Furthermore:
Buy “Minute After Midnight” @ Amalgam Digital.
SKDs review of “Minute After Midnight”.
Unrelated Dialogue with Donny.

Being one of the few coming from the Bay Area who missed out on the “hyphy” movement, The Tones take their music in a whole different level. With soulful beats, charm and honest lyrics, “Dreamtalk” is a breath of fresh air to end the year with (at the time..), or like, the once great rapper, Common said: “The Tones are some real soulful brothers”.

Dreamtalk is a consistent album from start to end; the songs “Get U High, pt.  1″ and “From The Ground Up” starts us up, and really sets the theme for the whole album. Even though the album follows in the footprints of artists such as Kanye West and Common, with a Chicago-like sound, we can also find alternative-sounding songs. The beats to “Searching”, my personal favorite on this album, sounds like something that CYNE or Five Deez could have included in their albums. Honesty is also one The Tones stronger sides and songs like “Fly Angel” and “Road Ahead” proves this.

The Tones have a lot on their heart, but sometimes they do not manage to get it out in a best way possible. Their lyrics mean something, and the beats on “Dreamtalk” are great, but their rhymes sounds a bit half-assed now and then. The beats are better than the lyrics (sometimes), so to speak.

All in all, this album is well worth a buy. Support some young, up and coming rappers and help them make hip-hop better. Even though these guys could step up their rhyming skills a bit, this is one of the best albums to come out in 2008.

Favorite songs: Searching, Road Ahead, The Movemeant, Dreamtalk, Withouth You

Buy on iTunes.
Or what about Amazon?
Atleast check out their MySpace.

By The Admiral of Cold Legistics.
Inspired by Madlib’s “Shades of Blue” and J. Dilla.
The Admiral states that,

The whole project was inspired by Madlib’s Shades of Blue, I bought it on vinyl a few months ago and listened to “Montara” on it and it sparked the light. J-Dilla’s production also provided inspiration for the project.

Personally I’m not classifying this as a mixtape, it’s too good for that. This is a free album, a free good album which you should absolutely listen to. But then again, if it’s a mixtape I don’t have to review it. So. WINxWIN.
Shouts to Praverb for the headsup.

Download.
Cold Legistics’ MySpace

Raphael Saadiq > Duffy
Soulja Gurl > Soulja Boy
The 404 Project > 808s and heartbreak
Guilty Simpson > Defari
Al Green > John Legend
Unrelated Dialogues > Vibe Magazine Interviews
Obama > Alabama
South Park season 12 > Family Guy season 7
Eli > Envy
Illa J singing > Kanye West singing
Ma Dukes > Dukes of Hazard
This guy’s coconut breaking skills > Lil’ Wayne’s rhyming skills
SKD purple > Purple Drank
Twitter > MySpace
Stopping Time > Teleporting
DillaGhostDoom > GhostJadaWeezyFreeKwon
Anthony Hamilton > Charles Hamilton
Vimeo > YouTube
Independent Releases > Mainstream
Young Buck crying > People crying over lost bucks
The Real > TV
Palin > Your neighborhood M.I.L.F.
Your neigborhood M.I.L.F.’s foreign relations skills > Palin’s foreign relations skills
Barry Cooper > Rick Ross
WordPress > Blogger
Stones Throw > Shoe Throw
The internet = Terrible
Vincents swag > Kanyes Swag
SofaKing Diligent > ALL (except That Real Ish)

09 hopefully > 08, happy new years from the SKD dynasty.

PeaceXoneloveXhaveahappynewyears

A Funkadelic Christmas is a compilation of timeless Christmas music & clips from various movies, made for the sole purposes of getting yo’ ish real funkadelic on Christmas. Simple isn’t it? Brought to you by the powers forming like voltron; Funkadelic Freestyles, DC to BC & THATREALISH.

Present 01. Sufjan Stevens - The Winter Solstice
Present 02. James Brown - It’s Christmas Time
Present 03. Tony! Toni! Tone! - My Christmas
Present 04. Weezer - The Christmas Song
Present 05. Vince Guaraldi Trio - Christmas Time Is Here
Present 06. Snoop Dogg - Santa Claus Is Going Straight To The Ghetto
Present 07. De La Soul - Millie Pulled A Pistol On Santa I
Present 08. The Roots - Millie Pulled A Pistol on Santa II
Present 09. Christmas Is Cancelled?
Present 10. The Jackson 5 - Give Love On Christmas Day
Present 11. The Temptations - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
Present 12. Killer Mike - A Christmas Grind
Present 13. Ludacris - Ludacrismas
Present 14. Bing Crosby - White Christmas
Present 15. Sufjan Stevens - Jingle Bells With The Simpsons
Present 16. Daniel Merriweather - Wonderful Christmas Time

Mixed by jben.ok of Funkadelic Freestyles.
Artwork by smokeYYY of THATREALISH.
Creative Input from modi of DC to BC.
Moral Support & Holiday Cheer courtesy of The Elves of The North Pole.

A Funkadelic Christmas Ode
A wise man once proclaimed; “There is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love, generosity & devotion exist, & you know that they abound & give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus?”. A wiser man said; “All Santa Claus wants is two fat bitches, a bag of weed & two bag of chips to give to the fat bitches”. So please; spread love & generosity not only for the holiday seasons but for all seasons & keep the fat bitches & people of all creeds, cultures & breast sizes in mind. Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Sounds like fun.

Download here.

Also check out:
SKDs review of ‘Minute After Midnight’
SKDs Unrelated Dialogue with Donny Goines

And of course, buy Minute After Midnight if you haven’t already. Also available from iTunes and amazon soon.

No matter how good or bad you consider this year’s Hip Hop, we’ve seen some splendid album-cover arts…

10. A Son of the Sun

What is there to say? Just look at it, pure art. Couldn’t find anything about who made it or if it’s made just for this album.

9. Dreamtalk

Fresh. The Tones, two guys from the Bay area. Their recently released debut album, exceptionally soulful, vastly overlooked. Review coming.

8. Chinoiseries

Simplicity = dopeness. In this case, at least.

7. Rising Down

The cartoon, entitled ’Negro Rule’, drawn by Norman E. Jennette in the 1890s to shock and repulse people about what would happen if black people got their freedom. Another one in The Root’s chain of provoking and controversial album covers. Greatness.

6. Los Angeles

Just like Mezzanine was a part of SKDs top ten album-covers of ‘98, Los Angeles is a part of the list a decade later.

5. The Renaissance

A hip hop “The Son of Man“. Instant classic.

4. Beat Konducta Vol. 6: Dil Withers Suite/Vol. 5: Dil Cosby Suite

From STs article:

The covers for the vinyl editions of Beat Konducta Vol. 1, 2, 5 and 6, designed by Jeff Jank, are all from the same piece of cardboard. This was originally a library sound-effects record belonging to Peanut Butter Wolf which was being stored in a closet. After a leak and subsequent water damage in 2004, this record cover was thrown onto a back porch where it sat for at least a year before being used on Beat Konducta Vol. 1, and then Vol. 2. Two years later, aided by some spray paint and a lot more mold, it became Beat Konducta Vol. 5 and 6.

Why more artists haven’t had an idea like this is nothing short of a mystery.

3. The Death of Adam

Beautiful. That is all.

2. Ode to the Ghetto

Timeless, real, original. Recipe for ill.

1. Sniperlite

“But, that was just an EP”
Possibly, but where did YOU think SKD got it’s color from? Use your head.
Of course you gotta view this site in Safari for the colors to match…

Should also mention: The Odd Couple, Murs for President, WLIB AM.

Not often you see me posting mp3s, but when I receive a song featuring my two favorite underground rappers, I’m sold. And when it’s fresh as hell too, I really don’t have a choice. Produced by Rip One for his upcoming album ‘Grounded’.

Praverb about the track:

This track was conceived thanks to the lovely instrumental by Rip One. The scratch hook gave me the inspiration to write about etching my own path in this hip hop game. Donny Goines delivered an awesome verse that further solidifies his role in the progression of NY hip hop.

Download/Stream here.
Rip One’s MySpace.
Praverb’s blog.
Donny Goines’ blog.