The Audacity of Dope

The wait is over!  Here’s the new album from Maffew Ragazino, who is almost single-handedly providing me with everything I need from good ol’ NYC boom bap right now.  If you’ve been listening to SNSS at all the past few months, you’ve probably heard us spin a few of his records.  I highly recommend you grab this ASAP since Rhyme Pays, but thanks to Cash In Cash Out, Boundless NY, and Rosenberg, you don’t have to.  Download link below!

Download here.

If you’re like me, you’ve been listening to Drake’s Thank Me Later album quite heavily the past few weeks, so you’ll probably also enjoy this interview with Semtex.  While they don’t break down every song on the album (I would have been particularly interested to hear the story behind “Karaoke”), there’s a lot of good info in here.  I did laugh at the “sounds like your parents played a big role in your life” question though.  Generally speaking, that’s pretty much what they tend to do.

You can also check out footage of Drake murdering our Summer Jam last night over on the KUBE site.  It was impressive to watch, thinking back to when we played him over 3 years ago on Sound Session.  I never would have anticipated his success to be this great, but it’s really ill to have the hottest rapper of the moment actually be dope.  Novel concept, I know.

Just in case the last post didn’t do it for you (or your girl), here’s the title track to Goapele’s upcoming album.  Ridiculously grown and sexy…I absolutely love this song.

Honestly, I was hoping for a little more than a 9 song album after waiting so long for Max’s return, but on the plus side, those 9 tracks are fire.  Here’s the 2nd video off the project, following up to the excellent “Pretty Wings.”  If BLACKsummers’night doesn’t get your girl in the mood, you’re losing.

He’s baaaaaaaack!

One of my favorite MC’s and the longtime homey, Amen, took the last few years off from the game to handle his grown man biz but he just dropped his new Head On project for y’all.  We did a really dope mixtape together in 2006 called Legend Killer (download here) that’s still smashing most of these rappers so it’s great to see A back on his grizzly.  He hasn’t missed a beat either, peep this album ASAP.

Here’s the press release with a little more info about his upcoming projects:

With several years of life experience under his belt following the release of 2006’s critically acclaimed mixtape Legend Killer with Seattle resident and Kube 93 personality DJ Hyphen, Amen has returned with his latest full length endeavor – Head On.

Head On is meant as a primer for forthcoming releases from Amen – as it encapsulates a mix of 11 new and/or unreleased material into a single, cohesive project. Featuring production from longtime collaborators DJ Forge, Khrysis, and Johnny Drama; as well as relative newcomers MG the Future and Midi Marc – this album serves as the first offering in a five album series.

All five albums will be released digitally for free and will follow a theme inspired by the HBO television series – Entourage. Each album will be titled and share a loose thematic influence from each of the fictional films featured on the show. All five releases will contain a minimum of 10 tracks, resulting in the distribution of over fifty songs worth of free material. Video and audio will be posted consistently at www.goldstandardlp.blogspot.com, including behind the scenes footage and exclusive songs in addition to the album material.

As with the film in Entourage, Head On is designed to be the first “starring” role for this 27 year old MC, and ideally will deliver the optimistic promise to listeners of greater and more entertaining projects for the future.

Download here.

I’ve been waiting for Daytona’s official album to drop for a minute and the day is finally here.  Don’t get it twisted either…despite my blog tag calling Come Fly With Me a mixtape, this is indeed a full length project full of original material…and it’s dope as hell.  Peep the press release if you need to get up to speed on Daytooooooooona and then download the project below.

New York, NY – The Kid Daytona, born in Atlanta, GA to a set of Caribbean parents, grew up with a unique blend of cultural identities, which was only further expanded by his teenage years in The Bronx, NY. It was these formative years in New York’s northern borough that led The Kid Daytona to his current path as a musician — and the June 30th release of his full length studio album, Come Fly With Me.

The flight path leading  to the release of Come Fly With Me has been a long one. The Kid Daytona attained early success when his group The Aces was signed to Atlantic Records in 2002. Though the group dismantled shortly thereafter, Daytona managed to establish himself in the eyes of legendary MC Busta Rhymes, who quickly enlisted the young artist for a role in Flipmode Squad. In addition to Busta Rhymes, Daytona has also been blessed with the guidance of Cipha Sounds (Hot 97 WQHT), who has helped create the dynamic artist that appears on Come Fly With Me.  Daytona and Cipha started out by releasing A Tribe Called Fresh in 2008,  which garnered the attention of major media outlets like The Fader. Daytona explains that, “the success of the Tribe tape helped me realize it was time to put an official album together. I want people to be able to hear my music, and this is best way for me to make that happen – by making it available, and doing it well.”

On Come Fly With Me, The Kid Daytona shares airspace with musical superstars such as Bun B (UGK), Kardinal Offishall, and seasoned newcomers such as Mickey Factz, Amanda Diva, Harlem’s Cash, Outasight, and more. Production credits for the album include 6th Sense, Double 0 (Kidz In The Hall), Cook Classics, Jet Audio, Ill Bomb, The Government, and Deputy.

Both Come Fly With Me and its single, “Contact” featuring Kardinal Offishall, will be distributed digitally by Community JUICE beginning Tuesday, June 30, 2009.

1.  Just Fly {prod. 6th Sense}
2.  Air Jordan feat. Harlem’s Cash {prod. The Government}
3.  The Groove feat. Mickey Factz  {prod. Deputy}
4.  Honestly feat. Avriel Epps {prod. Cook Classics}
5.  Twilight  {prod. Jet Audio}
6.  Contact! feat. Kardinal Offishall {prod. 6th Sense}
7.  Flava Season {prod. Double 0}
8.  The Minimum feat. Tiara Wiles {prod. 6th Sense}
9.  In The Wind {prod. 6th Sense}
10.  Lately feat. Amanda Diva  {prod. Ill Bomb}
11.  Eye Know feat. Mike Maven {prod. 6th Sense}
12.  Perfect feat. Outasight {prod. 6th Sense}
13.  Right Now Till Then {prod. 6th Sense & Frequency}
14.  Air Born feat. Bun B {prod. 6th Sense}

Download here. (right click, save as)

Between the leak of “Shining Down” and this teaser video, I’m officially geeked for Lu’s new album.

The homey Donny Goines is one of the hardest working and dopest MC’s on the come up right now.  If you tuned in to SNSS this past week, you heard us run “Sublime” off his brand new project, The Breakfast Club, and now the album is out…for free! (Welcome to the music industry in 2009 – music is officially $free.99).

Peep the tracks and excellent guest/production list below.

1 ) Don’t You Prod. by Cook Classics
2 ) Bring It Forward (New York, New York) Prod. by Versatile
3 ) Whatever It Is (Ft. Mela Machinko) Prod. by Frequency
4 ) Money (Ft. Mistah F.A.B) Prod. by DJ Static
5 ) Don’t Mess with a Woman (Ft. Amanda Diva & Naledge) Prod. by Dub Z
6 ) Sublime (Ft. Peter Hadar & Outasight) Prod. by Buckwild
7 ) She Like (Ft. Che Grand & Izza Kizza) Prod. by Apple Juice Kid
8 ) Make Me Feel (Ft. Emilio Rojas) Prod. by Kwame
9 ) Oh No (Ft. Patent Pending) Prod. by The Goverment
10 ) What U Expected Remix (Ft. Rain, Termanology, Reks & Big Lou) Prod. by Statik Selektah
11 ) A Love Song (Ft. Lydia Caesar & Skyzoo) Prod. by Digga
12 ) Closer Prod. by Dame Grease
13 ) Digital Genocide (Ft. Planet Asia & Poison Pen) Prod. by DJ Snips
14 ) Grateful (Ft. Tanya Morgan & Jeremy Carr) Prod. by Cookin Soul
15 ) Party Apple Prod. by Apple Juice Kid
16 ) Can’t Get it Right (Ft. A.Pinks, Esso & 6th Sense) Prod. by 6th Sense
17 ) These Times Prod. by Dub Z

Download here.

The much anticipated new mixtape/album from Chester French has finally dropped, but I’ll let D.A. tell it:

It’s 5am and we’re sitting in our tour bus with the lights dimmed finalizing mixes while we write this email and invite you to finally check out the first new music we’ve released since 2007. First, we’d like to thank you for helping us get this far. We started Chester French in 2003, during our freshman year of college, and the past six years have been a remarkable journey.

On April 21, we’ll be releasing our full-length debut album, “Love the Future,” a record that we began more than four years ago. We hope that with that release we’ll be able to convert millions of music fans into Chester French supporters. But you’ve been with us from the start, so we wanted to give you a special gift today: a totally free full-length album. Welcome to “Jacques Jams, Vol. 1: Endurance.”

Last year DJ Clinton Sparks came to us with an offer to make a Chester French mixtape. While we appreciated his enthusiasm (and peerless physique), we wanted “Love the Future” to be the World’s first taste of CF. A few months ago, though, we caved to Clinton’s relentless advances and agreed to work on a project with him, but only if it would be more than a mixtape. Since then we’ve had an amazingly fun time making the free album that you’re about to experience.

“Jacques Jams, Vol. 1: Endurance” is a chronicle of the past six years of our lives. It tells our story, from the gymnasiums of Harvard to the hills of Hollywood. Unlike “Love the Future,” which we’ve written, arranged, performed, produced, and engineered by ourselves, “Jacques Jams” features a collection of new, original music that we created in the hills of Massachusetts and then invited some of our favorite artists to grace.

As young artists, we couldn’t be more grateful for this opporunity to collaborate with legends like Jermaine Dupri, Diddy, Pharrell, Pusha, Talib Kweli, Bun B., The Mad Rapper, Kardinal Offishall, N.O.R.E, and Jadakiss as well as younger friends like Janelle Monae, Cassie, Wale, Solange, Lady Gaga, and Mickey Factz. All of these fantastic artists have been more than generous with their creativity and hard work, so we owe them an enormous debt. Clinton Sparks, above all, has tirelessly guided us toward success and endurance, a tall order with obnoxious perfectionists like us! We’d also like to thank Clinton’s manager, Daouda Leonard, for his endless help and beautifully manicured beard.

Now CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD “Jacques Jams, Vol. 1: Endurance.”

The next month will be pivotal as we put out “Love the Future” through Star Trak / Interscope records. We hope that you will continue to tell all of your friends and family about our music and movement. Consider yourself an ambassador of our VIP Concierge Service, which anyone can join for free at www.chesterfrench.com . Please encourage everyone you meet to visit our site and join. Every single new supporter truly takes us one step closer to sustaining our touring and recording. As always, we love to hear from you so respond to this email or write to chester@chesterfrench.com any time with any ideas you might have for how we can better spread the word!

D.A., you’re foul for those shorts bruh.

What are you waiting for?  Download here.

Oh, and be on the lookout for D.A. and Max on Sound Session real soon…

I take a huge L for not posting the new album from the longtime homies Y-O and Thurzday until a full 2 days after it dropped.  Argh @ me being super busy, but at least I’m finally getting this up here.  Besides, if you’re up on things, you should have already grabbed this.  If not, head on over to YOThurz.com and download the masterpiece.

I’ve been looking forward to this ever since Y-O and Thurz first talked about it damn near 2 years ago.  Then they came up to Sound Session at the end of last year and played us the snippets and I really got hype.  Now it’s finally here in full.  Ro Blvd on the beats, Yonas & Thurz on the mic.

Download immediately.