An unfortunate trend — Freestyle battle beasts seem not to be able to put together good albums (or songs, for that matter) Soul Khan’s new FREE album (yeah, like legally and everything) is a very nice exception. Get it...

Perhaps you heard of this NYOIL guy, who’s on a conscious/angry crusade to lynch all the terrible rappers? In another life he was half of the UMC’s, a group that had a great first album (happy and heartfelt, a combination you don’t much see lately) and a second that I didn’t like much at the time, but I imagine if I go back and check for it, I’ll love it. Either way, for my post I’ll just stick with the two released classics. The sugary-sweet “Blue Cheese” and the deliciously mellow “One to grow on.” Also, special bonus link to treats...

Channel Live got a huge boost from the teacha, KRS-One on their arguable one-hit wonder, “Mad Izm” — (which I also found a little odd, I never could recall KRS being so into the greenery) — regardless, it was a banger. I’m starting to notice a recurring theme in my posts, where I’ll also give a little shine to a secondary song, and this post is no exception; I thought that “Reprogram” was a pretty good one, with its “so simple it’s almost silly sounding”...

So, I generally try to keep it positive around here, but I’m afraid I don’t have many good things to say about the current state of “mixtapes.” I *understand* it, mind you. With decreasingly diverse radio options, a slew of new struggling players in the game, and the declining significance of the “album,” rappers are forced to put out lots of product in order to stay known/relevant. The unfortunate result is that most mixtapes sound like first drafts of albums. In a way, mediocre mixtapes by good artists are even worse than bad ones; they just leave you wishing they’d tweaked the thing a little bit more and instead made it a real album. Speaking of, does anyone do mixtapes like back when they were tapes? As in, a DJ pulls together a bunch of good songs, all from DIFFERENT artists? Besides the T.R.O.Y. “Sounds like the 90’s” series, I don’t know of many others. But, perhaps there’s hope — the inspiration for this post was none other than the Black Thought/J. Period “Live Mixtape” from Toronto. Greatness! (Off the record, I wish Black Thought rhymed more like this on the Roots albums as...

Whatever era you dig, this should put a smile on your...

Not bad poster of the links between rapper names.