DOWNLOAD: I Self Devine "Reports From The Field: In The Trenches (Free Mixtape)"

I Self Devine "Reports From The Field: In The Trenches (Free Mixtape)"

Image borrowed from I Self Devine's Newsletter

Whew, this is nice. And that is such an understatement. I Self Devine brings his seemingly effortless A-game to this project.

I started playing this while I was multitasking, but it didn't take me long to focus my attention and say, who's that again? Then I went back to see the name of the track; several tracks actually.

You must listen to "Flat Black"

• interesting intro material
• great lyrics
• confident, but not egotistical delivery
• hype music
• dj antics (i.e. cuttin and scratchin)

The mellower beats also work for this guy; the flow is easy to understand and it just all fits together nicely. The tracks are a bit short, but they're complimentary as a project. That's cool.

And what't not to love about a free download: no pain, all gain hip hoppers. kfox.

A Holiday Treat from P.O.S.

P.O.S. is sayin hello by sayin "Goodbye". It's a track from his upcoming release dropping in February. In case you did not know, he's on the Rhymesayers roster and that means good, quality hip hop.

Right now - the holiday season - P.O.S. befriends us by providing a FREE download of "Goodbye":

• P.O.S.'s "Goodbye"

And it gets better ... P.O.S. is going on tour in '09 w/the "Never Better" Tour. The dates are covering a lot of ground - East coast, West coast and the midwest (seems the South won't get a piece of this, at least not this time around).

I am still amped up on P.O.S.'s "Audition" from a few years ago. So if you need to do an about-face, then do that and come back to this or just do it all. Because it is all good.

So go ahead and catch that download or just take a listen. Happy holidays hip hoppers. kfox.

The Gift of Gab Latest Release

The Gift of Gab is dropping a new project in a couple of weeks. For now, we get to groove to "War Walk". Get the FREE mp3 download here. I'm crazy about Blackalicious, so count me in. Don't sleep on this on hip hoppers. kfox.

The Rage that is "Rising Down"

I have spent a good portion of my day surfin the web looking for Roots related vids and other assorted audio treats.

My fav band are pimping themselves out all in the name of good music.
?uestlove sent out an blog posting w/a link to a freebie download of the group's Sirius performance - and what kind of fan would I be if I did not share the love ... ? Cool.

But all the rage is really over at Okayplayer - where they have made some creative changes to the design that I had gotten so used to, but it is all good. The blogs are hot, the discussion is feverish and the energy is apparent. You all need to go and get somma that!

Oh, and I found this interview link there too. As I recall, the interview w/?uesto is about 12-15 minutes, but time well spent - if you like The Roots.

And here is a vid of Black Thought on BET's Rap City. Yeah, his abilities are obvious.

I have not forgotten about my comments on "Rising Down". Briefly, it is stellar. The beats are jumping out at me; love that. I mean, they are indeed a band. But as a result, of the hyper-sensitive beats, I find it hard to concentrate on the lyrics. The guests on the disk bring a lot of flavor and style and a different dimension.

There's a lot to go around hip hoppers, so what are you sharing w/me ... ? ;-) kfox

Who Knows What About Atmosphere? You Shoulda Known!

Atmosphere has got a new joint floating around. "Shoulda Known" has a nice midtempo beat and an easy flow. You can peep it on his MySpace page or you can download it for free somewhere.

This first single is the pre-cursor to his next project "When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold". How intriguing is that? The project will be out in late April.