Fokis & Focus Ft. Maffew Ragazino & Asha - "Girl"

Lower East Side emcee Fokis has been bringing some marvelous shit to the table over the last couple of years with his many collaborations with Sadat X and Brand Nubian, leading up to his superb Old School homage tape "A Vintage State of Mind" (search for it if you haven't heard it, well worth it). Aftermath's Focus.. is another very interesting carachter who sure as hell know how to cook up a dope beat; not to mention Brownsville's rising star Maffew Ragazino. Together with singer Asha, they all come together for the new single "Girl" which is lifted from the upcoming retail version of Fokis & Focus.. acclaimed internet project "20/20". The new version will feature five new songs, including this one, and guest features from Livin' Proof, Young Dre The Truth, Stryfe and Mistah F.A.B. The LP will be on sale via Loyalty Digital Corp Ent. on April 23.

[LP Stream] RAS KASS - "Barmageddon"

On November 14, one of the West's finest lyricists Ras Kass released his mixtape "Bare Arms Presents: Barmageddon" as a free digital mixtape. The 23-tracks included here works as a prequel to Kass' forthcoming full-length LP, "Barmagedon", including classic guest spots, freestyles and new material..Whenn the tape was released, the official album was announced to be release date of December 19. The project has since been pushed back to February 12, but unfortunately only seems to be available in digital format via iTunes where you can now pre-order the album.

The good news is that Ras' and his crew have already made the entire album up for streaming via the emcees' Bandcamp page. The eighteen tracks featured here, includes collaboration from Guilty Simpson, Sick Jaken, Talib Kweli, Planet Asia, Kendrick Lamar, Ice-T, Agallah, Monie Love, Dina Rae, and more. Production comes from the likes of FOCUS, Agallah, Illinformed, Klassic, and more. In other words a definnite listen, and if you're feeling this please support it over at iTunes, or if we're really lucky we will eventually get a physical relase. TURN IT UP!

[ALBUM] Focus.. - "Focal Point: 1172"

Original Aftermath in-house producer Focus.. always delivers some interesting stuff whether it be his own solo material, production for other artists, or celebration of the beatmakers that came before. Featuring 10 strong self-produced tracks, he is now giving fans the opportunity to stream his latest project "Focal Point: 1172" in it's entirety, with a download available via iTunes. Soulful and knocking production, with cameos from Slum Village, Rapper Big Pooh and J. Pinder, there's definitely some nice tracks to be heard here.

01. "Intro"

02. "Autumn"

03. "Blow"

04. "4Interlude" (Interlude)

05. "The Life"

06. "D.T.A." (Ft. Slum Village)

07. "Centerlude"

08. "Clouds" (Ft. J. Pinder & Rapper Big Pooh)

09. "Sabotage"

10. "ECC 9'5"

FOCUS - "FOCAL POINT: 1172" [STREAM]

Focus - The "Pay Homage" EP

A while back Focus, one of the in-house producer for Aftermath, released a series of homage joints for some of his favorite producers. For these tracks he created beats using  respective elements that these legendary beatmakers and musicians are known for, and in my opinion he really pulled it off. There's definitely a "Focus vibe" to all the songs too however, so there's not a case of straight taking the styles of these guys. There was plans at one point to release an entire album worth of these type of homages but the project was scrapped and instead, Focus leaked seven of the records for free. 

Included are dedications to RZA, DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Dre, Ali Shaheed/Tribe, Dat Nigga Daz & Soopafly plus Dilla and guest emcees includes Crooked I, Royce, Von Pea, Cilvaringz, Slum Village, Kurupt, Ras Kass, Kendrick Lamar and many more.This is something I've been revisiting lately and thought it was ill to have them all collected so if anyone missed out on some of these before or just want to listen to them like an EP, enjoy. Oh and save the "this shit is old" comments cuz I'm aware ... Thx to Beathearts for the image above.

01. "Homage to DJ Premier" (Ft. Royce Da 5'9", Phonte & Stat Quo)
02. "Homage to Dilla" (Ft. Slum Village, Frank Nitty & Illa J)
03. "Homage to Daz & Soopafly" (Ft. Pro-Verb, Ras Kass, Kendrick Lamar)
04. "Homage to Dr. Dre" (Ft. Crooked I, Jay Rock, Kida &  Marsha Ambrosious)
05. "Homage to RZA" (Ft. TheFEW, Cilvaringz & Blue Raspberry)
06. "Homage to Ali Shaheed Muhammad" (Ft. Von Pea, Donwill & Chaundon)
07. "Homage to Pete Rock" (Ft. Kurupt, Sha Stimuli & Rapper Big Pooh)

FOCUS - THE "PAY HOMAGE" EP