Hip Hop and Breakz

So we have a Deluxe Edition of what was already a strong, albeit short album from my favourite DJ and one of the dopest emcees in the game.  What make this a Deluxe Edition?  Well four extra tracks featuring some of the best Emcees in the game; Phonte, MF Doom, Logic, Joey BaDa$$ and (God Damn) Black Thought.  I think that certainly warrants the Deluxe Edition sticker.  But is it worth the extra buck or two? Track one is called "PRhyme" and clocks in at just under four minutes.  Its a slow track for Premier similar to Nas's "Second Childhood" rather than Premier's usual up tempo tracks.  The beat features a crisp set of drums and a nice cymbal.  There is a good baseline and a nice organ riff that comes in from time to time along what sounds like a harpsichord and pan pipes.  Royce is a very skilled wordsmith and he shows this throughout the track dropping metaphors and allegories throughout.  One of my favourite lines from Royce on th...

Ever since Premier and Royce teamed up for the classic 12" "Boom" fans have been clamouring for more collaborations from these two Hip Hop generals.  There have been a few joints paring these two up since "Boom" and they have been great tunes for the most part.  Now ten years after the release of that 12" we have an album from Primo and Royce, nine tracks all produced by DJ Premier.  There are some guests appearances from Common, Jay Electronica, Ab Soul, Mac Miller, Dwele, Killer Mike, Schoolboy Q and Slaughterhouse.  Although the album is entirely produced by DJ Premier he uses samples of live instruments and those live instruments are played by Adrian Younge, who you might remember produced "12 Reasons to die" album for Ghostface back in 2013.  The album is released on DJ Premier and Royce's own label PRhyme Records.  Not only is PRhyme the name of the label its also the name of the group that Premier and Royce make up. Track one is ...

Back in the 1997 when Eminem was first introduced to Royce da 5'9 Slim Shady decided this was a lyricist with who he could make some serious Hip-Hop and he was right.  He went onto work with Eminem on The Slim Shady LP but what most hardcore hip hop fans were waiting for was Royce to step to the mic on his own.  We heard him on the Grand Theft Auto III soundtrack on the track "I'm the King" which was produced by The Alchemist and it was a dope track.  A nice beat which allowed Royce to show off his skills.  However its impact was small when you compare it to his next single "Boom".  This 12" was released in 2000 and was destined to be a big club banger.  DJ Premier produced it and he did a superb job.  The track starts off with a clock ticking and then jumps into a fantastic strings sample before being joined by some signature Premier drums.  Royce kills it lyrically just check out this first verse I'm the verbal-spit Smith Wesson I unload ...

The year was 1997 and the Hip-Hop community had not heard from Gangstarr since their 1994 album "Hard to Earn".  An underground classic that had given us "Code of the Streets", "Mass appeal", " Suckas Need Bodyguards" and  "Now You're Mine" amongst other underground classics.  The Hip-Hop landscape had changed considerably between 1994 and 1997; the independent scene had grown, there was a new breed of conscious Hip-Hop emcees, bankable acts were losing their direction and producers were now more important than ever.  It was rare to see one producer craft an entire album for one act instead acts were cherry picking beats from the best producer's beat tapes in the hope of recreating another "Illmatic".  However more often than not it lead to disjointed albums that did not flow.  Jumping from one producer to another.  So many albums at that time featured a Premier joint, a Pete Rock joint, a West Coast joint, a Mobb Dee...

Fat Joe is back with a new album, the third in his Darkside series.  The first tack off this is the DJ Premier produced joint, Your Honour.  It features Action Bronson and its pretty dope.  Check the link below.

Mixtape Legend Tony Touch returns with his new Album The Piecemaker 3: Return of the 50 MCs.  The album features  Busta Rhymes, M.O.P, Sean Price, Black Thought, The LOX, Raekwon, Ghostface, Twista, Bun B, KRS-One, Fat Joe, Redman, N.O.R.E, and Eminen amongst others. Below is a link to the first track from the album produced by DJ Premier and featuring D-Stroy.  

This is the fourth studio album by Non Phixion member Ill Bill and is the follow up to the 2008 Hour of Reprisal.  Ill Bill has always been a hardcore underground emcee with impecable taste in producers and this album does not vary from that route.  In fact the album’s production credits could read as a who’s who Hardcore Hip-Hop’s best producers; DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Large Professor, El-P, Psycho Les of the Beatnuts and DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill.  The list of guests is pretty impressive too; Lil Fame of M.O.P., Jedi Mind Tricks, O.C., Cormega, Shabazz the Disciple and A-Trak. A small point though before I progress on with the review if you are easily offended by bad language, conspiracy theory’s and or hardcore Hip-hop beats then this album is not for you. The album kicks off with the Ill Bill produced intro, “What does it all mean?”.  This is very a typical Hip-Hop intro with vocal samples from government info records, old radio shows an...

When you have a core member of the Wu Tang Clan, Inspectah Deck joining forces with underground Hip-Hop stars 7L & Esoteric you know that you will be left with an album that will appeal to true underground heads.  But does Czarface live up to the expectations of the underground fan-base ?  For those that are unaware Czarface is the collaborative studio album from Inspectah Deck, 7L & Esoteric which features many serious Hip-Hop generals; Ghostface Killah, Oh No, Roc Marciano, Mr. Muthafuckin’ Exquire, Action Bronson, Cappadonna and Vinnie Paz.  The album is released on indie label Brick Records and is produced by 7L, Spada4 and DJ Premier.  It comes in at just over 46 minutes, is 14 tracks long and is available on vinyl (for true heads), CD and Download. The album starts off with a sinister sounding intro featuring interesting vocal samples and Deck telling us what plan is for this album.  This slips straight into the heavy “...

As part a groundbreaking project called RE:Generation which takes producers outside of the genre to work with artists from other genres has brought in DJ Premier to produce a classical track with Nas and the Berklee School of Music Orchestra. In addition to DJ Premier, the project, co-produced by the Grammys and directed by Amir Bar Lev (The Pat Tillman Story, My Child Can Paint That), brought in Pretty Lights, who did a country song with Leann Rimes and Ralph Stanley; the Crystal Method, who headed to Detroit to spend two days recording a R&B tune with Martha Reeves; and Mark Ronson, who teamed with Erykah Badu, members of the Dap Kings and Trombone Shorty for a jazz cut in New Orleans. DJ Premier was given Classical and began his immersion into the genre with Bruce Adolphe, a former classical music professor at Juilliard. They met at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music not far from DJ Premier’s home in NY. After learning about classical music theory, the inspirations of some of...

Dilated Peoples front man Evidence is back with the next 12" from his new album "Cats and Dogs". The track is called "You" and is produced by DJ Premier. Its a dope track which is slightly slower than your average Premier joint but it works well with Evidence's intricate lyrics and nice flow. The loop is a cool guitar sample with a vocal sample thrown in for good measure with Premier's trademarked scratches throughout the track. The new album drops on the 27th of September and the track listing can be seen below; 1. "The Liner Notes" (feat. Aloe Blacc) The Alchemist 2. "Strangers" Twiz the Beat Pro 3. "The Red Carpet" (feat. Raekwon & Ras Kass) The Alchemist 4. "It Wasn't Me" Rahki, Daniel "Danny Keyz" Tannenbaum 5. "I Don't Need Love" ...

A new DJ Premier produced Royce Da 59 track taken from his new album Success is certain. Nothing more to say really, hit the link for the download. Second Place

DJ premier, easily in my opinion the Best Hip Hop producer ever has finally given us what we have been asking for The Year Round Records Presents: Get used to Us album. The album features a whole host of underground Emcees and is produced by Premier part from two tracks; one produced by Show and the other by Brenks. Some of the tracks on the album have been heard before and some haven't. Check the track-list below 1. Blaq Poet-”Bang Dis !” 2. NYG’z-”Policy” 3. Nick Javas-”Opportunity Knoccs” 4. Khaleel-”Hot Flames” 5. Dynasty-”Epic Dynasty” 6. MC Eiht-”Fine By Me” – prod by – Brenks 7. Young Maylay-”Temptation” 8. Krs-One (f. Grand Puba)-”5%” 9. NYG’z (f. Lady Of Rage, Bumpy Knuckles, Royce da 5’9″) – “Ya Dayz R #’D” (NYGemix) 10. Joell Ortiz-”Sing Like Bilal” (Version 3)(Bonus Track) 11. Tef (f. Styles P)-”Married 2 The Game” 12. Nick Javas-”Not A Game” 13. Blaq Poet (f. MC Eiht, Young Maylay)-”Ain’t Nuttin Changed” (Remix) 14. Tef (f. Saigon, Papoose)-”Lifetime Membership” 15....

Heres a sick new joint from the Legendary Bun-B produced by another Legend DJ Premier taken from Bun-B's new album Trill OG which drops the 3rd of August. The track is called Let em Know and starts of with Bun-B paying homage to Guru. Premier gives Bun a sick beat and Bun provides some dope lyrics to accompany the dope beat. With lines like " First on your Baby Mom's Bucket list" you can see why Bun-B is a legend. The beat is mid tempo and features an orchestral strings loop and some impressive scratching from Premier. If you don't' have any Bun-B in your collection or any UGK then this is a good starting point but go back and grab some of those UGK albums soon. Check the link for the track it make not last long. In the right game

Queensbridge legend Cormega returns with a new album this October, Born and Raised. The album is set to drop on October the 20th and deserves a place in any self respecting real hip hop fan's collection. With production from Large Pro, Nottz, Havoc and two tracks from DJ Premier you know the beats will be dope. The album also features guest appearances from KRS ONE, Big Daddy Kane, PMD and Grand Puba on the track "Mega Fresh X" which has Red Alert on the cuts. Check the link below for one of the Premier tracks, "Make it clear" Mega and Primo

Back in 2001 Nas announced he would be releasing an album called Stillmatic and hip hop fans everywhere hoped that this would be the album to finally bring Nas back to his Illmatic form. Some of the ingredients from Illmatic were in place, Nas had once again enlisted DJ Premier, Large Professor and LES to supply beats. All of whom had laid down tracks for the original and undisputed classic Illmatic. However unlike Illmatic there was no sign of the other legendary producer who had contributed to the 1994 classic; Pete Rock. Fans eagerly awaited the album hoping that it would satisfy, refusing to be pessimistic after the lacklustre Nastradamus. Thats the thing with Nas hip hop fans always fall into the track of hoping he'll drop another classic but often the best we get is a decent 12" or two before being subjected to some Salaam Remi or even worse Trackmasterz. Needless to say Nas did his usual trick and gave us an album with a few dope tunes but essentially another disap...

The new Ludacris album drops on Monday and it looks like its going to be a dope album. Sure it has all the usual suspects that you would expect production and guest wise but it also has serious hip hop heavyweights on it; Common, Nas, Jay-Z, The Game with Premier producing the joint MVP. Which you can check out via the link below. Premier gives Luda a slightly slower beat then he usually dishes out but it works well with Luda's accent. The beat has some nice strings in it and Premiers trademark scratches work well throughout the tack. Luda has always been one of my favorite Southern rappers, he can drop braggadocio like nobody else combining arrogance with a blunt sense of humour and good story telling skills when needed. The album is called Theatre of the Mind and it drops on the 24th of November, do yourself a favor pick it up. The first Southern rapper on a Primo beat

We all know Fat Joe as the overweight DITC member who jumps from hip hop band wagon to hip hop band wagon pledging allegiance to whatever crew will have him. He has however dropped a good few dope tracks over the years working with producers like Premier, Finesse, Showbiz and the Beatnuts to mention a few. But it appears that in between dropping tracks with Ja Rule and Ashanti he's been popping over to North London to see Wenger's boys play a few games. A friend of mine sent me this picture taken at the old Arsenal stadium and either Fat Joe has been popping over to Highbury or he has a a twin, other Big Pun that is. I thought he may Represent the better North London Team, Spurs. Thanks for the picture Howard. Check the link below for one of Joe's finer moments with Premier. One day I went to visit my aunt and stuck up my cuz

What do you get when take Hip Hops best producer, a sick lyricist and a classic David Axelrod song ? You get Royce Da 59's new banger "Shake this". As you all know Royce is a dope Detroit lyricist who proved his skills in the same clubs that birthed Eminem in the mid to late 1990s. He dropped has number of dope 12"s, a few albums and mixtapes since then. However his best work has always been with Premier behind the boards and this track shows this again. Premier always gives Royce dope beats that allow him to show off his mic skills to their full extent and this track is no different. Its an up beat track that has Premier returning to his David Axelrod collection. The Axelrod track he samples is from his 1968 Capitol release "Songs of Innocence" album and is called "Holy Thursday". Premier has samples Axelrod numerous times in the past as have DJ Shadow, UNKLE, Pete Rock, Dre and many more. David Axelrod is a very talented Jazz, Funk and So...

Society is Brainwashed is the B Side to the first 12" single from the new Ill Bill album, The Hour of reprisal which drops on the 16 of September. The A Side is called I'm a Goon and is pretty dope but its the B Side that wins out on this piece of vinyl. Its a dark Premier produced banger that shows us that 2008 belongs to Premier. Ill Bill drops his usual drug stained conspiracy rhymes with ample skill over the Premier beat that sounds full of suspense and has some dope scratches and gunshots throughout. This track has me hyped for the album and I for one will be picking the album up when it drops. Non Phixion were dope and Bill has yet to disappoint. The album will feature production from Premier, Necro, Muggs and Moss among others. Bill has also managed to recruit some dope underground lyricists too; Raekwon, Vinnie Paz, Immortal Technique, B Real, Tech N9ne, Necro and Everlast. In addition to these guys theres alaso a rock element to the album with appearances from...