Black Thought has been considered by many to be among the best emcees of all time, but after his incredible ‘freestyles’ on the Shade 45 Dilla tribute recently, many hip-hop heads bowed down and gave him the crown as THE greatest.  Even Q-Tip was at a loss for words when it came his time to grab the mic.  While this has been floating around the net for a bit, here’s our exclusive mix of the session, with some of the levels raised (including bass) and mastered properly.  I edited out Tony Toca (sorry pal) and everything flows perfectly.  Enjoy raw emceeing at its finest over Dilla beats.

Read the rest of this entry »

BluRoc held their label showcase at The Gramercy earlier this week, which featured their roster of artists including Curren$y, Ski Beatz, The London Souls and more.  BluRoc is the vision of Dame Dash and the creativity thats been going on at DD172 (aka The Dojo).  Ski Beatz performed with a small band (featuring Brady Watts on bass and Daru Jones on drums) and brought out a few guests from his upcoming 24 Hour Karate School project including Tabi Bonney, Rugz D Bewler and Stalley.  While the set was very brief, Stalley stole the show with his song “S.T.A.LL.E.Y.” that Ski produced.  24H Karate School drops March 30th.

Read the rest of this entry »

In celebration of his upcoming album release on April 27th, B.o.B held a live concert exclusively for the Internet, which he streamed to the world on his ustream channel lat night.  As many as 6,000 fans tuned in to watch the live show and Bobby Ray did not disappoint the large web crowd.  He ran through cuts with his DJ to start things off, then brought out his band, The Eastsiders, and the energy really picked up.  He even played songs from his latest mixtape, “May 25th”, for the first time live and everything sounded fantastic.  Check out the archived video stream of the show below and download the full audio rip while you’re at it.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the best shows I attended last year was Tanya Morgan @ SOB’s backed by the live band featuring members of The Cypher, led by Daru Jones on drums (he’s a beast if you’re sleeping).  Hearing cuts from Brooklynatti get the live band treatment was truly special and there’s no musicians for the job than the band assembled.  Tanya Morgan really stepped into their own last year and earned a slot in our Top 10 of 2009.  Here’s our exclusive live audio of “Alleye Need”, “On Our Way” and “So Damn Down” live from the SOB’s show.

Read the rest of this entry »

In recognition of the release of her brand new album, Concrete Jungle (Amazon, iTunes), which hit store shelves today, we present Nneka live @ The Berlin Festival from 2008.  The Nigerian born singer has been around for some time, but Concrete Jungle is her first US release and is opening many new eyes to her inspirational music.  You can learn more about her background over at Okayplayer, who recently interviewed her, but in the meantime, check out this excellent live set.

Read the rest of this entry »

P.So (formerly known as P. CASSO) tore down Voodoo Lounge at the Brown Bag Thursdays show earlier this month.  He called up fellow AOK member Homeboy Sandman to do some songs together and that really got the crowd hype.  Here’s the duo performing “Best in Show” as well as a bonus live cut of P.So tearing through “Some Fun” off his Earthtones Mixtape (which btw is our #1 Mixtape of 2009, so download that if you haven’t already).  Also be on the lookout for P.So’s next project, MoonTones, which is set to be released as a free mixtape on 2/24.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mos Def took the stage this past weekend and put on a great show as usual.  He performed The Ecstatic in its entirety front-to-back, brought out Talib Kweli for History and Respiration, then Jay Electronica graced the stage to rock Exhibit A and C with Mos, Kweli and Diddy on stage as his hypemen.  Here are the two Exhibits as well as Respiration as a bonus.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the best shows I saw in 2009 was Reflection Eternal at The Blue Note jazz club in NYC backed by a live band led by Daru Jones on drums.  One of the highlights of the night was Memories Live, which we exclusively presented earlier this year, and now we’re proud to unleash this live version of the first single off Revolutions Per Minute, “Back Again” (available now on iTunes).  This 12 min, jammed out version of the record features amazing solos from the band and the vocals of the wonderfully talented, Res.

Read the rest of this entry »