Talib Kweli - Cold Rain (Video)

Ok, you might be wondering why I'm bothering to throw a Kweli video onto what is essentially a UK site, but the shit is dope, so I don't care.

In a sign of the times, and the state of hip-hop in general, Kweli's forthcoming album, Gutter Rainbows, is going to be a digital only release in North America! It's a problem when someone of his stature doesn't see fit to have a physical release of their music. That said, I believe that it will be seeing a CD release in Europe...

'Unexpected Friends' - DOOM (review)

What’s there to say? One CD-shaped collection of DOOM’s bestest featurings and collaborations. These sorts of things, aimed at the fans, always seem a little redundant – you’ll probably have most of the tracks, but then it’s a DOOM release and you need it for your collection.

‘Unexpected Guests’ is a gathering of tracks that illustrate why DOOM gets these gigs – he sounds so good on guest verses! Commencing with the great ‘Rock Co. Kane Flow’ off of De La’s ‘The Grind Date’ (and produced by Jake One who crops up a few more times) the album brims with that real Hip Hop that is above all amazingly entertaining in the ‘I can’t believe he thinks of and says these things’ kind of a way.

I really enjoyed this mix CD and with Dilla beats, Wu-Tang verses and other appearances from folk like Kweli (who is back on point on ‘Fly That Knot’) it should make sense to you, the discerning Hip Hop head. Good stuff.

It’s out now on the Gold Dust label and is available at the places where you buy your Hip Hop.

'Back Again' - Reflection Eternal (video)

OK so it's the least original and most used title ever for any rapper/group releasing the first single off their second album but never mind. Reflection Eternal's debut has some of my favourite Hip Hop tracks on it and I'll be looking forward to the return of Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek.

'Recordkingz Mega Mix' - DJ Mighty Atom (free download)

To get you salivating for the Recordkingz album, DJ Mighty Atom has mixed up 10 tracks, new and old from Recordkingz / Juliano Creator And The Creators catalogue featuring artists such as Mobb Deep, The Beatnuts, Mos Def, Nas, Talib Kweli, A Tribe Called Quest and Dilated Peoples:

Recordkingz ft. The Beatnuts - 'Rock Ya Shoulders'

Recordkingz ft. Little Brother - 'Playin To Lose'

Recordkingz ft. Guilty Simpson - 'Hip Hop Throwback'

Recordkingz ft. Mobb Deep - 'Heat'

Recordkingz ft. Glasses Malone - Da Money

Masta Ace - 'So U Wanna Be A MC' (Juliano Creator Remix)

Nas - 'I Can' (Juliano Creator Remix)

The Creators ft. Mos Def and Talib Kweli - 'Hard Margin'

Dilated Peoples - 'Expanding Man' (Juliano Creator Production)

A Tribe Called Quest - 'One Two S**t' (The Creators' Remix ft. Mark Pritchard & Pino Paladino)

'WLIB AM King of the Wigflip' - Madlib (album review)

If I’m honest, Madlib confuses me what with all the aliases and collaborations and the HUGE back catalogue. To become a fan - where to begin?!

On the intriguingly entitled ‘WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip’ Madlib sticks to his Beat Konducta moniker. What is immediately clear from listening to this LP is that Madlib, despite what his die-hard fans may think, shines far brighter when providing beatscapes for quality MC’s.

The tracks solely accredited to The Beat Konducta are nothing more than filler to my ears, albeit filler that, if a rapper had stepped to it, would probably be hot. The tracks with singers don’t do anything for me either – props for branching out but when the album is blessed by heavy weight MC’s the sung tracks flop with the only exception being ‘Yo Yo Affair pt. 1 & 2.

The album is more than worth a purchase for the rocking stand out moments such Guilty Simpson’s ‘Blow the Horns on ‘Em’, Defari’s awesome ‘Gamble On Ya Boy’, Prince Po’s eccentric ‘The Thang-Thang’, Talib’s Reflection Eternal-ish ‘What it Do’ and the stripped down Murs track, ‘Ratrace’.

Madlib closes BBE’s Beat Generation in style leaving this reviewer ready to hear more Madlib/MC collaborations old and new.

Talib Kweli on Ghost Weed

You remember those skits on De La Souls 'AOI: Mosaic Thump'? You know the ones where the MC's at a cypher smoke the 'Ghost Weed' and their voices gradually morph into that of a real famous rapper? No? OK, maybe just me and the select few then. Anyway, Talib must be on that particular brand of the leaf. I can't be the only one who has noticed that his already kinda high and mildly squeaky voice has ascended into Q Tip heights. Just check out this selection of mp3's in chronological order and you'll see what I mean. Incidentally, this collection of tracks is actually a really nice Kweli play list:

Black Star - 'Definition' - Released in 1999, it's almost certain that this is Kweli's best song, Mos Def kills it too...all sing along: "One, two, tree, Mos Def and Talib Kweliiiiii".

Reflection Eternal - 'This Means You' ft. Mos Def - Released in 2000, probably my favourite sequence of consecutive songs ever is on Kweli and Hi-Tek's 'Train of Thought' set. This is preceded by 'Move Somethin', 'Some Kind of Wonderful' and 'The Blast' (so good I named my Uni Hip Hop night after it) and they are all such great tracks. What many don't know is that if you fold the CD inlay in a different way you get much better cover art, we all know the proper cover is whackedy whack.

Hi-Tek - 'Can We Go Back' ft. Ayak & Talib Kweli - Released in 2006 and we hear Kweli's voice on the up along side London's Ayak (who I mentioned here a couple of weeks ago, check her).

Strong Arm Steady - 'One Step' ft. Talib Kweli - Released in 2007 and, yup, his voice is up one more notch on the voice-higness-meter. A great track with a great crew, I gots to check some more music by this collective.

Talib Kweli - 'Follow the Leader' ft. Busta Rhymes - Released this year on Kweli's new mixtape 'The MCEO Mixtape' (Yes, that is a cross between MC and CEO, bet Jay-Z is gutted he didn't think of that one for himself). Talib is positively chipmunk-like here and must have just inhaled a great deal of Ghost Weed smoke. This is an awesome track over Eric B's 'Follow the Leader', flawless production that seems to have got stronger over time too. As usual, Mr. Rhymes's guest spot is hungry and entertaining.

Get that Mixtape for yourself by clicking here, or here, or here, or here. No excuses now eh?

Also, here are the De La tracks with the ghost weed skits at the end:

De La Soul -'Oooh' ft. Redman (Ghost Weed skit features Pharoahe Monch)

De La Soul - 'Set The Mood' ft. Indeed (Ghost Weed skit features Phife)

De La Soul - 'With Me' (Ghost Weed Skit features (a woman doing) Black Thought)

Get all tracks in ther body bag, zipped up here

And finally, much love to Tunji for emailing me all the promo stuff for this mixtape, check him out at http://inversehiphop.wordpress.com/.