The Audacity of Dope

The official long distance relationship anthem.  Good looooooooord we need new D’Angelo in our lives.  Thankfully, it looks like that might just be happening…finally.  I’ll believe it when I hear it though.  In the meantime, we’ve got joints like this one from Raphael Saadiq’s criminally underrated Instant Vintage album to look back upon.

Raphael Saadiq ft. D’Angelo – “Be Here”

Check the video too.

“See, I got more than just some good d**k and some money…”  Classic.

He most certainly can.  If you’re not familiar with Jelani, get familiar.  The Cliff Notes version is that he’s a dope MC from New York that runs with the homey 6th Sense and Notherground Music.  He’s also the legendary Dapper Dan‘s son.  Notherground just dropped his album, Wait, You Can Rap?!?!, for free, and I highly recommend you check it out.  “The Proposal” is my jam right now.  Tracklisting and download link after the jump!

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My man Jon Master sent this over and y’all definitely need to be familiar with the MC in this video, Donny Goines.  Dude has been beasting over the past year and one of my favorite songs of the moment is “What U Expected,” produced by Statik Selektah (who’s been KILLING it under the radar for a minute now).  Check the live performance at JM’s “Faces In The Crowd” showcase and here’s the studio version for y’all too:

Donny Goines – “What U Expected”

Hahahahaha, I can’t wait for this.  If you’re sleeping, Phonte from Little Brother is teaming up with the immensely talented Zo! to drop an EP full of classic 1980’s remakes later this year. They just put out the cover artwork and it pretty much sums up the project perfectly.  Here are the tracks that they’ve leaked so far:

Zo! and Tigallo – “Africa”
Zo! and Tigallo – “Steppin’ Out”
Zo! and Tigallo ft. Carlitta Durand – “Take On Me”

Stay up to date with Zo! and Tay at the project’s MySpace page.  I know Percy Miracles died a while ago, but I hope he makes an appearance on this.  Perhaps they have something from the vaults…

Sidenote: the audacity of putting an exclamation mark at the end of your name is freaking fantastic.  You’re literally forced to be excited when talking about Zo!!  See?  Brilliant.

I’m posting this for a couple reasons.  First, it’s a dope track.  Second, a lower quality mp3 of it has been floating around the net for the past week, but this is the fully mastered version.  Third, who doesn’t remember their teenage love?  Talk about timeless…those were the days.  Life was so simple then, before this whole “job” thing got in the way.  Lastly, I just wanted an excuse to Google image search Alicia, easily one of the hottest women on the planet.  I picked an older shot of her, back when she came on the scene with the braids, hat, and all.  I remember seeing the video for “Fallin’” and being mesmerized by her eyes.  And I don’t even notice eyes like that.  She was just ridiculous, and still is.

Alicia Keys ft. LL Cool J – “Teenage Love Affair (Remix)”

Props to Swizz Beatz for actually making a nice track too…though the original beat is still the ish.

I finally got a chance to peep the new Coldplay album, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, and the ish is super dope.  Aside from the title track that you’ve seen all over TV in that iTunes commercial, my favorite joint has to be “Lost.”  Apparently it was inspired by Blur’s “Sing,” but check it out and listen for yourself.  Plus I tossed in the alternate acoustic version.  Mood music.

Coldplay – “Lost”
Coldplay – “Lost (Alternate Acoustic Version)”

That acoustic version is made for a movie soundtrack…

M-Pain & T(ammi)-Pain – “Ain’t Nothin’ Like Auto-Tune”

Blasphemy, I know.  But hilarious.  Shout to the homey 6th for sending this over

I saw that this joint made its way all around the best blogs out there, but DJ K.O. decided to leak out the official version instead of the unfinished demo that popped up on a mixtape.  This song will be on K.O.’s highly anticipated album, Picture This, due out Sept. 23rd on Shaman Work Recordings.  The artists involved with this project are incredible, and this particular song features the homey Skyzoo, Emilio Rojas, and Median ripping up a Black Milk beat.  Heat.

DJ K.O. ft. Skyzoo, Emilio Rojas, and Median – “Start It All Over”

Random Hyphen related trivia: Sky mentioned to me a while back that he first heard of Black Milk from one of my old mixtapes and reached out to MK off the strength of that joint (“Duck” for those who know about the knowabout).  Now they’ve done several classic joints together…gotta love it!

Yes y’all, Gem’s new mixtape is finally here.  I’m psyched to check this one out since everything that’s leaked so far has been super fresh.  Plus, I really respect the way he’s updating his music to match his evolving personal beliefs as well.  That’s what true art is all about.  Tracklisting and download link after the jump.  Shouts to KayCee.  FNF Up!

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One of my favorite MC’s, Supastition, is back on the scene…kinda.  With this brand new EP, he shed his stage name to rock under his government, Kam Moye.  He gave an explanation of the project on his ArtOfRhyme blog, but he also sums it up perfectly on the first track, “Where & Why.”  Supa Kam kills every single track here, and the production is equally crazy.  He’s even got one of our illest Seattle producers, Eric G, on a few tracks.  I can’t recommend this enough.  Back cover and download link below…check this out immediately!

Supastition as Kam Moye – Self-Centered EP