Diamond District came through Seattle this past weekend.  They performed at Chop Suey on Sunday night and I had plans to go, but I ended up passing out around 10pm instead.  You’re probably saying to yourself, “Damn, Tang.  That’s whack.”  And I would agree with you, but some of us have to work in the morning and I was tired!  Plus, (this is the part of the story where I redeem myself) the reason I was so beat on Sunday is because I was fortunate enough to catch a late Saturday night performance from Oddisee, put on by the good folks at Members Only, that didn’t wrap up until after 4am.  Oddisee brought out yU and X.O. to do a little bit of their solo stuff too, and the gentlemen from DC did not disappoint.  Oddisee performed a choice selection from his repertoire, including at least one joint from Odd Spring.  YU showcased some songs from his well received first album, Before Taxes, and X.O. spit a couple tracks that I hope to hear on his yet- to-be-named upcoming album.

I had a chance to chat with the fellas real briefly and Oddisee told me to keep a look out for Odd Spring, his fourth and final installment of his seasonal free album series, scheduled to drop sometime this week.   Sure enough, it dropped yesterday.  (On sort of a side note, I gotta say, these Members Only parties are pretty dope.  It’s like something straight out of a high school kid’s underground hip hop fantasy:  rubbing elbows with rappers, hot girls, the homies, bluntsmoke, byob… shit, it’s kinda like my underground hip hop fantasy.)

I’m a big fan of the previous installments of the Odd [insert season here] series, and I would reccommend you check them out if you haven’t already.  They’re free and you can find them at Put Me On It, or you can follow the links on the player below to Oddisee’s Bandcamp page.  Not coincidentally, Oddisee is a blogger for PMOI.  Bet ya didn’t know the rapper/producer was also a blogger!  Ha!  Anyway, peep the Odd Spring below and don’t sleep on Diamond District when they come through your town.  That would be whack.  Trust me, I know.

So last night my weekend told me it wasn’t ready to settle in  just yet, so I said – okay weekend let’s bounce up off this couch.  I landed at the always all ages, Seattle landmark venue Vera Project and ended up peeping out Javelin, a Brooklyn based duo – comprised of funky cousins Tom van Buskirk, 27, and George Langford, 29. Armed with drum pads, mpcs, a dollar store piano guitar, an electric kazoo and slew of other merry noisemaking tools – Javelin proceeded to rock the modest yet giddy crowd.

The set made me feel alot of things, a few I’ll name here: merry go rounds, mexican ice cream trucks, miami sound machine, that movie batteries not included, kisses, a quechua disco, Herbie Hancock, dancing like a kid at a Chuck. E. Cheese animatronic show,  rainbows, Dilla. It was fun. These guys pride themselves on digging for dollar bin gems and transforming them into that new new. Javelin are signed to Luaka Bop the label of eccentric maestro David Byrne.  You can download the very fresh, very free mixtapes World Midi Classics Vol.2 or Andean Ocean Tape below. Still,  do yourself a favor and earn what! u aint up on this? points by copping the recently released, and thoroughly pleasing full length No Mas, here .

Here is vibrationz, a guaranteed summertime jam off of No Mas.

Damn! Mix Master Mike calls in a dirty, dirty dubstep “combat strike”. The self proclaimed serial wax killer submits an onslaught of choice samples to his surgical scratching and mixing. Sure shot party-rock factor high. Face melt threat level – red. ‘Nuff  sed. Click here to download Napalm Rockets.

So I first heard about Laws from my former partner-in-rhyme  Taybot. Me and my dude have been known to have divergent angles on hip-hop, but as I sat back and listened to the Laws’s mixtape 4:57 – Laws got it in with ample quotable punchlines and witty-as-hell wordplay over beats undulating between the glitzy and the grimy .

The Brazilian born Florida-based Laws has the emphatic co-sign and beat-patronage of heavyweights like the street-oriented Don Cannon, J.U.S.T.U.S. league, Dj Khalil and even collabs on the brit-electro-tip with Calvin Harris. At best, 4:57 bridges the lyricism of the Rawkus era with contemporary auto-tune sensibilities (yeah I put those two words next to eachother) which is exciting from a bigger picture perch.

Man I’m backin Laws -  in hopes that he rides the buzz out to and finds his spot – do your thing emcee.

Click here to Download 4:57

I either jumped the gun or its very serendipitous that Shake just posted this over at 2dopeboyz at about the same time I was hitting the publish button on the previous post.  Damn it 2db, you’re always staying one step ahead of me!

Anyway.  Y’all already know how I feel about the The Roots’ Dilla tribute, and I’m tired, so I’m gonna keep it short and sweet.  Remember Dice Raw from the good ol’ Illadelph Halflife and Things Fall Apart days?  Yeah that’s him.  And he’s rapping over Dilla Joints.  It’s not the same as the first time they got together, but it’s good to hear Dice Raw rhyming with  The Roots again (sorta).  

Dice, Dilla, Pregunta also features Charles P Bailey, Rick Friedrich, and Yameen Allworld.  Free download link and tracklist after the jump.

I know that this came out back in February, but the blogs were too busy with Dilla tributes around that time for this album to shine properly.  I also realize that a bunch of better-known music blogs reposted this album not too long ago, so if you already downloaded this or saw this elsewhere, my bad – give a brother a late pass.  But if you’re a Dilla or Roots fan (if you’re not a fan of both, close this window and don’t ever read my posts again) and you haven’t listened to this totally free and awesome tribute album yet, you need to do yourself a favor and download this now.

14 Dilla tribute tracks performed by the Roots.  I believe this is what they mean when they say ”unfuckwithable.”  
tracklist

I happened upon these two shiny little gems titled Oscillations parts 1 & 2 yesterday afternoon.  Between the two free albums there are 41 tracks of dope-ass hip hop, dubstep, neosoul, and downtempo electronica from a few known, but mostly obscure, producers.  Brought to us by the quality music blogs Jus Like Music and Apple Juice Break, this project was put together with the simple purpose of putting out good music and introducing some relatively unknown artists to the world. 

Really, these are the kinds of albums I can only hope to find.  You know, the kind that have enough familiar names in the tracklist to grab your attention, but then they introduce you to a bunch of new artists.  Each zip file even contains a little pdf booklet with a little biographic information on each of the artists, who hail from all over the freakin globe.  This album series has definitely opened up new doors to dopeness for me.  I hope y’all feel the same. 

Stream both albums in their entirety and/or follow the links to download below.

Vitamin D: emerald city beatsmith and patron of fine opera

Hey Vita! happy belated b-day from the not so tall homies @ LxNxM ! Vitamin D humbly presides in the upper echelon of Seattle producers and hip hop culture in general. Smoothly riding the currents of the Seattle “waves of hip hop ( see Mudede’s timeline/wave theory of Seattle Hip Hop)“, Vita has expanded outside of the 206 with notable collabos with Abstract Rude, Gift of Gab, and various Rhymesayer heads.  On the local tip – Vita ever remains the accessible tall homey,  laying down clever verses all over the place and supplying enduring beats that seem to tailor fit local emcees and singers.

Alright, so the word on the Born day EP is that Vitamin D recorded all these tracks on his b-day! source- local emcee ispire of Canary Sing. Not surprisingly the EP knocks, but it also entertains in way that will put a gleam in the eye of any true hip hop head. Vita gets it in throughout the nine tracks – exploring topics from wack birthdays, the limitations of playahood in the age of social media, and identity politics of Seattle Hip Hop.   Download the  Born Day EP here for free and whip test immediately thereafter.

The new Erykah tracks just keep on coming, and I’m not complaining. This one sounds like a classic Erykah joint mashed up with Junior M.A.F.I.A.’s “Get Money,” only Erykah sings the Get Money part too.  Hence, “Get MuNNY.”

Erykah Badu – Turn Me Away (Get MuNNY) (via Nah Right)

Cop Erykah’s newest full-length project, New Amerykah Pt. 2: Return of the Ankh, on March 30th.  Or else…