Old To The New

Several tracks have emerged recently from golden era heavyweights, that I think are worth giving some shine to. 

Infamous Sessions

First up is a track from the bonus CD that accompanied the recently released Mobb Deep album.  For those who no longer pay attention to Mobb Deep (you're not on your own!), the bonus CD contains original/alternate versions from their 2nd LP The Infamous.  I'm surprised that this particular version ended up on the cutting room floor, and that Ghostface was trimmed from the final release.  This should have been a 12" remix.

The Blastmaster Returns

Whoa, KRS is back spitting like it's 1994 and Premo is on the production!  Ok, so there's no Premo, but this is Kris back in full effect and doing what he does best, braggadocios, arrogant rhyming, with some knowledge dropped in for good measure.

"I'd rather make one righteous dollar on my level, than make a million dollars spitting rhymes for the devil".

Cookin Soul

The original version of this tune was a bit bland and certainly an album track.  But this remix does it plenty of justice, and breathes new life into a 2Pac track that pays homage to the artists that influenced him, and reflects his early days growing up on the east coast.

A Prince & A Pharoahe

Boof baf, here is, the latest round up of freshness from around the interwebz.  There's always a lack of new releases early in the year, and 2014 has been no exception, but history shows that by March/April things start to hot up and there's usually something that looks promising.  See what you think.

Dropping Diamonds

As Diamond D gets ready to drop his new LP The Diam Piece he hits us off with the first video, a collaboration with Pharoahe Monch entitled Rap Life.  Both of them are on top form with Monch sounding effortless over Diamond's production.  The video was directed by Deacon The Villian from Cunninglynguists.

B-Boy Stance

O.C. has just dropped this track on a limited edition 7".  It's as fresh as a newly laid egg, with O.C. reminiscing about the golden era of hip hop, but rather frustratingly there is little more information about it.  Even the website where you can purchase the vinyl doesn't bother to list what else you might, so we'll have to assume its a double A side of the same track and there's nothing more to come!

Ain't Saying Something

It's an observation that many artists have already made, but J-Live's stab at wack emcees with nothing to say takes a slightly different angle as he guns for the ones with dope sounding tracks, but when you scratch beneath the surface...

Probably The Greatest (Hip Hop) Concept Album

Prince Paul's classic LP A Prince Amongst Thieves is now 15 years old, but it still sounds as good today as it did back in 1999.  And  looking back, it's surprising that it wasn't more of a launch pad for Breeze Brewin to go on do much bigger things.
Well, Breeze recently took time out to inform Red Bull Music Academy of some of the history behind the album, including Prince Paul's original intention of having Chino XL in the other lead role!

http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/breeze-brewin-interview