Listen To This - Walkin' Large ft. Black Thought

Heavy rotation right here.  Definitely gonna make an appearance on the upcoming mix.

The Slave Puppeteer

Taking a moment away from music, for better or worse...

This is the way we command our lives.  What a blessing--to have a soul, to be entrusted with what we know to be the most valuable resource in the universe, day-in and day-out...We have to embrace this pressure in order to live comfortably, one way or another. 

It's easy for the pigheaded to be confident, because in our lives confidence is seen as the absence of noticeable internal dissent.  Really, there are people who live their whole lives and never second-guess themselves, never take a step outside their own bullish movement to look around and take note of those factors which incite humility...

But what happens when you're living on the other end of the spectrum?  Recently I've taken stock of the puppet master above me as well as my own little play-toy existence, and instead of feeling relaxed and at-home with the whole process I feel lost and frustrated...even though I know it's more-than-likely the only method of orchestrating a meaningful life.  In this many-mirrored existence of ours, I feel profound pressure to produce the most beautiful minaret I can, while dancing merrily enough to appease the string-pullers who actually are, themselves, the catalysts for my action.  Down here in the rural South, there's a lot of sentiment to cut these strings above, avoid society, part with the whole fucking game and bask in the petrified freedom of their own minds, their own puppets.  It's a very paranoid and insecure perspective: don't like the way things are?  Just literally cut and run, escape to the dusty confines of your very personal ways and limit your scope of affect to a select group of people (or animals, or digital avatars) who you can control. 

To me, focusing on your puppet, alone, is indeed a refreshing experience but ultimately it's scarring and fallacious.  Because the ties you think you've cut are infinite.  They do not just fall with the swing of whatever freeing blade you employ...You've just tricked yourself into thinking they have.  And what could be more pigheaded than that?  To invest your entire life behind your own views and then to take many intentional strides away from the inevitably sharp and jerky critiques of the bustling societal fingers above you...it just seems foolish.  Curling into your chrysalis and claiming sanctuary is fucking pathetic. 

So this entire post has been tethered to metaphors and I haven't taken the time to slow down and use any examples to back up this rationale, but I'm not interested in slowing down tonight.  I guess to wrap this all up, I'll go ahead and make up my mind here: I mean to state very unequivocally now that your involvement in society (college, work, family, taxes, car payments, rent, etc., etc.) is what exposes your thought process to the beautiful (though occasionally nefarious), undulating forces acting above you.  Bravely engaging the game set up before our time (which will also exist well after our time) gives us the wherewithal and the resources to manage our own private endeavours, whatever they may be.  Escape, by its very definition, is cowardly and eventually it is also self-destructive.  A well-adjusted puppeteer appreciates his status and applies the truths he can absorb to his own artistic process.  Act within the boundaries so you actually know where they are, then play outside them, confident that you can and will return as many times as is necessary.

Shad - The Old Prince

Genre: Hip-Hop

{Sample}

1. Intro: Quest for Glory
2. I Don't Like To
3. What We All Want
4. Brother (Watching)
5. Now a Daze
6. The Old Prince Still Lives at Home
7. Out of Love Pt. 2
8. The Last Three Years (Interlude)
9. I Heard You Had a Voice Like an Angel/Psalm 137
10. Compromise
11. Exile
12. Get Up
13. Outro

This album has won all sorts of accolades, but Shad really does shine here.  His rhymes go from hilarious to super-sincere, and he keeps your mind jogging with smart punchlines and fully functional rhythms.  He has a very honest and pure voice.

Download Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?2qysomonlqo

Breakage - Foundation

Genre: Dubstep

{Sample}

1. Open Up
2. Hardcore Music
3. Hard
4. Digiboy Radio (Interlude)
5. Old Skool Ting
6. Squid Bass (Interlude)
7. Temper
8. Over
9. Higher
10. Foundation
11. Justified
12. Vial
13. Speechless
14. If (Interlude)
15. If

Breakage is the freshest, darkest breath of air in the world of electronica.  This album is ill underlined, with pulsing, scary basslines rumbling beneath some of the most breathtaking clap snares you've ever heard.  Superior "get-shit-done" music.

Download Link:  http://hotfile.com/dl/32928830/75b2080/RDF62BreakageFoundation2010.rar.html

  

Damu is the truth

I can't put my love for this kid into words.  I'd put up an album of his, but his body of work really warrants your own passage for discovery.  This might seem a little lazy on my part, but I wouldn't want to take away any of your many inevitable Eureka! moments with Damu the Fudgemunk.  Explore and enjoy.

http://damuthefudgemunk.bandcamp.com/

Sinuous Productions - The Jazz Council

Genre: Jazzy Hip-Hop

{Sample}

1. Street Musicians
2. All the Finest Things
3. Watcha Step
4. Up in the Spot
5. Keep it Moving
6. Analyze Da Prize
7. Try to Knock my Hustle
8. Fiend for a Pen
9. One for the Money
10. No Introduction
11. Baby Please Come Home
12. That's Bad
13. Make Way
14. Mixed Emotions
15. Everybody
16. We Came Here to Get Down
17. Whispers from the Dark

Excellent jazz hop from Sinuous Productions.  Mellow, laid-back beats and respectable flows all throughout this album...it's another one you can listen to all the way through.

Download Link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HHLHFS1H