A Roundup

A new Estelle track with a Nas verse at Nah Right

A preview of Big Boi's Shutterbug video is at Pinboard Blog

A mix by Jamie from The XX on Abeano.com

The new Klaxons track is not that great but you can hear it on their site

Distant Relatives

Got this on Monday and have rinsed it since.

BUY THE ALBUM AT HMV HERE

The bass-heavy Marley production is perfect as the sun shows itself. On tracks like Land Of Promise there is a healthy dose of politics but classic sounding hooks to back up the message.

Patience takes Amadou and Mariam’s Damon Albarn produced Sabali (which was one of the first things I blogged on here) and turns it into a jerking brooding trip-hop beat. Damian turns in some gorgeous verses before Nas contemplates the world:

“Who wrote the bible?/ Who wrote the Qur’an?/ And was it a lighting star/ that gave birth to the earth/ and then dinosaurs were born.”

As much as I love Nasty Nas his recent albums haven’t measured up against classics like Illmatic. His last ‘N’ album was especially poor. But here verses are used sparingly and the rapper is more focused- thanks to both the topics he tackles and his collaborator Damian.

God knows why Joss Stone features but elsewhere both K’Naan and Lil Wayne turn in decent work.

It sounds to me like one of the best albums of 2010 and I’m already hoping they make another LP together.

LISTEN TO THE RECORD ON SPOTIFY HERE

As We Enter

Here's the vid for the first proper Damian Marley/ Nas tune. Directed by this guy: http://www.nabil.com/

Nasty Nas In Your Area...

About to cause mass hysteria.



Interviewed Nasty Nas, Escobar, God's Son on Friday. Was an honour. It was brief but he was friendly and obviously very cool.

This is my favourite track of his ever. Oh and he signed my copy of Illmatic "1 Love, Nas."

Em's Warning To Mariah

This is just brilliant. I mean pretty hardcore but witty and hilarious. The Dre beat is great and the Mariah snippets near the end are worked in so well. As far as diss' tracks go this is up there with Ether. Oh go on then...



Eminem murdered you on your own shit/ you a dick riding faggot/ you love the attention/ Queens niggers run you niggers ask Russell Simmons

Beasties & Nas

Really sad to hear MCA has cancer, but definitely glad that it won't affect his voice and that it should be treatable. The Beasties' new disc Hot Sauce Committee (which i've been lucky enough to hear) has now been delayed and dates cancelled.

However their collabo with Nas from the album Too Many Rappers has leaked and as I said before it's a really solid track with smart rhymes from all four hip hop legends. And if you like this just wait till you hear their ska flavoured track with Santi(o)gold.

Get the track here (Via Different Kitchen)

See MCA's cancer statement here

Hot Sauce Committee

This is the cool cover to the Beastie Boys new album WHICH I HAVE HEARD. I genuinely might get shot up if I say too much about it after signing all sorts of legal documents. There was even an ex army guy at the label listening session who gave me a right pat-down. I will say that guest vocalists Nas and Santigold both sound great on the album.

Read the tracklist at my dayjob

Watch some low quality footage of the Nas track Too Many Rappers at Nah Right

Dre Goes Topless

Dr Dre (Andre Young pictured here in 1984) turned 44 this week and a track called Topless leaked to the web. It's possible ths song (with verses by T.I and Nas) will be on his THIRD album Detox but also entirely possible it won't.

Get the MP3 at one of my favourite blogs Nah Right

One theory on the net is that T.I- who is really growing on me- won't be on Topless at all and has just ghost rapped and written Dre's verses. The Nas verse and production are pure fire. As they say.

I cannot wait for Detox and pray it comes out in '09.