Jay Electronica - My World (Nas Salute)

Jay Electronica is the future, point blank.
If you dont trust my ear by now, maybe you'll trust that of Just Blaze.
Erykah Badu cosigns him as well.

Enjoy

Divine Mind - Good To Know

A gem that 99% of the world missed from the Shaman Works Family Files Vol. 1. I couldnt find a picture of the artists.

Download

Just how bad are the new Ja Rule & Jeru The Damaja albums?


Let’s face it, while I was never crazy about Ja, and Jeru’s first two albums were stellar (for this we can thank a man who bears the same moniker as the lead singer of Coldplay and the darker half of Kid n Play) but I think we can all agree that they’re past their respective primes in 2007.

I champion the underdogs, so I’d really like to see both of them drop solid releases. Ja has to prove 50 didn’t completely knock the wind from his sails, and Jeru is fighting to show the underground he deserves recognition more than a decade after “Come Clean” and “Ya Playin’ Yaself”.

Let’s go to the tape, if we will

Ja Rule : Love Is Pain – Oh wow if someone from Bone Thugs didn’t ghostwrite “Free” then this is a major bite, there are even parts that take the melody from “The Crossroads”. Curtis is sitting back having a good laugh right about now. Maybe if I was 18 some of this would sound good (“The Countdown” is alright but I’m grown). I wanted him to come with it, he didn’t even pick terribly interesting beats. I couldn’t sit through most of the songs completely, he’s still the gravelly voiced thug baller and that personality wore thin a long time ago. “All I Need” manages to jack the concept of 2Pac’s “Me & My Girlfriend” and it re-hashes the Method Man/Mary J. Blige hook. “New York Is Back” features Jadakiss and Fat Joe, but it sounds like a Southern track. He didn’t even attempt an honest track about coming back to the game after being counted out. There are a few club bangers on here though. On the scale of trash-mediocre-good-great-classic this registers between trash and mediocre

Jeru The Damaja : Still Rising – “Oh shit, it’s not even wack” © Dame Dash on Kanye’s “Last Call”. Dude can still rhyme, he was given a decent selection of beats. It’s not classic material, but it’s solid for a Jeru release in 2007. This song “Juss Buggin” has him rhyming like he’s on helium, who cares what he’s saying the beat is CRAZY. There are a lot of good song concepts from introspection to righteousness and history. This will be a sleeper for the year. I'm glad to see he isnt washed up and is still sharp.

Tragedy Khadafi - True Confessions

This is an oldie but goodie, from the days when hard New York music could be heard on the airwaves. The Luther Vandross enthusiast in me was crazy about the "Never Too Much" interpolation. If memory serves me right, this won 5 nights on Angie Martinez's Battle of The Beats (he even predicted it would happen on the song). This was a time when "my net worth is 4 mil" was considered a boast. Look for this blog to have a review of this documentary of Trag's life at some point in the near future.

Enjoy

Weezy Jefferson is on *Everything*

I dont know who's responsible for this, but I dare you to keep a straight face. If you listen close you'll hear that these are actual freestyles, making it look like everyone's (least) favorite oversaturated rapper might not be as great as he claims. Dwayne Carter isnt really this simple with his, but he isnt much more complex either.

(For the record I'm a fan when he spits without the extra theatrics of different languages, voices and thoughtless punchlines. Given his recent track record, I can stomach him about 40-50% of the time nowadays.)

Enjoy - Drought 4: I Am On Everything