5 O'Clock Shadowboxers - No Fury (Zilla Rocca Remix)

The rap Jack Bauer stays calm on No Fury. It's his remix of one of The Slow Twilight leftovers. The Black Keys sample almost approaches the blues but keeps restrained, so does Zilla. Honest, suffering but unbending. Absolute gold. It's up to 7 plays on my computer already and it gets better each time.

5 O'Clock Shadowboxers - No Fury (Zilla Rocca Remix)

If you haven't downloaded The Slow Twilight yet, do yourself a favour and hit the link.

Fashionably late?

B.o.B is pretty cool. He's not blowing me away like Zilla Rocca, Kneel Knaris or Elucid are but I'm glad he's doing his thing. Anyway, it's been out for a while but I only just got around to checking his B.o.B. vs Bobby Ray mixtape, half rapping, half singing. He definitely has a good pop ear. It's light, it's fun, it's worth a listen.

B.o.B vs Bobby Ray Mixtape

Playing Catchup

I must confess that initially I was a bit dubious about some of Elucid's latest stuff off his forthcoming The Sub Bass Diet. What can I say? I was wrong. They're definitely worth chewing on and listening to on decent headphones.

My Mayor is a Billionaire (BBC)
Stacey (Sucker for Love)
Laser Days
40Ds

All via Rock The Dub

Nosaj Thing

It's not quite hip hop but Passion of the Weiss has gotten me into Nosaj Thing. I don't tend to listen to much electronic stuff but I really dig his music.

Check out his song Heart Entire and his remix of 50's I Get Money.

You can read a bit of a writeup on him here.

No I.D. on D.O.A.

No I.D. talks about coming up with the D.O.A. beat. Worth watching just for his line at the end of the clip:

At the end of the day we all gon' sit back and eat breakfast in Hawaii.

Tornts ft. Billy Bunks - Mute That Hole

Tasmania punches well above it's weight when it comes to Aussie hip hop. No one can come near Tornts and Bunks for clever, dark, dirty and nasty rap. Tornts rhymes with words that aren't there and with Bunks makes Tha Liks sound sober.

Spec Boogie - Akira

Spec Boogie is back with another Summer Movie Season vid.

Rap around the world

Check out this great video

Rappers from 30 different countries

Here's the list:
American: Missy Elliott
British: Lady Sovereign
Cantonese: LMF
Chinese: Wang Lee-hom
Croatian: Tram 11
Danish: Tue Track
Filipino: Parokya Ni Edgar
Finnish: Pikku G
France: Booba
Germany: Samy Deluxe
Greek: Stereo Mike
Hebrew: Shi 360
Hungarian: Ganxsta Zolee
Icelandic: Forgotten Lores
Italy: Frankie Hi-NRG MC
Japanese: Japanese Rap Sta
Korean: Yoon Mi Rae (Tasha/T)
Norwegian: Don Martin (Gatas Parlament)
Polish: Abradab
Romania: Daddy Caddy (Bug Mafia)
Russia: Михей (Mihey)
Slovenian: Murat & Jose
Spanish: Violadores del Verso
Swedish: Fronda
Swiss: EKR
Turkish: Ceza
Vietnamese: VNR
Wolof: Bad’s Diom

Elucid - However You Want

Von Pea produced and posted a new Elucid track in promotion of Elucid's upcoming Sub Bass Diet album. I'm not completely convinced about Tanya Morgan but Von Pea is one talented dude. He's done great production work on this and on Spec Boogie's Summer Movie Season tracks.

Pic from Rock The Dub

Elucid - However You Want

Tonight's gonna be a good night

This is not hip-hop - this is pop. But the Black Eyed Peas are doing it so well that I had to post it.I Gotta Feeling

I heard it on the radio and thought it was one of Kanye's G.O.O.D Music crew, like Mr Hudson or maybe Kid Cudi. When I searched for the lyrics at home I refused to believe it was the Peas. Anyway, that is a great pop song, and an even clearer statement that the BEP Empire has long left its hip-hop origins behind.

Question - what other artists have made this jump? From hip-hop to pop? Kanye has definitely been heading that way. Listen to Kanye and Mr Hudson's Supernova here.

Ca-Tash-Trophe

I was just listening to Bird's Eye View by X to tha Z with J-Ro and Tash from Tha Liks. I love that song for two reasons, Diamond D's amazing beat and Tash's two verses. Tash is like the Redman of the West Coast, he's got that same quality about him that makes you want to fast forward to his verse. He always shines on guest spots:

Alkaholics back to fry ya extra crispy
With the skills that make the plots that try to diss me extra risky
Cause the time it takes to infiltrate and stop my forward motion
California will have broken off and fell into the ocean...

...Cause I drop the lyrics on ya from beneath the earth's surface
Where I write rhymes so fresh I try to bite my own verses

Solid gold.

Photo and link from Nah Right

Anyway, he's got some new stuff out for an upcoming album. I don't know if he can pull of a whole album but I always check for him. Tash ft. B-Real - How Hi Can You Get?

Three things you should know

Since my little girl was born I haven't really had the space or inclination to blog much but there are a few things that deserve attention.

First, check this video from Elucid. Dude is a beast.



Second, if you haven't gone and downloaded the 5 O'Clock Shadowboxers album, The Slow Twilight, yet then do it now. This means you Nick Gauci, you'll love it. Read a great review for it at No Trivia.


Finally, I've been listening to Kneel Knaris' Going Sane in a Crazy World on repeat for about a month now-it's an amazing album. I've been meaning to do a review but it's hard to do it justice and being a dad has slowed me down a bit. Soon.