Hip Hop and Breakz

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...

Damn two legends from different eras together on one track. This is a remix of the track NY is killing me from Gill Scott Heron's new album I'm new here with Nas dropping a couple verse alongside Gil Scott battle scarred vocals. The beat is quite raw and it works with both artists voices especially Gill's. Check the link for the file. Lord have Mercy NY is killing me

Heres a couple of Nas Joints for you QB heads out there. The first is called 'Be Worried' and is produced by Swizz Beats, a producer I don't really check for to be honest but this track isn't too bad. He seems to have gone for an epic sounding beat but the chorus doesn't really work for me and it detracts from the tune and Nas's lyrics. The second track is called 'Film' and I am told its produced by a young cat from Chicago called C-Sick. The beat sounds like its using a sample from that old House track by Ultra Nate but slowed down a lot. Its decent enough, Nas drops some nice lines and you'd expect. I prefer this one to the Swizz Beats joint and its good to see Nas using some new talent production wise. Check the link below for the zip file of both. I speak to the streets like we executive chief types.

Heres the next in the ongoing series of Dodgy Bootlegs and this time we have a Double Whammy for you Queendbridge heads out there; Large Pro And Nas's One + One and Noreaga's Married to Marijuana. Once again we have another bootleg grabbed from one of London's SoHo hip hop emporiums, this one I think was purchased at the long defunct original Deal Real records (not to be confused with the fake trendy one off Carnaby street, those who know understand what I'm saying). Deal Real was a very dope shop on a little street called Noel street if I remember correctly. I picked up some serious vinyl at Deal Real, made some good friends and also met the occasional emcee or Dj. Deal Real, which was originally Handspun, stocked a fantastic collection vinyl hip hop, mixtapes and some classic breakz. I'm getting off the point here. I picked this 12" up straight after hearing the A-Side featured Nas and Large Pro over a Large Pro beat, I never even bothered to hear the B-...

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...

For some reason this was left off Nas's Untitled album. Despite it being produced by DJ Khalil its a good tune and would have been better than that terrible track with Chris Brown that was on the album. Esco Lets Go Nas-What it is produced by DJ Khalil

Official video for one of the better tracks from Nas's untitled album, the Stic.Man produced Sly Fox. Which has Nas firing off a few Lyrical shots at Rupert Murdock Fox empire.

As we all know the new Nas album was originally supposed to be called 'N**ger' but Def Jam gave in to pressure and Nas was forced to drop that title. It now looks likes its going to be Untitled or simply N as the album cover above suggests. The album is 15 tracks long (although iTunes have managed to snag two bonus tracks) and features guest appearances from Busta Rhymes, The Game, The Last Poets, Eban Thomas of The Stylistics, Chris Brown, Johnny Polygon, Mykel and Keri Hilson. Production credits for the album include Nas's longstanding collaborator Salaam Remi, Polow da Don, DJ Green Lantern, DJ Toomp, Stargate, Cool & Dre, The Game, Mark Batson, Mark Ronson, Jay Electronica, J. Myers, Dustin Moore, and Stic.man of Dead Prez. As with most true hip hop heads I was hoping to see at least one track produced by DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Large Pro or even Kanye West on this album but I was disappointed to see them all missing. However I decided that I would give the alb...