Berner (feat. Wiz Khalifa & Big K.R.I.T.) – Yoko (internet, 2011)
- by Yayo

I saw this track today for the first time, and was shocked that I hadn’t read anything about it in the weeks previous. This came out on Berner’s The White Album (the cover of which features white rapper Berner sitting in a white room on a white couch in a white tracksuit with some cocaine in front of him and an albino behind him), which was released at the tail end of April. It went largely unnoticed and for good reason. I mean, look at the guy (pause); that image isn’t exactly drawing me into whatever persona he’s trying to establish.

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Trouble - December 17th

(DTE, 2011)
- by Maxwell Cavaseno
Atlanta’s Duct Tape Entertainment is riding high off of Alley Boy becoming ‘that guy’. He’s built a reputation for no-nonsense in the real world, and increasingly quality music. Now however, DTE present to the world a new trap rapper, Trouble. And if he keeps dropping mixtapes like December 17^th, then he’s going to be living up to his namesake for certain.

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Main Attrakionz - Blackberry Ku$h

(Green Ova, 2011)
-by Maxwell Cavaseno

It must be wonderful to be Main Attrakionz. Most rap groups could probably listen to these two, and kill themselves afterwards. Would you blame them? It’s so rare to find a rap group that seems to have found their own lane so perfectly as this Bay-Area based duo. So far they’ve been moving from strength to strength with each release; but if there’s any justice in the world, Blackberry Ku$h might just be the tipping point for them to go from cult-phenomenon to full-fledged stars.

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KD - G-Fluid

(Mixtape, 2011)
- by Colin Small

Big K.R.I.T’s recent Returnof4eva mixtape has elicited quite a strange response on this little internet of ours. Upon its release, indie critical outlets as large as The Needle Drop and Pitchfork did not hesitate to rave and recommend the tape while rap blogs gave it little to no attention. This reaction, in itself, is not necessarily abnormal and the difference in opinion isn’t as large as this disparity suggests. I’m assuming that, like me, other bloggers have maintained a sort of restrained enthusiasm about the tape as opposed to maligning it completely. What is truly surprising about this response is that this isn’t the type of music that normally gets this difference of opinion. Big K.R.I.T. does not make the postmodern snark rap of Das Racist: he makes well-produced regional rap tunes. This time, the problem isn’t the alienation of audience or issues of authenticity. It is, much more simply, that K.R.I.T. is just trying too hard.

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Tony Yayo - Gunpowder Guru 3

(G-Unit, 2011)
- by Yayo

Tony Yayo’s role in 2011 is so drastically different than it was little more than a year ago, and the fact that he’s on the third installment of his Gunpowder Guru series already is telling of that. Despite being the most critical of blogs, he’s also the biggest advocate of this generation’s talent, forming an entire album with Danny Brown (Hawaiian Snow, reviewed here) and working with the Based God on multiple occasions. Both appear on Gunpowder Guru 3, a mixtape which is at times uneven, but rarely loses its entertaining qualities.

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Casey Veggies - Sleeping in Class

Casey Veggies – Sleeping In Class (Peas & Carrots International, 2011)
- by Yayo

Casey Veggies released his debut album, Sleeping In Class, to universal shrugs. Despite being affiliated with Odd Future, a group whose overexposure only amplified with each passing day, Casey Veggies missed the wave that they were sailing on. Listening to Sleeping In Class, it’s apparent that this isn’t because of a half-assed project – on the contrary, Casey’s debut is a well-put together piece of work that showcases how strong of a grasp the 17 year old has on making good music. No, the main attribution that kept his peers’ buzz from rubbing off on him was his positive outlook on life.

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Ace Hood: Industry Cockroach

by Yayo

Since emerging on the scene in 2008, Ace Hood has released two albums to little success commercially. His debut, Gutta debuted at #36 on the charts with a little fewer than 35,000 records sold, and its follow up faired even worse. Ruthless sold a measly 19,000. Ace Hood has kept an abysmal presence in the critical world of stroking off friends and pumping unwarranted hype-machines. Nonetheless, Ace Hood has managed to survive through sheer perseverance and ties to a seemingly unstoppable industry mogul.

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6 Shades of Black & White: The Last Year of Rick Ross [ARTICLE]

- by Dalatu

Rick Ross last year did something I doubt any one would have ever guessed he would have done in his entire career.; release the most important rap single of the year. “B.M.F. (Blowin’ Money Fast)”, originally a mixtape track produced by Lex Luger was one of the highlights of the Albert Anastasia EP, a project that was pushing Rick Ross’ profile just as the summer was beginning. Then as the summer came and went the amount of freestyles over Luger’s beat for that particular song was too many to count, but that was only a small effect that “B.M.F.” was having on the rap world. The influence of the Lex Luger and Rick Ross’ collaboration could end tomorrow with the next big song bringing a whole new sound, but that seems unlikely looking as the radio sounds permanently branded with the “Maybach Music” tag on every track.

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(Bad Boy, 1997)
- by Yayo

I don’t know if it was being an overweight child who had to build up his mental defences to counteract criticism, or being so broke that all the food in the cabinet was baked beans and green peas from the local food bank, but there was always something about Christopher Wallace that made me instantly relate to him. As one of the first figures in rap that I immediately attached myself with, Biggie’s words have forever played a part, no matter how large or small a fraction, in my development. Whether it was establishing a self-depreciating, yet terribly dark sense of humor that acted as a security-blanket against verbal abuse, the ability to tell a story from scratch (building all the characters, settings, and situations in my head), or seeing someone who had such a bleak outlook on life still provide such wise words at an age when he was little more than a boy, Big helped an entire generation of kids believe in themselves no matter how dim things appeared on the surface.

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Big Boi [INTERVIEW]

by Matt Goodman

About an hour before he’d dart onto a stage set up in a reconfigured parking lot behind a Wells Fargo, I had five minutes to chat with Big Boi on his tour bus. This was conducted in Denton, Tex., a sleepy college town about 30 minutes north of Dallas where a host of music-loving, community-minded twentysomethings joined together and organized a whole music festival, the 35 Conferette. The fact that one of the most influential, consistent and experimental artists of the past two decades would make his way down to Texas and headline a festival in its fledgling third year speaks to the kind of artist Big Boi is. Five minutes with Big Boi:
In the mid-nineties, Goodie Mob and Outkast seemed to show a lot of people a different type of culture and a different type of sound, with the way hip-hop’s progressing right now, do you think that’s still possible?

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