Man, I don’t even know. This N*E*R*D album is confusing me a little.  I will say that the live version I blogged a few days ago goes like 40 times harder. Hopefully this joint will grow on me. Daft Punk crafted this instrumental, though. So I give these guys an “A” for incorporating arguably the most gifted electronic artists into their album’s patchwork. It’s hard for me to say anything bad about them, but you can already tell how I feel about this. I’ve listened 5 times and it’s growing on me, but man oh man, what happened to the feeling you felt after playing jams like “Am I High?” or “The Way She Dances” for the first time?

UPDATE at 2:59am on Thursday, October 7th: I can’t get this hook out of my head. And the bridge / light breakdown when he just starts talking about bills (“20′s. 50′s. 5′s. 10′s.”) is sickly. They won, per usual. I apologize for doubting your greatness, almighty Based Gods! I hope you have at least one Spymob-assisted joint on the LP, though!

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DOWNLOAD: N*E*R*D – Hypnotize U [prod. by Daft Punk]

BONUS: Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger [Neptunes Remix]

The streets, as well as Twitter Nation, have been chattering about when Star Trak affiliates Christian Rich would be releasing some new music. I feel blessed to be the guy who can give you the latest offering from the twins! I guess that’s what you get when you are the first people to ever drop their music on the blogosphere. Yeah, that was a little swag, but more of a joke. Sheesh. Can I live?!

This Colin Munroe-assisted electro-pop track was sitting in my inbox this morning, and it’s a jam. Got me out of my bed doing a classy two-step. The hook is infectious as hell. “Say My Name” is most likely gonna be on a future project of one of theirs called Arcade. Admit you wanna hear what that joint sounds like just based off the album name alone.

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DOWNLOAD: Christian Rich – Say My Name [feat. Colin Munroe]

I wanna know what Christian Rich and Wiz Khalifa would cook up, to be honest. But that’s just me being the dreamer that I am. Shrug. Oh, and you heard that N*E*R*D shouted them out as their favorite new producers, right?

This is my trunk rattler for 2010. It’s probably the most played in August in my iTunes besides Spitta and Snoop’s “Seat Change”. I don’t really care how you feel about him, because this joint thumps. As to whether or not he’s sane (I had to question his sanity after reading that XXL interview, but at this point in the game, that’s irrelevant. I’m about results, baby! And Based God is giving me them.

I downloaded the Blue Flame mixtape, too. He has a lot of based music (yeah, I just said that), but he also has some regular ass rap that you wouldn’t think he could come up with. The samples are all really abstract and weird, but I jammed it when I was ridin’ ’round shinin’ in Baltimore the other day, and I was surprised at how listenable and not ridiculous a lot of the music was. Don’t say I co-signed his rapping, but I certainly will verify that he is indeed BASED! Let’s go.

DOWNLOAD: Lil B – Wonton Soup [It's about a minute or so longer than the video version. Another verse, baby.]

BONUS!

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DOWNLOAD: Lil B – Paris Hilton [Second verse, he has a line that goes, "I'm Paris Hilton / Home at the Hilton / I'm out driving drunk, I look like Paris Hilton. Watch Paris Hilton, Chain Paris hilton. Ring Paris Hilton. I think I'm Paris Hilton." If that ain't BASED, I don't know what is!]

I knew Inglewood’s Shawn Chrystopher had some star power the first time I saw him. I didn’t even know it was him, either.

Me, Dre, and Phil Ade were driving around Austin, TX out at South by Southwest (SXSW) and from afar I saw a skinny black guy with glasses walking on the side of the road, far from everything in sight. He was leading a flock of goons, goblins, gorillas, and gargoyles around the outskirts of Austin, probably looking for food or something. Nobody really had bread to rent a car out there but Dre, so everybody was pretty much on foot. He was a good 10 feet in front of his team, handling business on the phone. Any move he made, they made. Tacit knowledge at its finest (editor’s note: my vocabulary is fire on the low. If you didn’t catch that, here’s a definition breakdown.) I thought to myself, “Damn. I wanna be like that.” We continued cruising.

Fast forward to one of the shows. I was backstage with StereoFaith, Tabi, Wiz, and Spitta, in fly-on-the-wall mode. Then I saw the  same skinny black guy with glasses walk approaching with the same squad, again following behind. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite tell until he was right in front of me that it was indeed Shawn. I recognized his face after Jabari hipped me to his A City With No Seasons mixtape (editor’s note: I actually used his joint “Heartbreaker” for my Singles Awareness Day 2 Valentines Day compilation, although I don’t think he knows that) I said what’s up, and after some small talk and him saying he was familiar with the site, we exchanged info. Cool dude.

That story was just to put all this music $#!t in context. There’s a reason I saw him for those few seconds we were driving around, and there’s a reason he was 10 feet ahead of his team. I could talk about what he sounds like, but everybody else does that all the time. He’s from LA, and he can flow. He occasionally says “f*ck” a lot on tracks, even though you wouldn’t expect it at first glance. Lol. That’s pretty much what I got for you. You already know everything I put up here is trill. So jam out. I think the second joint, “Catch Me If You Can”, is more of a banger to me, but they both crank. Both tracks are produced by Cameron Wallace.

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DOWNLOAD: Shawn Chrystopher – Sold Out Shows (feat. Cameron Wallace)

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DOWNLOAD: Shawn Chrystopher – Catch Me If you Can

Do your internet research if you like what you hear and grab his mixtapes. I gotta go eat, so I can’t do that for you at the moment.

Matt McGhee. This 17-year-old that my cousin Shay put me on sometime last year has a tape that’s been in regular rotation since it dropped on September 3rd.

His selling point to the DMV native is the ease at which he drops verses. I know this sounds cliche, but he makes it look so easy. Punchlines are abundant, and his confidence in his skills exude  The tape is a hodge podge of original production as well as some popular tracks that he jumps on and does justice (he flips Wayne’s “Single,” and changes Ross’ “BMF” to “MBF” ["Murdering Beats Fast"]). His beats are surprisingly infectious; he’s no Dilla, but he definitely finds great music to loop and throw drums on top of. Everybody from The-Dream to Lady GaGa got their music Matt McGhee’d up as far as sampling goes. I think his most creative moment on his tape is going from adding a verse to Kelis’ “Discovery” to sampling the same song for the next track. Impressive in my book.

It’s really interesting to see how today’s artists shape his flow and style. On “Penthouse” you can hear a hint of that Wiz Khalifa flow in the second verse, and that sing-song CuDi swag for a second on “Allez (Go!).” At 17, he hasn’t even really lived yet. Just imagine what his music will sound like after more life lessons and experiences. Thanks to my cousin for putting me on. Oh, and I met Matt at Child’s Play. He came out to support. Respect to that! Jam and download.

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DOWNLOAD: Matt McGhee – ’93 Til Infinity [Mixtape]

“Making sh!t that’s monumental, guess it’s the DC in me. Drivin’ yall crazy, I guess it’s the DMV in me. Rewind it if you ain’t catch it.”

RIP to the King of Pop. In honor of his birthday today, I’ve decided to post one of my all-time favorite movies, Moonwalker.

I kid you not. The entire joint is in DCtoBC’s patented HD (hella dope) quality. You know you’ve been looking for this for a few years.

If you haven’t seen this joint, then clear your schedule and watch it immediately. The film includes everything from the live concert scenes to the part where he runs away from the crazy fans and battles the rabbit to the actual movie. A classic. I invite you to relive your childhood here for the next 88 minutes. Spread the word, please.

DOWNLOAD: Michael Jackson – Moonwalker [HD Quality]

An article in Atlanta’s Creative Loafing informed me that the three ATLiens that make up the alternative rap group Supreeme have disbanded and gone their separate ways. These guys were always interesting to me, as they all had completely unique flows but could come together on a track and it worked.

Word on the streets is that Sam (the white dude in the group) is going to cooking school, Negashi (middle with the tank top) moved to Oakland and is coming out with a solo album. Shaka? Well, this interview explains how things went down from his point of view, and it looks like he was all for staying together. Probably one of the saddest music industry things I’ve heard in a while.

With the announcement of the group’s end came their final album, God Bless The Child, which has some cool joints on it. Very dark album though! Just look at that album artwork. My goodness. Jam the sample below (featuring my man Fat Tony), and then download the tape by clicking the link or the artwork. Enjoy.

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DOWNLOAD: Supreeme – God Bless The Child [Album]

Nah, it’s not a diss! It’s actually quite the opposite. Following previous cut “Get Money” featuring G5 Clive & Carlitta Durand, M1 Platoon drops another track from their upcoming mixtape Rippin’ They Sh!t. This time around they cover Drake‘s Boi-1da produced track, “It’s Been a Pleasure,” renaming it “Cheesecake Drake.”

Ripping They Sh!t will be released August 10th. The mixtape will be a compliation of original raps over industry beats. Come back here to grab it. If you’ve been here since ’08, you know we’ve featured M1 a few times, whether it be in mixtape form, or as background music for such thought-provoking posts as “Could You Wife The Rolla?“. Ha. Enjoy!

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DOWNLOAD: M1 Platoon – Cheesecake Drake

Why? Because I said so! The people who’ve downloaded Culdesac have encouraged me to continue to spread the gospel that is Childish Gambino aka comedian/actor/creator Donald Glover Grab his earlier tapes I Am Just A Rapper 1 & 2 below, where he rhymes effortlessly over indie rock beats (except that “Exhibit C” that for some strange reason had the world talking about it. It was cool, but I mean, come on. Don’t make me talk about that here though. That’s for an in-person discussion.).

If you have an eclectic ear, you may recognize a bunch of these joints. The tapes are also critically acclaimed. You be the judge as to which is triller; my vote’s with the first, but the second has jams too. If you’re confused as to who this guy is, then go check the post I did on him a little while ago.

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DOWNLOAD: Childish Gambino – I Am Not A Rapper [Mixtape]

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DOWNLOAD: Childish Gambino – I Am Not A Rapper 2 [Mixtape]

BONUS: Childish Gambino – Got This Money [Acoustic Version] shout out to Ricardo aka Internet Goon for this download link! I’ve been looking everywhere for this.

Did you ever get a chance to hear “Daze,” that joint that should have been a summer smash by Soulja Boy‘s new right hand man, JBar? Marcel put me on a while ago. Well, Quinn recently put me on Jackie Chain‘s rendition, which, for those paper plane throwers / tree climbers, is probably the preferred track out of the two. The half-Asian sensation has done it again!

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DOWNLOAD: Jackie Chain – Haze

And I’ll throw you a little extra, just in case you need to compare the two versions. I honestly think that if Jackie’s version came out first, it’d be a spark to his career, which is criminally overlooked. JACKIE, WE LOVE YOU!

BONUS: JBar – Daze