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The Foreign Exchange have never been up on our site and that is a crime that I’m going to fix today. The duo is composed of Phonte from Little Brother and Nicolay, the producer, from the Netherlands (get it Foreign Exchange) and they produce some of the smoothest underground hip-hop out there at the moment. Nicolay uses live instrumentation for his beats to produce that silky sound, which borders on being strictly an R&B beat, and Phonte adds a rap verse at the end after the singing which makes up a big portion of the track. “Maybe She’ll Dream of Me” is off their upcoming album dropping on October 12th called Authenticity.

Download: The Foreign Exchange – “Maybe She’ll Dream of Me”

Line this tape up next to the numerous projects I have to listen to after these last couple weeks but I know this one will be good so I might have to move it to the front of the list. Here is what the two AOK Collective members had to say about their collaborative mixtape.

Locking himself in the studio for months, and enlisting the emcee talents of fellow AOK Collective member 8thW1, the artist formerly known as P.Casso has quietly crafted a left-of-center, avant-garde audio trip. The project essentially is, at it’s core, hip-hop over indie rock, electro, remixes and mashups but where it differs is it’s introspective tone in regards to the matters of the heart and personal internal issues. The title is derived from the suicide method Will Smith employs in the film “Seven Pounds”. According to P.So, “Jellyfish is a metaphor for music, both beautiful and dangerous with a complex, changing form.”

The multiple posts I have done for the project have received a lot of love so this one should be a hit. The download and tracklist are below the break.

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This deserves some special recognition because Amsterdam-based Neenah has become the first female to ever win the Battle Of The Beat Makers. This Canadian competition featured some of the best home grown talent, from C4 to REL!G!ON, and had Boi-1da on the judges’ panel. Above is footage of the final round going down and below is a link to Neenah’s mixtape, The Quality Selection. The dilemma of the lack of female rappers has been in discussion for as long as I can remember, but hopefully this will open up some conversation on the absence of female presences behind the boards. If the misconception is that a woman could not go hard on a beat and make a certified head-banger, then look no further than to the video above to disprove that assumption. My hats off to Neenah and here’s to hopefully a prosperous career for the girl.

Download: Neenah – The Quality Selection

MisterE hails from Kitchener/Waterloo and is gearing up to release his sophomore album, Dusting For Prints on September 18. This song reminds me why it pays off to actually read my e-mails from time to time because I could have easily slept on this had I ignored it in my inbox. “Connect The Dots” has a real Def Jux sound to it with the delivery and approach. It’s high-stamina, non-stop, awkward, left-field, and often dizzying, which is just perfect for those into El-P, Aesop Rock and the like. Speaking of Def Jux, it’s a damn shame that El-P is freezing operations for the foreseeable future. Granted, an indie label in this day and age rarely makes profit, but Def Jux has spawned some of the weirdest, strangest shit in hip-hop, and it greatly helped to expand the genre in different directions. Put MisterE on your radar because it sounds like he’s one to watch out for.

I have been grinding hard on the hip-hop music so time to throw you all a curve and get back to some indie rock. Matt & Kim are a group (can 2 people be a group?) who had a breakout LP called Grand and this happens to be their first single since that project. When I heard this beat I immediately thought that the beat will soon be turned into a rap remix whenever someone finds this instrumental, it is almost too good to pass up. You can grab the download courtesy of the illest of roots or you could support good music and buy it at this iTunes link here.

Download: Matt & Kim – “Cameras”

This is not cosplay or Comic-Con / You are just a poseur and I’m a rap phenomenon

The Incomparable One forwarded this track a few hours ago as part of his new music Tuesdays. With Tuesdays and Fridays locked up, rappers bet get a move on claiming the other days of the week. Shakespeare brings the grown man rap over a rich big band instrumental which has a Kanye-esque feel to it. “Flamboyance” is definitely a morning track and it’s sure to wake you up and set you in the right state of mind for the day.

Download: The Incomparable Shakespeare – “Flamboyance”

Listening to this track will put you to sleep. No shots at Fashawn, but that this is on some hypnotic shit. It complements the subject matter though, which is easy enough to guess from the song title. Rich Kidd works his magic behind the boards for this and delivers with the haziest of beats. All I can imagine when hearing “G’s Up” is a room full of slow moving smoke and a few dim lights. Spotted at The Real Freqs.

Download: Fashawn – “G’s Up (So High)”

Previously: Fashawn – Grizzly City 3