Sol - So Damn High
Sol’s a Seattle emcee who’s making waves around the web and giving away tons of his tunes for free. Check them out…this kid is 21 and definitely just getting started.
Big ups to HillyDilly on this one.
J. Cole - Higher
If you haven’t noticed we’re still catching up on some great 2010 tunes. J. Cole’s quite possibly the guy who’ll be this year’s Kid CuDi…he’s slick, catchy, and writes great lyrics on top of even greater beats. You may remember him from his boss’s album, on Jay-Z’s “A Star Is Born” off of The Blueprint 3, which is a track I’m pretty sure I posted last year.
The Five One - Closing Time
Got this track this morning from a band I shared back in October. Seems they can’t get this track onto their upcoming release due to some legal hitches, which is a bummer because it’s a solid mashup/mix. I’m looking forward to REDBLUEGREENGOLD, due out soon, from a group I think is poised to really make some waves.
T.I. - All She Wrote (feat. Eminem)
Next week T.I. is set to release his new album, throwing his hat in the ring with quite a long roster of hip-hop superstars that have offered up new material in 2010. He brings one of those heavy hitters onto this track, and I gotta say…Eminem’s second verse on this is flat out blistering.
Girl Talk - Let It Out
Finally, Gregg Gillis is back with All Day, which hits the internet for free download in its entirety. Girl Talk is a musical experiment that’s ignited all kinds of interesting conversations about music, ownership, sampling, and original art. His shows are epic, and if you haven’t been to one you should change that as soon as possible. As always, this album is a party for your ears. Get your hands on it.
Full album download (broken up into individual tracks): zip file.
Official album download (other formats) here.
Nelly - Just A Dream & She’s So Fly (feat. T.I.)
Special place in my heart for Nelly and his face band-aids. Country Grammar was background music for a significant portion of my time driving around St. Charles, Illinois. Also my sister went to college at SLU, so every time I talked to her I asked if she was hanging with Nelly. One night, she called me in a frenzy because SHE ACTUALLY WAS.
bonus track!
Eligh - Shine (feat. K-Flay & The Grouch)
I’m a huge, huge fan of K-Flay, who’s a Stanford grad and somehow managed to graduate and remain cool (not an easy feat). Here she is lending rhymes to Eligh, a completely badass indie rapper doing it on his own with no major label support. I highly encourage you to pick up his new album.
Gyptian - Hold Yuh
I’ve been wondering where the piano and beat underneath a Wale freestyle I posted back on my sister’s birthday was from. I keep coming across it, and finally tracked down the original, by Gyptian, a young Rastafarian that seems to be getting major underground attention lately. There’s just something about this beat and piano punching that I flat out can’t stop repeating in my head.
The Five One - Mandatory
I’ve been digging a bit into this band, who appears to sound different often, which isn’t something you can say, well, often. You know what I love about this song? Nearly every respectable blogger who posted it did so with a half-apology for posting a song employing Autotune. Gotta a hear a song that wins such an uphill battle, right?
The Pharcyde - Runnin’ (Phillipians Remix)
Say what you will about remixes; every once in a while someone reaches deep into their memories and renews a tune you probably ignored when it came out more than a decade ago. This Pharcyde track from 1995 is given a rebirth that makes it sound like a leaked track from an upcoming mainstream hip hop album.
