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[MP3] Dillon Cooper – The Best
New underground hip-hop flavor with a 90s twist out of Boston. Produced by Arcitype. Kid is nice with the bars, for real. Song title is no idle boast!
[MP3] Introducing New Artist Carmine: Three Tracks from the Nothing Good Mixtape
Came up on this kid, Carmine from Corpus Christie, TX of all places via the submission inbox. Dude is talented. Recommended if you dig that new school, Drake/Big Sean-style hip-hop. Don’t sleep! Dig these tracks? Listen to the entire Nothing Good mixtape they come from HERE.
[MP3] Introducing iLL CAMILLE: three tracks from the iLLUSTRATED mixtape
New year, let’s start with some new unsigned and indie artist to celebrate. Starting with Cali-based female MC, iLL Camille. Turns out long-time homie, Kish has worked with her and TDE soul singer, JaVonte who I posted end of last year and is featured all over her mixtape including the final track, “Rennaisance” above, so that’s all the more reason to begin with her. Enjoy!
Dig her stuff? Listen to the entire iLL Camille – iLLUSTRATED mixtape album on the DK Facecbook page HERE.
[DJ Mix] Capital STEEZ Tribute Mix by Dj Statik Selektah
If you keep up with the underground, you know one of the stories of the year was the ride of Pro Era movement out of Brooklyn led by their crew head, Joey Bada$$. The unfortunate coda to what should have been a triumphant year for these kids was the unexpected suicide of talented crew member, Capital STEEZ just before Christmas. If you weren’t up on this work, DJ Statik Selektah dropped a nice tribute mix to him on his radio show during the holidays which you can listen to right here…
Bonus:
Hit the jump to hear MeLo-X – Live From East Flatbush feat. Joey Bada$$ & CJ Fly (Prod. By MeLo-X)
[mix via Afro-Punk]
DIFFERENT KITCHEN’S FAVORITE SONGS OF 2012
Ordered alphabetically ‘cos honestly I couldn’t really discern where to rank every track on this list but be clear “Adorn” by Miguel was pretty much my favorite song of the year and Jean Grae and Scrufizzer: you both blew my mind with your tracks.
So what does this list say about The Kitchen and music in 2012? I wouldn’t want to speak definitively to those questions (others, feel free to weigh in with your own thoughts in the comments section though) but I would say the list, I think, does a pretty decent job of reflecting all the varied sounds that The Kitchen has always supported over our entire history and of course, in particular this past year.
We’ve never been a pure hip-hop blog (hence our name and goal of striving to be ‘different’) but rep the culture to the fullest, everything from the most ig’nant of-the-moment club bangers to super-lyrical or left-of-center underground joints by indie, unsigned or foreign artists. We won’t claim to outdo the EDM blogs out there but we were listening to those sounds (or their precursors) before many of the kids who run the ‘tastemaker’ blogs in that space were old enough to even know what house music was and feel like our tastes sometimes unearth sounds and talent that don’t fit within the blinkers of their preconceived but approved ‘trendy’ sounds. And tell me how many of the rap bloggers out there feel comfortable enough to post straight-up pop stuff that doesn’t have some cred-grabbing featured rapper on it or some cool punk or indie rock with no ‘urban’ connection to it at all?
Happily enough, I feel like the momentum seems to be towards more and more people with that sensibility with each passing year and you know what? I think that’s a great sign for music and where it’s going or could go moving forward. Growth and evolution, always. Music will never die if artists keep adhering to that ethos and I think they are and have been. Music’s not dead…
2012 FAVORITE SONGS:
2 Chainz feat. Kanye West – Birthday Song
Alley Boy feat. Pusha T – Your Favorite Rapper
Azealia Banks – 1991
CashOut – Cashin’ Out
French Montana – Pop That feat. Rick Ross, Drake & Lil Wayne
Jean Grae – Kill Screen
Youngblood Hawke – We Come Running (The Knocks Remix)
Hint – Aliens Enter feat. T Fly
ivanunknown – So Close So Far
Killer Mike – Big Beast feat. Bun B, T.I. and Trouble
Meek Mill – Amen feat. Drake and Jeremih
Miguel – A D O R N
Mocky – Little Bird
Nas – The Don (Produced by Salaam Remi, Da Internz & Heavy D)
NotestoSelf – All of the Above
Redman – White People Are Rioting
Scrufizzer – #RapRave
Skrillex & Damian Marley – Make It Bun Dem
Spek Won – Pulp Fiktion feat. Keisha.Leisha
Tasha the Amazon – Scallywags feat. Cola of Wifetaker
T.I. – Like That
WatchTheDuck – Poppin’ Off
Kanye West feat. Big Sean, Pusha T, 2 Chainz – Mercy
Yung Nate – Work
Xzibit feat. King Tee & Tha Alkaholiks – Louis XIII (prod. Dr. Dre)
Check out the soundcloud player with a playlist set of all these tracks within (an abbreviated version of this playlist is also available on RDIO, some of the non-commercial or unsigned track were not available on there…):
Previously on The Kitchen:
– The Best Of The Kitchen 2011 – Singles
#DK11: The album, This One Goes To Eleven… OUT NOW
