Best of 2021. For the annual report with the ranting and raving about my favorite albums, check it out on Medium. Safety as Illusion - ELUCID x Von Pea / I Got Soul Freestyle - Ghostfac… Read More

It's the Best of MMXX part 2--just the flaming bangers.  Stay at home or dance with us.  Stay at home and dance with us?  And/or dance with us?  Endor dance?  Whate… Read More

So was gonna sit on this for a bit, but since all but two are 2020 joints, why not--it's a stealth Best of MMXX too. Bubba Chuck - Westside Gunn (feat. Stove God Cooks) / Bullets & Pred… Read More

Don't need to tell you how the year went.  But music-wise, another amazing one.  This is the first half of the Best of MMXX: Portrait of a Year on Fire.  Portrait of a World… Read More

You can play a shoestring if you're sincere. -John Coltrane Mrs. Cloutfire - Your Old Droog (feat. Mach-Hommy) / The Headcracker - Double XX Posse / Now You're Mine - Gang Starr / Popcorn … Read More

At this point it's become pretty much the same picks every year...there's just so many great, prolific artists, and I don't have the time to dig up unknown gems like I used to.  W… Read More

It's funny to me how cats are putting out 'best of the year lists' right after Thanksgiving...the fuck are you, a supermarket shifting your holiday decorations stock?  The year is 12 m… Read More

The Long Goodbye, Part 3 of 3. And that's it. I did everything I set out to do. Time to do something else. All y'all got your weekly Spotify playlists now, and I can't rock no Joe Pesci sam… Read More

Lost mix from 2008 I made exclusively for some mixtape website in Amsterdam.  Like all independent mix sites, it's long gone,* and this one's a good one, so as we roll to the end of th… Read More

Anybody can play. The note is only 20%. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80%.                           &nbs&helli…Read More

Anybody can play. The note is only 20%. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80%.                           &nbs&helli…Read More

Few years back I wrote about Killah Priest's Heavy Mental for Passion of the Weiss. The album turns twenty years old today, and I had a few extra thoughts on its extreme depths. It's easily… Read More

The Long Goodbye, Part 2. Crime & Punishment - Cyrus Tha Great (feat. Roc Marciano) / (Don't Worry) If There's A Hell Below We're All Gonna Go - Curtis Mayfield / Illusory Protection (I… Read More

The Long Goodbye, Part 1. A Hustler's Soliloquy (Walkingshoe Remix) - Roc Marciano / Murder Game - Danny Brown (feat. Guilty Simpson) / The Badlands - Raekwon (feat. Ghostface Killah) / Sim… Read More

Nobody loves language the way rappers do. Outside of some poets and writers, nobody. This is why I don't listen to non-instrumental, non-rap music: the lyrics are stupid. (Oh but Bob Dylan… Read More

What kind of fucking neighbourhood is this? 2017's year-end lists look more schizophrenic than ever--Drake rubs elbows with Elucid, Run The Jewel's December '16 LP taking top slots, people… Read More

Intro Ten years in the game today. So many of the blogs I came up with, or fucked with heavy--all gone. I'm still standing here. Ever since I can remember, I wanted to be a DJ. Not some lon… Read More

A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: it is a beautiful catastrophe.  -Le Corbusier There are eight million ways you could do this mix. But as they… Read More

  Haitian Fight Song - Charlie Mingus Jazz Workshop / Gun In Yo Mouf - Danny Brown (feat. Chip$ & Marvwon) / A World Without Music - L'Orange & Mr. Lif / Point Blank … Read More

This American Carnage / fight - Skipp Coon & Mr. Nick / Kill Your Masters - Run The Jewels (feat. Zach de la Rocha) / Severed Heads Of State - Ill Bill (feat. El-P) / Pro Wrestling - bi… Read More

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Kick off your Independence (sic) Day weekend with this.   Read More

So yeah, some more classical sounds on deck. I like my strings son. I like my cellos and oboes and shit. Feel those choirs up in the beat. On the Eve of War - Jedi Mind Tricks (feat. T… Read More

So since flute rap’s suddenly mad popular, time to hit you off with another collection of classical sounds. You kids today. One fucking flute loop and your minds are blown. Enigma - S… Read More

So old school heads complain that hip hop isn’t political anymore, by which they mean there aren’t as many didactic calls for revolution.  I’d argue that the rec… Read More

So old school heads complain that hip hop isn't political anymore, by which they mean there aren't as many didactic calls for revolution.  I'd argue that the records cats like Elu… Read More

Another year in rap, another list that I can’t keep down to 5 or 10. And I still don’t know how to pronounce Rae Smreurrd? Smruerdrd? and I really don’t see what’s so… Read More

  It’s that time of the year familio.  Your roundup of the second-half bangers.  Joints that provoke, as the kids say, ‘flaming emotions.’ I’ll br… Read More

Summertime mid-year roundup of all the fire.  Also reminiscing about the blackout of ‘77 a year early because fuck your round numbers. Keep cool familio. Summer Not Coming… Read More

Summertime mid-year roundup of all the fire.  Also reminiscing about the blackout of '77 a year early because fuck your round numbers. Keep cool familio. Summer Not Coming - SH… Read More

Let my children have music! Let them hear live music. Not noise. My children! You do what you want with your own! -Mingus The Shimmey Roll (Shaolin Jazz Remix) - Ol’ Dir… Read More

Yeah I don’t have some clever overarching theme this time, just a quick roundup some nice fucking records which done dropped.  Some of ‘em are from April or earlier, but… Read More

This month a bunch of veteran MCs dropped some growly-growling mass extinction bars…the direct descendants making good on Jeru’s ‘You Can’t Stop The Prophet.&rsquo&hellip…Read More

What’s that acronym lazy music writers use that’s ‘for fans of’ or ‘if you like’? IRYLFOH?  I forget.  But I’m a fucking rap sommelier… Read More

Not all these jams came out this month, but who the fuck cares? You get the dope delivered straight to your earholes. It’s fresh even if it ain’t baked today. Click the song… Read More

Ain’t nothin’ changed but the weather. Still don’t nothin’ move but the money. Bae it’s cold outside. Cold world. Cold hearts. Cold cash. Tell me about it. S… Read More

New beat tape by the maestro Steel Tipped Dove…the homie’s been around for a while, producing beats for PremRock, Armand Hammer, the Das Racist guys, YC The Cynic, Tone Tank… Read More

New beat tape by the maestro Steel Tipped Dove…the homie’s been around for a while, producing beats for PremRock, Armand Hammer, the Das Racist guys, YC The Cynic, Tone Tank… Read More

As much as To Pimp A Butterfly didn’t really interest me that much–it’s not as complex or artistic as people think if you listen to a lot of complex and artistic rap music… Read More

Best of 2015, Part 2: Art Rap Underground & Outer Space Type Shit Edition Dial In (Get Ya Own) - Black-Tokyo Musik / Iron Rose - Cannibal Ox (feat. DOOM) / Mutate… Read More

It’s your Best of 2015 Roundup, Rappitty-Rap Rapping edition. Just the bangingest bangers and the hottest heaters and the tastiest joints. Blacka - Blackalicious / World Premier … Read More

Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there. - Miles Davis Publicity Blues - Dysposable Heroes (feat. GZA vs. Ray Charles) / Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat… Read More

Cops have been killing people, and people have been getting outraged about it, and the cops have gotten off scott free, for over 150 years.  Freddie Gray, killed by the Baltimore… Read More

Cops have been killing people, and people have been getting outraged about it, and the cops have gotten off scott free, for over 150 years.  Freddie Gray, killed by the Baltimore… Read More

So I went to see this Benjamin Britten opera in Berlin (because caucasity) and all I could think was: oh shit, this bit would be good to sample.  That little bit right there would be f… Read More

So 2014 was supposed to be The Worst Year In Rap Ever? C’mon son. Worst year to be Syrian, maybe. Or Yazidi. Or Ukrainian. Or to get Ebola. Or to be in a cop-on-black encounter. But… Read More

Back in the saddle son.  It’s the Return of the Two-Gun Western Mixtape. Exposition - Nym / NYC Crack - Wu-Tang Clan / Gunfight - Mighty Underdogs&nbsp&hellip…Read More

Your 2014 half-time roundup of banging shit. Rappity-ass-rapping shit. Make you say ‘GodDAMN’ shit. Laying on the quadruple-guest-verse steez like a Dagwood sandwich to max out… Read More

Your 2014 half-time roundup of banging shit. Rappity-ass-rapping shit. Make you say ‘GodDAMN’ shit. Laying on the quadruple-guest-verse steez like a Dagwood sandwich to max out… Read More

It’s the New Testament mixtape. That’s right. Hosted by Johnny Cash. God Made Me Funky - The Headhunters / Soul To Rock & Roll - Run-DMC / Jesus Walks - Kanye West /&nbsp&hellip…Read More

Yes fam, the dub-hop isht returns with another one.  Come down eggselector! Cold Rock A Party (Upstate Remix) - MC Lyte / The Message (Paul Nice Justified Mix) - Grandmaster Fla… Read More

Yes fam, the dub-hop isht returns with another one.  Come down eggselector! Cold Rock A Party (Upstate Remix) - MC Lyte / The Message (Paul Nice Justified Mix) - Grandmaster Fla… Read More

Fourth installment of the jazz-meets-hip hop joints. 2 Deep - Gang Starr / what if i - Skipp Coon & Mr. Nick / The Hunt - Mumbles / Sidewi… Read More

2013 left me with 400 songs worth keeping, amounting to a full day of good shit. That says something about the quality year we just had (and that I’m rap game audio packrat). My top… Read More

Last best-of 2013 mix. On some cold wind shit for the long winter of our dis contents. Side A (Old) - Danny Brown / Rikki Tikki Godly - Live Percenters / Pigg… Read More

ZAR/DOZogist on cassette! The best of PSY/OPSogist, curated by me and laced with Zardoz…now that shit is on a limited edition cassette on Formerly Known As (run by the maestro Bil… Read More

This here is the first half of your best of underground hip-hop selection for 2013. So it seems like more than ever, underground hip-hop’s connecting and collaborating beyond local… Read More

Remember about ten years ago everybody was bugging off sampling Bollywood for their beats?  That came and went around the time Madlib killed it with 85,000 loops. But across hip-h… Read More

Deep Cover (Main Title) - Michel Colombier / Jump Fence, Run, Live - El-P / The Things They Carried - Billy Woods / Poetry - Boogie Down… Read More

Just some beats. Some nice beats. You can pump ‘em while you’re driving around in your Buick naked with a bag of frozen peas in your lap, or when you’re doing your Aztec W… Read More

photo via Frank151 Here’s your year-so-far roundup of bangers.  On some bomb pop shit for the long hot summer. Also shouting out that we living in Non-Sequitur Village rig… Read More

PSY/OPSogist   The name, meaning, an expert at psychological operations–in all senses. Psy-ops is a Vietnam War term, freak the enemy out, ghost riding the Valkyries, Capt… Read More

Like it or not, pimpin’ is a leopard-skin swatch of hip-hop’s patchwork tapestry. Mostly you gotta try and laugh at it. So I come to bury the pimp not to praise ‘em.Pros… Read More

It’s The Old Testament Mixtape.  That’s right. Hosted by Charlton Heston. Genesis - El-P, Nas & Charlton Heston / The Garden - Cut Chemist / Adam & Eve - Qwel… Read More

The passing of Donald Byrd a couple weeks ago got me thinking a little more on jazz’s influence on hip-hop.  Robbie at Unkut came through with the ten greatest Donald Byrd sample… Read More

Throwback to Cadillacs and the dawn of crack. Ill St Blues - Kool G Rap & DJ Polo / Reign of the Tec - The Beatnuts / One Shot, Two Shot - Ol’ Dirty Bastard (feat… Read More

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn’t go away. - Philip K. Dick Icarus Falling - PSY/OPSogist / All Day Breakfast - Jel / Numb - Blueprint / Temple of t… Read More

[above] R.A. The Rugged Man & Mac Lethal :: Crustified Christmas Every rappity-rap Christmas song ever from Egotrip: Naughty / Nice [below] Eazy-E :: Merry Motherfucking Christmas Read More

So uh…the world was supposed to end today?  Probably didn’t? Man, that apocalyptic shit gets tired.  Most of y’all are probably too young to remember everybody… Read More

   [below] Too $hort’s Hanukah song.  Because…menorah beeeiiiiiiitch.  For real, I don’t know why this exists Read More

State of the Union Felt to me like 2012 was the year rappers got love for being real–not just being real, but being themselves, with a bigger variety of those selves than ever.  D… Read More

State of the Union Felt to me like 2012 was the year rappers got love for being real–not just being real, but being themselves, with a bigger variety of those selves than ever.  D… Read More

State of the Union Felt to me like 2012 was the year rappers got love for being real--not just being real, but being themselves, with a bigger variety of those selves than ever.  Danny… Read More

Hip hop this year was on some Love Boat shit. Mad guest appearances. So many of the best joints had features, this is Best of 2012 #3, the All Features Edition. Remember in the ’90s… Read More

5th anniversary mix. Some joints I played before, some not.  All of them bang.  Fuck your own face. Fuck ‘Em - The Geto Boys / Kill The Perfect Beat I (feat. Public Ene… Read More

V Five years ago today, I posted this sonic clusterfuck and never looked back.  Listening to it now, it’s just like everything else I put up here: good beat, badly mixed, f… Read More

A very special Labor Day mix in honor of America’s most loved federal workers–TSA screeners! Been a gang of good joints stacking up this year, even just since I dropped this. &n&helli…Read More

So the cats at World Around Records hit me off with a stack of unreleased and rare tracks from the vaults…World Around is an international collective of artists with a rost… Read More

B-boys in the front, back, side and middle. Check out my b-boy rhyme and riddle. No samples this time. Sometimes I just wanna hear the beat. Also my doctor advised me not to watch either of… Read More

Kryloniqatsi I / Writing On The Wall - BPMZ / Aerosoul - Tommy Tee / The Taking of Pelham One Two Three - David Shire / Lune TNS - Company Flow / It’s All Destroyed - Zeb Roc Ski… Read More

Subway Theme - DJ Grand Wizard Theodore & Grandmaster Caz / Out To Tag - Serve 1 & Sue Works / Platform Rapform - The Chemist / Graff Time -&nbsp&hellip…Read More

Dear Legendary Rappers, Please stop dying now. Wait until you’re very old and we can’t believe you were still alive. Thanks. [below] MCA :: A Year And A Day I always thought thi… Read More

So I been feeling kinda guilty that I don’t post, or even listen to, 95% of the music people send me.  This cat spammed up Soundcloud with his track and it’s totally ridicul… Read More

Roundup of the best of 2012 so far.  Because fuck it, that’s what most podcasts do, and agonizing over finding that perfect James Coburn sample gets real old. I’m gonna gu… Read More

  Above: “Tough Jew / Rabbi Holding Guns” :: Necro  Below: “Pesach Zeit” :: So-Called (feat. P Love) Read More

WORLD PREMIERE!  EXCLUSIVE!  UNRELEASED! And all that shit. So Nasa of Uncommon Records (a.k.a. Adam Warlock, a.k.a. ADAM, n.a.k.a* Big Brother Fried Peanut Butter) said on the… Read More

New York’s always been a big advertising target for Roach Motel.  On the subway they used to run them in every car: Roaches Check In…But They Don’t Check Out. In Spa… Read More

New York State of Mind, Part 2 (Perquisite Remix feat. Benjamin Herman by GMJ) - Nas / Me, Not The Paper (DJ Premier Remix) - Jeru The Damaja / Jazz Is My Religion - DJ Rob S… Read More

This mix is brought to you by Audioleak, for its soon-to-be-released webzine/downloadable magazine.  I’ll hit you with the link when it drops.  Big ups to AtotheZeem. &nbs……Read More

Extra Brolic Shit: Lol - Danny Brown & Black Milk / Huzzah! (Extend-O-Mix) - Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire (feat. Despot, Das Racist, Danny Brown & El-P) / Ligh… Read More

Offical Hard Body Knocks of the Year 2011 Hey DJ - Juan Deuce & Falside / Who Is It - KRS-One & Bumpy Knuckles / Help Me - Pastense, HiCoup & Willie Gre… Read More

Scratchoetry - Alien Army / The Brew Out - Wu-Tang Clan (DJ 2-Tone Jones remix) / The Gift - The Whitefield Brothers(feat. Edan & Mr.Lif) / Jazz Thing (Movie Mix) … Read More

Quanah Parker (last to come in), Dylan Egon. Asbury Park, NJ.  2011 ‘American Beauty’ :: NPR New Pirate Radio (Dr. Monokrome & Priviledge) (feat. Taiwo) Read More

I could be wrong in naming L*Roneous a Most Overlooked of All Time…maybe he’s huge in the Bay and I just don’t know about it.  I’ll tell you what though, I did… Read More

Bil Basmala (formerly known as Autolect) came in hard this year with his four volume Nobody Beats series…he asked me to take the slew of funky, soutronica, neo-hop, authentically dee… Read More

It’s A Crime - Roc Marciano / Vein - Cannibal Ox / Scrap Or Die - Danny Brown / Scot Free - Bronze Nazareth (feat. RZA) / Caught A Body - Ryks / Crime Saga (Perfecta ‘79 Remix)… Read More

About this photo (by Richard Drew), theologian Mark Thompson wrote: Perhaps the most powerful image of despair at the beginning of the twenty-first century is not found in art, or literatu… Read More

This is the part where I write a witty ironic blurb plugging the Overlook Hotel as the perfect writer's retreat, and then I don't because it's not that funny, my tooth hurts and I need a c… Read More

This is the part where I write a witty ironic blurb plugging the Overlook Hotel as the perfect writer’s retreat, and then I don’t because it’s not that funny, my tooth hur… Read More

I don’t remember when I first came across DDay One’s stuff; I used to spend hours and hours scouring rap blogs for new shit and just hoover it all up.  See, I came up in th… Read More