New Orleans emcee, Dee-1 teams up with Mannie Fresh in the visuals for his track about the girl he missed out on…

I slept on this when it originally dropped, but discovered this whilst searching around for info on her upcoming album. This is definitely sufficient to bridge the gap until that finally drops.

Hit the jump to check out the tracklist and download…
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Nice little documentary piece from OnSmash catching up with the now graduated Casey Veggies, who talks about meeting with Jay-Z in New York, listening to Watch The Throne, the upcoming deluxe version of Sleeping In Class, his live show and more…

More from the Doomtree crew today. Whilst Sims and Lazerbeak are announcing their upcoming tour, Mike Mictlan is putting out an outstanding new track, presumably from his upcoming album. I forget just how good these guys are sometimes! Mike (and the rest of the crew for that matter) is way underrated as an emcee…

After releasing one of my favourite albums of the year so far with Bad Time Zoo, Doomtree’s Sims and Lazerbeak are setting of on a 28 date US tour with fellow crew member Cecil Otter (as well as selected dates with a full crew line-up). I just hope they make it over to the UK one day!

Tickets go on sale this Friday and will be available from Doomtree.net

Hit the jump to check out the full list of dates…

Read my interview with Sims and ‘Beak here…

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When Ski Beatz is telling you that an artist reminds him of the first time he heard Nas or Jay-Z, you can’t ignore it! And that’s exactly how I discovered this mixtape (featuring input from Ski himself, as well as John Cave and Rugz D. Bewler), by Bronx-based up-and comer, Najee. This tape is well worth a listen, get familiar before you hear his outstanding contribution to 24 Hour Karate School PT2 next week!

Check out what else Ski had to say about Najee in our track-by-track breakdown of the album.

Hit the jump for tracklist and download…
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After 2 sold out headlining festival appearances Snoop Dogg has announced recently that he will be heading to the UK in October for 4 Arena dates around the country. The dates are as follows…

Liverpool Echo Arena 6 October
London O2 Arena 7 October
Cardiff Motorpoint Arena 8 October
Glasgow SECC 9 October

For tickets call
Tickets HMV Tickets 0843 221 0100
Ticketmaster 0844 8440 444
See Tickets 08700 603 777

Hit the jump to check out the press release…
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Regular visitors of this site will know I’m a huge Ski Beatz fan, the first installment of his 24 Hour Karate School made my “Best of 2010″ list, and brought a group of fresh new hip-hop artists to the forefront under the DD172/BluRoc brand/label. Using sampling as a starting point and progressing the sound using live instrumentation, Ski really brought with him a new school sound with a very familiar, organic, old school vibe, and anticipation of the new record was high for me.

With a pretty different line-up of artists on the new LP at first glance, I began to worry a little; no sign of Curren$y, with whom Ski has built a fantastic chemistry and released some great records, likewise with Smoke DZA, Camp Lo and Rugz D Bewler (with only one appearance from Stalley, and one from Tabi Bonney). However after having the chance to hear the new album, and talk through it track by track, the new line-up comes across just as well as the old one, if not better. Ski really uses the emcees he is working with to advance the sounds he is working with, and a great example of this is the somewhat unorthodox sounds of the first two tracks, with some incredible work from Locksmith and STS. Newcomers Da$h and Najee also really get a chance to showcase their talents over some fantastic production. It’s great to see that Ski remains innovative, whilst continually staying true to a pure, organic hip-hop sound.

So without further ado, hit the jump for the track-by-track preview of the album, and look out for a follow up interview discussing some of his other upcoming projects (24 Hour Karate School UK, Love & Rockets w/Murs and more) over the next few days….
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The ever hard-working Chuuwee finally releases his Be Cool project (with some excellent cover art), which is entirely produced by fellow up-and-comer, Jonathan Lowell, and still has a number of projects waiting around the corner, including his collaborations with Lee Bannon and Sundown of Act Proof.

Chuuwee is definitely one to watch if you’ve been sleeping…
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J. Cole launches his new series “Any Given Sunday”, leading to the release of his long awaited debut LP, Cole World: The Sideline Story (dropping September 27th) with a 5 track EP of new and unreleased stuff (including “Unabomber” which dropped a while ago, but had no home until now). He also released a statement explaining why he picked each track to feature in the collection…

1. Like A Star- Was saving this for the 2nd album. Due to some other shit beyond my control, I’ma let this out now.

2. Knock On Wood- One of my fav. freestyles. OG Dreamvillains gotta be reminded, new fans gotta get put on.

3. Pity- Brand new J. Cole, Omen, Voli. Produced by Voli @volitheentity

4. How High- at one point this was guaranteed to go on The Sideline Story.

5. Unabomber- Just heard this today for the first time in a longgg time. Love these raps.

Every Sunday til the album drops I’ll be back with something. Maybe just 1 song, maybe a video, depending on how I’m feeling.

With the return of Entourage, and now this, Sundays are getting better and better…

DOWNLOAD HERE