What up, what up. A bunch of hip-hop heavyweights are set to drop some long anticipated albums in the coming weeks and it’s safe to say that your boy Train is more than little excited. So without further ado, let’s dive right in and get a little preview of the sounds that are about to invade your speakers in the near future…
The Roots have been reshaping and redefining the sounds of hip-hop for the past 20 years. You don’t need me to tell you how good Questo and the boys are, anyone who’s heard an album or seen them live can attest to that fact. They were a hip-hop with a live band back before it was considered cool to be hip-hop with a live band. A product of the Philly-soul movement, this insanely talented group of true musicians has been pushing the envelope and challenging fans to reconstruct their definition of hip-hop with every album. Faithful Muffin readers will be excited to know that Questlove has been getting his indie on lately, developing a serious band-crush on The Dirty Projectors – The Roots backed them up on Fallon, kicked it with them backstage, and recruited the lovely ladies of DP to record an interlude (the intro I think?) for the new album. It’s easy to see why The Roots are considered the musician’s musicians….their inclinations have always served the right and along with DP, other features on How I Got Over include The Monsters of Folk, Joanna Newsom, John Legend, Blu (CANNOT wait to hear that!) among others. Oh, and did I mention that guests aside, Black Thought can rap circles around most of today’s emcees? Well, he can. How I Got Over hits stores digital and physical on June 22nd….until then enjoy a track from the new album, a sick Dylan cover, and video of The Roots doing an improtu collabo with The Don Mega himself, Ice Cube, during the warmup of a Fallon taping. (hit Play on the lower left)
The Roots – Dear God 2.0 ft. Monsters of Folk
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The Roots – Masters of War (Bob Dylan cover)
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Maaaaan, how long have we been waiting for this album to drop? It seems like I’ve heard a different rumor about Big Boi’s solo album every day for years now. Tracklists came and went, supposed album cuts leaked all the place and label politics seemed like they would shutdown this project this project before it even began. But there is light at the end of the tunnel as Sir Lucious Left Foot is FINALLY set to see the light of day on July 6 via Def Jam. I love me some Outkast folks, and am of the opinion that Speakerboxx/The Love Below was one of the most daring hip-hop releases of recent memory, so I can’t wait to hear what Mr. Antwan Patton brings to the table this go around. Not like Left Foot has been resting on his laurels lately – in between putting his verses together Big took some time out to visit Martha Stewart, drop some knowledge on this Janelle Monae stunner and recruit some all-stars for the new album. Features officially (let’s hope it’s final this time) include Sleepy Brown, T.I., Yelawolf, George Clinton among others. Noticeably missing is partner in rhyme, Andre 3000 — Big Boi explained the situation to GQ on Monday: “Basically it boils down to Jive Records. That’s how they do it. Jive Records told me my album is a piece of art, and they didn’t know what to do with it. So I moved it over to Def Jam. And now Jive is trying to block Dré from being on my record. We can’t be on songs together now.” Guess what, Big Boi leaked the track himself anyway (power to the people!) so you can catch some 3 Stacks action below along with a track from the upcoming album below.
Big Boi – Lookin For Ya ft. Andre 3000 & Sleepybrown
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Last, but certainly not least, is the new album Recovery from my boy Eminem. I’m unabashed when it comes to my fandom (Standom?) of Marshall Mathers, and after having being relatively disappointed by Encore and Relapse, I’m looking forward to what will hopefully be a step (back) in the right direction for Em. The album has leaked already and early reviews have ranged from “masterpiece!” to “meh”, but I’m going old school (pre-1999) on this one and waiting until release day to hear Recovery in it’s entirety (yup, definitely Standom). Em has acknowledged in recent interviews that the focus on humor on Relapse was misplaced, even going so far as to admit on ‘Not Afraid’ that “that last Relapse CD was “ehhhh”/Perhaps I ran them accents into the ground.” You most definitely did sir – a lot of those tracks would have been perfectly at home on a mixtape, but shouldn’t have made it to the album. Things have been looking up over the past year as Em reconnected with Royce, dropped a pair of great verses on both Drake’s ‘Forever’ and B.o.B.’s ‘Airplanes Pt. 2′, and stole the show (barely, Black Thought killed it too) in the latest BET Awards cypher . Recovery features vocal assistance from Weezy and more curiously Rihanna and Pink, while production was handled by Just Blaze, Dre, Boi-1da and Mr. Porter (why this man doesn’t produce more tracks is beyond me) among others. Album is out June 22nd, lead single is below as well as two freestyles that M.Mathers laced in the last few weeks.
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Eminem – Despicable freestyle (Forever/Beamer, Benz or Bentley)
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Eminem – Westwood 2010 freestyle ft. Royce & Kon Artis
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Be sure to follow your boy Train on Twitter to keep up with the freshest news coming out of the Muffin bakery!
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Last minute B-B-B-Bonus Vid! Not content with being left off Drake’s ‘Light Up’, Weezy spit a jailhouse verse over the phone. Drake and posse nod heads in approval. Sidenote: time to step your internet connection game up Drizzy.
If you say Eminem is going to make an album in the vein of his early stuff, I will believe you Mr. Train. And that’s pretty awesome that he admitted to using those stupid voices too much.
Here’s to hoping Big Frank….here’s to hoping…
Attachments aren’t playing (both online and when I download them). Been going on for at least a week. Not sure if it’s just me, but I tried multiple browsers…
I don’t know a nice way to say this Justin, but yeah, it is just you.
The Em is hot Train. Hit me when you see the Big Boi slip.
The Roots Been Dope cant wait to hear the new joints