the rapping professor with additional contributions from Marco Polo, Lord Finesse and Carnage of Atoms Family. "Still On The Hustle" will be released via Fat Beat Records, who keeps supplying us with heat, and will be available this Tuesday on both vinyl and CD from sites like UGHH, MegaStore and of course Fat Beats. Apparantly they also recorded and released a video for the first single, which is the title track, which I attached under the tracklist. Produced by Large Professor unless if noted otherwise.

01. "Still On The Hustle" (Ft. Large Professor)
02. "New York" [prod. by Carnage]
03. "Guess Who" (Ft. Large Professor)
04. "Street Rebel" (Ft. Joell Ortiz)
05. "Stack That Cake" [prod. by Carnage]
06. "Hip Hop" [prod. by Marco Polo]
07. "Main Event" [prod. by Lord Finesse]
08. "My Own Line" [prod. by Marco Polo]
09. "Head Spin"
10. "Personal Freak"
11. "Toast Tonite" (Ft. Large Professor, Fortune & Stachel Page)

Preview the new DJ Premier/YRR project in full

Yessir, Premier's team has put up the entire "Get Used to Us" project for streaming preview - you'll find it above the menu on this very blog. I'm still dissapointed that this turned out to be a digital release only after all the promotion it's been getting the latest few months, makes me wonder if we will ever see the NYGz album. I can't front too much though cuz this shit is straight up banging, vintage boom bap - Preemo still got it, that's for sure!! If you want to download the album/compilation you can buy it via iTunes.com.

Shouts to http://www.djpremierblog.com. One