Okayplayer’s only two weeks away from their annual Roots Picnic and to start the celebration they’ve teamed up with Cosmo Baker for the event’s official mix.

“Pulling from the discographies of all the artists on the bill (which include The Roots, Solange, Trinidad Jame$, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Grimes and Gary Clark Jr to name a few), Cosmo Baker delivers a mix that will certainly make anyone who listens wish they were attending the June 1st event at Penns Landing in Philadelphia.” [OKP]

Listen to the full mix below and for those in want, pick up Picnic tix here.

TRACKLIST:

DJ Premier “Young Gifted & Black Intro”
Gang Starr “Full Clip”
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis “Thrift Shop”
The Roots “Dynamite”
How To Dress Well “Running Back”
Sonnymoon feat. Melo-X “Htlv (Houstatlantavegas) (Melo-X Remix)”
Naughty By Nature “Hip-Hop (DJ Scene 2013 Remix)”
Trinidad James “All Gold Everything (Emynd NOLA Bounce Remix)”
Robert Glasper “Black Radio feat. Yasin Bey (Pete Rock Remix)”
The Gaslamp Killer “Anything Worse”
The Roots “The Seed 2.0?
Solange “Losing You”
Jennah Bell “Monster Killer”
Solange “Sandcastle Disco”
The Roots “How I Got Over”
Duck Sauce “Grand Steppin”
Grimes “Circumambient”
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis “Can’t Hold Us feat. Ray Dalton”
Grimes “Oblivion” A-Trak “Tuna Melt feat. Tommy Trash (Grandtheft Remix)”
Jay-Z & Kanye “Niggas In Paris”
Trinidad James “Females Welcome”
AraabMuzik “The Prince Is Coming”
The Gaslamp Killer “Impulse feat. Daedelus”
Kendrick Lamar “Backseat Freestyle”
A$AP Rocky “Goldie”
Gang Starr “Above The Clouds feat. Inspectah Deck”
Robert Glasper “Twice feat. Solange (?uestlove’s Twice Baked Remix)”
Gary Clark Jr. “The Life”
Joey Bada$$ “Waves”
Naughty By Nature “Jamboree feat. Zhane”
Smoke DZA “Gotham City feat. Joey Bada$$”
AraabMuzik “Hammer Dance”
The Roots “Act Too… The Love Of My Life feat. Common”
Shlohmo “Don’t Say No feat. How To Dress Well”
Lushlife “Magnolia”

FKi was responsible for one of my favorite projects of last year with Transformers N The Hood, and nothing less is expected of their second installment. Initially catching my ear for their unique synthesis of Hip-Hop and EDM elements, a genre I was hesitant to embrace before I heard what they were capable of, they carry on with their distinct sound. With Flosstradamus, Juicy J, Young Dro, and Kascade among other guests, Transformers N The Hood II will leave you wishing that all weeks started in this fashion.

Download — FKi – Transformers N The Hood 2

Excuse the ignorance which comes along with just now finding out about the release of Gangsta Boo’s newest project, It’s Game Involved. Clocking in at a robust 19 tracks, “Bad Times” immediately stands out if for no other reason than the Big K.R.I.T. feature.

Krizzle’s self-awareness and open book-like lyrics are on full display, but kudos to K-So for providing a melodic and soothing hook. All three use the somber approach to examine the realities of the life, both from a macro and micro-persepctive.

For “that shit that had everybody locked up in a trunk, crazy, hella high, snorting cocaine, smoking weed, robbing n*ggas and shit,” however, give a listen to the entire tape.

Gangsta Boo Ft. Big K.R.I.T. & K-So – “Bad Times”

Download — Gangsta Boo – It’s Game Involved Mixtape

King Mez continues building his empire by working to complete Long Live The King II. Until then, he gets with Rico Beats to drop “Exordium,” a lyrical preview of what’s to come on LLTK2. The song’s lyrics are here but with attentive ears will catch Mez’s mission, the multiple references to sneakers along with the usual round of killer metaphors and similes.

CX KiDTRONiK’s “Lady’s Krak P.S.A.” is a cacophonous blend of sounds that encourages dancing and moshing simultaneously. Sometimes, there’s so much going on in one song that it’s too much, but the vocalist/producer/DJ finds a delicate balance – in a song that’s anything but that – and it works. Deee-Lite’s Lady Miss Kier and Digable Planet’s Ladybug Mecca join him on the track that’s about crack, of the female type. I have a feeling that if some chick cracked a smile at him, he’s be more than happy by it.

Want to see Action Bronson ride around in Jeeps, take RiFF Raff’s money and dance up on, erm, “plus-plus-sized” women? Of course you do. Who wouldn’t? You’ll find all of that–and cooking!–in Bam Bam’s latest video for “Strictly 4 My Jeeps,” directed by Jason Goldwatch and shot exclusively in Bronson’s home borough of Queens. Luckily, reveling in Bronsolinho’s quirkiness is for everyone. Not just for his “Jeeps.”

Lenny S. strikes again. After firing up rap fans with a photo of Jay-Z and Raekwon, the Def Jam A&R/photographer recently hosted a snapshot of Jay-Z and Drake together on his Instagramalong with the caption, “Warning: Please be very afraid of the music we’re working on. OVO x ROCNATION”

Talk amongst yourselves.

Rocko’s “U.O.E.N.O.” is the 2012-2013 Lakers of singles (or any Cowboys season of the past five years). Something which had so much promise and potential at its introduction Wil E. Coyote’d itself off a cliff before our very eyes. To make matters even more head-scratching, who would’ve guessed Usher, of all artists, would have the hottest verse.

Because that’s exactly what happens when Bieber’s O.G. grabs the Childish Major concoction. However, if I’ve had to suffer through “remix” after “remix” only to hear Confessions 2 could potentially be on the way, then we’ll call it even.

I think it’s safe to say that the majority of NBA fans out there view Dwight Howard as the insecure, over-compensating pubescent oaf that he is. The last thing we want is D12 to have a month-long stranglehold on the media and and every NBA team with cap space.

So naturally, what we’re getting treated to is a month-long stranglehold on the media and every NBA team with cap space.

We knew this was happening. Howard is one of the NBA’s premier talents, and has every right to test the free agent market. Ah, but it won’t be that simple. This is the guy who cried during his Lakers’ debut. Who threatened legal action when the Magic wouldn’t move him. Who fell in love with a pornstar (maybe irrelevant, but that story isn’t nearly as well-known as it should be).

No, Dwight is going to make this long and painful. He is going to demand at least 4-5 ESPN stories a week, each one of them a reminder from him to you that teams want to pay him money. And say what you will about LeBron (I sure have!) but with him, you had a potential top-5 player in NBA history. Dwight, in all likelihood, is going to be an 18-11-3 (points-rebounds-blocks) guy for the rest of his career, lacking the defensive bounce that once made him a superstar. He deserves a max contract only a bit more than Joe Johnson once did.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, when the Lakers take the bait and try to build their post-Kobe identity with D12 cheesing in the middle of huddles, our cache of weapons to troll their fans with will be incredible.

Things could be worse.

It all started out with Davy Greenberg mentioning a new video he shot for Eryn Koehn titled “Her Pain,” a record where the singer puts her spin on BJ The Chicago Kid and Kendrick Lamar’s “His Pain.” Things went from simply viewing the video to being blown away by Eryn’s pipes and intricate details in her lyrics. From there, the focus shifted to her YouTube, where more gems were found (see: “Take It All” and a masterful Nat King Cole cover), before finally winding up all the way impressed and wanting to know more about “Her Pain,” which the Detroit-born, Chicago-based singer was willing to share in her own words.

BJ and Kendrick’s “His Pain” is one of my favorite songs. The first time I heard it I cried. Every time I heard him telling his story I was thinking about my own story. So I pulled the instrumental for the track from YouTube so I could sing my own words to the music. I wrote lyrics and immediately recorded it on GarageBand. What I recorded that night on my bed was the same thing I took to the studio for the final.

A great deal of the lyrics are about my mother and how she set high expectations for me as a black woman (I’m only half, but she made it abundantly clear that the world wouldn’t really notice that). A few of the lines like “I’m from the Murder Mitten” and “where murder killed religion” speak to Detroit’s title as the most dangerous city in the U.S. And then some of the more difficult parts of the lyrics are about the trials I faced and the struggle to hold myself to those standards.

Here are a few of my favorites.

“Liquor stores next to churches”

Growing up it was always said that Detroit had more liquor stores and churches than any other city. I don’t think that’s a fact but I’ve always thought it was true. I went to church in Conant Gardens and there was a lounge across the street. I followed that line with “you call it juxtaposition” because people who didn’t grow up in Detroit just don’t understand. It’s the norm for us

“This affliction is lack of supervision,
Lack of inspiration, too much television.”

My mom never had cable television. For the longest time we only had a terrible TV from the 1970s that you had to go up and turn a knob to switch channels (all three of them) and a phonograph that she’d play the same four to five gospel or old-school R&B records on. It wasn’t until about 2003 that she upgraded to a TV with a built-in VCR.

“She played a good villain
Always spoke with conviction
Protecting us from gangbangers and politicians.”

She not only protected us from the proverbial criminals, she also protected us from the liars whom I refer to as politicians. At that time my father was bad at keeping promises. We’re great now but there was a time when my mom kind of needed to protect my brother and me from the lies.

“Taught me about strong men and about strong black women
Ms. Angelou, Ms. Parks, Ms. Truth, Chaka Khan
But not Oprah ’cause she only helped black people in Africa.”

My mom always used to bitch about Oprah on our car rides through the city. “See all this blight! Why can’t she help the black people right here in her backyard!”

“So why am I here with blood drippin’ from my nose fear running down my face
My lovers hands grabbing my throat?
Unprovoked he choked all love and trust out of me
Baron of any emotion on the floor he left me.
19 years old all I saw was 19 years flash before me.
So that night I smoked two joints,
Stole a fifth for myself and made a toast to infidelity.
Broken and lonely I drank to blur these thoughts
Hoping you’d show me.”

This one’s kind of self-explanatory but basically I was in an altercation that left me with a new perspective and appreciation for life.