Remix Contest: Heart & Soul of NYC

Red does his thing on this one, but couldn't Pete have dialed up Nas to make this a gold classic? Imagine God's Son spitting that mellow flow inbetween the "heart & soul of New York City" sample...modern Illmatic.

I'm looking for one good producer to find this instrumental, a good BPM Nas acapella, and mixitup (© Mick Boogie). I know the instrumental exists because Young Buck used this beat in addition to Red Cafe, so it's out there. The winner will receive a direct link to your website from TFC, a "Producer's Spotlight" post, and some possible shine.

RED CAFE - HEART & SOUL OF NYC (PROD PETE ROCK)

Nina Simone x Cool Calm Pete

...goes together better than peas x carrots, Ghost x Rae, blunts x 40s, Kanye x fishsticks. You get the picture. Snatch this one, it's the track of the month hands down.

Nowadays it's just search engines looking for dreams...
no time for the heart.
– Cool Calm Peteyatrics

COOL CALM PETE FT NINA SIMONE - HEART

Fo' Shawn

A ridiculous 90s-sounding snap beat from Blu's producer Exile. Smart storytelling from a new clear and present danger young gun out of Fresno. References to Wu-Tang classics. What is not to completely love about this track?

FASHAWN - LIFE AS A SHORTY (PROD BY EXILE)

Sad Clown Back For a Bad Summer

Slug is the kind of MC you would think would wither and die as he gets older. He's been around the game long over a decade, has a daughter and wife, and lately has been sporting a greased-up mullet. The drugs, alcohol, and flocking depressed women just don't provide the lyrical fodder they used to.

So it's only natural to expect Atmosphere to have already become irrelevant. But, strangely, they aren't at all. Each song off their new EP Leak At Will (that curiously isn't leakable because you have to sign up for a mailing list to get it), has the usual unique ANT beats and descriptive Sluggo attack that made us love Lucy Ford originally. Golf clap for you, old man.

ATMOSPHERE - THE ROPES

ATMOSPHERE - THEY ALWAYS KNOW

Just An Ordinary Day

Not sure who exactly Hollyweerd is, and B.O.B. isn't an automatic cosign, but this one could be straight off Aquemini. If the south keeps putting out this kind of smooth Nappy Roots x Outkast x Arrested Development-esque (!) material like this, the east might just stay losing in '09.

Name the last known album the poet at the end of this track is on, and receive some free dap.

HOLLYWEERD FT B.O.B. - ORDINARY DAY

Crisp Like Film

New Nas. Produced by the emerging 18 year-old beatmaker C-Sick, who was blessed with the opportunity to produce this track after winning the Big Tune Beat Competition. It's good to see Nas:

1) Not on another disastrous Salaam Remi beat
2) Giving the new generation a chance to make it

Heavy, heavy rotation.

NAS - FILM

McFly?

After months of incessant internet bitching and complaining, a few leaks, and unending anticipation ... Wale's new album with 9th Wonder Back To The Feature is finally here.

And while I hate to be the bearer of bad news, this is no A Mixtape About Nothing. Maybe it's 9th's increasingly flat production, or a slew of features from high-end artists doing nothing special, or the four songs that are months old...it's hard to tell. The pieces aren't all there.

That said, we love Wale. And want to love this tape. And in some ways do. Like the collabo track with Wale, Mark Ronson, and K'Naan, who go together like Marty Mcfly, hoverboards, and Deloreans.

WALE FT K'NAAN - UM RICKA

Download:
WALE - BACK TO THE FEATURE MIXTAPE

Mr Solo Dolo

Kid Cudi jacks Menahan Street Band's The Traitor. This is the second time they've seen shine from a major label artist, and hopefully not the last.

KID CUDI - MR. SOLO DOLO

Give This To A Blood, Let A Crip Walk On It

New Hov. Technically the first single off The Blueprint 3.

I wonder how Kanye feels about this one after just putting his whole soul into 808s & Heartbreak. Jay basically denounces autotune music, even though he and Kanye were rumored to have put down nearly four mastered tracks for Blueprint in autotune before removing them from the album. Regardless, when Jay speaks, everyone listens. Expect autotune to take a flop after this one. Thank god.

JAY-Z - DEATH OF AUTOTUNE

Slaughterhouse

The Slaughterhouse record is DONE. Expect a very pleasant surprise* when it drops.

If you haven't copped this absolute monster of a single yet, do it now. It is one of the best of the year, with some absolutely vicious Mike Tyson-style lyricism on all ends.

SLAUGHTERHOUSE - FIGHT CLUB

* Joe Budden's solo record was a serious bust (wtf happened Joey?), but it's usually a sure shot when the group huddles up.

The Mayer Is In Town

Stones Throw's rookie of the year Mayer Hawthorne has announced the release of his album, A Strange Arrangement, on 9.9.09 (two days before Jay-Z's new opus drops). You might recall Mayer's simply perfect first doo-wop single Just Ain't Gonna Work Out, which has built his buzz until now.

Here is a nice preview joint off the new album. You can also check out the lo fi homemade video for this here.

MAYER HAWTHORNE - I WISH IT WOULD RAIN

Extras:
• More on Mayer Hawthorne, including a short biography.
• Preview 4 tracks on BBC 1xtra.
• See his heart-shaped record.

New Mos Def

^Mos acapellas a new joint off the album in Osaka, Japan.

I can't say I was expecting very much from the new Mos Def album, since pretty much everything he has touched in the last few years has been a detriment to his past success. But after only one spin this is pretty damn redeeming.

It includes features from Talib Kweli and Slick Rick (!), production from the likes of J Dilla, Mos rapping in Spanish for an entire track, and a nice variety of bangers as well as some plain old classic Flaco. There aren't too many skippable joints on here. I'd like to drop about five tracks on you, but let's settle for two and a purchase.

MOS DEF FT SLICK RICK - AUDITORIUM

MOS DEF - TWILITE SPEEDBALL (PROD BY NEPTUNES)

Wahlay!

New Wah-lay Falorin* off his project with 9th Wonder Back to the Feature, which is already three weeks late from its scheduled departure of May 7th.

WALE - FAMILY AFFAIR

*Fun fact: Wale's real name is Olubowale Victor Akintimehin.

Im rappin for real, you MFs rappin for play

New Marco Polo & Torae album on top of Dilla in one day? The hip-hop gods have been making their sacrifices.

Listen to this one close, it applies to all of us self-proclaimed real hip-hop heads who don't buy albums and then complain about the state of hip-hop when the Lil Wayne's get paid. Just look at the picture above, that's Marco's house and recording studio (for real). Let's help him get paid.

TORAE & MARCO POLO - CRASHING DOWN

And a bonus leak off Marco's new upcoming "blend" project, featuring one of his best older beats from Port Authority (Copywrite originally killed this one). This time he blends the new Rae and Ghost track. Cross your fingers OB4CL2 beats sound this naturally perfect for the Wu affiliates.

GHOSTFACE & RAEKWON - MY PIANO (MARCO BLEND)

$tay Paid

Just copped the new Dilla album, and it is fire on wax. Keep the record spinning, and it might damn near melt.

Even though there are some serious options to post—tracks featuring M.O.P., Blu, MF Doom—we're going with the real gem featuring someone you probably have never heard of. Diz Gibran, out of the left coast, goes in over the best beat on the album. After listening to this, I'm 110% on this kid...if you want to delve a bit Crooks & Castles just released Dizzy's latest project Soon You'll Understand.

Real track starts at 1:25.

J DILLA FT DIZ GIBRAN - MAKE IT FAST

Cru's Pop

Rick's verse ain't funny, so don't you dare laugh.

CRU FT SLICK RICK - JUST ANOTHER CASE

Oh Hell Oh

Cage is preparing to drop his new LP Away From Me this summer, which will most likely be his furthest departure from his old thugged-out morbid sound that initially built his career pre-Def Jux. For a taste of what we have in store in the new clean-cut, more indie, and matured Cage, we have a new one from the EP released for free on Twitter last night. Since then this track has been on steady repeat:

CAGE - HELL OH (PROD BY EL-P)

Actor Shia LaBeouf has taken an almost obsessive interest in Cage the last few years, going so far as to work on a documentary about him. Needless to say, it will probably be the most interesting and convoluted hip-hop documentary ever. As a teaser to that project, Shia directed the most recent video for Cage from his track I Never Knew You, which is a more than impressive directorial debut.

And if you're feeling the video and song...

CAGE - I NEVER KNEW YOU

Dilla x Raekwon x Mobb Deep

Look at the title. This is oh so serious.

J DILLA FT MOBB DEEP & RAEKWON - 24K RAP

You Could Never Hang With Me, Even If Your Name Was Mr Cooper

This one is a rare unreleased bonus cut off Company Flow's classic album Funcrusher Plus. Unique to the 2009 reissue.

This was back when El-P's style was gritty New York City without the whole depressed intellectual shtick. Back when being the one white kid in the strongest underground crew meant you had to step in the cypher with bullets. Super fresh throwback, especially for the 80s babies who grew up on this sound.

COMPANY FLOW - HIT ME WITH THAT SHIT (RARE)

More rare bonus material:

COMPANY FLOW - STRETCH & BOBBITO FREESTYLE

Same Old Song & Dance

Off Em's new album Relapse, produced by the (still) talented Dr. Dre and Dawaun Parker. If you have the stomach for the auditory equivalent of Silence of the Lambs, enjoy. Otherwise puruse the rest of the site for something a little less, um, completely fucked.

EMINEM - SAME SONG & DANCE