There are days when you just can't seem to figure out what you're doing with your life or where you're going, but you know where you want to be... or at least you think that you do. The first video below is for all you daydreamers thinking about making it to the "big time" and the second video is for all my people who realize that they're already there because they are striving everyday for something that they believe in. "We've been on this trip with no end station, seems hopeless, but this is the destination". Life's a journey, so let the music convince you that you're already living the dream. And if you're not yet, then what are you waiting for?
Do you know what it's like to have an addiction? If you do, then you'll know that you can try to quit cold turkey, but once you get that craving and that first hit, it's full on relapse. For me, the past 48 hours have been nothing short of a hip hop bender. The start of 2011 had brought me such a busy work schedule that I was forced to put all of my new music listening and downloading on the back burner and haven't posted new music since #NewMusicFriday - 12/24/10(where I recap the best new hip hop leaks each week and some random finds along the way). However, consider this post my very strong attempt to catch up on 10 weeks of hip hop in 2 days by bringing you 100 fresh new songs just in time for Mardi Gras!
In all honesty, you will not find another hip hop blog with a recap like this. Most blogs give you one song per post and more often than not, it sucks. Here are 100 tracks new hand-picked tracks from the well known to the up-and-coming MC's and producers. This is proof that hip hop is thriving well in 2011. All the below songs listed here were offered for free on referring websites and appear below in alphabetical order. Stream all the songs as a single playlist below or download the whole bunch for your collection at the 3 links below. And if you love it, help me keep real hip hop alive and support HeadPhoneHome.com by sharing this post and my vision.
I have a mixtape to share with you that is extremely personal and dear to my heart. The above is a picture of the actual cassette tape on which this mix resides and the paper below is the handwritten tracklist given to me for my 14th birthday by one of my best friends at the time, Pete. I can just imagine it now; Pete recording this mix in his room hitting pause-record on his boombox transferring each song individually from CD to blank cassette tape. This was around the last time cassette's were used for making mixtapes.
Pete was WAYYY ahead of the curve with his taste in hip hop at the age of 14. He was listening to the classics and yet, back then, many weren't even considered classics yet. You can thank Pete for being my musical mentor over a decade ago, shaping me to be the obsessed hip hop junkie that I am today. His influence drips through every track that I post on HeadPhoneHome and his two Technics 1200 turntables now reside in my basement and serve as a reminder that hip hop lives through those that keep it alive. The phenomenal mixtape below has not been taken off the cassette, but rather I have compiled all the digital versions for your enhanced listening pleasure.
01 De La Soul - D.A.I.S.Y. Age
02 Eric B. & Rakim - Move The Crowd
03 De La Soul - Oodles Of O's
04 Gang Starr - Above The Clouds Ft. Inspectah Deck
05 Notorious B.I.G. - Unbelievable
06 Common - I Used To Love H.E.R.
07 The Pharcyde - Return Of The B-Boy
08 Eric B. & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit 'em 09 High & Mighty - BBoy Document '99 Ft. Skillz & Mos Def
10 Dr. Octagon - Earth People
11 Company Flow - Bad Touch Example
12 Public Enemy - Bring The Noise 13 Organized Konfusion - Sin
14 Nas - N.Y. State Of Mind
15 Dr. Dooom - I Run Rap 16 Thirstin Howl III - Brooklyn Hard Rock Ft. Unique London
17 Dr. Octagon - Dr. Octagon 18 Company Flow - Info Kill II
19 Eric B. & Rakim - Lyrics Of Fury
20 Company Flow - Tragedy Of War
Being in the music industry sometimes blinds you to the reason why you got into it in the first place. It's all about the music and the people united by it. Today I asked on Facebook, "Anyone want some new hip hop?". The first response was from one of my best friends that I haven't spoken to in a while. He requested, "Something that'll pump me up". So here you go: a 20 track mix of all relatively new songs entitled "The Pump UP". This is sure to keep you going from the A.M. through the P.M. Use this music to help push yourself at the gym or to run red lights while cruising down the block.
It's been nearly 1 month since I've posted new music. I guess I just had to take some time away to figure out where my priorities lie. Music will always be that inescapable #1. Perhaps the only thing in the world that I can't live without (excluding food and water). That being said, the below is the best of the best. It was a sign for me to get off my ass and post this. New videos and new music from my favorite artist this past year - MACKLEMORE and his faithful producer Ryan Lewis. Mack will be huge - mark my words.
A track about coveting sneakers and the traps of materialism. "Wings" is the first leak off the full length Mack & Lewis album coming not soon enough. I CAN'T WAIT!
Oh yeah, and there are two new Macklemore videos that dropped recently below. 1) "Irish Celebration", the smash Irish pride drinking anthem released in late 2009 on The VS. EP and 2) "My Oh My", a tribute song to and catch phrase of the late Seattle Mariners announcer Dave Niehaus (featured in my last post).
So it's Christmas Eve 2010 and I've got some presents for you... Yup, that's right - It's this week's edition of #NewMusicFriday! (the best new hip hop singles from the past week along with album recommendations and videos). Highlights this week include an incredible single from Seattle rapper Macklemore and his talented producer Ryan Lewis about a baseball announcer from their city "The Town". Also, check out "I Did It To Myself" by Ryu with a beat by Apathy that conjures visions of Charlie Brown Christmas. Very appropriate for this time of year. Stream the 9 songs below or download the whole bunch at the link up top. There's so much good hip hop coming out these days - you just have to know where to look to find it. The rappers and producers that I feature on #NewMusicFriday are keeping the genre alive and healthy. Bump this music and come back every week!
Video SonReal - I Tried (Video)
-Canadian MC SonReal rapping over Asher Roth's "I Love College" beat - trying to wrap his head around the importance of individuality in rap music.
Enjoy the music. Hope to see you again soon (peep last week's #NewMusicFriday here). There might just be some best-of-the-year lists from yours truly next week...
It's been another fantastic week for hip hop, as you can tell by listening to the #NewMusicFriday top 9 songs of the week below (or hit the link above to download all of them). I've gone through about 100 songs, albums, and videos this week to bring you the below selections, so you know my picks are about quality hip hop over quantity. On an extremely important tip: Ghostface Killah's new album Apollo Kids just leaked on the internet, but if you're looking for a Christmas present for the real hip hop fan in your life - this is it! (Drops December 21st). You definitely need to have this under the tree on Christmas morning and need to be playing it when the relatives arrive. Peep "The Wallabee Kingpin"in the video below for some classic Ghostface.
In the past three weeks, I have independently arrived at the name Brown Bag AllStars four separate times (1 album, 2 EP's, and 1 incredibly produced track - all of which are great). So how is it possible that I had never heard of this underground hip hop group before?! I have absolutely no idea, but lucky for us, these guys have been keeping real hip hop alive in 2010 with their newest releases below. Don't sleep on any of this music!
The Brown Bag AllStars consist of Soul Khan, TheAudible Doctor, J57, Koncept, DJ Goo Punch, DJ E Holla, and Deejay Element who all met each other while working at the legendary hip hop record store Fat Beats NYC (now R.I.P.)
My introduction to the Brown Bag AllStars started with a battle rapper named Soul Khan. If you have never seen a hip hop battle, then today is your lucky day. The below is one hell of an introduction to both Soul Khan and the important (yet dying) tradition of the MC battle. His delivery and punchlines are INSANE. Stand back or you might get a black eye.
So it's my favorite day of the week, and hopefully yours too... #NewMusicFriday! The fact that I can provide you about 10 new incredible hip hop songs a week should give you an idea that the hip hop genre that was claimed to be dead by Nas is actually alive and well. Actually, the term "dead" really is inaccurate and oversimplified and I'm surprised that a rapper as "conscious" as Nas would make that claim. It might even be somewhat inaccurate to say that hip hop has been "misguided" and wrongly portrayed by the media. I'm starting to believe there's something even bigger happening here. Never before has there been a musical genre so bifurcated amongst its own that it's beginning to feel as though mainstream hip hop and underground hip hop are two giant land masses slowly separating from continental drift. I'm really advocating for this separation, but it's not happening fast enough. I'm tired of calling what's played on the radio these days "Hip Hop". I want there to be a CIVIL WAR and get this split over with. Consider this a post a declaration of a "Hip Hop House Divided". If you are with me then fucking take a stand and lead your friends on a journey to discovering what real hip hop means by sharing this post and turn off the damn radio. Thanks and I look forward to having you back next week. Until then, enjoy the fantastic music from the past week below.
Another #NewMusicFriday for my few, but dedicated followers. Just hit play on the songs below and get acquainted with some underground gems. There's a lot of new talent on the scene these days so you best get with the times. Here are my highlights from this past week in Hip Hop. Use these songs to impress friends who have absolutely no knowledge of decent hip hop music. Oh yeah, and check out last week's #NewMusicFriday - 11/26/10 edition here in case you missed it. Download the 9 songs below at the link up top and also check out the video and album sections for new items that I've found in the past week. You might just find something you like and your iPod will definitely thank you.
I wanna talk to you about a rapper who has been on my radar for over two years now. This man would be Joell Ortiz who released his first studio album in 2007 called The Brick: Bodega Chronicles. Although the album didn't scream classic, it was a solid album and it had what I believe to be one of the best odes to the golden age of hip hop ever. This song titled "Hip Hop" (video below), that I featured on my most recent Filet-o-Mix CD: Recapturing That Feeling, seeps with passion from every line. Although lyrically it might not focus exclusively on the golden era, Joell gives you the "feeling" of what it was like back in the good ol' days. No corny gimmicks, no fake gangsters - just real talk. If you want to understand the soul of what hip hop really means, you'll digest the song below in all of it's reminiscing braggadocio. It truly captures the spirit of that time period (early to mid 90's).
When I first heard this song, I was sure Joell would be an underground star. His passion is incredible, his delivery is top notch, and his heart is in it. I'm telling you, 90% of rappers these days don't have any of those three qualities. They just rhyme over a beat and no one could care less about what they're saying. However, I see Joell being able to crossover and have more mass appeal by hybridizing mainstream and underground hip hop. For example, check his newest video below which is a story about the average man's struggle with a beautiful R&B chorus by his sometimes partner-in-music, Novel. I'm really in love with this damn song.
By listening to the last two songs, you can tell that Joell's style is extremely versatile, yet manages to remain sincere even when switching between being both pompous and humble. Recently, Joell has made headlines as 1/4th of the hip hop supergroup Slaughterhouse, which also includes lyrical powerhouses Royce Da 5'9", Joe Budden, & Crooked I. They are in talks right now to sign to Eminem's label Shady Records, which would be an awesome move for the group.
If you are loving these two songs, I suggest you pick up a copy of Joell Ortiz's new album Free Agent, which drops sometime in 2011. The album was slated to be released today and the songs used to be up for preview on Amazon.com, but were taken down this morning (and I must say they sounded good!). Both the song "Night Train" (above) and the song below "Sing Like Bilal" are on Free Agent so you know it's gonna be a hot one. And if you already know Joell Ortiz then this is for you... YAOOOOOOWA!!
In case you're just joining in on the #NewMusicFriday trend @HeadPhoneHOME, I do a recap of the best new rap singles released from the past week. It's kinda like the top 10 plays on ESPN's SportsCenter, but I do it for new hip hop music. You can stream the new songs below or download the whole bunch at the link above. Highlights include a new leak from Kanye West & Jay-Z's upcoming "Watch The Throne" album, a new collab between Eminem & Royce Da 5'9", some dope smooth production by Budo, Deacon The Villain, Dela, Muneshine, and a beautiful song by a new artist Parker called "Sky Music". With all this great hip hop, you're bound to find something that speaks to your tastes whether underground or commercial. It's all certified dope music, so open your ears and press play...
Also, below are the new albums that I've downloaded this week. Check them out if you want to further your hip hop education. And check out last week's #NewMusicFriday - 11/19 Edition here for more bangers.
Latest Hip Hop Events Red Bull Big Tune - Finals in Chicago
-Red Bull Big Tune is a beat battle between the nation's best up-and-coming hip hop producers. Contestants go head to head playing songs and the crowd decides who moves on to the next round for the best hip hop producer in America. The winner of this year's competition (last week) was 14KT from Ypsilanti, MI. He definitely is one of the best producers out there. I will be doing a new post on him soon, but until then, check out my last post on 14KT here.
Boy do I have some HEAT for you this week!!! Stream the below songs (download individually by right clicking and saving them) OR download the whole bunch by hitting the download link above (recommended). New joints this week are by 1) Established artists Dr. Dre, Eminem, Royce Da 5'9", Kanye West, Talib Kweli 2) Soon to be mainstream up and comers Wiz Khalifa, Jay Electronica, Consequence 3) Underground heavyweights Zion-I, Termanology, Sabzi, Alchemist, Oh No and 4) Up and coming underground artists Sol, John Regan, IMAKEMADBEATS, John Public, and Laws. There's truly something for everybody here. All great hip hop. All approved by the ears of yours truly. Dig in while it's hot and peep my newest album recommendations below these songs.
Update: Ok, so I changed my philosophy about #NewMusicFriday. Originally, I was just gonna put up songs that came out ONLY this past week, but I realized something - you dont really care that they ALL came out in the past week do you? You care about GREAT HIP HOP. So now I will use #NewMusicFriday to document my own personal journey of music discovery. This means putting up both the newest good singles that have leaked from the past week AND all the great ones that I find in the process (I will only select singles, not selections from albums as in my Filet-o-Mix CD's). I will take you on a ride and let you hear what I hear. You will start to realize just how much hip hop music I'm up on. This might scare you, but I'm willing to take that risk. Don't believe me? See below for details... I'm addicted to good hip hop.
Albums That I've Downloaded In The Past Week (and that I'm in the process of listening to)
J. Cole - Friday Night Lights (2010)
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
Yelawolf - Trunk Muzik 0-60 (2010)
Von Pea - Pea's Gotta Have It (2010)
Masta Killa Presents - The Next Chamber (2010)
UGK - 4 Life (2009)
Termanology & Statik Selektah - The 1982 Free EP (2010)
Montage One - Montageone.Com 10.6.2 OGX (2010)
Mick Boogie - 93 TIL INFINITY Mixtape (2010)
LMNO - Tripping On This Journey (2010)
Laws & DJ Don Cannon - 4:57 PM (2010)
Laws - 5:01 Overtime (2010)
J-Live - Undivided Attention EP (2010)
Eligh - Grey Cow (2010)
DJ Babu - Duck Season Vol. 3 (2008)
Cee-Lo Green - The Lady Killer (2010)
Buckwild Presents EP (2010)
John Regan - Sorry I'm Late (2010)
Celph Titled & Buckwild - Nineteen Ninety Now (2010)
J. Cole - The Warm Up (2009)
Gangrene (Alchemist & Oh No) – Gutter Water (2010)
The Foreign Exchange - Authenticity (2010)
The Left - Gas Leaks EP (2010)
I've decided not to provide all the links to download these, but I can tell you that some of these albums will get their own individual post from me. Some of them I already know will.
If I still bought music, I'd be dead broke right now. So to the artists whose music I steal, know this - I go to your shows and I promote your music to others. Hope this makes up for my piracy in some way...
So I just wrote out HeadPhoneHome's mission statement alongside 1) my motivations for creating this site and 2) how HeadPhoneHOME is different from other hip hop blogs. In that page, I mention that one of the ways that this site is different is because I do not try to put up EVERY new release / leak on the internet like most popular hip hop sites such as 2dopeboyz, Nah Right, Rap Radar, etc. These sites are only meant to drive a high volume of web traffic and thus sacrifice quality for quantity.
That being said, on HeadPhoneHome I will definitely NOT do this. However, I am going to start putting together a weekly smattering of good new releases every Friday that come out over the past week. I only want to bring you the quality ones, so if you find something dope - please email it to me at HeadPhoneHome@gmail.com or let me know if I missed anything major.
Albums
1) Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
-Just leaked. No point in putting up a download link as they are being taken down as fast as they are going up. Search FilesTube for one.
2) J. Cole - Friday Night Lights
-Being released from the artists website today at dreamvillain.net. Download was so popular that it crashed his website tonight.
3) J-Live - Undivided Attention EP [download]
4) Eligh - Grey Cow [download]
It's been too long since I've brought a gem to your attention, so I thought I'd drop some 14KT production gold on that ass. This song by the group Now On (lower pic) and produced by 14KT (top pic) has occupied my brain waves for the past 6 months. Everything about this song is hip hop perfection. Let me break it down for you while you listen.
Production: 14KT has some of the ILLEST beats around. So if you've been sleeping, it's time to wake up. Believe me, you'll want to stream his whole discography HERE after listening to this song. (Also peep some Red Bull Big Tune footage of him in the video below). From the abrupt start, to the jazzy intro, to the first snare and snap of the high-hat, you can tell something is about to go down here. The drums seem to preside over the muddled background sample and a metronomic head nod is sure to ensue. But there are so many subtleties in the beat that are easy to overlook. Listen carefully and you'll hear all the random background horns, chimes, and whispers in the chorus. 14KT said he made his "Random Horns Remix" in 15 minutes, which was a record for him. I guess sometimes when a genius gets a wave of inspiration, it doesn't take much time for them to create a masterpiece. According to 14KT, the random horns at the end of this song were taken from one of the songs that he produced for Buff1 in '06 called "Pretty Baby" (peep it below - it has been my newest favorite song for the last week).
Chorus: The oh so important hook. Something that can separate a good song from an amazing song and in this case we have Aloe Blacc to the rescue. The man who brought you the FUCKING phenomenal song "I Need A Dollar" kills this chorus, which is only on the remix version. With a catchy chorus like this, why aren't they playing this on the radio?!?! If you don't know Aloe Blacc, watch the video below and thank me later. I know you will.
Lyrics: It really wasn't until around the 10th time I listened to this song that I even processed one word of the lyrics (besides the chorus). This happened for two reasons. 1) The beat was so amazing & 2) In most rap songs the lyrics are adapted to fit the beat, but in remixes the beat is adapted for the lyrics, often making them less prominent and improperly accented. This often is annoying, however if done properly, is extremely appealing since you must listen more actively to the song to understand the words. In this case, the lyrics happen to be worth every second of your time and give the song its real charm. This song is about reminiscing on an old lover and, as you know, I'm a sucker for those songs (Remember my first mixtape Love: The Most Dangerous Game). I decided to take the time to write up the lyrics to this song because I wanted the full love story and could not seem to put everything together without writing it out. I have posted these below. Enjoy your hip hop!
-Chorus-
I never thought that it would end
Wonder how we are gonna be just friends
And I don't know what I'm gonna do
I never found another quite like you
The blue gloom shaded my room for many moons
I stay zooted, creating tunes stating truth
Letting pain make moves with the bass and the boom
Groove shaking my walls, who's breaking my falls?
Pacing the halls, heart racing to stall while awaiting your calls, I was faced with it all
No hatred involved, I'm embracing your touch like the craving it was, still tasting your love
I wasted the days in a daze just tracing your face and your name on the page, what the fuck!
Crazy, a goner, chasing my thoughts of how we could talk of days that were awesome
I laid with you often, you offset the drama
Softened my rock-hard problem of karma
You're saying you're smarter, walking for caution and saving the loss of your favorite friend. Fuck That.
-Chorus-
Your love moved me, I was at home in your arms
So strung you carried my insecurities along
Broke 'em down to basics, you were my foundation
Placing me adjacent to the pain I was facing
Made love by the river, on the shore we'd lay
Climax, closed eyes, together we'd pray
Searching for an understanding in a time so grey
Dreaming of a place far away and what it would take - to achieve you believe when the others was blind
But in time you changed mind, hill too hard to climb
Stop reaching for the ceiling like it's holding back
I pulled my back working hard, so ain't no stopping my tracks
We crashed, smashed windshield and totaled us out
Review, I'm still in love and always will no doubt
Out with the dreams far away, will always claim, the love of my life you know the answer name, and that's real.
Makes me wanna go, makes me wanna go back
Makes me wanna go, makes me wanna go back
Makes me wanna go, makes me wanna go back
Makes me wanna goooooo, ohhohhohh
-Chorus-
I've been making hip hop mixtapes since pressing the record button on my tape deck to catch some 2Pac on the radio. Ah, those were the days. I remember it like it was yesterday. Fast forward about 5 years. Now computers have CD burners and I'm downloading mp3's and turning out mixes for myself and friends (Remember Napster in its heyday and how good it was?). What am I getting at? Well now it's 2010 and downloading singles seems to be the most popular way that we consume music these days (No more satisfaction of sifting through the shitty tracks on an album just to find the few true gems). But seriously, don't you miss the mix CD's you used to share with friends? In my eyes, the mix CD is still king even though the compact disc is essentially a dead format. Why you may ask then do I care so much about making Filet-o-Mix CD's if I know that the format is dead? Several reasons:
1) It's about the nostalgia factor that a mixtape evokes (Who doesn't love a good throwback?)
2) It's about creating a memorable, replayable, and permanent body of work
3) It's about taking the listener on an hour long journey instead of a 4 minute one. It's about me being able to convey my thoughts and feelings to you through the songs I pick and the order I put them in.
I feel that the next generation of iPod shufflers will lose touch with this last concept because the album is becoming less and less important as the technology shifts to an all digital format. Thus, since we no longer consume albums like we used to because much of albums these days is just filler, I have decided to put together no-filler mixtapes to acomplish what the "album" can no longer do. I'm taking a personal stand to keep the mixtape format alive by bringing back the feel of the old fashioned CD burner mixtape...
This picture defines an era to me
In honor of this concept, it's time to take you back to the good old days. Back to the time when I was just hitting my mixtape stride. It was 2004 in my senior year of high school when I decided to make my very first themed mix entitled "Dedicated To The Struggle", which I have put here on my hip hop blog for download six years later. This single mixtape essentially birthed the entire concept for my current series of "themed" Filet-o-Mixes (I have about 30 more in the works right now). This Filet-o-Mix might be #9 in the series, but it will always be the first one I ever created and the songs on it definitely stand the test of time (all classics). Now what's the mix about?
As you could probably guess, this mix is about the artists' hardships/struggles in life and the will it takes to overcome them with central themes such as death, drugs, violence, poverty, and other social issues. You don't have to personally relate to the content of these songs to appreciate their universal themes and the feelings they evoke. Songs like these are filled with emotion and wisdom and beg for you to question the deeper meaning of life. Ultimately, that's why I love hip hop so much and appreciate the artform as much as I do. Please listen to these songs with your whole mind, body, and soul. I guarantee you will see a different side of hip hop then the one you're used to. Keep good hip hop alive my headphone-homies and spread this gift of music on your social networks. You never know whose day it will make or life it will change...
Peace & Love,
Filet Of Sole
2Pac - "Keep Ya Head Up" --> This song is beyond classic
