1. Red Lotus Blossom (ft. Panic and Great Scott)
2. Live From NYC (prod. by The Alchemist)
3. Tristate Agenda (prof. by 9th Wonder)
4. Black Christ (prod. by Apollo Brown)
5. Dancing With The Devil (prod. by Josh Lamont)
6. Cloud Merger (ft. Hus and Smoovth)
7. Golden Angels (prod. by Apollo Brown)
Note:
This is one of those reviews that I was trying to get done weeks ago and then the sickness set in and I wasn’t really good for anything. But here I am in reasonable health to let you know about this project Rozewood concocted at the end of 2012. Rozewood you may remember had a project reviewed over a year ago entitled Neon Paradise. That was a really solid album.
I usually never post a project without some sort of review but this is really important. Supastition is back! He is one of my all-time favorite emcees. He was retired from the game a couple of years ago but after some conversations with his contemporaries, he is back at it again. That is to every hip hop head’s benefit!
The Blackboard EP is his first salvo after coming back to the game. You can download this for free, but that’s not what this is about. This is about true fans of hip hop supporting good music. I encourage my readership to drop at least $5 in the man’s pocket. Show him that people still care and support. He makes great music, just listen below…
(I will be posting a review of this project next week…so look for that!)
It’s just after the holidays and I got caught up with family, friends, and the end of the year posts and kind of left the ‘Friday Feature’ hang by the wayside, that is until I remembered this Friday. I was just recently put on to Jus Daze and his style immediately meshed with what we are trying to do at Hip Hop Dependency. He’s been on the battle circuit for a while, but what I am most impressed by is the amount of emotion he incorporates in his music. It’s not just one-liners and battle lines. While he can do those things, he’s more about telling a story and injecting feeling into his cuts. The feeling I get is that he puts a good amount of himself in every verse.
With all that being said, and not being able to consult with Jus Daze before this feature, I thought a great initial offering would be his entire body of work from 2012. In this download you are going to get a variety of his singles, Bow II The Bow, Common Law, and The King Of Queens. This will be a great way for new fans to get acquainted and old ones to make sure their collection is complete.
Stay tuned for a more biographical piece and more music next week….meanwhile DL this!
This was a tough category. There were so many dope, short projects that were offered up this year that it was really hard to narrow it down to my favorites. I just kept the one ruling principle in mind as to who made the dopes music. With that being kept in mind there were some dope artists left off…most notably The Brown Bag AllStars. That crew put out a ton of dope EPs this year and surely some of them would have made a Top 10, just not the Top 5. I simply couldn’t let got of these joints.
#1 -The 17th – Free Music EP
The 17th gave us ‘FREE Music’ but not only that, he gave us some remarkable music. This EP is close to flawless as they come. You get eight tracks jam packed with flavor, great concept, flows, production, and delivery. Another remarkable aspect is that much of the EP is his from beginning to end. He of course is the lead emcee, but also the producer for the bulk of the tracks as well.
#2 – Serge Severe x Terminill – Service Without A Smile
Serge Severe and Terminilllinked up for a superlative effort on Service Without A Smile. The two really played off of each other’s strengths and this proved to be one of the illest producer/emcee combos of 2012.
#3 – Nefew x Shakes x Nottz – For Hip Hop
Speaking of ill producer/emcee combos, how about this one? Swiss-American hip-hop group, Nefew, Virginia emcee Shakes, and super producer Nottzlink up for for this five track EP. You can’t go wrong with this joint!
#4 – Mayday – Thrift Store Halos
MayDay has a sound all unto themselves. They have have great production to back them up on Thrift Store Halos and their melodies, rhymes, and guest shots throughout make this one a clear winner for 2012.
#5 – The Narcicyst – Leap Of Faith
The Narcicyst comes back in 2012 with a lyrical fury from Dubai. Ok, a lyrical fury may be a bit extreme but his world observations set to rhythm set him apart from the pack this year.
1. Never Give Up
2. Sabbatical
3. Rebel Crumbs
4. Crumbs
5. Native
6. The 65th
7. Energy Thieves
Note:
This is one of those instances that I really don’t have a lot of time set aside for a full review of an album, but I was compelled to at least write something. This EP is really good as is the duo known as Original Text.
Original Text is comprised of Ari Why as the producer and Tito Fuerte as the emcee. Both were already accomplished in various other projects/groups but decided to combine their talents for this project.
The first thing you will notice when you go through the album is the fact that Ari Why has a lot of sounds in his arsenal. So many great musical flavors are comprised in this small package. He brings you boom bap, classical, Middle Eastern, and Spanish flavors giving the EP a very eclectic feel.
Tito Fuerte is an extremely strong emcee addressing a variety of different topics in his flows. Fuerte touches on politics and sociology among other items in his rhymes. He also can bring his flow from English to Spanish and back again effortlessly. A truly talented artist who is impactful in his lines.
1. Intro
2. Leap Of Faith
3. Blame the Label (Ghida Fakhry)
4. Color Blind (ft. Meryem Saci)
5. Larry David (Pretty Good)
6. Everywhere (ft. Sway)
7. Falling Down
Note:
I have been a huge fan of The Narcicyst since he was in the group Euphrates. I have dip and dived across the internet to accumulate his music for my collection. Since his days in Euphrates, he has emerged a more accomplished solo artist with every release. Through Leap Of Faith, The Narcicyst, seems takes a more personal and introspective approach to his music, moreso than his preceding releases.
1. The Glass House
2. Free
3. The Crisis
4. Gone Too Long (ft. Devon Wright)
5. Chips Fall
6. My Inner War
7. Betta Luv Em’
8. You Want War
9. One Life To Live (ft. Reks)
10. Troubled Child
Note:
Rome Clientel’s art is a demonstration of what is good with hip hop right now. With his new project, The Empire 2: The Battlegrounds EP, Rome Clientel takes big beats and grimy bars up-a-notch. Thus giving you Golden Era flavor with new school flow and vocabulary. The intangibles (ie his baritone voice) are an asset that can’t be ignored.
1. Welcome To Vice City
2. Listenin To B.I.
3. That’s Word (ft. Meta P)
4. Gotta Lotta Love
5. Escuchela (ft. Rapsusklei)
6. Taste The Dro
7. #DMOT
Note:
This review has been in the chamber for a while as Vice City Nights was released just over a month ago. The project is collaborative in nature with Emilio Lopez holding down the duties on the mic while Barcelona based production duo, RJBeats controls the boards. I have really enjoyed hearing the numerous amounts of EPs this year that focus on using one producer with one emcee to give the projects some consistency without getting stale. Vice City Nights follows that template to a tea.
I wish I had more time to dedicate to the releases that are coming out of this camp. Their music is always dope and they are consistent to say the least. You should frankly own all of their projects. I will hopefully be able to continue to update their discography throughout the years. Just click the album cover and be taken to a link to purchase the project or download depending on whether or not it was free or not. Enjoy…
(Shout out for J57 for helping me out on the list)
Here’s a little something extra for those of you who caught Lgorithms album earlier this year. It’s obviously quite short but I guarantee you would rather cop three tracks from L*Roneous than a 16 track album from 95% of other ’emcees’.
All three of these tracks are harmonious and have a soulful vibe. My favorite track of the bunch is Melody. It just has a very optimistic outlook on life that I want to relate to. I connected with that joint, though the samples on Apartment D are also quite memorable.
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