A Classic: Black Star

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Decided that today I would post what I see as the classic Hip-Hop album: Black Star (whole name is "Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star")

Originally I bought this album on a whim. I was in Boston with my friend Deion Gill and we saw a record store that had CDs for like $10 or something insanely cheap. So we go in, and I decide to go to the Hip-Hop / R&B floor. While I wasn't into Hip-Hop at the time I went in and saw Black Star, and a few days before then one of my friends said I should listen to it. That was an amazing decision. To this day, one of my favorite Hip-Hop albums. Production is amazing, Mos and Kweli work amazingly together, and the album truly is a classic. 

I suggest you listen to the whole thing.

A Quick Qwickie

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Hey guys,
It's prom night in my town. And when thinking about prom, I can't stop thinking about this song.

Don't mean to post the same artist 2 days in a row, but this time it turned out that way.

-Dan

Macklemore: Your New Favorite Rapper

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Whenever the topic of hip-hop comes up, I feel like have an obligation to spread Macklemore. Similar to Blue Scholars, he is out of Seattle, the new and unlikely city for some amazing hip-hop. Say what you will, Macklemore constantly puts out amazing music (epically since hooking up with producer Ryan Lewis) and can spit just as well as some of the best, but in a new way. His flow is on point, and they way he spits is almost like a spoken word poem. Being extremely down to earth (constantly cracking jokes and talking to fans), this guy can pour his heart out better than your run of the mill indie singer-songwriter. This is where I see hip-hop going.

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^ His most notable song is about his struggle with substance abuse. Musically amazing, and content wise hard hitting. More songs like this need to be produced, because as a whole rap always glamorizes drug use (and hard drug use at that) and something needs to be done to "heal the wounds" so to speak, and this is just the beginning hopefully. This song is the best anti-drug ad I have ever heard because its not preaching, just giving you true, firsthand experience of what can happen with hard drugs. Don't go thinking that this is only some kind of "positive" "political" or "conscious" rap, it's simply a man speaking his mind and hoping you can find a message worth hearing in it.

(Clearly, you can see I'm a huge Macklemore fan haha)

-Dan

A Beautiful Night

So its the first night that its been comfortable to have my window wide open. So I decided to listen to some chill classic-style stuff and I have undergroundhiphop.com MF Doom blends. This song just fit my mood, so hopefully you guys can enjoy it too.

FIRST!

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I'm proud to make this my first post here.

Shad is a rapper and guitar player (and possibly singer if I think the singer in one of his songs is indeed him) from Canada. Pretty much, the short of it is that this guy fucking rocks. This one song in particular sends shivers down my spine. On top of being an amazing musician, I had the pleasure of meeting him at a Macklemore concert in Boston, and he is a super friendly guy. So definitely give this guy a listen.

Here is a link to him preforming this song, just to show you that he sounds amazing live.

-Dan