Hip Hop Album Reviews

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Canibus – Melatonin Magik

Once upon a time in 1997 Germaine Williams AKA Canibus was a blooming Hip-Hop star that had the lyrical skills and big name backing to go straight to the top and beyond…Almost thirteen years, 7 albums, a service enlistment (and subsequent discharge) and a Spike Lee film role (Bamboozled) later we have the unexpected solid [...]

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DJ Babu – The Beat Tape Vol. 2

Continuing on with the 2nd installment of his Beat Tape series, legendary L.A. wax toucher and Beat Junkie DJ Babu gives the rest of the game a much needed lesson on how to keep your beats contemporary while still capturing the ears of staunch older cats who despise nuevo keyboards and synths. It’s a ballsy [...]

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Soulcrate Music – The Heartland Panic

Often when I think about South Dakota, a state I spent a good amount of time in trying to take advantage of a Football scholarship, the last thing I think about is Hip-Hop…or anything even remotely urban for that matter. Even though the college I was attending, a school that shall remain nameless, had an [...]

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Freeway & Jake One – The Stimulus Package

(Note: This review also appears on Seattle hip-hop blog 206UP.COM) For better or worse, Freeway possess one of the most recognizable and unique voices in hip-hop. As a result, he’s a bit of an acquired taste. Jake One the producer, on the other hand, is a 21st century version of DJ Premier. He uses appropriately [...]

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Public Defendaz – Tampered Evidence

While most folks I know would shudder at the prospect of having to ride out with a Public Defender in any way shape or form, along comes a new Hip-Hop collective that just might be able to change the ongoing “low pay and minimal resources” stigma that the title usually evokes. Based out of the [...]

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Mash Hall – They LA Soul

(Note: This review also appears on Seattle hip-hop blog 206UP.COM.) The truth is, I’m an eighties baby who is a sucker for any nostalgia-inducing music that reminds me of my formative adolescent years. So when a group like They Live! Mash Hall enters the scene, late eighties to mid-nineties pop culture references flying, I’m immediately taken. [...]

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Statik Selektah – 100 Proof

For his 3rd album in as many years, Lawrence, MA raised DJ, Producer and Showoff Records label head, Statik Selektah drops a new batch of sample heavy tracks that feature an ample amount of the game’s most notable MC’s. Statik’s heavy connections are abound on “100 Proof” and coming into this project the now Brooklyn-based [...]

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Mike Swoop – New Love

Providing listeners with a wide pallet of laid back, dreamy and funked out goodies longtime DJ, producer, musician and Minnesota native Mike Swoop gives the world his debut album, the highly agreeable “New Love“. Having honed his skills as a DJ for Twin Cities’ rhyme collective Diametrix, Swoop is rooted in Hip-Hop, but for his [...]

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RJD2 – The Colossus

Teeming with curious sounds, solid drums and his unique warbling, RJD2′s newest instrumental offering “The Colossus” is surefire groove music that is abundant with moods and paints mental pictures with ease. The producer, singer and songwriter invigorates his old Electrical Connections label to release this album after a short hiatus and the results are progressive. [...]

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Bisco Smith – The Broadcast

Unleashing a highly eclectic collection of his latest works, Bisco Smith sends out the aural acquired taste that is “The Broadcast“. The Beantown Born, Tri-State native who calls spots outside of New York City and Connecticut his home turf bursts onto Hip-Hop’s underground consciousness with a befitting set of skills and a sound that’s steeped [...]