[MP3] Savages / The Banjo / Layers: You Need to Listen to Royce 5’9″ RIGHT NOW!

Real talk, I was happy for the homie, Royce 5’9″ when he made a critical and online fan splash with the PRhyme project he made in conjunction with the legendary DJ Premier. It seemed like he was finally getting his proper due despite years of being rated as one of the best underground street spitters in the game who at times has been down with Dr. Dre and Eminem and made some noise as part of the underground super group, Slaughterhouse.

But for my money, this new music he’s been dropping in anticipation of his forthcoming Layers album, due to drop on April 15, bests PRhyme and anything else he’s done by a country mile. In fact, the teaser ‘mixtape’ EP he just dropped, Tabernacle: Trust the Shooter is so good, I feel like he should put a hold on the release of the official Layers album and let Tabernacle breath for a minute. It’s basically an amazing album in its own right which deserves some time to grow and spread which can only help make Layers even bigger than it might be if it’s released on the 15th. Then again, if the title track, also above, featuring Pusha T (who, BTW, just KILLED his show in #The6 this past weekend) and Rick Ross, maybe he don’t even need the hype because that track is en fuego too!

Seriously though, check out the Tabernacle EP, it’s amazing! Click play on “Savages”, a track from it, above and tell me that those bars aren’t some of the most incredible sh-t you’ve heard in a long time. But before you do, make sure you have a head brace securely on because Royce’s spit game will crack your skull wide open! And that track “The Banjo” with ‘The Ghost’, Styles P and two artists I’m not familiar with, Westside Gunn and Conway ain’t slouching neither, right??! Dig those? The rest of the project is almost as good. Don’t believe me? You can listen to the entire thing on the DK Tumblr HERE.

[MP3] Listen to Two Tracks from Roger Singh Kahlon’s – f u t u r e / l o v e • e p •

Been a long-time supporter of Roger has been doing and it feel like what’s he been doing creatively has suddenly come into vogue in music currently: think Childish Gambino, Bryson Tiller, Toro Y Moi and even, Drake and Kanye and some stuff that’s been tagged “chillwave” are not a million miles from what Roger’s doing. If any of those touch-points resonate with you, you owe it to yourself to click play and check these two tracks out from his excellent recently released future/love EP. Like what you hear? Then check out the full 4-track EP on the Kitchen tumblr HERE. Also can be heard/purchased on Apple Music | iTunes | Spotify | TIDAL

Follow Roger Singh Kahlon online: Website | Twitter | Instagram

[MP3] Listen to Two Leaked Tracks from Drake – Controlla Feat. Popcaan / These Days w/ Babeo Baggins

First, “Controlla” featuring buzz dancehall MC (technically DJ in reggae parlance, still??), Popcaan which sounds like a sequel or an outtake of sorts of Drizzy‘s work with Rihanna on “Work.” The origins of the second track is a tad murkier but the apparent story, as best as I’ve figured it out, is that the track, which was originally identified as “These Days”, is actually a duet with Babeo Baggins of the group, Barf Troop (yeah, I’d never heard of ’em either!) on a cover of the Nico (of Velvet Underground) song by that name but now titled, “Things I Forgot To Do” for a cover song project called, Love Songs For Tough Guys which you can hear in full (it’s only 3 tracks) HERE. Confused yet??

Whether either of these songs, “Summer Sixteen” or “Hotline Bling” will make the supposedly imminently arriving and beyond hotly anticipated new Drake album, Views From the 6 remains the subject of endless and fruitless speculation. (note: apparently another track entitled, “Faithful” made with vocals from the late, great UGK co-member, Pimp C also leaked on April 1 but not sure if that’s legit or an April Fool’s gag. Have at it though and let me know what you find out….)

[MP3] R.I.P. Malik Isaac “Phife Dawg” Taylor, 1970-2016

Rumors of the passing of Phife Dawg, from the legendary hip-hop group, A Tribe Called Quest, which started to surface just as I was going to bed last night, were like a baseball bat to the head. Even though it was well known that he was a long time sufferer of type II diabetes and his health was, sadly, up and down at the best of times, 45 is way too young an age to pass.

Phife was the backbone of Tribe, the dude who added the grit to their left-field, black boho sound. When they reinvented the notion of so-called ‘jazz rap’ with the deep grooves on The Low End Theory earning widespread acclaim, including from many who even at that time still didn’t consider hip-hop ‘real’ music, it was actually Phife who got many of the lyrical plaudits for stepping his game up on the album from their debut and making it what it was, a genre and era defining masterpiece.

It’s been a weird past few weeks for me. So many people who have an impact on my life, both directly an indirectly, have passed away as of late and some of them I only learned about in passing or purely by accident.

It’s sobering seeing so many of my peers, in their forties, the supposed prime of life, pass away. What is going wrong with this world that so many in our generation are not getting to live out full, accomplished lives like Bowie, Glenn Frey, Keith Emerson, Natalie Cole, Maurice White, George Martin and other older legends who have also passed away recently? Not sure I’ll ever have an answer to that question.

Ironically, a couple days ago I saw in my Facebook ‘memories’ I had posted an article a couple years back about Q-tip reassembling the group to go back in the studio to work on new music. My comment accompanying it was something to the effect of: “Ian falls to his knees and cries…” I thought about re-sharing it but didn’t since nothing ever seemed to come of those sessions in the end (although apparently I am wrong on that: I am happy to report a new ATCQ album may be released in 2016!).

Now, even though I wish I didn’t, I would have presciently had all the reason in the world to have had that reaction given yesterday’s terrible news. But, as the homie, Wes says in this Brooklyn Bodega post, let’s not be sad, let’s celebrate Beats, Rhymes & Phife! The mini-mix by the UK’s DJ Yoda above does just that in the best way possible: by whipping together some of the 5 ft Assassin‘s best verses into one glorious hip-hop eulogy cum tribute. RIP Phife… #‎RIPPhifeDawg‬

[mix via The Rub, other great mixes there too! Image via Geology]

Update bonus mix: Listen to an amazing, almost 2 hour long, Phife Dawg tribute mix by the T.dot’s own super DJ, Starting From Scratch HERE.

[MP3 + Music Video] Big Kish – Mantra

The homie from time, Big Kish just dropped a great new video for a track, “Mantra” from his forthcoming EP, The Begin.

The video, shot entirely using an iPhone 6 (I guess that’s a thing now after Apple planted that seed, huh?), looks amazing and the song has a warm but fresh, comfortable feeling, kind of like the LA locale the video was shot in. Props, my dude….

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