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The Brothers of Chico Dusty (Big Boi vs. The Black Keys) by wick-it

Two of my favorite albums this year mashed on to an 8-track mixtape? Merry Christmas to me. Wick-It puts in the work to mix Brothers and Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty seamlessly. I’m often very skeptical about mash-ups since any kid with a Youtube account and Garageband can consider himself a “pro” nowadays, but this one gets the seal of approval for its mixing, balance, and mash-up selections. Most importantly, The Brothers of Chico Dusty does not sound forced at any point. Stream in full and download above. I highly suggest you download this as soon as you can, because you can be sure that most download links will be killed in a couple of days at most.

UPDATE: Shouts to Bateman in the comments section for the link to his official Mashville bandcamp page, where you can grab other works by Wick-It.

Here’s something to ease you into the morning. Dallas Green, aka City and Colour, aka the singer of  hard-punk band Alexisonfire, teams up with Shad for a song entitled “Live Forever”. City and Colour has a very, very mellow sound to his music, relying alot on light, falsetto vocals and stripped down arrangements. Unfortunately, he doesn’t do too much crooning on “Life Forever” outside of the intro and the hook, but Shad fills in the gaps with his standard style. Even at such a laid-back tempo, Shad keeps a moving flow and even pulls out a bit of doubletime in the middle. I get that this video is a live recording, but damn that phone near the end. “Live Forever” is released as a 12″ vinyl, so it will require some hunting if you want it.

Spotted @ 1LoveTO

Since Corey has got a little “B&B-approved” theme going on with the posts today, I’m going to stay in that vein and dig up something that dropped earlier this week featuring Tona. Tona might not be officially affiliated with the site, but both Corey and I have shown much love for the guy’s music in the past. Vancouver’s SonReal lets loose this song off of his upcoming Where’s Waldo project, and you can grab it as a dirty, clean, a cappella, or instrumental track after the jump.  “Dr. Dumb It Down” is about rappers who rap about nothing, which is a much-needed concept for the blog age. Don’t get me wrong, I love “mixtape rap” as much as the next guy, but sometimes it comes across as talking without saying anything. Both SonReal and Tona come correct, and SonReal brings a West coast vibe to the Superville beat, even if his West coast is more mountains and forests than sunny beaches.

I hope I’m not boring y’all rapping ’bout rap / But the only thing I love more than rapping is napping / And I know nobody wanna hear me rappin’ ’bout that / You want the underdog spitting on the track.

-Shad

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Timbo, in response to a Twitter follower’s question about the absence of Missy Elliott from Shock Value 2, let loose this track, which was recorded for the album. Both Mosley and Missy stick to their guns on “Swat Dat Fly” and refuse to deviate from their respective sounds (and that’s a good thing, rest assured). I really wish Missy Elliott had more of a presence in the last two years, especially since she was such a household name not that long ago. Her charisma and confidence made her one of the few femcees who was regarded by the public as first and foremost a rapper, rather than a female rapper (as if that is some sort of handicap). The hook on “Swat Dat Fly” leans toward the annoying, but the verses are enough to make you listen fully to this song.

Download: Missy Elliott – “Swat Dat Fly”

Arabesque is a Toronto native with a very international career path. The Juno-nominated rapper was signed to a UK label, Sin Nombre (under Universal) to release his biggest album, The Frenzy Of Renown, in 2005. Two albums later in 2008, he signed to Yanase, and put out Last Life In The Universe for the Japanese market (shouts to the Japanese hip-hop scene by the way; it is definitely alive and well). Now Besque is back to push songs off of his most recent album, Nuclear Ambition. “Devil’s Deposit” sees him going over a latin-heavy beat about el dinero and its pull on the greedy and the common folk alike. Links to Arabesque’s Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, etc. after the jump.

Download: Arabesque – “Devil’s Deposit”

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“BeastMode” is a song I had never heard before but I like that Bobby Ray leads with a video for it as my introduction. B.o.B goes innnnnnnn on this one rapping with a passion and conviction that was often missing from his album The Adventures of Bobby Ray. It is good news too because at the beginning of the video he announces he will be releasing a new tape on December 7th called No Genre and you know we have all been missing the mixtape B.o.B. That isn’t a knock on his album either but there are definitely some songs from prior tapes which were better than a few of the tracks on it. As for the video it is some simple backstage footage but you can sense the intensity in his voice and actions. Enjoy!

Update: Now with song download link.

Download: B.o.B. – “BeastMode”

D-Sisive has alot to say in his press kit, but I have to get in first and just state that if you don’t like D-Sisive after hearing these two songs, then just give up. “If…” might just be the personal statement song of the year. Now onto D to tell you about Jonestown 2:

If Andre 3000 wrote his own press release, you’d…Naah. Too obvious. Unless you haven’t heard ‘If…’. Then not obvious at all. But once you hear it..so obvious. Fu*k it.

It’s 7:06 am. I’m sitting on my sofa, struggling to write a ‘proper’ press release for my new singles. I’m also monitoring my cat Willy’s recent detox from wet food. He’s sweating. Climbing the walls. It’s hard to be funny when your cat is calling you a ‘piece of sh*t.’

I tried to start with the city I’m from, followed by cheap adjectives. Toronto. Prolific. Alternative. White. Rapper.

Rappers always refer to their new songs as ‘Smash Hits’ even though nobody has heard them. Even though nobody will ever hear them.

“I’m taking over this year!” That’s a good one. Read the rest of this entry »

Get Busy Committee is a name I’ve heard of in passing, but this is my first time giving them a shot. GBC is comprised of Apathy, Style of Beyond’s Ryu and Scoop DeVille (the producer behind Snoop’s “I Wanna Rock”). They are gearing up to release a new project, and “Opening Ceremony” looks to be the first taste of it. It sounds underground enough to sit beside the likes of Vast Aire with its off-pitch organ, and yet this is party music to the fullest. Listening to it again and looking at the artwork (which, by the way, is incredibly dope), I’m not sure if this is supposed to be taken solely at face value, but for now what I’m getting is that “Opening Ceremony” is a song to blast the life out of before a long night out.

Download: Get Busy Committee – “Opening Ceremony”

As Talib Kweli gets ready to release Gutter Rainbows (please tell me that title is not set in stone) on January 25th, we get the first taste of what to expect from the project. On “Cold Rain”, Talib revisits the ”I do it for…” concept, which I’m sure you’ve heard a dozen of times already. To be fair, he dominates these more sentimental concepts, and it isn’t as if Talib is a stranger by any extent to songs like these. “Cold Rain” is not a bad song - it’s just flat. Compare this to Talib’s verse on “Chain Heavy”, and you will notice how that lone sixteen is lyrically more dynamic than this entire song. When putting together a song like “Cold Rain”, it becomes trickier to not cross the line from subtle and simple to flat and unimpressionable, and it appears as if this falls into the latter. If you feel differently, grab the download link after the jump.

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This is the making of a masterpiece, so we broke out the chains and told the masta, “Peace”.

 So this is were it went! It’s a relief to see “Chain Heavy” come to life as a full song, those verses ‘Ye spat at the Facebook HQ were a problem and a half. I would have never expected this beat to accompany these lyrics, but Q-Tip breaks out some Dilla-esque weirdness to make it work on a completely different level. This will be an iTunes bonus track for MBDTF, but you can save yourself the dollar and grab it for free below.

Download: Kanye West – “Chain Heavy”