Jay Electronica Exhibit A, B and C

If you haven't checked out Jay Electronica I suggest you get on board now before he drops an album (hopefully sometime in 2010). Below is the Exhibit tracks that have been released online or via itunes. Exhibit A is a tasty treat of Jay's lyrical ability over a Just Blaze beat, Exhibit B sees a remix of Exhibit A featuring Mos Def. Then there is Exhibit C. Since I heard this track I have not stopped listening. Once again Jay rhymes over another Just Blaze beat and lyrical kills the track. Surely this track alone will result in a record deal for the New Orleans Emcee. Just the thought of a full album has me excited about Hip Hop in 2010. Hopefully he doesn't go the route as so many before him have and never grace our ears with a full LP or produce something lackluster in comparison with the Internet bombs.

Enjoy
Average Music Fan

More free Mixtapes - 2 Hungry Bros & Oddisee

2 Hungry Bros - A Rare Groove Mixtape (My Crews all Thinner now)




Seems like December is the month of mixtapes for me. Came across this one a month or so ago and have been playing the shit out of it since. 2 Hungry Bros - are a production team made up of Deep and Ben Boogie and are based in Brooklyn NY and in my opinion have a released one awesome mixtape here. You may not have heard of many of the MC's on the tape (the only names I knew before downloading this tape were VonPea (Tanya Morgan fame) and Reef the Lost Cause from Philly). This tape is a great introduction to some fresh MC's emerging from the NY underground. Names like 8thw1, Fresh Daily, Homeboy Sandman and K.Gaines may not gain recognition now but hopefully with spreading the word of this mixtape that will change one day soon.

And the beats, the beats are all classic rare groove bangers ranging from Leon Haywood's "I wanna do something freaky with you" to Curtis Mayfield's "Move on Up" and some Spanish breaks that I have no clue as to the name. If you don't enjoy the MC's you should get some enjoyment out of listening to the rare groove tracks.

Download here.

Sorry I couldn't find any video clips from this mixtape but have a clip from Homeboy Sandman who is featured on a few tracks on the mixtape. Pretty funny video, track starts about 2mins in.



Oddisee - Odd Autumn



Came across the second in Oddisee's Seasonal instrumental mixtape series. There was a an Odd Summer mixtape released before this one but I'm yet to hear it (will download it once this published). Not sure if the Summer mixtape was an all instrumental affair but the Odd Autumn mixtape has two vocal tracks featuring Tranquill (London MC) on the opening track and singer Nikki Jean on the closing track.

With Summer upon us this makes a great album for the lazy Sunday afternoon BBQ. The beats range in tempo, drum patterns and instrumental inclusions that should meet a wide variety of tastes. I would love to hear some of these tracks with MC's dropping verses too especially "Every Day People". I know I'll be looking forward to the two remaining seasons of this series.

Download here or for track listing go here

Oddisee - Autumn Run





Oddisee ft Nikki Jean - Tell the Truth



Enjoy
Average Music Fan

Everybody loves free mixtapes - Chiddy Bang

There are a shitload of free mixtapes out there on the Internet these days. Some are woeful and others shine and are strong enough to be released as a standalone album. I'm happy to say that Chiddy Bang's "The Swelly Express" is one of the mixtapes that falls into the latter category. "The Swelly Express" is a tight mixtape that flows well from the start to end, with well thought out skits that actually have some relevance to the album rather than just including random skits for skits sake. I was also very impressed with the intelligence of the rhymes portrayed throughout the album which was highlighted without a single fuck or motherfucker over eighteen tracks. A quality mixtape you could play at your family Christmas gathering without offending your Nana.

The production style is a tad futuristic but also represents that early 90's east coast sound which can be expected as the group hails from Philadelphia. Speaking of Philadelphia, The Roots front man Black Thought makes an appearance on one of the standout tracks “Slow Down”. Unlike other mixtapes this is the only major outside influence on the tape. If you enjoy your hip hop without the diamonds, guns and bullshit this mixtape is for you.


Download here or check out some tracks from the album below.

Enjoy
Average Music Fan

Chiddy Bang - Get up in the Morning (love the sample for the hook on this one)



Chiddy Bang - Never (love the line "and I've got more gigs than an apple store")

Brownout - Aguilas & Cobras

Being located in Canberra we are shut off to a lot of things in this country, including weekly access to the Sydney gig magazines apart from 3D world. So when I was last in Sydney I was able to pick up a copy of Brag and to my surprise noticed that they had started to cover more hip hop & funk and soul. This lead me to the Soul Sedation column where I found out about the following group - Brownout

The Groups sophomore long player is Aguilas & Cobras released on Six Degrees Records


Brownout are an eight-piece group from Austin, Texas, creating a Latin funk sound but also traverses samba, jazz and psychedelic funk-rock. There previous album Homenaje gained them critical acclaim from international DJ's, especially their breakbeat cover of "African Battle" (see second clip below). I'm not sure where you would be able to pick up this album in Australia but if you got to the Six Degrees website you can get it on CD for half price before the end of Dec 09. I'm going to search for it on vinyl but if all fails will get the CD before Dec 09.

To hear further tracks similar to this you can try and stream live from the Soul Sedation show on Bondi FM (link for net listeners or those in Sydney can try 88.0 frequency). According to the column in Brag the show runs on Wednesday nights from 10pm to Midnight (Australian Eastern Time). A quick heads up - the website is a bit shit house and didn't seem to offer specific podcasts for each show.

Enjoy the tracks below.
Average Music Fan

Podcasts - Melting Pot Radio

I first stumbled across Melting Pot Radio a few years back and have been a podcast subscriber since then. Melting Pot Radio is a Soul, Funk, Blaxploitation and Rare Groove show which broadcasts out of Ghent, Belguim every Saturday afternoon. The host speak in Flemish but don't let that scare you off as they create some execptional playlists week in week out. You also don't have to sign up for their podcasts, you can visit their site and just listen to which ever playlist takes your fancy. The one benefit though of signing up for the podcasts is that you are able to save the mp3 files via the folders supporting your itunes library.

Through this radio station I've discovered some great tracks such as "little egypt" by the Coasters (was unable to find an audio track online to use for the blog) through to the heavily sampled "Green Onions" by Booker T & the MG's. This radio podcast is a create diggers fantasy come true, the hard part is now trying to find the tracks on vinyl.

Enjoy
Average Music Fan