Best Beats of 2008 - Girls Around The World (Lloyd produced by Big Reese & Jasper)

Lloyd has impressed me with his latest album. I was ready to write him off as just another young Usher/Omarion/Chris Brown clone, but he’s really stepped up to use a whole different flavour on his new album. Better yet, he’s managed to come up with one track that will keep everyone happy.

How could you go wrong with a deadly combination of Mr ‘Of Course I’ll Spit on Your Track’ Lil Wayne, Lloyd himself and a track using Rakim and Eric B’s Paid in Full as a sample. With that instantly recognisable repetitive beat in the background, combined with fitting high-notes vocals from Lloyd, ‘Girls Around the World’ has what it takes to be a long lasting hit. It’s even been released with a superb Hype Williams directed video; so finally the ignorant ones can perhaps learn a little something about the past whilst jiving to the present.

What more can I say? Big Reese & Jasper have such a wealth of experience, and using Rakim as a sample was a sure way to get everyone on their old school tip into Lloyd’s new single, but was still relevant enough not to alienate his regular fan base. Amazing.

Lloyd - Girls Around The World (feat. Lil Wayne)
Uploaded by DjFreakazoid

Best Beats of 2008 - Angel (The Game feat. Common produced by Kanye West)

I don’t care what people say, L.A.X was a dope album and was blessed with some awesome production to boot. However one track simply shone through and deserved to be held on a totally different (and higher) pedal stool than the rest of the album. Fast-forward to Angel and you’ll see what I mean.

Surely eyebrows must have been raised when chronic name-dropper Game recruited conscious Common to assist him on a track, but with one of Kanye’s finest efforts behind the boards, the end result has been spectacular. Mr. West has dropped a bomb that allows Common to use his laid-back soulful flow, but pumps enough bass and synthesizer to keep the West Coast faithful at bay. And that’s what makes this track so spectacular. Not only is it a top quality effort, I could imagine it fitting so many other artists due to its super wide appeal.

I am still struggling to comprehend why this hasn’t been released as an official single yet, because it’s got what it takes to be something very special. Unfortunately, in the days where we seem to always look for something to bump in a club, Angel will no doubt get overlooked by the mainstream and baby-fans. A hidden gem.

Below, for your listening pleasure...

Best Beats of 2008 - That White (Fat Joe produced by Dj Premier)

You know what? It doesn’t even matter who spits on this. It doesn’t matter what it’s called, or what album it’s featured on. For all I care, this could be a bonus track on a Flo-rida album and it would still send the same shiver down my spine. Damn Premo, you’ve done it again!

Fat Joe’s album was actually pretty decent, seeing as he was getting shitted on by 50 at the time (who made a whole mixtape against him), whilst being heavily criticized for trying to hard to fit the Southern niche, and leaving his New York following behind. Elephant in the Room was blessed with some decent performances, that allowed us to see the old Joe; there were also some tunes that made us think maybe it’s time he put up the mic... 

DJ Premier has managed to use his infamous sample laced over an ‘oh so easy to flow too’ beat, leaving the foundations for any half-decent rapper to spit his game. Seriously speaking, I reckon even the most tired rappers would be inspired if they were given 10 Premo tracks to make an album out of.

So this is just fire! It’s hard not to bop your head to this, I can’t believe “I Won’t Tell” got a video and this didn’t, definitely something that will make most Joey fans go WTF!? Stop chasing radio spins Mr. Crack and stick to what you do best!

Track below...

New! Freeway "Start Wildin"

What's going on with Free?? Is he taking rap steroids or something??! I mean, he's always been pretty dope since he first dropped but recently he's been churning out banger after banger...definitely fitting in with the festivities!!

At the moment, his rhymes are more on point than a scoreboard and over this e-double beat they flow like they're skating on ice! Over the last couple of months he's brought out at least 5 hot new tracks, and the question comes begging....when's the new full length dropping Free??

Check it out...

New! Billy Danze Ft. Busta Rhymes "Undescribable"

Man, we're loving the vibe of this beat! And it's so good to hear something decent from part of the Mash Out Posse 'cause, i gotta be honest, recently MOP havent really released anything up to the standards of their classic material!

Busta represents as always on this track (although he could've done better in all fairness). But what if Billy had got one of the southern monsters on this? I can definitely picture 8ball & MJG, Bun B or 'Face spitting over this beat and killing it!!

 

I don't know about you but I can't wait for the new MOP album to drop, expectations are always so high with any release coming from the Brownsville duo. 'The Foundation' should be released in 2009 and apparently will feature production from DJ Premier, Statik Selektah, The Alchemist, Sha Money XL, and Jake One! Stay tuned!!

And check it out below...

Best Beats of 2008 - Universal Mind Control (Common produced by Neptunes)

Is it just me or do the Neptunes seem to get overlooked these days, despite constantly producing bangers? 

Common’s album, Universal Mind Control had a strange mix of club-ready tracks blended with Common’s familiar territory of conscious and deep cuts. Personally, the title single did it for me. Yes, Common sounds out of place on this up-tempo beat. Yes, Common could not do it justice. And yes, it no doubt alienated the hard-core Common faithful who would have raised their eyebrows when hearing this. But nevertheless, flaws aside, Universal Mind Control is a track you could love even with Tony Yayo in the booth. Clearly inspired by Afrika Bombaataa’s “Planet Rock”, the track is bouncy and you’d be hard pressed not to stop moving some part of your body when listening to this. 

Neptunes absolutely smashed it with this, but unfortunately it got into the hands of the wrong MC. It’s not that Common sounds bad, it’s just he couldn’t do it justice. I reckon this is one of those pieces that the Neptunes should’ve kept for someone else, or better yet, used it for themselves. A banger that’s been kept alive thanks to its club appeal, but you get the feeling it would have been so much bigger with someone slightly more energetic...

Check it out below

Best Beats of 2008 - A Milli (Lil'Wayne produced by Bangladesh)

Image Credit

2008 has been a challenging year, but no matter what, the hip hop world keeps bringing out non stop banging beats for us all.

We love that, and that's why our friend KNL has looked at the best beats to have blessed our stereo speakers in 2008...ready for the ride?

A Milli - Lil'Wayne produced by Bangladesh

Hate it or love it, you couldn’t escape hearing this shit. Sampled from a little known Vampire Mix of a Tribe track called “I Left My Wallet in El Segundo”, Bangladesh hit the jackpot with a repetitive, screwed-up voice laced on a bass-heavy beat, readymade for any rapper to turn into a hit. Almost a shame that Lil Wayne had to get his child-glove sized fingers on it first…

Bangladesh got his big break in 2000 with the massive hit single ‘What’s Your Fantasy” by Ludacris. Since then, we’ve seen him produce tracks for Kelis, Petey Pablo, 8Ball & MJG and Fabulous. But Bangladesh undoubtedly caused the biggest buzz of his career when he passed on the now legendary ‘A Milli’ beat to the man of the moment Lil Wayne this year, gracing him with an incredibly popular club hit and arguably the most buzzing track of the year.

What’s followed is arguably one of the craziest bandwagon frenzies we’ve ever seen, with Jay-Z, Cassidy, Jadakiss, Corey Guns, Lil Mama, LL, Gillie Da Kid, Cyserro and even Chris Brown and Ne-Yo jumping on Bangladesh’s finest. Ne-Yo took it one step further by releasing it as an official single with a video. I haven’t seen people get so excited over one instrumental since Busta dropped ‘Touch It’!

Check it out below...

EPMD Art Project

You may think we have an EPMD obsession here at the rap buzz. And yes, we kind of do (who wouldn't...!?) but this is a very interesting project.

A group of top world urban artists has come together to create works inspired by EPMD. The canvases and prints will be auctioned off at various events across the US and all proceeds will go to Brooklyn New York-based charity Groundswell Community Mural Project. The original Haze created EPMD logo will remain the symbol of the group but this gives other artists a chance to add their visual intepretation to the image of the legendary duo. Checkout more images at the project blog.

What a great idea we say. Getting fans to design album covers or other artist materials is not necessarily new, but it's nevertheless a really cool thing to do. It's good to see a legendary hip hop group getting involved in this and also taking the extra step of giving all proceeds to charity. 

Well done Erick and Parish, hope to see even more good stuff in 2009!

The RZA - Afro Samurai: Resurrection

Ah this is going to be cool...this is going to knock us out of our chairs...RZA taking care of soundtrack production duties again on series 2 of probably the best Japanese anime in the world, featuring collaborations with Sly Stone, members of the Wu, Kool G Rap and Rah Digga. Damn...

Out on Jan 27th, series 2 soundtrack tracklisting and "Who da Man" from the 2007 series 1 soundtrack below. If this is anything to go by, "Afro Samurai: Resurrection" will blow us away.

1.   Combat (Afro Season II Open Theme) - RZA; P. Dot

2.   You Already Know - Kool G Rap; Inspectah Deck; Suga Bang

3.   Blood Thicker Than Mud "Family Affair" - Reverand William Burke; Sly Stone; Stone Mecca

4.   Whar - Kool G Rap; Ghostface Killah; Tash Mahogany; RZA

5.   Girl Samurai Lullaby - Rah Digga; Stone Mecca

6.   Fight for You - Thea Van Seijen

7.   Bitch Gonna Get Ya' - Rah Digga

8.   Bloody Days Bloody Nights - Prodgical Sunn; Thea Van Siejen

9.   Kill Kill Kill - Rugged Monk

10. Nappy Afro - Boy Jones

11. Bloody Samurai - Black Knights; Dexter Wiggles; Thea Van Seijen

12. Dead Birds - Killah Priest; Prodgical Sunn; Shavo

13. Arch Nemesis - Ace; Moe Rock

14. Brother's Keeper - Reverand William Burke; The RZA; Infinite

15. Yellow Jackets - Ace; Moe Rock

16. Take the Sword pt. III - 60 Second Assassin; Leggezin; Crisi; Christ Bearer; Rugged Monk; Tré Irie; Kinetic; Reverand William Burks; Bobby Digital

17. Number One Samurai (Afro Season II Outro) - The RZA ; 9th Prince

Snoop Dogg - Xmas...

Ehm...right

J Black feat Snoop "Xmas" released exclusively on MySpace music, check it out here

This is the first single from the upcoming holiday album, "Snoop Dogg presents Christmas in tha Dogg House".

While it's undeniably cool that the single has been released as a preview on MySpace, we're not quite so sure about the track. J Black does his thing singing about the "lovely xmas feeling" on a synth and sax "relax me while I sip my mulled wine" beat...but Snoop rapping (in the last 30 seconds of the track) about Santa and xmas trees??

Maybe we're bad people and we don't get this xmas hip hop stuff...but this ain't the mf'ing snoop we have loved since 93...!

Oh well, lets wait for Christmas in tha Dogg House. It'll also feature the Dogg Pound, and Kurupt wearing a red nose...

One love  ;-)

EPMD - We Mean Business Free Sampler

Oh yes they're back. Rapping from the crowd into Erick Sermon's mic while the duo were performing "Da Joint" was probably a monumentally life changing experience for us young enthusiastic bboyz (ah, memory lane).

Anyhow, album came out on the 9th of Dec. Check out the sampler (right click and save as), an initial listen definitely promises hotness. There's still that Erick Sermon raw funk in the beats and in 2009 they still sound crazy fresh. Would've been tempting for them to go down the fashionable electro/dance rap/rnb route, but the E has kept it more than real. Call us nostalgic (yes, we grew up in the 80's) but if you miss the 90's sound with an EPMD twist, this album is out there waiting for you.

Download the full sampler now, or check out Yo feat. Redman below

Emeritus - Face is back!

Finally the new Scarface album has dropped!

Although not a classic like ‘The Untouchable’ or ‘The Fix’, Scarface stays on point throughout the offering with tight rhymes and his perfect flow. Tracks like ‘Can’t Get Right’, ‘Still Here’, ‘It’s Not A Game’, ‘High Note,’ and ‘We Need You’ stand out from the rest in my opinion, especially the beats.

Overall ‘Face once again produces another good effort and it’s definitely a creeper, growing on me after each listen. One thing’s for sure, if he’s really gonna stick to his decision to retire then the game has lost another great one…but lets hope he’ll do a Jay-z on us!

The Rap Buzz is here

The moment has arrived...

After weeks of intense late night planning, a child is born

Welcome to the only hip hop blog out there that will NOT cover all the news, but will instead only talk about the important stuff every informed bboy and bgirl needs to know about. This includes album reviews, exclusive previews, intelligent articles and the dopest news.

And who is going to write this? The beatmakers over at LaCantinaProductions.com and some cool friends we have picked up on the way...

Ready? Let's go