Posted by Frank Wu

Stream: Blu & Exile – Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them

It’s been a long few years for fans of the mysterious California MC Blu since he dropped his critically-acclaimed album Below the Heavens with Exile manning the tables. In the meantime, Blu’s been working on his own production, left Warner Bros. before dropping his major label debut, and has only been releasing a few unmastered tracks every now and then.

But today, seemingly out of nowhere, Blu posted his unfinished second album with Exile, Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them. Recorded back in 2009, the new 15-track LP is unmixed and unmastered, but the rhymes and the beats are both solid. No word on whether or not the two are collaborating again.

Give it a listen below and if you like what you hear, you can purchase the whole thing for $15 on Blu’s Bandcamp.

Watch: The Roots – undun

Director Clifton Bell teamed up with the Legendary Roots Crew on a short film for the hip-hop group’s new concept album, undun. The 9-minute-long clip features four cuts from the album, including “Sleep”, “Stomp (feat. Greg Porn)”, “Tip The Scale (feat. Dice Raw)”, and “Make My (feat. Big K.R.I.T. & Dice Raw)”. undun is now in stores everywhere and is one of my personal favorite releases of the year, describing the fall of a fictional character named Redford Stephens.

“undun is the story of this kid who becomes a criminal, but he wasn’t born criminal. He’s not the nouveau exotic primitive bug-eyed gunrunner… he’s actually thoughtful and is neither victim nor hero. Just some kid who begins to order his world in a way that makes the most sense to him at a given moment… At the end of the day… isn’t that what we all do?”

The Roots – UNDUN from The Ghettonerd Company, LLC on Vimeo.

 

Listen: Asher Roth – “Pabst & Jazz”

It’s really quite unfortunate that Asher Roth blew up with “I Love College”, a song that really doesn’t fit in with the rest of his repertoire. Asher is incredibly lyrical, he’s proven that he can be inspirational with songs like “G.R.I.N.D.”, and now he’s even signed to one of the legendary hip-hop labels: Def Jam. Still, people associate his name with “I Love College”. Ouch.

Anyway, Asher released the title track from his upcoming Pabst & Jazz mixtape, a smooth, jazzy cut with production from Chicago’s Blended Babies, a killer verse by Hassani Kwess, and keyboard work from Kenny Keys.

MP3: Asher Roth – “Pabst & Jazz (feat. Hassani Kwess & Kenny Keys)”

MP3: Asher Roth – “Common Knowledge”

There’s plenty more of Asher on the way: Pabst & Jazz coming soon, as well as Is This Too Orange?, his first commercial release with Def Jam, in early 2012.

Listen: Skizzy Mars – “Shangri-La”

To celebrate reaching 10,000 fans on Facebook, Skizzy Mars dropped off a brand new song entitled “Shangri-La”, which he managed to write and record in just one day. “Shangri-La” features the young artist reflecting on his girl, New York, drugs, and more. Here’s what Skizzy has to say:

“I was in the studio last night when I realized I had just hit 10,000 fans. I’ve been writing a bunch of music recently as I continue to work on my debut project, Phases. While Phases is a story in itself, I still find myself with a bunch of other stories I want to tell due to other experiences and changes in my life etc. I got inspired to write Shangri-La and recorded it yesterday. Just another story to tell. In celebration of 10,000 fans, Shangri-La.”

Shangri-La (Moss of Aura – Titan) by SkizTheRapper

Radiohead to Release New Single

On December 19, Radiohead will finally release the digital version of The King of Limbs: Live From the Basement, along with a brand new two-song single: “The Daily Mail” and “Staircase”. In late January (the 23rd in the UK and the 31st in the US), the band will also release the DVD/Blu-Ray version of the sessions through independent record stores.

You can check out the full tracklisting and a live performance of “Staircase” on SNL below.

The King of Limbs: Live From the Basement Tracklisting:
01. Bloom
02. The Daily Mail
03. Feral
04. Little by Little
05. Codex
06. Separator
07. Lotus Flower
08. Staircase
09. Morning Mr. Magpie
10. Give Up the Ghost
11. Supercollider (Bonus Track)