So according to my google analytics there's someone out there still checkin for this.. Busy as I am, its only right I hit yall with an update.


I've been busy as hell with the release of ADHD, which I'm pleased to announce has gotten a great response so far..Shoutout to Kev Knottingham, Rock the Dub, Hip Hop is Read, Bostonianz617, Dotgotit, Pen and Sword, TittyPuncher (yes u read that right), The Leakage, Fresh Hip Hop Music, Thats Major, Bsand3s, and any other blog I might've forgot to mention that showed love.

I've also been serving as the head of marketing for Scope Urban Apparel and still looking for a day job (I'm not one of those bloggers that makes a living off it).  In any event, its been a long time, and I shouldn't have left you, without.. blah blah blah yall know the Rakim sh*t.

So, what's new with me? Same sh*t different day, music, disgruntled twitter rants, and failed relationships. We had a very successful release party for ADHD at Kulturez in Harvard Square.. Since then I've pretty much been spending my nights in the studio working on new material, and my days hunting down Hip Hop celebrities to endorse Scope.

Myself and Tyler the Creator - Click for more photos

Its been fun. Last week, I met Tyler and those crazy Odd Future delinquents at the much publicized "riot" at the Newbury Comics in-store. I also put some new joints out myself.

I can't guarantee how consistent I'll be with keeping up with this blog but I will try to keep yall updated as much as possible. Don't forget I also have a tumblr which I check a lot more often so don't think I've disappeared completely from cyberspace. Just know bein a RapperSlashBlogger is a lot harder than it looks so cut me some slack.

This morning I got a couple joints to hip yall to. Remember when I said that 2011 was the year of the female MC? Well I have further proof...

Don't blame me if you sleep on either one of these projects.. I be trynna put cats on but you gotta do the rest..

Couple shows coming up in the month of March as I rear my head from obscurity once again. If you are in or around the Boston area I strongly encourage you to come out and support. ADHD is closer than you think but in the meantime you should definitely come out to hear some of the new material performed live.

The 5th and final leg of the Abstract Music Tour stops in the Boston vicinity at one of the city's prominent Central Square venues and teams up with one of the Bean's burgeoning urban music labels in OneThree Music and one of its young rising stars in Catch Wreck to bring the tour to a rousing close.

I'm excited to be a part of both shows and I hope you won't be foolish enough to miss either one.

By now you've probably all seen this. A couple weeks ago the homey, George Watsky released his video, "Pale Kid Raps Fast" Little did he know, the song would gain millions of plays in less then the first 24 hours of him putting it up.. Apparently a lot of people wanted to see a pale kid rap fast including none other then Ellen Degenerous.. The video is being parodied by beatboxers and other white rappers hoping to ride the wave of popularity. George and I used to joke about the fame and acclaim he got from his appearance on Def Poetry Jam. But fuck Russel Simmons and that tall Israeli, we got the internet. As I write this post the original video has generated 5,587,531 views since originally posted it.. If only there was a link to rapperslashblogger at the end of it.. Hats off to George, he's been forever diligent with his craft since I met him years ago when we both opened for Blackalicious in Boston. Be on the lookout for some new heat coming from the both of us real soon.. in the meantime, watch as he skillfully multitasks, speedrhyming and cat-stroking.. You know you wish you were ill like that...

2010 was a dope year for new music. The Roots album(s), Kanye's return, The Black Keys, the rise of Odd Future, Big Boi, NERD, Smoker's Club, Das Racist, Moe Pope, Bad Rabbits, I could go on for a while.. And though we are only two months deep, so far, it looks like 2011 is off to a real good start as well.. 2 projects in particular have been in heavy rotation and deserve mention..

First and foremost, Kweli's new joint.. Talb Kweli that is.. The conscious Hip Hop veteran has yet to disappoint and with his latest project, Gutter Rainbows, he proves once again, that it is indeed possible to make positive uplifting music without coming off too preachy. Available for sale on itunes and shit like that.

The thing is, when you have a life, it gets very difficult to keep a blog updated constantly with new material.. Especially when you are the sole-contributor.. If there's any other rappers out there who want to contribute your more than welcome, the more the merrier.. In any event I'm back on this, Happy belated new year to everybody who still bothers to check this, and happy 22nd birthday to me!

1st things 1st... ADHD will be out very soon and I just put out a new music video! I got mixed reviews about my self-edited, overly artsy piece for Concerto, so Rene Dongo and I teamed up once again to put some visuals with the record, "1Tyme4urMynd". The song and video mark a slightly new direction in my work, a more personal and honest approach as far as the lyrics go. With ADHD, I tried not to limit myself to "sounding like a conscious rapper" when it came to the writing, it was a a risk in terms of how I expect people to react, but so far I am extremely happy with the results. With 1tyme4urmynd, Rah Intelligence supplied a beat that starts off very dark and sinister sounding.. It lets the sun come out for just a moment before going right back into that dark place - very much a reflection of where I was at mentally while writing.. I left song structure alone and decided to just rhyme all the way through the record as opposed to trying to come up with a hook.. When Arcitype and I recorded it, we got it in one take with no punches.



Note the symbolic transitions and Rene's use of contrasting images throughout the piece. I guarantee your going to want to watch this more than once...

We definitely tried to do something completely different here. To accompany the Concerto piece I recently released off of the ADHD project, I edited footage Jacob took of me in our top secret location. I know this is something that will get mixed reactions given the content, but I feel like this works with the song in showing the depression that I talk about in the record and what I was going through while writing a lot of the material for ADHD. The quality of the footage should've come out better given the camera we used, but something got lost in the rendering. I'm still working this out, I haven't edited film in a long time and I used imovie for this so cut me some slack. Other then that, Jake shot this with his new camera that takes really nice photos and video.. what do you think..?

Curren$y's new video for the record, "Hold On" Off of his Pilot Talk 2 release.

Tracklisting:


1. Seyonia Washington - Imagine if the Beat Stopped
2. Pause - Where You Should Be
3. The Helmsplitter - Fight An Animal!
4. Zayde Buti - Hot n’ Juicy
5. O.T.O. - Sail On Freestyle
6. Jasmine Mans - Nicki Minaj
7. Zeek - Hold To The Time
8. Anthony Febo - First Time
9. Catch Wreck - 1Tyme4UrMynd
10. Jack Kahn - Crisis
11. The Helmsplitter - Outro
12. Daniel Fairclough - Her Eyes (Bonus)

CCR all day b****es!

Phonetic One sent this to me this morning. Nice laid back track, sit back, smoke somethin and relax to this..

This new joint I got from NYOIL goes hard! I am a firm believer that conscious rappers should never be afraid to step out of their element to let a muhf*cka know he can still get smacked. We not the hippy conscious rappers! This joint, which also features Sic Men and Dyverse, reminds me of Wu sh*t from back in the day which should be know surprise since cats also hail from Shaolin (The Stat.. Staten Island if u don't know..)

Its official.. 2011 is the Year of the Female MC. Without even getting into the debate over the artistic validity of a Nikci Minaj, there are at least a couple projects surfacing that indicate she should be the least of a lot of people's worries.. Enter Rapsody and Keziah: Two sistas with projects out that shit on 95% of what's out there..

Hezekiah's sister proves talent runs in the family with her self-titled EP.. Available for free download via Bandcamp..

#Fire

Lovin this joint!

NYOIL and PEMG are putting together a new series called Beneath the Surface. In the pilot, NYOIL sits down with Ant Rich, Head of Urban A&R at Jive Records to discuss the current state of the music industry. Definitely an interesting conversation..

Part 2 of Fran-P's Dillalude series just surfaced this morning. Hopefully we don't have to wait as long for part 3..



CCR what it do??

This joint goes hard. Termanology been killin it lately!

Shoutout to Andres Hale and The Well Versed for posting 10 Dope Female Rappers not Named Nicki Minaj.. Thanks to that list I discovered an extremely talented and versatile artist by the name of Nikki Lynette. On her website she states,

"My music is a mix of hip hop, rock, and dance music. People used to tell me my sound wasn’t urban enough. They don’t tell me that anymore. Now all that they can tell me is congratulations."

Lovely. I have a new crush..
Her mixtape Roses and Guns is available for free download via DJ Booth and her EP, The Strong Survive is available for sale via her bandcamp page.