best new hip-hop
Every two weeks or so, I update eMusic’s Best New Hip-Hop hub, adding the latest batches of indie hip-hop worth caring about. I’m gonna make a “now more than ever” pitch for some of these records, because if there’s a single season when hip-hop sounds the best, it has to be the summer.
Here’s what I’ve got for you this round:
Tanya Morgan, Brooklynati: People have been recommending Tanya Morgan to me for years now, but their first album and subsequent EP left me cold. Not so Brooklynati which finally delivers on all the buzz. Lazy, laid-back soul loops, crisp, De La-style rhyming — sure to appeal to lapsed fans of, say, Mos Def Black on Both Sides. A runaway winner.
Oddisee, Mental Liberation: Oddisee is a DC-based producer fond of the classic boom-bap sound. Here he teams up with the indie MC undercard for a surprisingly engaging effort. You can probably guess the drill, but where a lot of other “Back In The Day!” albums are hectoring or grouchy, Mental Liberation is 150% fun — bright, breezy beats and laid-back rhyming.
Daru and A.B., A Work in Progress: SOUL, plain and simple. This is the humid sound of R&B sliced-and-diced — sweet, soulful snippets dropped between booming beats. There’s more singing than rapping on this — think Earth, Wind & Fire or any other great ’70s funk outfit and you’re getting close.
Panacea, The Re-Route: This one more on the neo-soul tip, slick, “conscious” rapping over production that would sound well in the kind of higher-priced “lounge” that also hosts poetry nights. That sounds like a dis and it’s not, it’s just that these tracks are of a different piece than the records above, looking to incorporate the ideas of classic soul in more contemporary environs.
Killah Priest, Exorcist: Another grim, grimy outing from Killah Priest. I didn’t love his last album so much, but this one sounds a bit better. He’s got a thick, halting delivery, he doesn’t ride the beat so much as talk over it. The record is dark, and if it’s not perfect, it at least strikes a consistent, ominous mood.
Yeah. That Tanya Morgan album’s pretty good from the first spin. All the little references, all the love. It’s like another sub-genre of hip-hop; not conscious/political, obviously not mainstream or material, bombastic or celebratory. I want to say its mature hip-hop, not wiser or better in anyway from the other sub-genres, just different.
A lot of hip-hop is and always has been animated and theatrical. The unfortunate thing about this album is it can be very plain if you’re used to listening to albums full of larger-than-life personas and elaborate production (I don’t mean in the beats). But the beats on the album are fantastic, yeah. And the sound overall is great. Reminds me just a tiny bit of Blue Scholars without all the Marxism.
Check this indie artists project “Executive Decisions” HT Entertainment Label
I believe this artist is unique and very metaphoric, stable in his content and well deserving of a look from his peers. Check him out and pass it along.
probably a dumb question, but where would i access the hip-hop hub (and other features) from the emusic.com homepage? I don’t see an obvious link from the home page to the features stuff that is sometimes referenced here at 17 dots. please direct me!
Joe, you (and Jayson, and Yancey) really need to spin this Dyme Def EP: http://www.emusic.com/album/Dyme-Def-EP-1-PANIC-MP3-Download/11431352.html. They’re from Seattle, or near enough, and all their stuff is nice. Start with “Not That Dude.”
hey jtodd – not a dumb question at all. sadly, there is no way to access those features from the homepage. we’re working on it but, in the meantime, all you have to do is look up any given hip-hop album and you can get to the hub from the related “discover” features.
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