US Hip Hop 398 Items

Over the last decade RAST has made a name for himself as one of the undergrounds most original voices. RAST has released a handful of albums, freestyles and a slew of online singles (including collaborations with Czarface, Hus Kingpin and Your Old Droog). But before all this, RAST held down the 90’s as part of the New York Graffiti crew RFC. It was
during this time that many of the tracks on “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” draw from. The album has no features and was produced entirely by The Czar-Keys (7L & Jeremy Page) - and this was done by design. 7L and RAST worked together on the vision and the direction they wanted to go with for the
album. As 7L points out “I wanted to really take it back to a time when the rapper was the main focus. This is also why we didn’t go with a group name or a RAST & 7L title. For me it was really all about RAST, and his
story is so personal that it just made sense for him to be the only voice you hear”. From the albums start, “Base” sets things off with organs that sound
straight off old Surf footage accompanied by a pounding break beat. RAST’s signature gruff voice goes from rugged raps to melodic singing and back. On “The Devils Playground” RAST delivers some of his most honest lines recalling his youth and battles with depression. On “I Lost My Mind and Found God” RAST states plainly in the hook “I ain’t gonna see no doctor unless I die". RAST delivers these lines with the maturity of a seasoned blues man. "Runaway Slave" is another great example of this, as the track roars with a powerful hook as if he were exorcising his demons over what sounds like a dusted church organ.
Other stand out gems like "Children of Attica", “The Little Boy Who Lived in a Tree” and “The Remarkable Story of the Silent Machine Gun” show that RAST is cut from a different cloth. “I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings” is an album where, as pointed out in the albums intro "Caged", is RAST at his most honest and vulnerable.

Cassette Store Day 2018 release! Since bursting onto the scene in 2012, Brooklyn hip-hop collective Pro Era has sent shockwaves through the culture. A true double-threat who’s just as skilled on the mic as he is behind the boards, Chuck is poised as the next breakout star from the Era with his highly-anticipated debut solo album, Consumers Park.

Hip-hop giants Cypress Hill have announced new album 'Elephants On Acid'.

The project finds producer DJ Muggs returning to helm the project, the first full length he has worked on with the group for over a decade.

Out on September 28th, the rap odyssey contains 21 tracks, moving from expansive pieces to short interludes, beat workouts and more.

“Anything can happen when Muggs, B-Real, and myself get together to record,” says Sen Dog. “We were kids when we first got together. We’ve grown up as men now, but the chemistry is still the same. When we first came out in the nineties, we sounded like nobody else; we sounded like ourselves. This is another continuation”.

B-Real adds: “The album is both a trip back to the roots and an escape into a completely new world”.

Classic

Back in 2013 Jorun-P.M.C graced us with the phenominal Magic Disco Machine EP. Since then Jorun Bombay has released a host of singles and edits becoming the world’s foremost remixer/editer. Phill Most Chill has lent his vocal talents to too many projects to name but most importantly the staggering Fabreeze Brothers album alongside Paul Nice back in 2015 – one of the most successful and acclaimed truly independent Hip Hop records in the last decade.
Now they’re back as Jorun-P.M.C with a full album project due early 2019 and the lead off 12” single offers 2 tracks from the album plus an exclusive bonus track not to be issued elsewhere. The new material stays close to the block party Funk that they infused on the Magic Disco Machine EP with raw drums, Jorun’s expert turntable skills and Phill’s superior microphone techiniques that we’ve come to expect.

Cold Busted returns to familiar label artist Poldoore to release the Belgium-based producer’s album, The Day Off. Poldoore’s sound is about good vibes, creating warm atmospheres that blend funk, soul, lounge, and reggae with punchy drum breaks. The Day Off also features some talented guests, including the mysterious Maverick, distinguished emcee Awon and DMC 2012 Team World Champion turntablist DJ Damented (of The Mixfitz), emcee duo The 49ers, American blues singer Bodhilynn, and trumpeter Will Magid. There’s plenty of highlights on the release: “Morning Glory” with its rocksteady beat, “Natural High” and its psychedelic vibe, “Unconditional” with its beefed up Motown-like feel, “Call It A Day”’s dreamy funk affair, and the reminiscing rhymes of Awon, a figure in the new emerging ‘jazz hop’ scene, flow rhythmically while DJ Damented’s scratch skills add a next level vocal chop to the beat on “Sweet Memories”. Deciding to include this one in the crate should be easy, much like the cut’s vibe. The Day Off is full of sonic sunshine, exactly the kind of weather fit for enjoying what little time there is for leisure and much appreciated in today’s music climate. Give this one a spin.

It’s a different place than it was two years ago, when Atmosphere released their last record, Fishing Blues. Their seventh album, Mi Vida Local, reflects the ways in which the world–and their place in it–has changed. The idyllic domesticity of the past few records has morphed into anxiety over keeping loved ones safe during turbulent times. The easygoing collaboration between Ant and Slug has started to feel more like the life-or-death intimacy of two men trapped together on a lifeboat. At times, Mi Vida Local is a heavy album, (“I might be the last generation of grandparents,” goes a key line from “Virgo”), but it’s far from grim.

As the name implies, Mi Vida Local is intensely focused on the place it was created–the southside of Minneapolis–where Slug and Ant work tirelessly in their “beautiful basements”, refining their sound without interruption, save for a handful of Minneapolis friends that showed up to contribute. The album pairs complex subject matter with equally deep beats–ones that show a clear lineage back to the psychedelic funk landmarks from an earlier era where America was going through a post-utopian hangover, and prove that there won’t ever be a time where boom-bap beats don’t sound perfectly of the moment.

Mi Vida Local might be the best album Atmosphere’s ever made. It’s definitely the one they needed to make right now, and one listeners need to hear just as urgently. If it’s sometimes an album about how the fight to find happiness never really ends–even after you get the house and the kids and the artistic freedom to make dad-rap records–it’s also about discovering that there’s happiness to be found just in fighting.

Nas returns with Kanye West produced Nasir.

Smoke On Records presents us another banger release by legendary MC Nine.

Smoke On Records brings us another collection of lost gems and recordings by legendary New Jersey rap duo The Artifacts consisting of Tame One and El Da Sensei. “That's Them: Lost Files 1989-1992” takes you straight back to the beginning of the Golden Era.

Smoke On Records brings us another heavyweight release by Das EFX after the great success of the “Dead Serious 25th Anniversary Edition”. This time Smoke On Records digs deep and presents tracks “Straight From The Vault”.

Sensation! Blahzay Blahzay are back with a brandnew album.
Their debut single, "Danger", released in 1995, is a classic joint on every Golgen Age/ Real Hip Hop Party, every Best of 90s Rap Mixtape (When the East is in the House, oh my God, Danger!"). The debut album "Blah Blah Blah" had many more bangers to offer. Later PF Cuttin did a lot of mixtapes, but the MC, Outloud took a step back and only had some appeareances here and there. In Germany, Blahzay Blahzay were featured on a successful single by Massive Töne ("Rapgame") in 1999. The German label Smoke On Records - which also brought back legendary MC Nine and released unheard jointy by him - now signed Blahzay Blahzay for their sophomore album. And it continues where the debut left many wanting more. ENYthyng is Possible, that's proven with this great album.

Rahsheed (now known as Maylay Sparks) dropped one of the most slept on debut albums of 1997 with Wasabi. The album was only released in Japan and came out on a very limited basis so it pretty much stayed under the radar in Europe and the US. Now the CD will be back available on a limited basis with revisited artwork and obi as well!

Soul Kid Klik are a New York based crew that was formed by producer/rapper/Jazz musician/legend G-Clef Da Mad Komposa in the mid 90's and were one-time Wu-Tang affiliated. The crew hailing from different boroughs of NY delivered classic track after another and in 2001 the album finally dropped but only on CD leaving vinyl heads hungry for this gem. The wait is over and the elpee is now finally here! Limited to only 300 copies, don't sleep!

10 year anniversary CD edition of this hip hop classic by Kool Keith. Produced by Kutmasta Kurt!

Skyzoos 2012 mixtape - now on vinyl. Limited stock.

Wow this is SOME unheard/unknown/unreleased 90's project. Mindblowing material, for reel. Following on from our Big Sha EP [1994] from earlier on this year, we have the Food of the Gods aka Zig Zag Zig - That was Then...This Is Now 1992-1996 EP. Incredible material from this QU crew steeped in that 5%-er 90's flava. Reminiscent of the Zig Zag EPs we dropped [no ish!] this is a must for fanz of big old jazz b-lines and righteous lyric!

Dope unreleased material from 1996-1997 out of Toronto, Canada by way of the UK. Intrepid Stylez dropped one 12″ in 1998 and a cd only album in 1999. That was it. These tracks are previously unheard/unreleased demos from before their 2 releases dropped.

Limited edition vinyl!
Chopped Herring presents the CD version of Stranger Danger’s debut project “How to Lose Friends and Alienating People”. If you expect nothing but grimy underground hip hop from LA on this one, you got it all right!
From the producer of the amazing “Tha Roach Killaz LP” from last year on Herring comes Stranger Danger's debut solo album produced entirely by the LA native himself. Incredible sample choices mixed up with drug laced experimentalism makes this, along with his previous production outing, one of the nicest debuts in a minute. Also included among the variety of guest MC's is the kid A.F.R.O.
The CD title pays obviously contribution to the 2001 book by Toby Young. In 1995 high-flying British journalist Toby Young left London for New York to become a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. But things didn't quite go according to plan. “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People” is Toby Young's hilarious account of the five years he spent looking for love in all the wrong places and steadily working his way down the New York food chain, from glossy magazine editor to crash-test dummy for interactive sex toys.