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 aren’t up on Maffew, he’s one of the nicest up and coming MC’s in the game and one of my favorites from NY right now.  Plus, who doesn’t love #shoeporn?

Yeah, the vocal tone, vocabulary, and delivery are perhaps a little too close to Ghostface, but I don’t care one bit.  This dude is dope!

Derek Pike directed visuals for the title track from Saigon’s long awaited album.  This track is probably a few years old, but at least we finally get to hear all these crazy Just Blaze/Saigiddy records!

I found out about the homey Smooth from my day job helping get music videos into stores, restaurants, clubs, hotels, etc..  I get to see a few dope videos that I wouldn’t otherwise catch every day, and here’s Smooth’s new one for “Hard Tymes.”  Along with it being an ill track, the coloring in this one is real sharp to me.

Dope video from CL’s performance at the 2009 QN5 Megashow from NYC a few weeks back.  Deacon, Natti, and Kno performed their entire A Piece of Strange album (which is a certified hip-hop classic) with Club Dub backing them up.

Unfortunately, I don’t believe the band will be joining them on their upcoming tour, but regardless, you won’t want to miss this show when it rolls through your town.

Seattle folks: you can catch CL performing with Looptroop Rockers, the homey Tunji, and some of our hometown heroes, Grieves & Budo, on November 25th at Neumos.  Be there.

I’ve been working like crazy this week and finally have a little time to catch up with everything that went down.  So far, it seems like the highlight was that the world’s funniest human, Dave Chappelle, performed an impromptu set at the Laugh Factory in NYC.  I’ve only seen this Flip Cam footage, but we need more to leak.  This is hilarious, especially at the end…

Swiped from 2DopeBoyz.

I absolutely love this track off The Kid Daytona’s Come Fly With Me project (download here).  The homey 6th Sense murdered the beat and Tona’s flow is so ill on it.  Shout to Three/21 Media and Derek Pike on the direction for the visuals too.  Great job all around.

Some words from the director Derek Pike:

Last week I shot the “Air Born” video for The Kid Daytona featuring Bun B. The beat which is produced by 6th Sense has this real mellow floaty vibe to it so I knew I wanted to shoot the majority of this video with someone or something floating in midair. Since shooting in outerspace wasn’t in the budget, I had to settle for NYC. Luckily, Daytona knew someone here on earth that could defy gravity for us, EBCstar Africa. We shot the whole video at a little park downtown, no permits. Aside from having to work around screaming kids at camp, and a basketball leagues scheduled game everything went surprisingly smooth. Daytona and Bun B are two of the nicest and most laid back artists I have ever worked with. Shout outs to the Three/21 fam Rik, Nancy and Steve, Jamal, Owen, Jordan at Sneaktip, Dan, Evan, and of course Daytona, Bun B, 6th and Africa.
-Derek Pike

Running around like crazy the past few days, but I definitely had to toss the new video from the big homey S-K-Y, Z-O-O up on TAOD.  It’s the first look from his upcoming album, The Salvation, and it’s produced by 9th Wonder.  Dopeness.

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)