Hip Hop -- Recently Added -- CD  

A compilation of Wu Tang Clan tracks and live funky soul backing by Brooklyn combo The Revelations -- put together by The RZA and featuring rhymes by Ghostface, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck and U God, plus guest MCs Masta Ace, AZ, Cormega, Sean Price, Havoc, Kool G Rap, Tre Williams and Sadat X. Titles ...

Twin Cities hip hop from Toki Wright -- solid stuff from the Rhymesayers family -- straight up, no BS, underground hip hop that's made for the love of it. Beats by Benzilla, Reggie Reg, Brother Ali and others, with guest appearances by Scarab of Living Legends, Brother Ali and I Self Divine. ...

Hazy beatcraft steeped in Indian soundtrack style funk, strings and percussion from the indefatigable Madlib -- Volumes 3 & 4 in the Beat Konducta series of the increasingly adventurous and conceptual outings -- 2 volumes on 1CD! This time out Madlib, er, Beat Konducta is conducting beats, ...

Full length collabo between Chi vets Verbal Kent & Kaz1 -- with guests including the ever ferocious Ill Bill, plus Wordsworth, Cold Hard of Crucial Conflict, Alltuisms, Braille and more! Straight up, hard hitting underground hip hop. Titles include "Dedicated", "Wars R Us" ...

Abstract Rude's Rejuvenation, produced entirely by Vitamin D -- kind of a laidback, west coast funky vibe in the beats department -- but Rude's rhymes take a busier tack in spots, and interesting counterpart to the more easygoing beats, bass groove and synths in the production. Titles include ...

Dead Prez spitting sharply over beats by DJ Green Lantern -- featuring Chuck D on a track, a clear hip hop revolutionary inspiration to DP, plus Bun B, Styles P and others on Pulse Of The People -- Turn Off The Radio Part 3. Dead Prez gets political as always, but there's no easy targets in their ...

Funky psychedelic hip hop from Willie Isz -- aka cosmic hip hop beatmaker and Khujo Goodie of the legendary Goodie Mob -- a set that manages to be both hazy and tripped out, but pretty hard hitting, too! It was hard to get around a Stankonia-or-later Outkast or Gnarls Barkley comparison when we ...

A mixtape style set of raw rhyme, free styles and more from Naledge of Kidz In The Hall. Features production by Black Spade, Nez & Rio, Sa-Ra, Tha Bizness and Double-O -- and appearances by Fooch, GLC, Jay Electronica and more. Titles include "In My Own Words" feat Fooch & Mick ...

An excellent full length set of beats & genius from J Dilla -- put together by fellow beatmaker extraordinaire Pete Rock, with all Dilla beats -- a surprising triumph! Call us jaded, but honestly, we weren't sure how deep the well could go of ready-to-go beats from Dilla, but this stuff is ...

One of the biggest major label hip hop albums of the early 80s -- and easily one of the best ever full length sets from Kurtis Blow! There's a straightforward simplicity here that's totally great -- a slight elevation of the Sugar Hill groove towards a more mainstream audience -- but one that ...

We never know whether we should call this their second album or not. We know it's their second, but their first was so poorly distributed for years, and besides, this one's light years ahead of that in both the approach to production and rhyme style. A modern hip hop essential, that blew our ...

The Bling 47 camp brings the heat with the War LP -- featuring standout Detroit beats by Waajeed -- and appearances by Bling 47 compatriots and confidants Tiombe Lockhart, Ta'Raach and Invincible -- and a couple of gems from Jay Dee! War brings a more pronounced, proper hip hop feel than Waajeed's ...

The second album from the legendary Slick Rick -- who still stands today as one of hip hop's greatest and most unique MCs -- with a set of straight up excellent earlier stuff from the days before Russell Simmons made Slick do songs with Montell Jordan! Ricky D remains one of hip hop's best ...

Boots, E Roc, and Pam the Funkstress bring the hip hop dialectic. From the glory days of revolutionary-Marxist-political rhymes in the early 90's when groups like the Coup and Digable Planets were quoting Mao and Franz Fanon instead of Iceberg Slim or the latest gangster flick. Although it's ...

The sharpest work yet from Detroit's Finale -- paired with tight production from Waajeed & Black Milk, and the gone but still active J Dilla -- plus Kev Brown, Nottz, Dimlite, Nottz, Taraach and others! Finale good with the acrobatic wordplay, and his got a tightly punctuated, heavy delivery ...

Another absolutely essential collection from Soul Jazz, this time out heading straight for the outer boroughs of the Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn and Queens to document the fresh, fly, wild and bold rap tracks that rocked block parties and roller rinks from '79 on! 16 amazing tracks from the dawn of ...

Mindblowing -- and like a dream come true! This is undeniably one of the most important records ever in hip hop -- and now, it's lovingly reissued (on both CD and LP), with a quality level that pushes it over the top! The sound is great, the package is wonderful, and the music sounds even fresher ...

Skaters, disco freaks and hip hoppers unite on this monster compilation featuring killer old school rap and boogie cuts -- all produced by the legendary Peter Brown! The set reissues some of the legendary Big Break Rapper party LP originally issued on Brown's Queen Constance imprint, but drops ...

The second album from Foreign Exchange -- the formerally bi-continental project of North Carolina MC, and nascent soul singer Phonte of Little Brother, and transplanted Dutch producer Nicolay -- who take an even deeper turn into spacey soul on Leave It All Behind! Given that Phonte is singing ...

Doom is back, sans the MF prefix, fully loaded with funky sci fi hip hop that's fit to shake the heavens -- his first record in far too long, and a strong one! We don't know where the masked man holed himself up in the couple years before this set, nor do we pay much attention to the rumors and ...

The second album of heavy east coast funk and slow rolling rhymes from the brothers from Brentwood. Nice, fat trunk rattling production and Eric and Parrish's trademark back and forth rhymes keep this set fresh,even today. Loaded with classics: "So What Cha Sayin'", "Get the ...

This is the first full length by underground favorite J-Live. He rhymes like a veteran rapper on this album, although this was actually shelved and in label limbo for some time. Tracks include "Got What It Takes", "Get The Third", "Vampire Hunter J", "Them That's ...

A batch of some of the sharpest material we've heard from Thaione Davis -- a shining light of the Chicago hip hop underground scene -- produced for the Still Hear set entirely by Rashid Hadee, who brings some some hard hitting soul to the beats! Thaione is one of the best MCs and producers on the ...

A full length with real depth from beatboxing guru Scratch -- who does his thing with a stellar roster of guest MCs and singers -- including MOP, Kanye West, Peedi Crakk, Musiq Soulchild, Terri Walker & Estelle, Damon Albarn & Talib Kweli, and many more! Scratch's style is top notch, and ...

It's not "The Breaks", but it's still pretty great -- especially if you look at Kurtis Blow more as an old school funk artist than a straight hip hopper! There's a tightly funky element to the set that's undeniable -- almost some of the street soul modes that Fatback and other groups ...

If Paul's Boutique was the Beasties heavily mind-blown Dust Brothers dusted psychedelic hip hop Sgt Peppers, then Check Your Head is their down and dirty back to basics raw funk run at something like Never Mind The Bollocks. Their first outing without the guidance of an outside producer, though ...

Unfortunately, it's not still working -- Tommy Boy hasn't released a hip hop masterpiece like they routinely cranked out in their glory days in a long, long time -- which is a great reason to buy this hits package featuring singles that are not simply Tommy Boy's greatest, but actually some of the ...

A wild set of boundlessly spraying lyrics from Busdriver -- who can pack 3 minutes with more wordplay than just about any MC we can think of -- the man is phenomenally talented in this area, which you have to acknowledge whether unfiltered, surrealistic indie hip hop is your cup of tea or not! The ...

A pretty fresh record from Tough Junkie -- bringing a golden age reverence to a fresh set of modern hip hop -- built on blueprint funky and soulful beats -- and rhymes that roll from easy going abstract to sharp, straight forward storytelling. Tough Junkie's rhymes are both tough and playful, and ...

A massive batch of instrumentals from J Dilla -- one that strongly transcends the wordless hip hop genre -- and perhaps his rawest, and most adventurous listening experience yet! The loopy soul samples, rich synth/electronic shine, and thumping bass and soul beats that Dilla largely made his name ...

Prefuse 73 is in fine, psychedelic hip hop instrumentalist form on Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian -- if you saw the cover art and feared some prog rock fever dream, you can relax -- this is a hypnotic suite of kaleidoscopic and atmospheric soundscapes par excellence! The track list is 29 ...

The previously unreleased debut from Boston icon Scientifik -- which previously circled the crates of deep digging hip hop heads in white label form-- released officially for the first time ever! Most Blunted was recorded in '92 with production by Joe Mansfield of the Vinyl Reanimators -- and it's ...

The second KMD LP -- a great record that languished unreleased for far too long -- with a few tracks maintaining the jazzier sound of the first album, but mostly coming a little harder -- though still in a classic early 90s hip hop vein. The lost transitional step from the Zevlove X of Mr Hood to ...

Solid, soulful duo hip hop from Retro & Suhns, aka The Tones! The have a classic schooled sound, with beats by Retro that range from the soul beats and keys backed sound that feels a bit more east coast or midwest than the Tones native Bay Area -- and it's just straight up good stuff. ...

J Dilla's brother Illa J collaborates with Dilla for the Yancey Boys album -- produced with a batch of Dilla's beats! This album could have gone wrong in a number of ways for a number of reasons -- but truth be told it's a quality record that's actually worth checking out! Most importantly, ...

The "lost" Lootpack album! In case you're uninitiated, the Pack is Madlib's hip hop crew -- featuring 'lib, Wildchild and DJ Romes. Declaime (aka Dudley Perkins), God's Gift, Kazi, Oh No, Medaphoar and other Stones Throw figures drop in. Tracks include "Inner Soul", "Psyc ...

The mid 90s solo set from Grand Puba -- the still solid Grand Puba 2000! GP 2K is a more mellow and easygoing set of funky hip hop, one that's lighter on the politics than the group work Brand Nubian -- not that Puba had the most righteous Brand Nubian verses to begin. Some lighter, jazzier vibes ...

Massive DJ genius from the one-and-only Madlib -- the 4th volume in his excellent series of remixed and mixed up material from the Stones Throw roster and more! Volume 4 is over an hour of Madlib doing his thing behind rhymes from some of hip hop's titans -- part underground remix experience, part ...

Soulful hip hop beatmaker extraordinaire J Rawls teams up with singer Middle Child for the laidback Rawls & Middle LP -- with breezy, soul infused beats from Rawls and lovely chanteuse vocals from Middle! Rawls sticks with the easygoing keys & beats groove for these tracks -- and Middle's ...

A synthy soul funk project from the team of Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo -- a set that's just trippy enough -- and it's possibly the best full length from either party, ever! You don't need us to tell you that DM has had a finger in a handful of the best fringe pop/leftfield hip hop projects of the mid ...

Little Brother transitions to the majors with their soulful underground sound intact -- and deliver an effort that in the best moments improve upon the already classic Listening LP! It looks like this just isn't going to go over with the TRL crowd, despite the Atlantic logo. The soul sample vibe ...

Rebel Musiq from Legendary MC Bicasso -- fresh, timeless rhymes from Bicasso and guests, and some west coast funk steeped production by DJ Fresh! Guests include Maya Azucena, Grouch< Saafir and Zion I. Titles include "It's On" feat Murs, "Get Free", "Think Big", ...

Serious minded wisdom from J-Live -- who has been one of hip hop's most impressive lyricists as well as one of the scene's most underappreciated overall talents since the late 90s -- doing things right with beats by Jazzy Jeff, Yalizee, Locsmif, Numark, DJ Spinna, Nicolay, and Chicago's own Cap D. ...

Real hip hop from the Jeanius -- the long rumored, previously leaked, later redone and finally released full length collaboration from Jean Grae and 9th Wonder! Jeanius is just what you want it to be -- a straight no chaser, no BS batch of blueprint funky soul beats from 9th Wonder -- and tough, ...

The best work yet from Chicago's Primeridian -- featuring funky all international production for homegrown All Natural, Inc -- with beats by Nicolay, J-Rose, Willow and DJ Steady -- with appearances by Naledge of Kidz In The Hall and Imani of Pharcyde! There's an underground of funk in the beats -- ...

A Stones Throw sci-fi masterpiece -- one that was destined for greatness from conception, but we're still pretty well blown away by the final product! MC Doom and beatmaster Madlib couldn't be better suited for a collaboration. As much as we've dug the best of Doom's material of the last couple ...

Tight stuff from Living Legends veterans Grouch & Eligh -- with guest appearances by Slug, Sage Francis, Blu, Pigeon John, Mystic, Gift Of Gab and others -- plus production by Flying Lotus, Rick Rock and Amp Live! The album has a pretty diverse sound, but it's held tight by the excellence of ...

A mix of early solo cuts from Elzhi of Slum Village -- 2CDs worth of material! Features beats by J Dilla, Black Milk, Alchemist, Waajeed, Kareem Riggins and more! Tracks include "2000", "Hands High", "Days And Nights", "Stroll", "Let's Talk", ...

Northwest underground hip hop production titan Jake One puts together a tight LP for Rhymesayers -- full of heavy hip hop with a who's who of MCs -- including MOP, Pos of De La Soul, Freeway, Brother Ali, Young Buck, MF Doom, Little Brother, Blueprint, Casual, Elzhi of Slum Village, Royce Da 5'9, ...

Rare 80s funky east coast hip hop -- great tracks by Most Wanted, The Heartbeat Brothers, Sport G & Mastermind, Phase And Rhythm and and others -- great tracks cut for the Enjoy, Elite, Street Walk, Pelon and other labels with production throughout by the late Paul C! Paul C is better known ...