Now, I’m no meteorologist, but based on this week’s Hip-Hop
Dojo, it seems fair to say that we have a scorching hot summer
ahead of us. The ninth edition of The Hip-Hop Dojo is jam packed
with promising young talent primed to take over the game. The
beginning of summer also indicates the start of mixtape season,
which is what really makes this week’s selection truly special.
Just about every track collected here was specifically chosen from
a stellar project that recently dropped. While we can only share
one gem from each artist, definitely make an effort to check out
the rest of their material.
We start things off with the trunk rattling “Tangerine” by
former Cool
Kid, Chuck Inglish.
Reviving many of the same production values we came to appreciate
from his singles with Sir Michael Rocks years ago,
“Tangerine” is a guaranteed banger that’ll be a mainstay in your
playlist as you cruise around in your whip this summer. Next up,
we’d like to give a warm welcome to 16 year-old hip-hop
phenom, Jalen Jenkins. While we don’t know
much about the New York native, we do know he’s incredibly
talented. Take one listen to “Shroomies” and you’ll be immediately
enthralled with the fledgling artist. If you’re still not convinced
however, check out Jalen’s full Bipolar project
to get a further grasp of his abilities. We bridge the age gap as
we cross over to our third
selection, Prodigy‘s “Dough Pildin.” Produced
by The Alchemist, “Pildin,” is
presumably all about
the Mobb Deep member’s
desire to stack his cash up ala The Joker in The Dark
Knight (though he might not end up burning up his funds
quite so literally).
Chicago is the location of our next two tracks.
While Alex Wiley and Freddie Gibbs ”creep”
around the city hatching schemes for taking over the world
(actually I might be confusing them with Pinky & The
Brain), Tokyo Shawn leaves
us all wondering when the SAVEMONEY crew
will finally get the recognition they deserve. We then shift our
attention over to the West Coast where Casey
Veggies focuses on counting his days, and his paper,
all while weaving slick rhymes over a sample
of Usher‘s “What
Happened To U.” Up next, we’ve got New
Yorkers, Da YoungFellaz with their
single, “Fuck Rap.” For two guys who apparently have beef with the
art, they’re awfully good at it.
Next on the queue we’ve got another youngster, 17
year-old Jon Waltz. The
Memphis native is already drawing comparisons
to Drake, and it’s easy to see why. Waltz is
able to strike a careful balance between witty lyricism and an
effortlessly catchy chorus on “Bang.” If you’re interested in
hearing more from Jon, make sure to check out his Airways
Blvd. EP. Following that up is the emotionally heavy
“Clarissa (I Used To Love Her)” by
Houston’s Anti-Lilly. Although the name might
lead you to this to be an ode to
the Common classic, Lilly’s
“Clarissa” is actually a heart-wrenching tale of a love-struck drug
dealer. While Anti-Lilly is left patching up a broken
heart, Emilio Rojas is
out breaking some more as he struggles with women who can get too
attached after just one encounter.
KasFlow leads off our next section,
providing us with one of the more impressive lyrical ditties of the
week with his track, “Frozen Food Section.” For a guy born in
1994, KasFlow really understands how to capture
the essence of the era through his music. Check out some more dope
material from him on his Schema mixtape.
Somebody contact Rhymesayers
Entertainment and alert them about this dude
named Dust. On “TEL AVIV III” the Portland
rapper pieces together a laidback number with voice inflection that
sounds like a cross somewhere
between Slug and Brother Ali.
Dust’s new project, Dust vs. The
Operator is available for free on his Bandcamp page
right now. Cam
Meekins and Brandun
DeShay bring us the cure for the common headache with
their mellow collaboration, “Advil.” We haven’t heard from
either of them in quite awhile, so this one was a nice “2 for 1″
special. Mike Stud tries to
overcome a few “Bad Habits” alongside Kinetics and
One Love with this euphoric new
piece from his album, Relief.
Toronto
emcee Coleman Hell invites
you to chill with him while he counts his “Beer Cans.” I have no
idea how he plans to amass a fortune from them, so I’ll leave the
explanations up to him. Check out Coleman’s excellent Stark
Raving as well. A frequent visitor to The Hip-Hop
Dojo, M.i recently dropped his new
mixtape Pushing Keyes. The project features
stand out tracks we’ve highlighted before like “Church West Texas” and “Nothing You Can Do” as well as this
new tune, the chilled-out “Hi.” It’s a nice change of pace from
what we’ve heard from the Houston native, and should be one that’ll
be a fixture in our rotation for months to come.
The title of “Most Charming Song of The Week” easily goes
to Rally for his feel-good single,
“Maybe That’s Why.” Featuring a keen sample
of Norah Jones‘
“Don’t Know
Why,” the pleasant melody is one that promises to instantly
melt all your troubles away and keep a smile plastered on your face
for the rest of the day. Coming in with a short little number is
Tallahassee collective After The Smoke. While the
song is light on the rap, it’s just as addicting as their previous
hits. Our next summer “Groov” comes courtesy of Brothers
From Another and Asher Roth.
Grooving out is exactly what you’ll be doing as you jam out to this
awesome tune. Our next track comes from fun-loving California
trio Drop City Yacht Club. Formerly known
as The Freshmen, the group decided it was time to grow
up and graduate from their previous moniker as they pursue a life
of lavish luxury on the open sea (at least that’s what we assume a
newly formed yacht club would do). For fans worried about the
change though, don’t be, as they’re still up to their previous
antics as they ride the “Pipeline”
with THURZ (of U-N-I fame). We
keeps thing in California (Coachella to be precise)
with Connor Evans and Shawn Chrystopher as
they try to score with some “Hipsters and PrimaDonnas.” What is it
with rappers using James Blake
samples? Despite the recent trend becoming a little too rampant for
our tastes, it’s impossible for us to resist the inherent charm
behind each song. Adrian Lau’s “All A Game” might exhibit the
unique use of Blake’s “Retrograde” to date, and we’re
certainly thankful for it.
We hand the keys over to two of the game’s most talented
wordsmiths, Jon
Connor and Talib Kweli, who
implore you to “Rise Up” to your feet as they spit vicious bars on
their recent collaboration. Following that performance up is the
hardworking Syler who proves it’s
worth sacrificing a little sleep if it helps accomplish
your goals (we hope making The Hip-Hop Dojo was one of them.) Up
next, we have our pump-up anthem of the week in “Bet They See Me
Now” by Kwame Darko (I wonder if he’s
aware he’s named after two of the biggest
busts in NBA history). We hope Kwame experiences more success
in the rap game than either of those aforementioned individuals
ever did playing basketball. We begin to wrap things up
with “Make It Home” a new collaboration between Hoodie
Allen and Kina
Grannis. Conceived and
recorded in a 24 hour span, “Make It Home” is possibly the
strongest material we’ve heard from the former Google employee in a
long time. Maybe he should start using that method for all of his
recordings? Last but not least, we have “Chasing Rainbows”
from Marc Goone. Goone recently dropped his
I Am
Not A Lobster OK mixtape, which compiles all the
music Marc’s released since last year’s Halfway
to Nowhere, which had an exceedingly better name.
We hope you guys enjoyed our ninth edition of The Hip-Hop Dojo
as much as we did. We’d like to take the time out to thank all the
talented artists who sent in their submissions for this week’s
playlist. As always, you can send all of your
submissions/suggestions to baseer@themusicninja.com.
CLICK
HERE TO DOWNLOAD ALL THE FREE TRACKS
Emilio Rojas - Did It Again
dust - TEL AVIV III
M.i - Hi (ft Porche Harris)
After The Smoke - Come and Leave
Brothers From Another - Groov Feat. Asher Roth
Connor Evans - Hipsters & PrimaDonnas (ft. Shawn
Chrystopher)
