Two years since his previous effort Gutter Rainbows hit stores, Brooklyn rhymer Talib Kweli drops off his fifth solo album Prisoner of Conscious. With an array of featured guests, a magnitude of rhythmically responsive instrumental backdrops and more subject matters than a book of short stories, the 15 track lyrical get down is a tempo frenzy of intellectual poetry.
The American Dream has long been something referred to. Whether it's been theorised, personified or declared as something unachievable, the maxim has become something which will forever remain in America's society. Whilst the common Hip Hop image of wealth, possessions and women has often been described as "living the American Dream," Ohio native and Maybach Music-signed rapper Stalley looks beyond that culture to acquire a meaning of the dream.
Curren$y’s new Jet Life compilation - the Jet World Order album was always going to be a smash. Released under Jets International/iHipHop Distribution, the album features fellow Jet members Young Roddy, Trademark Da Skydiver, Sir Michael Rocks, Nesby Phips, Corner Boy P and Street Wiz, plus Smoke Dza who definitely made his mark on hip hop this year with mixtape Rolling Stoned.
With the West Coast cornering the market for weed rap in the '90s, a small handful of the Southern movement have taken the spirit of the previous drifters and revamped it for the new decade. Arguably the one artist who has proven to be the most successful with this blueprint is New Orleans' Curren$y, whose previous releases have garnered a large following. Already providing one soundtrack to the summer with his Alchemist co-featured Covert Coups, Weekend at Burnies (a play on the classic '80s slacker’ film Weekend At Bernie’s) hopes to maintain his grip on being the soundtrack to many drop top convertibles and slouched weekends during the sunny period.
Every year we have at least one rapper to emerge whose wit, talent, charm and drive steals the limelight and shoots an underground favorite to mainstream superstardom almost immediately. In 2009, we saw Drake woo the panties off the ladies, 2010 was J. Cole’s turn to ‘Hit It In The Morning’ - and now for 2011, this career ascension story belongs to the Pittsburgh-based rapper Wiz Khalifa.
In the wake of his chart-topping hit 'Black and Yellow' [which was adopted by fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers during the team's run to the Super Bowl] comes his major label debut Rolling Papers, a solid collection of ear-bending rhymes and addictive beats and melodies.
But does the album live up to the considerable hype surrounding Khalifa's arrival? I believe all signs point to yes. The Pittsburgh emcee's debut on Atlantic is lyrically revolved around ‘getting high’, frolicking with the ‘chicks’, ‘blowing money fast’ and pretty much enjoying a good life, yet in every track Wiz attacks the beat with an underdog's passion and a winner's stance - which he exhibited onstage in London at his second UK show on May 18 at the HMV Forum, Kentish Town.
Even the most casual of Hip Hop listeners should be aware of Ski Beatz as, at the very least, the producer of iconic Hip Hop anthems on Jay-Z's 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt, and several albums for Camp Lo, having also gone on to produce for Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Fat Joe and others.
15 years on and the digitally inclined will have caught last year's excitable wave of activity leading up to the release of the North Carolina hailing producer, DJ and former emcee's own album, 24 Hour Karate School, released in September 2010, which saw Ski working with a mouthwatering spread of Hip Hop talent established and new, including Curren$y, Smoke DZA, Jean Grae, Jim Jones, Jay Electronica, Joell Ortiz, The Cool Kids, Stalley, Tabi Bonney, Ras Kass, Camp Lo and Wiz Khalifa.
On a mission to find out more about the man behind the beatz, SoulCulture TV sat down with Ski Beatz at Damon Dash's creative base of operations in New York, DD172, and asked the producer about his beginnings in Hip Hop - as a rapper first.
Watch below as Ski talks us through his journey from the mic to the boards, from getting jaded by the industry and moving home to North Carolina to more recently returning to New York to work with a new breed of emcees - and how his initial passion for rapping gives him the edge when producing for top rappers.
As the majority of artists slowly devise their strategies for 2011, its no surprise that the first rapper to drop new material was the very same one who released TWO albums just last year. Curren$y Spitta was applauded by many blogs, artists and fans for his hustle in 2010, dropping Pilot Talk albums one and two aswell as making appearances on Ski Beatz and Wiz Khalifa’s projects. Return To The Winner’s Circle hopes to keep Curren$y’s momentum rolling well into the new year aswell as maintaining the hazy, lofty heights which his previous works have set.
Who would have thought that leaving behind the overly exposed Young Money camp would re-enhance the career of an artist? That has been the story of Curren$y, the New Orleans spitter who left Lil Wayne’s army in 2007 and found critical success over the last three years. The former XXL Freshmen dropped his surprisingly dope album Pilot Talk, earlier this year and returns with the sequel to that very same album. Under the guidance of Hip Hop sensei Ski Beatz, can the young grad of the 24 Hour Karate School top his earlier efforts or will it fall under a number of flawed sequels which have spawned in recent years?
Whilst many Hip Hoppers around the world still fawn over the magical period of the '90s and events and radio stations regularly continue to blare out the decade's most awe-inspiring music, Ski Beatz - acclaimed producer and a major influence in defining the sounds of the '90s - brings forth an updated version of that special Hip Hop feeling with his 24 Hour Karate School album.
Not to be misinterpreted as an institution teaching the Wu Tang Clan’s Shaolin ways, this is a collaborative project showcasing the new school of raps talents accompanied by the seminal producer’s blazing beats.
After the controversial split of the heavyweight Roc-A-Fella label, Hip Hop supremo Damon Dash is back - returning to the Hip Hop arena with big ambitions and a hungry young roster on BluRoc Records. The first artist to wave the flag for the new brand is New Orleans spitter Curren$y.
A XXL Freshman for ’09, Curren$y’s buzz is carried into the summer of 2010 and with Pilot Talk ready for take off, how will the first venture from DD’s new order fare?