Posted in Hip Hop

Sol Premieres New Single “Albert Einstein”

Our Seattle-based friend Sol just sent over a brand new track titled “Albert Einstein”, which features production by Jacks Green & Pseudonym. The first single from his upcoming album Yours Truly, “Albert Einstein” was released to build anticipation for his album and to follow up the release of his extremely successful free EP, Dear Friends Vol. III (download it for free here). A bit darker sounding than some of the songs we heard on Dear Friends, “Albert Einstein” has some great punchlines and a hook-that-isn’t-a-hook (“I don’t think I need a hook for this one / Cause you already hooked on this one”).

Grab the song on iTunes here.

Listen: Childish Gambino vs Chiddy Bang – “Put It In Your Manners (DJ 21azy Mashup)”

This mashup came out a couple of days ago, but I thought it should be posted here so more people could listen to it. It’s a mashup of Childish Gambino‘s “Put It In My Video” and Chiddy Bang‘s “Mind Your Manners”. You can listen to the feel-good track below.

DJ 21azy has already done some pretty good mashups, so if you like this mashup make sure to check out his Soundcloud page here.

DJ Premier Banned Justin Bieber from the 2011 BET Cypher

This year’s 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards made headlines for its impressive lineup of rap cyphers, featuring big names like Eminem, Slaughterhouse, Rick Ross, Kendrick Lamar, and much more. But one name that didn’t make the final cut was teenage pop superstar Justin Bieber.

DJ Premier, the man behind the turntables who made a name for himself as the production half of the critically-acclaimed Gang Starr, announced on air today that he banned Bieber from participating in the cypher. Breaking down the process for joining the cypher, Preemo said, “They’ll give me the list [of artists]. We have arguments upon arguments. Shout to [President of Music Programming and Specials] Stephen Hill. Shout to [BET producer-writer] Jesse Collins. Believe me, we be arguing over who should be on it and all of that. Lots of big fights over the phone.”

He then went on to talk about Bieber’s request to join, stating, “I was like, ‘Yo, as long as he got a dope rhyme, let him spit.’ But then we heard, ‘Oh, he wants Luda to write his rhyme.’ I was like, ‘Oh no, no, no, no. If you ain’t writing your own rhyme, you can’t do it.’ So Justin, you gotta take a backseat. Write your own rhymes, honey. You gotta call him honey on that one.”

Maybe next year, Shawty Mayne.

[You can listen to a recording of Premier’s talk over at Rap Radar. If you missed the cyphers, you can watch all of them right here.]

Listen: The Roots – “Make My (feat. Big K.R.I.T.)”

Below, you can listen to the first track from The Roots‘ upcoming album undun, set to drop on December 6th via Def Jam. Questlove explained that the album is kind of like a concept album and will be “an existential re-telling of the short life of one Redford Stephens (1974-1999).”

“Make My” enlists the help of fellow Def Jam emcee Big K.R.I.T., who spits the first verse on the track before being followed by Black Thought. Mellow, rock-infused production by frequent collaborator Khari Mateen and The Roots themselves rounds out the song, which will be available for purchase on iTunes starting November 1st. Check out the album’s tracklisting after the break.

(Via Okayplayer)

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Interview: Phil The Thrill

My favorite thing about talking to artists is just hearing how humble they really are and how much work they’re putting in to achieve their dreams. Hard work definitely does pay off. So last week, I was extremely fortunate to speak to an up-and-coming rapper from Virginia named Phil The Thrill, who has been releasing an EP a month for the past five months, garnering attention from XXL Magazine and SmokingSection.com. On October 25th, Phil will be concluding the series with a full-length mixtape entitled Barely Awake, which you can preview here.

Check out my full interview with Phil below.

Hey Phil, what’s up? How’s it going?

Phil The Thrill: Good, good, good.

I’ve just been reading about Steve Jobs. Man, that’s terrible.

Phil The Thrill: Crazy, crazy. I mean, they knew it was gonna happen eventually, but it was just all of a sudden it seems like.

Yeah… ah, the man’s a genius. So I hear you’re 22 years old and from Newport News, Virginia, is that correct?

Phil The Thrill: Yessir.

Actually, where have I heard of that place from? Is that…Michael Vick’s hometown?

Phil The Thrill: Yeah, yeah. Michael Vick, Allen Iverson.

Oh, okay. How’s the music scene there?

Phil The Thrill: It’s… pretty scattered. This area is known as Hampton Roads, the 757. I’m not sure how familiar you are with this part of Virginia but Missy‘s from here, Timbaland‘s from here, Pharrell‘s from here,The Clipse are from here. So yeah, we have a pretty crazy rich tradition as far as music goes. It just seems like they’ll move away and you know, it’s hard to really get them back to reach out to artists that are coming up now. But as far as tradition goes, we’re definitely on the map when it comes to music, period. And then 45 minutes up the road is where Trey Songz and Chris Brown are from.

Man, that’s nice.

Phil The Thrill: Yeah, man, it’s crazy.

So where did your rapper name, Phil The Thrill, originate?

Phil The Thrill: It’s actually been a name that’s stuck with me. It’s actually been my nickname since I was around twelve years old. I was an athlete playing basketball and football and you know, when little nicknames happen to you when you’re a kid… they’d just be like “Oh, Phil The Thrill!” It sticks and through high school, when everyone would have AIM screennames, I was like lemme use my nickname. It stuck with me then and when I went on to play college basketball, it stuck with me there. So it became my Twitter name and once it sticks, I’m not going to try to change that just because I’m doing music. It’s my nickname and what people know me as. Continue reading →