I like everything about this song. I like the beat. I like the video. I like Danny Brown’s missing teeth. I like the chicks. I like the proliferation of n-bombs. I like it when he says “Shake that ass for a hipster nigga.” I like the pancakes. I like the unabashed, Nancy Reagan-spiting drug abuse. I like that Danny is finding ways to top XXX. I like the XXXI tease. And I like the chicks. Likely this year’s best song so far.

I don’t like it when Big K.R.I.T. gets too ‘we can make it if we try’ with his starry-eyed message songs, but even in these cases, he always brings it back with a champion flow and a grandiose beat. Listen to a bonus cut about drugs below.

Footage of a cramped concert with awestruck kids in front + shrine of classic rap LPs = G-Side, steady backpacking. For the swag averse.

Heavy psych is the best thing to happen to rap since James Brown.

Download: Gangrene – The Odditorium

via Red Bull

We had a chat at HQ and we decided there weren’t enough sex videos on ML. A quick search turned up this video for Slugabed’s new single off Time Team, out May 7. I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m assuming it’s steamy. For round two, listen to Daedelus’ remix.

Copping a Danny Brown verse equates to a willingness to be upstaged, but Ab-Soul still commands plenty attention as an abject TDE foot soldier.

Download: Ab-Soul – Terrorist Threats (ft. Danny Brown, Jhene Aiko) (produced by Dave Free)

via Top Dawg Entertainment

I’m so glad there’s a rapper with a name as awesome as SpaceGhostPurrp whose music is actually well worth sharing.

Download: SpaceGhostPurrp – Lustful ’97

(Image from Interview Mag)

Maybe I exclusively should start highlighting interviews that are worth reading or something. Here is an extremely likable brief profile & interview over at the illustrious Interview Mag conducted by David Shapiro. We learn that Wacka really likes to record raps, no matter where he is, that includes the back for non-flashy sedans.

After we’re done, Waka Flocka Flame picks up his phone and walks outside the tattoo parlor. We follow him out and find him sitting in the back seat of a red Toyota Camry, next to a guy with a Macbook Pro on his lap, with a microphone set up in the middle seat between them. Waka has headphones on and he’s rapping into the microphone in the back seat of the car while his crew stands on the sidewalk and marvels about the mobile recording studio in the car. He looks like he’s having a good time in there.

His favorite snack is also Salt & Vingar chips, how can you really hate the guy?

Read the full interview here.

Yesterday, the upcoming media outlet known as Time dropped their ‘100 Most Influential People in the World‘. No one really in hip hop said much about Time’s list omitting rappers. It’s true they didn’t have many musicians on the list, and entertainment in general. Other influential people in the world picked the likes of Rihanna, Louis CK, Jose Andres, etc. No one picked a single rapper. In my eyes the likes of Jay-Z, Kanye, even Drake are more influential than the aforementioned. What does this all mean, are rappers not influential or did Time just reach out to a bunch of people that didn’t find rappers to be influential (I mean, why didn’t the secretary of Education, Arne Duncan pick Lil B?? HE JUST LECTURED AT NYU). I’m guessing it’s the latter. What does influential even mean? Tyler the Creator can probably organize a riot of teenagers before you can say “Time”, isn’t that influential?

Sidebar: how ironic that Jeremy Lin picked Tim Tebow?

New Brighton based artist Tourist, or more easily Google searched as William Phillips, is someone who I’ve been meaning to write about for months now. A friend sent me a link to Placid Acid back in January and I couldn’t get enough. I sought out everything else he had recorded to tide me over until he released his first EP which dropped just a few weeks ago (and is fantastic). Luckily, he also posts remixes under the name Little Loud that are just as great to listen to. Placid Acid feels like there should be lyrics to memorize even when none are present. It’s reminiscent of Jamie XX and Animal Collective without feeling like a knock-off which is refreshing in the middle of the EDM era we’re currently in. His sound is versatile; translating anywhere from easy-listening to dance floor.

Check out Placid Acid before he gets big, I promise you won’t regret it: