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Step Brothers (Evidence x Alchemist) Will Release Lord Steppington in 2013

Posted in Album Update, Video with tags , , , , on Friday, January 4, 2013 by Tim Althaus

First off, let me say that I can’t believe I’m writing this post; this project had almost reached Detox status for me.I realize that both of these dudes have been extremely busy over the last couple of years, but damn…

I feel as though all of my Hip-Hop prayers have been answered. I just peeped this video the other day on Ev’s twitter, and it got my super excited. I’ve been waiting for an Evidence and Alchemist full-length since they mentioned their Step Brothers project back in 2009. What makes this project even more special? It’s being released through Rhymesayers Entertainment – talk about dope. There are a few assumptions that I can make about Lord Steppington: First, the beats are going to be raw;  the equivalent of having your skin scraped off after a fall on the pavement. Second, the album is going to be chocked full of humor; we all know that Evidence and Alchemist are hilarious dudes.

Here’s a little taste of what to expect:

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Jellyfish Brigade: The Art of Being Pulled Apart 

Posted in Album Update, Media with tags , , , , on Thursday, December 6, 2012 by Tim Althaus

The Art of Being Pulled Apart

Let me tell you, it’s been one hell of a hectic day filled with slightly overwhelming obstacles, but I’ve come out victorious, and now I get to listen to Jellyfish Brigade’s new EP – The Art of Being Pulled Apart. I posted the lead single – “The Character is Me” – last week, and now we’re getting the full three track EP.

Here’s what the guys had to say about The Art of Being Pulled Apart:

“The Art of Being Pulled Apart is a short story about the heart, mind, body and soul drifting in separate directions and how we must inevitably pull our different selves back together. By intertwining tales from the river, love notes from distant cities, and fears of the unknown, we created a project that explores the breakdown process and the beauty in getting a chance to reassemble one’s self after a life changing experience. This collection of songs is influenced as much by campfire folk tunes and early 90’s R&B as it is story telling hip hop and melodic electronic beats. Its setting is somewhere in the Columbia River Gorge on a highway during a Sunday evening sunset. It touches on recognizing each person’s individuality while also realizing our tiny place in the collective. It jovially compares our fate to that of the salmon, who spend the autumn traveling back home to their demise. I guess, in short, we make honest, heartfelt songs about love, life and nature, all of which we enjoy deeply.”

I am completely blown away by all three of the tracks on this project, and it’s making me crave a full-length effort from these guys. As I mentioned in my post about “The Character is Me”, Lucas Dix is showing a great deal of vocal dexterity on Jellyfish Brigade’s new material, and it’s fascinating to watch him grow as he realizes his full potential as an artist. With every release the water becomes a little bit clearer for Jellyfish Brigade; however, something else becomes evident: The smack is growing, and it’s only gaining more momentum.

You can jump over to Jellyfish Brigade’s website and download the EP for free.99 here.

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Video: Skyzoo, “First Generation Rich” (Prod. By Jahlil Beats)

Posted in Album Update, Media, Video with tags , , , , , on Tuesday, August 28, 2012 by Tim Althaus

These last few weeks have been amazing because Skyzoo has been releasing a tidal wave of material for the masses. In a post that I put up a couple weeks ago, I mentioned that Sky was supposed to be dropping a mixtape entitled Theo Vs. JJ: Dreams Vs. Reality. I was apprehensive as to whether or not it was going to come out because A Dream Deferred is right around the corner. After I got home from classes yesterday, I decided to go through my usual routine of checking my social media outlets, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Skyzoo dropped a new video for the track “First Generation Rich” – which will be featured on Theo Vs. JJ: Dreams Vs. Reality.

Jahlil Beats (of Roc Nation) lays down a melodically mellow masterpiece that enables Skyzoo to carve out his lane and conduct his craft. In all reality, there was no reason to doubt whether or not Skyzoo was going to put out Theo Vs. JJ because I don’t think he’s capable of disappointing his fans. Based on the quality of The Great Debater, Skzyoo very well could be releasing two album-quality projects in back-to-back months – clearly nothing to complain about.

Make sure you download Theo Vs. JJ: Dreams Vs. Reality when it drops later this week; rest assured, there will definitely be a post here at Mind Inversion.

Here’s what Skyzoo had to say about the concept behind “First Generation Rich”:

“The inspiration for “First Generation Rich” came from me watching an Oprah Winfrey special on the Miami Heat’s recent title win, and she asked Dwyane Wade about his life now, as opposed to when he was a kid in Chicago. He went on to talk about being the first one in his family to have any type of “real money”. In doing so, he used a slogan: “first generation rich”. Oprah acknowledged said slogan, thus signaling that she’d known of/used the term as well when describing what that new found life turns into, and just like that it hit me. FGR. First Generation Rich. The idea of being the first one in your family, the first generation on your side, to make it.”

“Produced by Roc Nation’s Jahlil Beats, the track said everything I needed it to before I even began to write to it. The idea behind the Theo Vs. JJ mixtape was to show the vast differences between highs and lows, living to win and winning to live, fortune and misfortune. FGR. So, shout out to #FGR and everyone who’s felt that feeling within them, this one’s for us.”

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Album Update: Skyzoo, A Dream Deferred (Artwork & Tracklisting)

Posted in Album Update with tags , , , , , , , , on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 by Tim Althaus

Since the buzz keeps growing for A Dream Deferred, Skyzoo decided to leak the artwork and tracklisting for the album. I’m excited about the dope album cover, but I’m even more ecstatic to see the producer credits and guest features.

As per usual, Sky will be spitting over beats by !llmind, Black Milk, 9th Wonder, Best Kept Secret & Eric G, but he threw two tracks by DJ Khalil into the mix, and this really excites me: I’ve been saying for a long time that DJ Khalil is one of the best producers in the game, and Skyzoo is my favorite emcee, so naturally my anticipation is off the radar. On the vocal side, listeners can expect to hear collaborations from Talib Kweli, Jill Scott, Freeway, Jared Evans and Raheem Devaughn.

I know I talk about this man quite a bit, but I believe in his music so strongly; if liking top-tier lyricism was considered a crime, then I would definitely be guilty of a hard felony. Make sure you go out to your local record store and grab A Dream Deferred on October 2nd.

Track Listing:
1) Dreams In A Basement featuring Jill Scott (produced by !llmind)
2) Jansport Strings (One Time for Chi-Ali) (produced by 9th Wonder)
3) Pockets Full feat. Freeway (produced by !llmind)
4) Give It Up feat. DJ Prince (produced by !llmind)
5) Glass Ceilings (produced by !llmind)
6) Range Rover Rhythm (produced by Jahlil Beats)
7) The Knowing feat. Jessy Wilson (produced by Eric G)
8) Drew & Derwin feat. Raheem Devaughn (produced by Focus)
9) Realization feat. Jared Evan (produced by DJ Khalil)
10) The Rage of Roemello (produced by DJ Khalil)
11) How to Make it Through Hysteria (produced by Best Kept Secret)
12) Steel’s Apartment (produced by Black Milk)
13) Spike Lee Was My Hero feat. Talib Kweli (produced by Tall Black Guy)
14) The Cost of Sleep (produced by Tall Black Guy)

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Album Update: P.O.S., We Don’t Even Live Here

Posted in Album Update, Media, Video with tags , , , , , , , , on Thursday, August 16, 2012 by Tim Althaus

Good music keeps oozing from the pores of the Hip-Hop Heavyweights over at Rhymesayers Entertainment. Aesop Rock just released another stellar album last month; Brother Ali is releasing his new album in September, and now it has been announced that P.O.S. will release his fourth studio album – We Don’t Even Live Here – on October 23rd.

According to the press release I read, We Don’t Even Live Here will favor more futuristic beats influenced by the Euro club scene. Even though P.O.S. is going to keep his Hip-Hop roots grounded by collaborating with regular names like Cecil Otter, Lazerbeak, Mike Mictlan and Sims, We Don’t Even Live Here will feature beats from artists like Boyz Noise & Housemeister – DJs who make dance-oriented music. Fans can also expect to hear Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver) lending his vocals to the album.

This will be Stef’s first album since he released the masterpiece Never Better back in 2009; three years is a long wait, so I’m definitely stoked to hear some new solo material is coming out. I’ve been a huge fan of everything he’s done so far, and I think that his strategy to shake things up could pay off big dividends.

Recently, Stef performed a live version of the lead single from We Don’t Even Live Here – “Bumper” – for Pitchfork City of Music, and if it’s any indication of what the album’s going to sound like, then listeners are in for a very interesting and intense ride. I know I can’t wait to buy my ticket.

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Album Update: Murs & Fashawn, This Generation

Posted in Album Update, Audio, Media with tags , , , , , , on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 by Tim Althaus

I was on Facebook today, and I randomly scrolled over the album cover because I thought it was just a track; sometimes I don’t know what I would do without Facebook because it seems like I always stumble across new music material via my news feed. I was completely oblivious to this, but apparently Murs & Fashawn are teaming up to release a full-length album produced entirely by Beatnick & K-Salaam. The project will be released on Duck Down Records, and it will hit stores on September 25th.

Whether you realize it or not, Murs is an O.G. and a legend in the West Coast Hip-Hop game; he’s collaborated with the best of them, and he gets mad respect from cats all across the nation. He even teamed up with Guerilla Union to start the Paid Dues concert series – which is a big deal in the Hip-Hop community.

Fashawn is one of the best emcees from the Left Coast, and I’ve been itching to hear a proper release from Fashawn since he dropped Boy Meets World – his classic debut album. He’s dropped a few mixtapes in the interim, but I’m glad to see that he’s dropping another official studio album. I’m hoping – even though it may be a little ambitious – that Fash will drop his Sophomore album The Ecology sometime this year; any time that Fashawn and Exile team up, it’s an instant recipe for greatness.

You can peep the album’s lead single (“Flash Gordan”) and tracklisting down below.

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Skyzoo, “Jansport Strings (One Time For Chi-Ali)” (Prod. By 9th Wonder)

Posted in Album Update, Audio, Media with tags , , , , , , on Tuesday, August 7, 2012 by Tim Althaus

I feel like the lord is constantly answering my prayers pertaining to this album. I just put up a post the other day about Sky finishing his upcoming album A Dream Deferred, and today he dropped the lead single – “Jansport Strings”. 9th Wonder lays down a laid back beat full of jovial horns, and as expected, Skyzoo spits cryptographic rhymes about growing up with his friends in Brooklyn and “earning his Jansport Strings”.

Skyzoo provided some insight into the meaning of this track:

“The idea behind Jansport Strings is not based on it being literal, but more so in the figurative sense. As a kid in NY, the strings on your Jansport bag were a sign of power and presence. Kids would steal the strings off of each other’s bags and burn the tips to prevent getting robbed of them once they got them.”

“The song is a 3 minute auto-bio of me as a kid in Brooklyn and seeing more than my friends and I had bargained for. In essence, my Jansport strings tied it all together, seeing what we all saw and what it made us. The ending is a clip from Video Music Box, the legendary NYC video show run by DJ Ralph McDaniels. This episode in particular was the debut of Chi-Ali’s ‘Age Ain’t Nothin But A Number’. Seeing that video that day on this episode of VMB made me start rhyming. This clip was literally the moment that changed my life”.

It was also announced today that A Dream Deferred will be dropping on October 2nd via Duck Down Music and Skyzoo’s new label imprint The Faculty ; I’m so happy that it’s only a couple months away. I’ve been waiting on this album since Live From The Tape Deck dropped, and even though that was only two years ago, it seems like far more than that. If Sky’s previous work is any indication of listeners can expect, then A Dream Deferred will change the way that we interpret lyrics… again.

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Skyzoo’s Album, A Dream Deferred is Finished

Posted in Album Update, News with tags , , , , , , on Sunday, August 5, 2012 by Tim Althaus

I saw this a few days ago, and it made me ecstatic. For those of you that don’t know (how could you not know about him at this point?), Skyzoo is an incredible lyricist from Brooklyn, and everything that he builds breathes brilliance. I’ve been following his music very closely for the last four years. His debut album The Salvation was everything a East Coast Classic should be: Incredible soul-based beats with deeply coded conscientious lyricism. Every time that I listen to The Salvation, I pick up on new things, and I find an even greater appreciation for his ingenuous writing style.

In the interim since The Salvation, Skyzoo has dropped a critically acclaimed album with producer !llmind (Live From the Tape Deck), and a momentous album-quality mixtape (The Great Debater). I heard a while back that Sky was supposed to be dropping another mixtape before A Dream Deferred – Theo Vs. JJ: Dreams Vs. Reality, and it was supposed to proceed right where The Great Debater left off; however, from what I’ve read and seen, Theo Vs. JJ was supposed to drop sometime in June/July, so it’s hard to say if it will be dropping before A Dream Deferred.

This is what excites me about A Dream Deferred: it will pick up exactly where The Salvation left off. The Salvation explored a great deal of topics and serious life situations, and A Dream Deferred will give listeners an insight into the outcomes that occur when the aforementioned thoughts are manifested into realities. Even though I’m partially biased because I’m such a huge fan, it sounds like Skyzoo will be able to comfortably add another classic underneath his belt.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it a million times over: Skyzoo is my favorite emcee, and I truly think that he’s one of the greatest lyricists of this or any generation. It’s no easy task to live up to the hype when you’re given titles like “The writer of writers”, but Skyzoo embraces the love that he’s given, and he continually mesmerizes the masses with thought provoking and intelligent lyricism.

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Is This The Tracklisting To Jay Electronica’s Album Act 2: Patents of Nobility?

Posted in Album Update, News with tags , , , , on Tuesday, July 31, 2012 by Tim Althaus

I can’t even believe my eyes: is this picture going to disappear once I hit “publish”? Jay Electronica took to his Twitter page to unveil the tracklisting for his long-awaited album Act 2: The Patents of Nobility. I feel like this album was supposed to come out damn near two years ago… wait, that’s because it was. Didn’t Jay ElekYarmulke announce that his album was done in March? I even remember when Young Guru gave praise for Act 2, and he was so floored that it left him speechless.

Many of you may feel as though my tone is overly aggressive and slightly bitter: that’s because it is. I’ve been preaching about this man from the first time I heard him, and that was five years ago. He is a very mysterious person, and his lyrics are deep and powerful; Jay is the type of emcee that the game needs, and I’ve been saying that Act 2 could change the game for a long time.

I haven’t completely lost all of my faith, but as more time passes, it really gets harder for me to care. I’m a marketing major, and I understand that you need to drive up demand for your product, but when you give people empty promises and broken dreams, you’re only hurting yourself.

I still remember the first time I discovered Jay Electronica’s music: I was browsing files on SoulSeek, and I found a random file folder that had the name Style Wars EP. I figured I would give the dude’s music a chance; hell, he even had some J Dilla beats. From the first stanza of “Renaissance Man”, I was an instant fan: Style Wars was like nothing I had ever heard; it sounded like the future of Hip-Hop. When was the last time an emcee decided to rhyme over a movie score? The answer: never.

Even though I might be a little bit caustic in my convictions, I still have hope. I have hope that Act 2: The Patents of Nobility will see the light of day, and I hope that it hits me the same way the Style Wars EP did five long years ago. We all know that some things are better late than never, and I have the feeling Act II will be a perfect paradigm in proving the validity of this notion.

Editor’s Note: Where in the hell is “Dear Moleskine” on this tracklisting?

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Santigold Releases New Song: “Big Mouth”

Posted in Album Update, Music News, Song Download with tags , , , on Thursday, January 19, 2012 by Eric Gilardi

Santigold has finally named her much-anticipated second album Master of My Make-Believe. This album took awhile to write because she is such a perfectionist and her hands are on every aspect of her music. Santi White is the Queen B of the operation that used to go by the name of Santogold until a supposed legal allegation came about and forced the name change.

The “Big Mouth” video was released yesterday and features her famous militant dancers. These dancers are why I enjoyed the Santigold show as much as I did back in the Summer of 2009. “Big Mouth” is also available on her site for download. All you have to do is sign up for her mailing list and if you have ever listened to her music, that is a no brainer.

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