[Street Album] DICE RAW - "Jimmy's Back"

Dice Raw, has been down with The Legendary Roots Crew, way back since 1993 when he as a 17-year old  spit a jaw-dropping verse on "The Lesson". Since then his role in The Roots Crew has grown more and more steady since then;with each album he has appeared on more and mor songs and most recently he's also started dabbling in production and showing his knafk and voice and hooks found him to be an excellent crooner on a majority songs from "Game Theiry to their most recent "Undun" While we're waiting for his upcoming solo album I stumbled across this 13 track mixtape called "Jimmyy's Back" which was complete news to me, so if you haven't heard it either before be sure to press play, sit back, enjoy and also check out the new music video for "Animal". You can purchase the ditgital album @ iTunes.

[Video + Album] DICE RAW - "Run" / "Jimmy's Back"

I actually totally missed out long-time Roots "member" Dice Raw released a solo album back in late 2013 called "Jimmy's Back" though I always been a fan of especially his raw emcee style. The six minute powerful story-telling "Run" is a single from aforementioned album which is available @ iTunes. I also found two tracks from the album @ Dice's Soundcloud. Check 'em out below; personally I find "Wake Up" (produced by Khari Mateen) pretty damn dope but "Animal" is real forgettable. EDIT:  I found a stream to the entire album via Raw Life, check it out below.

DICE RAW - "Nothin'"

When I first heard a very young Dice Raw on The Roots' albums "Do You Want More" and "Illadelph Halflife"  I know I was hearing a true emcee hat stood miles apart from other rappers of his age. He succesfully held his own on tracks with Black Thought and Malik B and has continued to do so as he's been playing a major part in all of The Roots albums since (rhyming, hypeman, becoming the go-to-man for sung choruses, to producing and/or executive producing the later albums, etc). Why Raw hasn't been offered an official position in the band yet is indeed very strange despite appearing on each and every album, and often co-producing a majority of the LP:s. 

Signed to MCA Records in 2000 (also home of The Roots at the time), Dice released his first album under his own name - "Reclaiming The Dead". Though it packed a few dope jams, it was definitely not the effort people had been hoping for and was quickly forgotten. Since then Dice has grown tremendously, especially as a singer and songwriter, and has now teamed up with Rawlife for a compilation called "Dice Raw & The Family". Exactly what this will be, or whether or not Dice will appear on all songs, remains to be seen. The first single "Nothin'", however, is a promising joint somewhat in the vein of The Roots' most recent album and features Diice crooning his way through the three minutes over an addictive piano melody and a smacking rhythm section.Whatever the Rawlife record is I'm definitely interested to see what the future holds for this project. Check out the single up top.

DICE RAW - "Run"

Since Dice Raw made his presence known to the World on The Roots' "The Lesson Pt. 1" ("Do You Want More, Vol. 1?"), the impressive Philly youngsters has made his mark on the classic hip-hop music of The Roots by appearing on several songs on each on pretty much all of their LP:s. In 2000 Raw released his official debut album on MCA Records, "Reclaim The Dead" - an album that left much to be desired. Since then he's dropped a slew of EP:s and tight guest verses, making fans fiend for a new full-length LP. Good news is that "Jimmy's Back" (a reflection on the Jim Crowe laws that still to this day are an importan part of any KKK doctorine).

""Life in the ‘hood is universal – it’s all about surviving against the odds, and for many, it’s a quest everyday not to get popped by the police. DICE RAW of the legendary Roots Crew paints a masterful portrait of the plight of his people trapped in the prison of urban life, and especially the millions of endangered, young Black men caught in the industrial prison complex."