If you’ve been sleeping lately, Keelay & Zaire are an incredible production duo that have been doing their thing for a minute now.  They’re about to drop their debut full length album, Ridin’ High, at the start of next year and people are finally starting to catch on.

Here’s the video for their current single, “The Times,” featuring Blu, Fortilive, and Nino Moschella.  If you’ve been listening to Sound Session, you’ve heard this one and the b-side, “Addicts For Real,” with the homey Tunji.  It’s been a long week, so my memory is failing on me, but I thiiiiiiink I remember hearing that there will be a video coming for that joint as well.  Do yourself a favor and get familiar with these dudes.  Shout to Karim and the whole Myx Music family too.  Big things in ‘09!

Some new visuals for Blu & Mainframe’s Johnson&Jonson project, which is one of the dopest releases of the year.  This is even one of my least favorite tracks on the album and it’s still crazy.  That shows you how good the album is.

Sidenote, the way Blu rhymes on this is an example of how Lil’ Wayne could sound, if he wasn’t hopped up on lean and obsessed with auto-tune.  Very few MC’s can rock this relaxed, free form flow as effortlessly as Blu does here.  Dude has bars for days.

(i had the same look as Exile when I heard this)

Blu is the man and probably in my top 3 favorite MC’s right now.  Plus he’s a cool ass dude, so this pains me to do.  However, I heard a line in Evidence’s new track that just confused me:

“It’s the middle of ‘08, and I still ain’t heard Obama speak bout problems that we face”
–Blu, “For Whom The Bell Tolls”

Word? This reminds me of the criticism that many people tried to hit Barack with early in his campaign: that he was only preaching this esoteric “change” idea, without backing it up with substantive policy positions and strategies.  The problem with that is that if you actually make an effort to listen to more than a 30 second soundbite on the news, or go read any of the extensive issue pages of his website, you quickly learn what Obama’s all about.  Now, you don’t have to agree with his ideas, but to say that they aren’t there or he hasn’t addressed virtually everything is just false.  I hope Blu has found Barack’s statements that talk about the issues he’s concerned with, because I assure you, they’re there.

So forgive me homey, but I just disagree with that line.  Blu’s still possibly the illest MC in the game right now, so make sure y’all cop his new Johnson&Jonson project.  Easily one of the best albums of the year.  And here’s Ev’s new track if you haven’t grabbed it yet:

Evidence ft. Phonte, Blu, & Will.I.Am - “For Whom The Bell Tolls”

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t particularly enjoy acapella “freestyles,” but the homey Alex over at Ruby Hornet always picks dope MC to kick verses for his videos.  In this edition, Blu recites another crazy verse and Chicago’s own Astonish joins in at the end.  If you don’t know, Astonish dropped a great project last year that a lot of you slept on.  Check him out here and get familiar.

Funny, I was just chilling with my new homies Cee, Bekah, and Notion at their hotel bumping some of Blu’s classic Below The Heavens album and I came home to two new videos featuring the man himself.  This dude is one of my top 3 MC’s today, hands down.  Peep the interview with Out Da Box TV and make sure to watch the video right below this post too.  Johnson&Jonson album in stores on the 23rd!

Spotted on Nah Right.

(he spits harder than you.)

Here’s a quick video for part of Blu & Mainframe’s “J&J” track.  Nothing really needs to be said when a clip is as straightforward and dope as this one.  You can go crazy with overly complex visuals, but when your music is this ill, you really don’t have to.  Very clean, very dope.  Cop the official version of their long awaited album on September 23rd!  Easily one of my favorite releases of the year.

Chyea, glad to see the long awaited mixtape from Shake and Meka over at 2DopeBoyz.com is finally here. It features some of my favorite artists and friends from the west best coast, including U-N-I, Grynch, Tunji, Blu, Dyme Def, Pac Div, TiRon, El Prez, Shawn Jackson, Crooked I, Move.meant, the Knux, and more. Check the tracklisting yourself:

Download this ASAP right here.

Mr. Lee over at The Exactly has been putting in work on this mixtape for a minute, and it’s finally here for y’all.  I’ll let him describe the goal:

To every listener, fan, participant, artist, producer:

When I started this blog I did so believing that I could fill a gap where I thought something was missing. There were many artists I felt should be exposed, art, events, movies and funny things I wanted to share with as many people as possible. The idea of a mixtape came to mind during one of those wonderful moments where you’re thinking about all the things you COULD do with an outlet. Being that my moniker is “Your New Favorite…,” it was only right to name the mixtape “Your New Favorite Mixtape.” From its inception, the mixtape had to be something that represented what I felt the blog stood for, sharing DOPE SH*T with everybody! I didn’t want it to be a West Coast mixtape, underground Hip Hop mixtape or mainstream, I merely wanted to put songs that I thought were dope together in a package for people to bang. The process of putting together this mixtape has had its setbacks and delays, but I persisted and I can finally give it to ya’ll.

Good ish.  And if that’s not enough to convince you to download the mixtape, it features TAOD approved artists like U-N-I, Pacific Division, Shawn Jackson, Theo, Cool Kids, Now On, Blu, TiRon, Tunji, and many more.

Download it immediately right here.  Tracklisting after the jump. Read more »

Another interview with “my boy Blu,” this time from Nima over at DubCNN.  They discuss all of Blu’s various projects, working with Exile, what he’s listening to, and more.  You can check the entire interview here.

Along with Crooked I, one of my favorite MC’s that transcends the “best on the West Coast” classification is Los Angeles’ Blu.  He’s one of the best period.  He’s been doing it for a minute, but he really burst on to the scene in the last 2 years and people all over are starting to take notice.  The album he dropped with Exile, Below The Heavens, was an instant classic to me and my favorite project from last year.  Go cop it if you haven’t already, I promise it’s ill.

Blu recently stopped by Jesse Thorn’s NPR radio show, The Sound of Young America, for a dope in depth interview about his background.  If you aren’t familiar with him, this provides a nice glimpse into where he’s coming from.  Enjoy:

More info and a downloadable link here.