Our girl Erykah is back with a new album.  This album, titled New Amerykah Part II: Return of the Ankh, is shaping up to be something quite promising.  I’ve got my hesitations, mainly due to the fact that she has a collabo with Lil’ Wayne (called “Jump Up in the Air and Stay There”).  Oddly enough, The Guardian says that the Lil Wayne track is absent from the album.  Either there was a last minute change, or the UK version of the disc is somehow different than the North American.  …

For one week only, over on NPR, you can stream the entire new Gorillaz album called Plastic Beach.
It’s a great opportunity to check it out and see if you love it.  NPR has this to say about it
Plastic Beach unites Albarn and Hewlett with a huge list of guests, creating yet another well-crafted and dance-friendly set of songs. Here, Albarn and company’s songs demonstrate a genre-bending collection of glitchy club beats and hip-hop grooves, augmented by brass, glitzy synthesizers and Asian- and Arabic-tinged orchestral harmonies.

They’ve got a whole bunch of …

My goodness, this is tragic news.
According to BoingBoing, Guru (one half of the legendary Gang Starr) collapsed after an apparent heart attack.  He’s now in a coma in New York.
While it’s always an awful thing to hear, I find it especially tough because Guru (on the right in the picture at the top of this post) was a huge influence on my love for hip hop growing up.  I can’t even count the number of times I listened to the Moment of Truth album on my discman.  The news is …

So Pitchfork is reporting that Definitive Jux Records, the amazing indie hip hop label, is going on an indefinite “hiatus”.  To make matters worse, El-P is stepping down.
While it’s true that they’re not exactly over, they’re also not planning on releasing any new music on physical media.  Hopefully this still means some digital distribution, and may actually lower their operating costs a lot.  However, it also means that a lot of dope hip hop will no longer be found on vinyl.
Despite assurances that Def Jux isn’t shutting down and is …

What? You’ve never heard of BK-One and yet you call yourself a beat fiend? Okay, maybe you don’t call yourself that, and I don’t actually blame you for not knowing about him.
BK-One is probably most famously known as the dj of Brother Ali.  And he just dropped his own album featuring a whole slew of guest artists.  Brother Ali, Murs, Slug (from Atmosphere, if you don’t know) and a veritable who’s who of the indie hip hop scene.
The album, titled Radio Do Canibal and is supposed to be heavily influenced …

Props to The Find Magazine for this one.

Dope track and a dope idea.  We’ve promoted this same type of thing before, but try and give credit where it’s due.  This is a dope international e-collaboration with “8 people with 5 instruments from 4 Continents speaking 3 languages for 1 song.”   The emcee below, Dumbfoudead, is decent.
Check it out below, or head over to YouTube to check the lyrics as well.

 
I jacked some of the credits from the YouTube sidebar just to help hype these artists.  Check ‘em out.
Emcee: Dumbfoundead http://www.youtube.com/dumbfoundead …

I know this is a bit of a dated post, being that the earthquake happened some time ago, but I thought I would take the opportunity to highlight some of the work being done, hype up some fundraising opportunities, and talk about the tight connection between hip hop and Haiti.
I’m sure most of you have heard about Yele Haiti, the charity started by Wyclef Jean.  He is probably one of the most prominent hip hop artists with direct Haiti ties, but certainly not the least.  And yes, there has been …

If you’re like me, you may feel that Talib and Mos have never stood a chance.  Their solo stuff so far has just not been able to live up to the astounding collaboration record they released as Black Star.  Sure there are standout tracks every once in a while, and Mos’ Black on Both Sides is fantastic.  But somehow, I can never shake the feeling that Black Star was close to the perfect record.
By that I mean one of those records you just don’t ever want to change tracks on.  …

by Angie B. Fresh
[Ed: Angie B. Fresh is the host of 'The Corner' on CFUV 101.9 FM in Victoria, B.C.  She's also the newest contributor to 4080 Records!  Read on for her inaugural post: a passionate, articulate survey of the last decade's best hip-hop.  And if you know what's good for you, tune in to her show every Friday from 5-6 p.m.]
Being a child of the late 80’s, this past decade has been the first I can remember from start to finish.  And while I can’t speak for my generational …