April was a good month for hip-hop. There was Finale‘s A Pipe Dream And A Promise, 2 albums from DC/Maryland’s producer/rapper Oddisee, and then a bunch of hints of what’s to come from Elzhi, Black Milk and others. So I’m kicking this month off with the obvious statement that “Hip Hop’s Cool Again.” I know, I basically claimed the same thing at the beginning of the year… But I had no idea then how good Q-Tip’s album would be, that Oddisee had grown so much since the few tracks that didn’t catch my attention years ago, or that Finale would match his unique cadence and flow with the depth of a well-crafted album.
So, like I said, first up is “Hip Hop’s Cool Again” off Oddisee’s solo LP, Mental Liberation. He also fronts a group, Diamond District, who just made a clean version of their soon-to-be-released LP, In The Ruff, available for free HERE. Honestly there’s not that much cursing so it’s not that far off from the final product, but it is good enough that I’m definitely going to pick it up, and I bet that this method of marketing the album pays off.
Besides for Little Big Adventure‘s “Happiest Times,” soon to be released by Labrador, most of the rest of this month is some older stuff. I really like this Charlemagne song, but it took me a while to weed through the cheeriness of Detour Allure to appreciate it. This Heartworms track is pretty hard-to-find (at least for me), and is the version from the very first Little Darla Has A Treat For You sampler that I still remember picking up in ’95 at Kim’s Underground West Village location. The Thermals cap off the mix… “Test Pattern” is far more 50s rock than the rest of The Body The Blood The Machine, and it is probably my favorite.
[banner image of isometric mountains by Charlotte Traynor]
May 2009 Mix
01 Oddisee – Hip Hop’s Cool Again
02 DJ Andrew Unknown & DJ Mekalek – Premier
03 Charlemagne – Nematode
04 Little Big Adventure – Happiest Times
05 Lilys – Catherine (Let A Positive Stream…)
06 Black Milk – Dreams
07 Heartworms – Really Really Really Sorry Parts 1 & 2
08 Finale – Heat (prod. J Dilla)
09 Archers of Loaf – Hate Paste
10 The Thermals – Test Pattern
