Tanya Morgan - Brooklynati



Trust my word on this if you've never trusted it before.


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The Consequences Of Asher Roth

Unlike that of other musical genres, Hip-Hop’s audience puts its talent under a magnifying glass that examines more than talent, it’s a double edged sword as we scrutinize erroneous details in a rapper’s background then decry when one’s reality isn’t rooted in struggle. While this image conscious state would cause some to find shame in clean and honorable pasts (i.e. Rick Ross’ former career as a correctional officer or Lupe Fiasco’s shunning of A Tribe Called Quest), Asher Roth hails from the suburbs of Philadelphia and presents the challenge of being happy, carefree and unabashedly white in a game fueled by what are generally perceived to be black interests.

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Tanya Morgan - The Beautiful Struggle



Amongst the legions who claim to “do it for the love” are a chosen few who place a higher premium on artistic authenticity than monetary gains and subsequently produce quality output deserving of major spotlight. Tanya Morgan’s story is one of hard work, dedication and unorthodox approaches towards reaching people who fell in love with Hip-Hop in its most captivating days of yore. The three man rap group has an undying penchant for creativity, having derived its moniker from the idealistic depiction of the woman Common painted on “I Used To Love H.E.R.” and cleverly putting their debut Moonlighting on promotional cassette tapes to coincide with the album’s plot of a tape being passed around and dismissed for not fitting within the closed minded parameters of consumer interests.

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Young H Radio Week 55 Episode 2

Musical Selections:
Jon Hope – The Most Important Song Of My Life
Lewis Taylor – Into You
The Co-Op – Don’t Know What It Is
Young Dro – House On Me
Black Milk – Mo Power
Uncut Raw – Throwback Sh*t
Rich Boy – What It Do
Common Sense – Real N*gga Quotes
TiRon feat Ayomari – My Wingman & Me
Black Spade – Her Perfume She Wore
Torae & Marco Polo – But Wait
U-N-I – Hammertime
Diz Gibran – Once Again
Chester French feat. Janelle Monae – Nerd Girl

Topic Of Discussion: Young H proves A Tribe Called Quest never fell off.

Pete Rock - Soul Survivor Documentary



Thanks to the homey Dart Adams here is a documentary celebrating the chocolate boy wonder/soul brother # 1. Highlights include footage from the recording of Soul Survivor featuring Prodigy, Cappadonna, Heavy D, Raekwon, Ghostface, Black Thought, MC Eiht and others (peep Rahzel's rendition of "The Creator").

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Doom - Born Like This Promo



Proof positive of why he's my second favorite MC of all time, to say I'm anticipating this album next month is a gross understatement.

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Company Flow's Funcrusher Plus in retrospect, 12 years later.




In 1997 I was a kid living in New York deeply entrenched into Hip-Hop, pretty much whatever the radio dictated is what was good. Between Bad Boy, Common, Tribe, De La, Wu-Tang, Capone & Noreaga, Jeru The Damaja, The Roots and others, whatever had that “east coast” sound is what I checked for. When The Source was still credible, I read about how Company Flow was redefining music as we knew it and wasn’t about to miss the boat. Always open-minded I headed to Fat Beats maybe two or three months after its release and bought the CD, ready for my mind to be blown. At the time, my 17 year old mind couldn’t comprehend it but I was pretentiously “open” in hopes that it would hit me, because after all anyone who really knew their shit was going crazy over this album (I’d come to learn a lot about how much weight critics actually hold over the years). In the end I only bumped it twice and I put it away for a rainy day, but I wouldn’t allow myself to accept that it had the slightest shred of wackness in it.

As Funcrusher Plus is about to be re-released this spring, I finally “get” the album if there’s anything to really get. The artists were pissed at the direction the culture was headed and went all the way left field, holding their nuts and giving the finger to the dreaded “industry” and it stands as a bold, angry statement that gave birth to the vermin known as “backpackers”. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it timeless (my personal views still don’t consider this a “classic” or something I would revisit multiple times yearly), but it’s pretty good when viewed in its proper capsule. I take no offense to isolating art that distinguishes the audience it’s intended for, but the off-putting part is (while perhaps unintentionally), this album set the tone for the all or nothing “the underground rules, the mainstream is bullshit” mentality still alive in the hearts of many today. I can certainly comprehend the need for something original that was dedicated to cultural preservation in light of the panic that Puff Daddy caused at the time, and I even understand how rappers who found cause for alarm had as much vitriol as this suite contains. I’m just glad I didn’t become a subterranean zombie, whereby I’ve always been able to think for myself and discern what sounds good to me from what doesn’t. More than anything, El-P, Bigg Jus and Mr. Len are to be commended for the infamous “Independent As Fuck” slogan that paved the way for many who would rise up through the ranks and stray from convention in getting their product out to the masses. In 2009 I recognize Company Flow’s staunch dedication to authenticity, the dagger-sharp lyrics and ingenuity of the whole package. But I’m not convinced that many of their biggest fanboys weren’t aboard merely because groupthink felt like the right thing to do as they took a united front and rebelled against the jiggy era.

DJ Burn One & Pill - 4180: The Prescription



Pill is a member of Killa Mike's Grind Time gang and my my homegirl's artist. I'm always skeptical about doing favors, but I'm actually impressed by this mixtape. He raps the same material as any street rapper, but his voice is all his own and his pen game is stronger than your run of the mill dude coming out of the South.

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