Beatnuts & Alkaholiks team up for EP

JuJu and Psycho LES of the The Beatnuts recently revealed to German Splash! Magazine that they are working on a collaboration with Tha Liks. In the interview they reveal that a few songs have been recorded and are finished while they plan to do two or three more which will complete an EP they plan to title "LikNuts" (hahah). The Beatnuts are also preparing a full-length album called "Planet Of The Crates", which I hope will be better than the dissapointing "Milk Me". Either way, JuJu and Psycho LES are great producers and Tha Alkaholiks are some funny, skilled fuckers so this is most definitely on my watchlist for the year. Thanks to Taskmaster for the heads up on the news!

I was looking through my mind and then on the net to see if I could find a previous collaboration between the two teams, but found nada. If anyone knows about an existing song, let me know in the comments section.

DJ JS-1 prepares third installment in series

The incredible DJ turned producer DJ JS-1, of the legendary The Rock Steady Crew, and has produced tracks for OC, Percee P and Royce besides lacing all of Sadat X's dope 2009 projecr "Brand New Being. JS-One has also released two installments of his producer albums "Ground Original" which both had alot of dope beats and cuts but also great guest verses from the likes of Masta Ace, KRS-One, Razhel, Tragedy, Kool G Rap, etc (volume one released in 2000). The second album (2009) was even better if you ask me, better production and cameos from Canibus, Large Professor, OC, Pharoahe Monch; KRS-One, Brother Ali, Sadat X and C-Ray Walz to name a few.

The homie GhettoGnom just let me know that the Rock Steady DJ is done with "Ground Original 3: No One Cares" and looking at the tracklist this should be at the very least as good as the two predecessors. Just check the guests and I'm hyped to see OC on there because they have such a cool chemistry - for anyone that missed the Roc Raida tribute they made together called "Life" I upload it for y'all at the bottom of the page.

01. Halftime Radio Intro w/ DJ Eclipse

02. Pre-show warm up (Ft. Rise)

03. Boom Slap (Ft. KRS-ONE & Rahzel)
04. Reppin’ NY (Ft. Lil Fame, Joell Ortiz & Freddie Foxxx)

05. Compositionz (Ft. Eternia & Rass Kass)

06. Side Streets (Ft. Illa Ghee, Nutso & Guilty Simpson)

07. Do My Thing (Ft. C Rayz Walz & AG)

08. Block 2 Block (Ft. Sadat X, Akil the MC & Freestyle)

09. Doin’ This (Ft. Akrobatik, Punchline & Icon the Mic King)

10. How We Think (Ft. Sick Jacken, Slaine & Sabac)

11. Dont Look Down (Ft. Torae, Bekay & Shabaam Sahdeeq)

12. Hung Over (Ft. Brown Bag Allstars)

13. Goin’ Out (Ft. Von Pea, Homeboy Sandman & Ilyas)

14. Life…Word (Ft. OC)

15. No Fool (Ft. Craig G)

16. Puttin' Words Together (Ft. Pack FM, Substansial & Mecca)

17. Real Speak (Ft. Sav Killz, Steven King & LifeLong)

18. Murder the DJ (Ft. Ill Bill, Blaq Poet & Ruste Juxx)

19. Hold Ya Breath (Ft. Blacastan, Kool G Rap & Kaleber)

20. Science (Ft. Jeru da Damaja)

21. Last to Know (Ft. ToneDeff)

OC & DJ JS-1 - "LIFE"

EPMD and E. Sermon back in business... again

'I've been meaning to post this rather new EPMD track for a good while now but it somehow got lost in the shufle, but never late than never right. It's always good to see that Erick and Parish seem to come along again which is great to hear; in 2008 they finally dropped their long-awaited seventh album ("We Mean Business") after a seven year hiatus. While the album was far from as critically acclaimed as all their previous bangers but nontheless in my opinion it was a solid album. This new track called, "Don't Get Clapped", sounds pretty neat if you ask me, revisting Notorious B.I.G.'s first 12" release, "Party And Bullshit", and while it's not a traditional EPMD track it sounds pretty damn sweet.

At the same time Erick Sermon has also announced a new solo project to be called "ESP: Erick Sermon's Perception". Not much more info has been released at the moment but slated guests so far are Mary J. Blige and Syleena Johnson. Hopefully it will be a ill album although I think Sermon has often been sounding quite generic in his production style over the last few years with some exceptions ("Baggin' Crack", "Dangerous MCs", "Goldmine", etc.) Below is the quite new EPMD single for anyone that might've missed it.

EPMD - "DON'T GET CLAPPED"

Three dope projects for release TODAY!

This second Tuesday in March 2011 is a great day for hip-hop as both legends of the game and a representant of the younger generations greats releases projects today. Raekwon's "Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang" is my favorite LP of the year so far, it took me by suprise as it was actually even better than I expected so that was an automatic purchase. Then we got Reks who drops his third album today, "R.E.K.S. (Rhythmatic Eternal Supreme King)" is a one hour long showcase in why he should be considered one of the top lyricists of today as he flexes his verbal muscles over tracks by DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Hi-Tek, Lil' Fame and many more. The video for the track "Cigarettes" dropped today and is posted below (featuring a real heavy verse by Fame). The third release of the day has been available through downloads on iTunes and such since a few weeks back but it's first today that it will be available in physical form (CD only so far I believe). KRS-One's and Showbiz's collaboration is named "Godsville" and while they both ranks amongst my favorite artists of all time I must say that I was pretty dissapointed in the LP; not that it wasn't good because it is but a album from these two should be more than just good. Hopefully I'll get the time to write and post up reviews of all of all three albums. Below are one selection each from every one of the LPs so check it out, enjoy and if you like what you hear support the artist(s)!

REKS video for "Cigarettes"
Produced and featuring Lil' Fame a/k/a Fizzy Womack plus Attica Barz

"Snake Pond" by Raekwon - one of many incredible tracks on 'Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang'

"Runnin' in the Dark" by KRS-One and Showbiz from 'Godsville'

Do you want "The Lost Tapes II" by Nas?

Fans of Nas has created an online petition for Def Jam to release his sequel to the brilliant "Lost Tapes", a compilation of classic unreleased Nas material and considering how good the first was this needs to get released. If you want to see Def Jam support this project you can help by signing up for this petition: CLICK THE LINK AND VOTE