ANTHM – The Fire Next Time
ANTHM is a great communicator. Most rappers sound like they’re rapping to no one in particular, just spitting for the sake of spitting. ANTHM is always aware of his audience and communicates his message clearly. There are a couple of weak hooks on here, this is a minor complaint but I would prefer if he just rapped verse-to-verse like Curren$y and MF DOOM do sometimes. ANTHM is one of the top underground talents right now. (Download)
Anti-Lilly – Memoirs & The 90’s
Memoirs & The 90’s is a really chill classic-sounding tape. The vibe reminds me of The Low End Theory and on tracks like “A Million Stories” Anti-Lilly really lets the influence show. I’m looking forward to hearing more from this guy, he’s a great story-teller and based on “Tiger Style” (Yeah he raps over “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta Fuck Wit”) he also has the ability to snap on the mic. (Download)
Bishop Nehru – StrictlyFlowz
I’ve been noticing that more and more young rappers have been mentioning MF DOOM as one of their favorite rappers. Along with Earl Sweatshirt and Joey Bada$$, Bishop Nehru is one of those rappers. All three of those cats I just mentioned have the kind of dense, intricate, rhyme-heavy styles that could be easily traced back to DOOM’s influence. This may be obvious considering that this project is called StricktlyFlowz but on this and other projects, Nehru does seem to be over-reliant on flow. His lyrics sound really great but they don’t get stuck in my head. (Download)
Willie B – Ichiban: Sound in HD
This year, I’ve heard a ton of instrumental-only beat tapes. And probably because the most influential purveyors of these types of projects are boundary-pushers like Madlib and J Dilla, many of these tapes are left-of-center. But sometimes it seems like producers forget that Dilla and Madlib don’t just have weird beats, they have insane beats that also bang. Willie B makes hazy stuff, but he remembers to keep the beat-making top-notch as well. There are one or two tracks that don’t connect but this tape is well worth the download for bangers like “Mary Jizzle”, “Patti Labelle” and “NY Minute”. (Download)