Southern Comfort

Educated Hustlers ft. Blood Type - Southern Comfort

      

Educated Hustlers is a duo from Tallahassee, Florida and "Southern Comfort" is their latest single. The song is filled with clever references to Southern rappers, cars, and a glimpse into the everyday life living in the South. The track features verses from Blood Type and production from J.Pro.

Check out more from Educated Hustlers on their website.

Hip Hop Music For The Up and Coming

Soon Come... was the first album LP released DC emcee Asheru and pdocuder Blue Black. Together they are known as the The Unspoken Heard. The 14 track album, released in 2001, features Asheru over a medley of production styles.

"Elevator Music" is the final track on the album and includes a sample of the popular song "Shadow of Your Smile." This rendition of the song, written by Johnny Mandel and Paul Francis Webster, was performed by Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto.

 

Astrud Gilberto - Shadow of Your Smile

Asheru & Blue Black (The Unspoken Heard) - Elevator Music

prod. by GE-OLOGY

The Greatest [VIDEO]

A month ago I posted the sample and MP3 for "The Greatest" by Clear Soul Forces. Last night, I randomly thought "when is CSF going to drop the video?" Today, they released the video for the song. Check out the dope imagery as they make their way around NYC.

Songs of June

For nearly two decades, Jamiroquai has released music to the masses that has included a melting pot of genres. Notably known as one of the forerunners of the acid jazz genre, their experimentation with different sounds has given the group longevity and success worldwide. The versatility in their music provides the listener with choices based on their musical prefences and attitude. Need a bouncy dance song? "Canned Heat." A slow jam? "Everyday." So you enjoy lyricism? Well take a listen to "Manifest Destiny." If I'm not in the mood to listen to hip-hop music, Jamiroquai is one of the go-to artists for to me to listen to.

We're halfway through the month of June and temperatures are creeping towards 100 degrees and your "Summer playlist" can never have too many songs. Two songs by the British group that conjure up sun baked images of June are "Butterfly" and "Seven Days In Sunny June." The former was released on their 1999 album Synkronized, the latter on their Dynamite released in 2005.

Jamiroquai - Butterfly

Jamiroquai - Seven Days In Sunny June

Royal Flush 2

 Royal Flush 2

First off shoutout to my homie Shad B for encouraging me to listen to this mixtape.
 
Honestly, I'm kind of partial to Cyhi the Prynce's music, some of his punchlines seem forced and I've only heard a few songs and verses I legimately enjoyed. "Sweet Georgia" was one song by him that I liked, but none of his projects in their entirety were appealing to me. I always check out artists from my area on GP and despite the aforementioned observations he is one of the few guys in Atlanta that can create a cohesive project.

On Royal Flush 2, you'll receive solid punchlines and top notch production from the likes of No I.D., J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, and Shawty Redd. The interludes titled "Spadez,""Heartz," Clubz," and Diamondz," allude in to his "playing card" theme and separate the tracks into four sections on the mixtape. It looks like I'll have to go back through his discog and give it a second listen.


Standout Tracks: Bulletproof, Thousand Poundz, Right Side of the Bed, Fightin In The Club, Woopty Doo

My Interpretation

The other day I downloaded Skyzoo's latest mixtape The Great Debater and it reminded me how much I enjoyed his debut album The Salvation.

For Skyzoo, The Salvation was an album that he had spent his whole life planning and it shows in the music. On the first track, aptly named "The Opener" he states on the hook, "24/7, 365, 25 years embedded in these lines, if I push the pen past the margin on the side, you can feel the words and every part of them is I." The album was all about him to the core, no phony rap persona, just Sky honest with his lyrics.

One of the standouts on The Salvation was "My Interpretation," an example of the sincerity in his lyrics and a solidly crafted song. As always, Best Kept Secret came correct on the production with the go-go influenced beat over a sample of "Back To The Projects" by Johnny Hammond.

 Johnny Hammond - Back To The Projects

Skyzoo - My Interpretation

prod. Best Kept Secret

Flyin Away

Ty & Kory - Flyin Away

A couple months back, I was transcribing an interview of Taz Arnold from Sa-Ra and he was talking about people wearing his Ti$a brand (Chris Brown,  Big Sean, YG, etc.)  He brought up Ty$, you probably heard him on Pac Div songs and he's a frequent collaborator with YG. Taz was talking about trying to sign a group Ty was in a few years back, so I looked up the group, Ty & Kory, and found this song. The song is melodic, features an unexpected yet hilarious chorus, and most importantly is DOPE. The mixtape dropped in 2008 features the duo singing over instrumentals from producers like J Dilla and Kanye West. Recently, Ty$ dropped a mixtape titled Hou$e On The Hill. I'm not sure what Kory is up to though. Either way Raw & Bangin Vol. 2 was solid effort.

The Weeknd Samples

I posted about The Weeknd nearly three months ago. Praise for House of Balloons has reached all corners of the Internet and anticipation is rising for his next project Thursday.

The homie Ryan So mixed the samples from House of Balloons with the songs they sampled. Stream/download it below.

The Weeknd Samples by ryansosodef

Product of My Opinion Radio: Episode 2 [Soundtracks]

Check after the jump for the link and tracklist!

Organic Relaxtion

 

TIME - Organic Relaxation

 "Stop smiling!"

"What the f*ck Rome?"

"Do you care?"

"Go get Brown."

Words that a young Rome Brown heard in his organized basketball playing days. Some say I half-assed it, others said I sucked, some said I didn't care. All three could be possibly true, but I look back on my athletic career and it was eventful, I traveled to lots of places, won a bunch of games, met people, I even got a chance to go to AAU Nationals in 2004. At times I recall the things people said and I think "damn maybe they were right." I could've went harder and showed that I cared.

When it comes to music I'm no purist, but if somebody wants to do a tribute, sample a classic, or even rap over a classic instrumental it should be done right. Not half-assed like a 15 year old version of me playing basketball. Cleveland emcee, TIME, recently released the visuals for "Organic Relaxation," a song from his latest mixtape OverGrind 2. The familiar instrumental is that of  "Electric Relaxation" by A Tribe Called Quest. He added his own twist to the classic, by crafting an ode to nature's healing leaf. Don't know where I'm going.....But I know that I'm gone!