For those that don’t know, there’s a hip hop label from the Northwest called Hip Hop IS Music featuring some pretty dope MCs including Braille, Theory Hazit, Poems, Sojourn, Sivion, Surreal, Othello, and the group Lightheaded. Braille and the label were on somewhat on a hiatus, and now they are back. While many categorize them under the “chrisitan rap” label and dismiss them, they are making some sick music. I would highly recommend Theory Hazit’s Extra Credit.
To mark the launch of their comeback, they are releasing a free single of Sojourn’s new album Sojournalism: The Summer Articles which drops September 1st.
Download: Sojourn – Get Back
One of my favorite West Coast duos, Blue Scholars, will be releasing a new EP on August 25th. These guys have been reppin’ hard for Seattle for the last 5 or so years. I unfortunately found out about these guys way too late when I read an article in Spin magazine last year. I immediately picked up their album Bayani and fell in love with that shit. Geo and Sabzi are one hell of a combo together and all of their music is top notch. Sabzi makes some of the dopest beats that have come out of the left coast in a while, and Geo’s political and conscious rhymes make me feel moved everytime I give their music a spin.
I remember being in tenth grade when Joe Budden’s first single “Pump it Up” came out. To be 100% honest, I didn’t care for it at all. After that track, it almost seemed like Joe fell flat off the face of the earth. From what I’ve gathered, Joe has released some mixtapes in the interim but nothing really serious… until Padded Room. It took me a while to even give this CD a complete listen because I had no idea what it was going to be like. Once I did start listening I just couldn’t get a grasp right away of how to feel. Joe has a line in the first track on the album “Now I Lay” that sums up the aforementioned statement perfectly, “It’d take you a long time to evaluate me”. It literally took me about 20 listens to get a good feel for this album, but my general consensus is that this album is damn good. 
Today would have been Hunter S. Thompson’s 72nd birthday. I still remember hearing about Hunter’s death like it was yesterday. I couldn’t believe what had just happened, to me Hunter was one of the greatest writers that ever graced a piece of paper. His “gonzo” style of journalism is unparalleled by any other writer, and I get a great kick out of his writing. I am on a personal journey right now to try and consume every book that this man has put out. More so than any other writer of read works by, Hunter keeps me on the edge of my seat every time I read one of his books. The way that he sucks you right into the action is amazing, and you feel like you should be right there with him.
MIND INVERSION 