DJ 1mic Presents "Return of The MCs" Mix CD Volume 5 Hosted by Torae:
01. Torae Enters Da Stage
02. Torae - Welcome To Duckdown Freestyle
03. Marco Polo & Torae - But Wait (Produced By Marco Polo)
04. Torae - Insane Freestyle (Produced By Marco Polo)
05. Raekwon Feat Noreaga & Joell Ortiz - Beauty
06. Cormega - Move The Crowd Freestyle
07. Cormega - Maybach Music Freestyle
08. Grafh - Things Done Changed (Produced By Cookin Soul)
09. Raekwon Feat AZ - Whips & Kicks
10. Rapper Big Pooh, Sha Stimuli & Kurupt - Homage To Pete Rock
(Produced By Focus)
11. Reks - Year Of The Showoff (Produced By Statik Selektah)
12. Donny Goines Feat Termanology, Rain & Big Lou - What You Expected Remix
(Produced By Statik Selektah)
13. Saigon - Trans Atlantic Slave Deal (Produced By Scram Jones)
14. Quest Feat Reks & Termanology - To Be Nice (Produced By Statik Selektah)
15. JFK Feat Termanology - Baking Soda 2009 (Produced By Statik Selektah)
16. Marco Polo & Torae - Party Crashers (Produced By Marco Polo)
17. Torae Double Barrel Album June 2nd
18. Buckshot Feat Kardinal Offishall - I Got Cha Open (Smirnoff Remix 09')
19. Ransom - 100 Bars
20. Nino Bless - Tribute To Bone Thugz
21. Nipsey Hussle Feat Jay Rock & 2Pac - Army By Myself
22. Torae - Welcome To Duckdown Freestyle II
23. Torae Double Barrel Album June 2nd
24. Rapper Big Pooh - Rear View Mirror (Produced By 9th Wonder)
25. Termanology - Why Can't We Chill
26. Skyzoo Feat Talib Kweli & Reks - When I Rhyme (Produced By Statik Selektah)
27. Reks - Bitter (Produced By Soul Searchers)
28. Reks - Deadly Toxins (Produced By Amadeus)
29. Sean Price - Ruthless (Produced By Amadeus)
30. Torae - Double Barrel Freestyle (Produced By Marco Polo)
31. Torae Exits Da Stage
32. Sev One Feat Estelle - History (Bonus Track)
Download Here:
http://bit.ly/11pZzq
6/02/2009
Return of the MC's Volume 5
DJ Concept - Armed & Dangerous: Select Cuts From Marco Polo and Torae
2) Jesse Owens - Torae & Marco Polo
3) Live On Sirius - Torae & Marco Polo
4) Torae & Marco Polo Speak
5) Double Barrel - Torae & Marco Polo (Cuts By DJ Revolution) off DOUBLE BARREL IN STORE JUNE 2nd
6) Practice (Spaghetti Bender Mix) - J-Live
7) Low Budget All Stars - Marco Polo f. Kev Brown, Kenn Starr, Oddisee, Cy Young and Kaimbr
8) Yeah Freestyle - Torae
9) But Wait - Torae & Marco Polo off DOUBLE BARREL IN STORE JUNE 2nd
10) I Want Mine - Boot Camp Clik
11) Promises - The Coalescence
12) Not Fun - Butta Verses
13) Niguz Talk Shit Freestyle - Torae
14) Click - Torae f. Skyzoo
15) Party Crashers - Marco Polo & Torae off DOUBLE BARREL IN STORE JUNE 2nd
16) Best To Do It (Remix) - DJ KO, Royce Da 5'9", Elzhi & Supastition
17) Worst Enemy - Supastition
18) Lay It Down Freestyle - Torae
19) Hardcore - Large Professor
20) Jukebox - Pumpkinhead
21) Not That Way - Supernatural
22) Insane - Heltah Skeltah
23) Insane Freestyle - Torae
24) T.I.M.E. - The Coalescence
25) Coney Island (Snippet) - Torae & Marco Polo
26) Hold Up - Marco Polo & Torae f. Masta Ace & Sean Price off DOUBLE BARREL IN STORE JUNE 2nd
4/29/2009
Marco Polo & Torae Interview Masta Ace (Double Barrel Tuesday Video 6)
Marco Polo & Torae discuss their 'HOLD UP' track featuring Masta Ace & Sean Price off the Double Barrel album in stores June 2nd.
For more info visit:
http://www.myspace.com/doublebarrel08
http://www.myspace.com/dayoungvet
http://www.myspace.com/marcopolobeats
http://www.duckdown.com
4/17/2009
Torae's favorite Track of 5 Guests from "Double Barrel"
The release of "Double Barrell" is coming closer, so Torae picked his favorite joints of 5 guests that appear on it, for us.
M.O.P. - Ante Up Remix
MASTA ACE - Music Man
GUILTY SIMPSON - Get Bitches
SEAN P - Crazy
MARCO POLO - Lay It Down
And don't forget: Double barrell out June 2nd!!!
4/09/2009
Marco Polo & Torae - Double Barrel, June 2nd!
I know Trav already postet it in the inbox goodies section, but this deserves its own post, I dont want it to get lost between all the other stuff.
First Leak off the album called "But Wait"
Free download here
Rapper Torae & Super-Producer Marco Polo have joined forces to release the New York rap album that fans of raw, hardcore Hip-Hop have been waiting for.
When it comes to beats and rhymes, Canadian producer Marco Polo and Brooklyn MC Torae don’t play, just check the résumé. On his 2007 critically acclaimed album Port Authority, Polo recruited a who’s who of MC’s like Kool G Rap and Kardinal Offishall to ride over his hard-hitting instrumentals. Torae, on the other hand, has certified his rep as one of the game’s illest lyricists in a similar fashion, with remarkable wordplay on his highly touted 2008 street album Daily Conversation. So, in the spirit of great hip-hop duos, the producer and the MC signed with Duck Down Records to release their collaborative album "Double Barrel," on June 2nd.
"He’s bringing the hardest production that he can bring, I’m bringing the hardest rhymes I can bring; together its like a double barrel blast,” says Torae of the album’s persistent theme. The two first hooked up when Marco tapped the MC to guest on his Mick Boogie-helmed mixtape, The New Port Authority, in 2007. In turn, Marco went on to produce “Casualty” on Tor’s Daily Conversation. “I think we just had a connection in the studio,” says Polo, “We wanted to make an album that we wanted to hear with banging beats and aggressive rhymes.”
Sonically Double Barrel pays homage to New York’s mid-‘90’s rap scene, when artists like Gang Starr and Wu-Tang Clan reigned supreme. The album’s lead track “Party Crashers” is a definite standout, harkening back to that era with its chest thumping percussion and rock solid rhymes. So rather then try to fit in with Hip-Hop’s pop set, Torae & Marco chose the unconventional route. “I think the sound of the album is not the most popular or trendy, but we’re going to crash the party,” says Tor, “ We’re coming in with this sound and we’re coming in doing what we want to do.”
Songs like the dramatic “But Wait” and the free associative “Word Play” display Tor’s forward-thinking conceptual abilities, while the rock-infused “Danger” stands as one of Marco’s finest productions to date. Overall the album is chock-full of the street-influenced rap that fans have come to expect from the two Hip-Hop upstarts.
Torae sums up the collaboration perfectly when he spits, “He makes violent beats, I’m from the violent streets/That Double Barrel sound, that’s where violence meets.”
Torae & Marco Polo will also be hitting off the vinyl heads with both a 12" and LP of the album.
The 12" line up is:
Double Barrel
Hold Up featuring Sean Price & Masta Ace
Combat Drills (exclusive cut not found on the Double Barrel CD)
1/21/2009
DJ Concept - Three Kings
I'm a little late on this, but in case you've missed it....here it is!
Skyzoo, Chaundon & Torae have been doing their thing for a while so if you don't know, now you do. Three Kings…. the throne got three chairs… Shouts to the fellas for hosting this one.
DJ Concept - Three Kings - Hosted By: Skyzoo, Chaundon & Torae: Free Download & Podcast
DOWNLOAD HERE: http://www.execute1200.com/threekings
Skyzoo - Intro
Skyzoo feat. Torae - Get It Done
Chaundon - Bet Dat
Skyzoo / Marco Polo - Block Shit
Torae / Marco Polo - Casualty
Chaundon feat. DV Alias Christ, GOD & Stimuli - We Are Here
Skyzoo feat. AC - Good Looking
CL Smooth feat. Skyzoo - Perfect Timing
Torae / Chaundon / Skyzoo - Three Kings
Skyzoo - The Paper
Torae - Wun Tu Thr3
Chaundon - Mr. Info
Skyzoo feat. Maino & Stimuli - Cop N Go
Torae - Something To See
1/18/2008
Weekend Lite: Back Again
Seems like things are starting to fall back into a rhythm. Between my moving and the holidays, things were a chaotic mess of seemingly never ending crap . I'm going to try to get back to doing a weekly post of promo's, publicity material, and my own thoughts of the happenings of the hip hop world, known in the past as the Weekend Lite.
I like to think I'm fairly easy to work with as far publicists, marketing people, and just artists trying to get their groove on go. If you want to post something up on WYDU, I usually try to do a post once a week with all the material I have received over the past week. The only thing I ask, and you learn this in Marketing 101, know your audience. Birds of a feather flock together, you see what kind of music I post, people that like the kind music I post tend to be the core audience. If you send me "Duffle Bag" remixes, it's probably not going to be hitting your target market. Ya dig?
One last thing, I had some, ummm, technical difficulties with my email last week (read: operator errors) and had everything sent to me deleted. So if you sent me something last week....chances are its lost (except for the Has Lo and DJ Maniuplator). Especially whoever was associated with the female artists Milly July. I tried to send a message on myspace, but you can't do that unless you were a friend and you couldn't be a friend without knowing her last name (it wasn't "July") or the email. So if you sent me something last week and want to resend it, that would be great and my apologies. On to the show.....
Things To Check Out Across The Internet......
Not going to be my full fledged Weekly Links post that I've been known to do in the past, just a few things that caught my eye this past week.
TSS Presents Smoking Sessions With Pete Rock
Now, what self serving hip hop would not want to read an interview with Pete Rock, especially when he is getting set to drop his "NY's Finest" LP next month. The Smoking Section does a great a job of sitting down with The Chocolate Boy Wonder and covering everything from the beginning as a young lad, to the current state of hip hop. Good interview, so check it out if you haven't yet.
American Gangster: Best of the Remixes Vol 1
My new favorite site dropped a wicked version of "American Gangster". Kevin Nottingham beat me to the punch and dropped his version of all the best AG remixes, including a track with our own DJ SoulClap. I'll probably still go ahead with my own "Best Of AG" type of post in the future, with a few tweaks naturally, although it's probably not going to top Kev's project. Also be sure to check out some of the amazing stuff Kevin has posted this week.
Readers of old school "The Source" magazines rejoice.
I have a love for the old school hip hop magazines. I can remember either running to my local record shop or when I had a subscription, running out to the mail box and then blocking off 3-4 hours to read the new monthly issue of "The Source". When I went away to college back in '96, I left my big tub of hip hop magazines at my parents. I never did go get them. Eight years later when they moved, they tossed them all. Something that I still shed a tear about even to this day. Thankfully, my man Vincent Lopez has been nice enough to start his blog, Thimk, and he is scanning all his old Source mags and is posting them in a PDF file. Freakin' brilliant. I look forward to some good stuff in the future from his blog.
The King of Crate Diggers Interview
Phill Most Chill, recognize the name baby! Some of the crate diggers might know him as The Soulman, one of the greatest crate diggers to be found. He's dropped mixtapes that I know I've used to school myself. He's dropped dope 12 inch singles in the mid 90's. He is somewhat of a legend among the hip hop nerds such as myself. My man Mr. Mass (I see you Mass, stay off them bikes!) of the dope Masscorporation, drops one of the more interesting interviews that I have read in awhile. I like interviews with the less heralded characters in hip hop's history, so stuff like this is great to me. Check it now!
Also while we are on Mass, Masscorporation, and soul samples, my man sent me a copy of "Mass Education For Your Ears Lesson One: The Golden Years" that is hosted by Rev. Shines. I must say, a nice collection of samples and well mixed. It's a great little thing to throw on while playing a couple games of Madden '08. Top that off, any blog that gets its own album, gets props from me. This is a great collection of material that any sample freak should check out and plus you know you are helping a good cause, getting Mr. Mass a helmet for when he rides his bikes (no more black eyes dude). So be sure to check it out while you are reading the Soulman interview.
Goodies From The Inbox....
The fourth quarter and the holiday season was a little slow around my way for promo items and the such, but things are starting to pick up. I lost my Wu-Tang connect, I guess the album dropped and that was that, or maybe they didn't like what I had to say about the album, but oh well. Some decent stuff coming out, which is promising since the first quarter of the year is usually notoriously slow. With that being said, while it might be slow, there is usually one or two "GREAT" albums that drop in the time period between January and the end of March. Who will it be this year? Time will tell, but here is some stuff that I either had sent to me, or I stumbled across on the internet.
ALBUMS
I had a couple enjoyable projects this week that ended up in my hands, one was sent to me from the artist himself, the other I ran across by accident and ended up liking a lot as well
-Editor's Pick Of The Week-
Has-Lo - Fuck Has Day
Has-Lo is straight from the land of the DJ's and cheese steak sandwiches, Philadelphia. This was sent to me from the man himself. I thought I had heard of him before, but I don't know if that was being in my usual confused mind state or if I have actually heard of him before, regardless, I was really feeling the vibe on this album. It's a real mellow, laid back project that had me nodding my head lazily while bumpin' it in the headphones. It gave me that "golden age" feeling without sounding dated in the least. It's a fairly mellow piece of work, so it's not something to get you hyped, but just some great chill music.
Has handles the production, which even though most of the album is on the mellow tip, it's varied enough that it doesn't drag down the album. My favorite track was "The Usual Way" which also contained some dope scratching, which is a good way to win me over. Overall I think it's a good project, one that is well worth your time to check out. I wouldn't steer you wrong, now would I?
Title: Fuck Has Day
Artist: Has-Lo
Producer: Has-Lo
Author: Has-Lo
Copyright Year: 2007
Track List:
1. Prelude
2. Calibration
3. Fuck Has Day
4. The Usual Way
5. Unsigned Emcees
6. Hands
7. Molotov Cocktails
8. All's Fair
www.myspace.com/loreso
www.custamato.blogspot.com
Solo.X - Black September
I happened to stumble across this on the philaflava boards. I'll admit, I'm probably like a lot of you, I don't listen to much I see posted on message boards....or blogs. I know how a lot of you feel, if I don't know who it is, I don't listen to it, unless someone sends me an email saying "check my shit out please", then I feel like its my responsibility to listen to it. Regardless, a couple of the more "stingy" people on the board liked, so I figured, "what the hell". I'm glad I did, because although coming in at only five songs, this is some quality material. The be ats are on point, the kid, Solo.X is pretty nice with the lyrics, dropping some clever lines and making some catchy ass tunes.
Solo.X - Black September EP
1. Glass House Theory
2. Just To Let You Know
3. Natural Mystics
4. Move On
5. Black September
www.solofordolo.com
Damu of Y Society
I got some flack over not including Y Society in any of the year end lists and probably rightfully so. I'll have to admit, for whatever reason it was, I didn't really ever get into the album all that much. I'm not saying it was bad, because what I heard of it, I really enjoyed. I'll chalk it up to too much music and not enough hours in the day or something like that.
That being said, I though I'd offer a little peace offering to the Y Society fans out there. Straight from Damu's myspace pa ge is a little freebie from the man himself. Little odds and ends here. Once again, I haven't had a chance to listen to it as much as I should, but what I did hear sounds good. Plus from what I've read and seen of them appearing on other blogs, they seem like good people and it is real hip hop music, regardless if my deaf ears haven't gotten into it as of yet.
Damu - Spare Time
01 - Lost Ole 2005
02 - Rather Unique 2005
03 - Colorful Storms 2005
04 - Damu - Leo The ... Part 1 - 2006
05 - Damu - Coffee Table - 2005
06 - Damu - Ego Trooping - 2005
07 - Y Society - What's Next - Damu Remix 1
08 - Damu - 2004 Beat Original
09 - Damu - Randi - 2006
10 - Damu - Work In Progress - Instro 2005
11 - Damu - Pulse - Fudgemunk Instro 2006
12 - Damu - To RBI - 2004
13 - Damu - L.B. - 2005
14 - Damu - Leo the... Part 2 - 2006
15 - Damu - Colorful Storms - Final Mix 2005
16 - Damu - Pulse - Fudgemunk Remix 2006
17 - Y Society - Rather Unique 2 - 2005
18 - Kev Brown - Work In Progress - Damu Remix 2005
19 - Y Society - Paranoid - Japanese LP Bonus Track
http://www.myspace.com/damuthefudgemunk
Mick Boogie & Benzi
Probably not my type of thing, but Mick Boogie is that dude, so check it out anyway.
DJ Manipulator
My dudes at Social Light Sounds haven't failed me yet. They sent me one of my favorite albums I received for promo purposes last year in the Nite People album "Daily Livin'", so I was excited to check out the free download for DJ Manipulator, "The Pizarro Crime Family Beat Tape".
DJ Manipulator, the prolific DJ turned producer, releases a hypnotic blend of instrumental bliss entitled "The Pizarro Crime Family Beat Tape". A perfect mesh of boom bap, electronica and soul, this project is sure to provide an evident glimpse into the colorful mind of one of Massachusetts' finest artistic monsters.
- from Social Light Sounds Site
The Pizarro Crime Family Beat Tape
Web & DJ Jam X
I honestly haven't had a chance to listen to this one other than a couple songs off their myspace page, due to some link problems. I'll let you all be the judge on it.
Tracks
One Be Lo aka One Man Army has long been a favorite of mine, so naturally, I was rather stoked to hear his new album. I've had a chance to sit down with it a couple times now, and I'll have a review up in the next week or so, but this track was one of my favorites from the album.
One Be Lo - Gray
Here is the new Kidz In The Hall single, "Drivin Down The Block" (word to Masta Ace) from their forthcoming sophomore LP, The In Crowd, which will be released on 4-29-08 by Duck Down/Major League. The In Crowd is entirely produced by Double-O and Naledge will be joined on the mic by the following guests (as of now anyway): The Clipse, The Cool Kids, Black Milk, Guilty Simpson, Travis of GYM CLASS HEROES, Camp Lo, Sean Price, Buckshot, Masta Ace, Wale, The Pack, Phonte and Skyzoo.
-From MAC Media
http://www.zshare.net/audio/66799153819833/
Here is a new track, "Click" f/Skyzoo and produced by DJ Premier from Torae's forthcoming debut LP, Daily Conversation, which will be released on 1-29-08 by Soulspazm/Fat Beats.
-MAC Media
http://www.zshare.net/audio/6680033f64f0fa/
Videos and Concert Clips
Astonish of the Molemen
I've always been a fan of the Molemen crew out of Chi-town and their numerous projects. This video was sent to me just today featuring their newest member, Astonish. The beat is amazing, on some lazy guitar type thing. At first I didn't particularly care for the hook, but by the end of the song I found myself singing to the shit, so it's definitely a mind sticker.
Nas Con cert Footage Live from Hammerstein Ballroom in New York
Some nice footage sent to me from a new associate. If you couldn't be there, which I'm sure most of us couldn't, this is the next best thing. Nas, Marley, and Busta. From what I heard, this was kind of a freestyle concert, with Marley just playing joints. It didn't sound like it went over too well, but so be it, it still would have been dope just to have been there.
Top Spins Of The Week
This is usually the time of the year that I go back to listening to a bunch of older stuff while I wait for the industry to start picking it up. This year is really no different, but the old stuff has been all over, listening to some of the old stuff that I haven't had a chance to listen to as of yet that I might have found on a blog or forum somewhere. The newer stuff is going to reign on the Spins for the week as I have a few things that I played more than once.
1. The Smile Rays - Party....Place
2. Guilty Simpson - Ode To The Ghetto
After breaking down and listening to the mixtape/podcast of Guilty Simpsons "Stray Bullets" (I HATE mixtapes on one big file), I loved the shit and was highly anticipating his debut album. I've gave this three or four listens this week. While there is some stuff I really like, I'm starting to feel disappointed in this. I'm not even sure why, I guess nothing really "grabs" me like I thought it would. Guilty sounds like a hungry Beanie Sigel (circa The Roots days), which is a good thing. Yeah, he doesn't change his tone or flow at all, but I think I'm alright with that. The beats are on point in most cases. Coming from Detroit and Stones Throw, he has that mix of D-town producers and the usual Stones Throw contributors such as Oh No, Mad Lib, Mr Porter, and Black Milk. My favorite joint so far is the lone produced J Dilla track "I Must Love You", a nice pairing that I would have liked to seen more of, but that won't be happening. I'm not ready to give up on this yet. I like it enough to keep listening to it, maybe I just had too high of expectations for it.
3. Atmosphere - Strictly Leakage
I guess this post just lost all creditability. All this REAL hip hop then I have to go and mention Atmosphere again. At least thats what someone said earlier this week, it made for a good running joke around these parts. Say what you want about Atmosphere, but what is real? Rapping about shooting people and slanging rocks, when chances are the artist hasn't seen that shit, hasn't sold one rock in his entire life? Or something like Atmosphere who just happens to rap about everyday shit. That's half the problem with hip hop today, a lot of these cats are in a box that only real hip hop is "Dun Rap". Shit is bigger than that these days, and for hip hop to stay fresh, it needs to think outside the box. You don't have to like it, but don't discount it.
Enough of the soap box, Ant and Sean use a lot of recycled grooves on this project, which usually bugs me, but they tweak shit enough and make the topics interesting enough that it doesn't distract from the overall project. Nothing mind numbingly stupendous, but shit, it's free, don't bitch.
4. Has-Lo - Fuck Has Day
Dope little project. I didn't listen to this a lot because I had to, it was because I wanted to. As I said earlier, it gave me that golden age feel with out sounding dated. Good shit. Now if you didn't pick it up earlier, go back and pick it up now.
5. Substantial - Sacrifice
I'm usually into most of the QN5 work, such as Tonedeff, E F@mm and the other material that the label has released in the past. The new Substantial release, who was apart of EF@mm, is good enough to keep most of the QN5 fans happy. It's kind of hit and miss on some tracks, but a worthwhile release that I kept listening to for the good songs.
top 10 songs of the week will be back next week.....
WHY???
Why do I doubt we'll be seeing a reunion Heltah Skeltah album with the arrest of Rock? Damn, a pimp? Over chicks? Damn....
Why do I want to hear a Peedi Crack album more than ever after reading some of this interview? I slept on dude something serious in the past.
Why does an album from Killer Mike entirely produced by No ID sound pretty dope?
Why do I laugh at the notion of "Hip Hop Karaoke"? I must confess though, I've done a few drunken renditions of Run DMC joints in my past.
Why is still a bitch to find Blu & Exile's "Below The Heavens" in stores? It's on the same label as Exile's solo release, which I had no problem finding in the past.
Why, speaking of Blu some more, does this joint collabo with Detroit MC/Producer T'raach sound pretty dope? They will be known as "C.R.A.C. Knuckles" and it will be released on T'Raach's label sometime in April. Can't wait.
Why does a joint project with Masta Ace and Edo G sound promising as well?
Why am I already starting to do research for my fantasy baseball season? Probably because I sucked in all my leagues last year and I can't let Brian (of WYDU fame) win in our pay league again this year.
Why do I really not like that Lupe Fiasco album?
Why do the first months of the new year suck so bad, not just for hip hop, but in general?
