LISTED REVIEWS
Where rappers used to form a crew through street connections, the Technological Highway has become the medium for musicians to collaborate. Take Dumhi for instance, with all members being regular posters on the Okayplayer boards. One fine day, they decided to make music together...
POSTED 07|20|2006
Due to the alternation of up-tempo and lowdown songs and Danny’s humour and inventiveness, the album takes you on a mellow but exciting trip through the free and creative mind of a young artist! Although lookin (or is it actin?) nerdly and carrying a young age, Danny Swain shows experience, talent and...charm.
POSTED 07|03|2006
It’s gonna be a tight knot, but of all the Tollah's instrumental albums that’ve been released, this is probably the strongest. It’s not much different from the others, but it got some really infectious basslines, some hypnotic keyboard playing, a few old school quotes thrown into and the vocal samples sound more appealing than ever, not soundin too much alike ‘Ms Fat Booty’ or whatever beat he made in the past...just you listen.
POSTED 07|03|2006
Behold the first project in a series of J-Zone instrumental albums that’s gonna hit us in our sunbaked face this summer. While usually playing basketball at a grimey court around the corner, J-Zone has been sittin in the lab for some special surprises.
POSTED 07|03|2006
With lush raps wrapped in Afrocentrism, inspired on the legacy of the forefighters of anti-slavery (namechecking Nat Turner a.o.), African liberation and revolution, Infinito2017 comes as Marcellous Lovelace over an extremely jazzy production by illustrious producers Cool D and Marc B.
POSTED 07|02|2006
Missed out on some of the Special Herbs series albums or not enough dough to buy em all? No worries, MF Doom has mixed 10 volumes of his 'special herbs' into this special and unique (only 7500 copies pressed) blend of delicious instrumentalitis.
POSTED 06|25|2006
Mullinix shows with this album that Detroit holds it down on every level, from dance music to hip-hop and back. 'Two/Three' is one of this year's freshest surprises.
POSTED 06|25|2006
Creativity is 'a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts', the dictionary says. Take the concept of 'Word Got Round' for example, where Cadence, Dumi Right and micthefinite each shed their view on a party that they all attended, but which turns into a lot of misconceptions ('Rumors have legs that can’t be amputated').
POSTED 06|25|2006
Tanya Morgan’s sophomore release is another highlight for Cincinnati and its rap scene. Von Pea, Donwill and Illyas have clearly evolved as a group and are here to moonlight for the next few years.
POSTED 06|13|2006
'The Second Coming' is the perfect remedy for a bad day, the ultimate soundtrack to a summer weekend or a backyard party. 'Shine, like the sun that’s sizzling, we boost your adrenaline, swinging like Wimbledon' they rap in 'Shine'. Deep Rooted has grown, now it’s up to the world to follow. 'I leave my kids in yo mouth like the Neverland ranch, Joheezy, Mr Brady the Dread, Deep Rooted, Second Coming, keep bangin yo head''!
POSTED 06|13|2006from the vaults
