I’ve spent a whack of time defending Lil B lately. I’ve also spent a lot of time perfecting the art of cookin’ and spreading the joy of cookin’ by teaching cookin’ infidels how to get it right and become chefs. “Remember,” I usually remind end each cookin’ seminar, “cookin’ is serious business. You don’t smile when you cook.” Then, straight faced, I proceed to chop. And season. And stir. And taste. And cook. #Based.

Moving on, Lil B has dropped his twenty millionth mixtape today, Red Flame: Devil Music Edition, his latest effort since Angels Exodus which houses the extremely bad “All My Life” and pretty awesome “Motivation.” With Lil B, you kinda have to sift out the bad form the good, all while contemplating what exactly “good” and “bad” is. It’s not as easy a question as you thought it may have been. I’m just pressing play right now so I can’t warn you anything beyond what Lil B printed on the cover of the album: “REAL KILLAS WILL DIE TO THIS MUSIC. THIS IS THE LAST ANGRY MUSIC FROM LIL B.”

Righto. Well, whatever it is, I’m sure this is yet another installment of the ever perplexing #based mental exercise.

Grab the tape from datpiff and read the rest of the post by clicking below to see the artwork.

Andrew from Potholes pointed out this morning that the posts with the most hits over there today are “Tyler The Creator,” “Earl Sweatshirt” “MellowHype” “Frank Ocean” and “Domo Genesis,” proof that everybody is finally catching onto the Odd Future phenomenon. The final nail holding down the coffin lid was a TV appearance, and Jimmy Fallon was the braver of the lot– or maybe the one with the highest bid– that got to host a little chunk of history in the making.

The Roots played along with Tyler and Hodgy Beats for a sludged out “Sandwitches” (which is now available on iTunes), Mos Def shows up at the end yelling #SWAG! #SWAG! #SWAG! into the camera (recall Mos showed up to the very first Odd Future performance in NYC in a suave leopard hat though left half way through after muttering something about how they’re yelling into the mics too much), and after swarming around the set like a locust Tyler jumps up onto Jimmy from behind and piggy backs him till the credits roll in.

We knew this day was coming: “E’rybody hollerin’ n’ screamin out WOLF GANG!”

Click below to watch the performance. (And PS: scan that code with your iphone QR reader or Blackberry).

Break Science is producers Adam Deitch and Borahm Lee who make banging fusion hip-hop that more than nods to modern electronic music. The drum break that characterizes hip-hop at its fundamentals is always there (hence “Break Science),” but what these two layer above it around it and beneath it remains stylistically free reign. You can expect thick synth sounds, glitches, digital warbles, vocal effects, MIDI noises, flanging, and just about any other DAW effect these scientists feel like.

In Further Than Our Eyes Can See, a free EP released around the same time as the website for their very own imprint Pretty Lights, they’ve explored some sludgey dub (“Zion Station” ft CX), captured some really great live head knocking breaks on “Wisdom of Antiquity”  and called in Talib Kweli for a huge track called ‘The Alliance.” It’s kind-of unusual to hear Kweli’s verses cut up and glitched out like this so make sure you check it out. If you don’t dig it, which I think is pretty much impossible any way, TK comes armed and ready with a snip for you: “Real recognize real and you don’t look familiar!”

Stream “The Alliance” ft. Talib Kweli then click “Read The Rest of The Entry” below to see the album artwork and access the download link.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Minus the wires, cameras, and headphones, the crazy energy and intimacy that Yours Tru.ly captures here gives you an idea of like what it’s like seeing Black Milk live, at least what it was like in my experience when I saw him a couple months back at a small club in Montreal. Daru Jones is one of those drummers you cant help but smile and feel good with when you watch not only because he’s just great at what he does, but because of his contagious smile and facial expressions that make it no secret he’s having the time of his life. For those who don’t know, Daru and Ab travel with Black Milk for live shows, making them one of the hottest live hip-hop acts going right now because of the level of musicality, energy, and spontaneity of the live instrumentalists on stage. Albeit recorded in the studio, this video is a great sneak peak of why that is.

Click below to watch and jam out!

I had a feeling something was up with Wolf Haley when “Yonkers” dropped a couple days ago–which by the way, is already at over 300k views and counting–because for the first time he didn’t post a free download link to the track on the Oddfuture tumblr. Indeed, for the first time you can and must head over to itunes to buy “Sandwitches” and “Yonkers,” the former being a single featuring Hodgy Beats and the latter being the first single from Tyler’s forthcoming sophomore album, Goblin.

Charging a buck a tune only makes sense, because now that Tyler, The Creator has signed a one-time album deal to release the highly anticipated Goblin with XL recordings …

Click below to read the rest.

D-Sisive’s fourth full length solo album Jonestown 2 with production from Muneshine has been in the works for a while. But with all the other things Derek has had going on over the past year including his name change from D-Sisive to Derek from Northcliffe (which hasn’t really caught on), his recent Juno Nomination for Rap Recording of the Year for Vaudeville, and his RapCity appearance which was followed by even more interesting subsequent performance with Fucked Up frontman Damian Abraham on The Wedge, Jonestown 2 hasn’t really been allotted all the attention it deserves.

To reconcile, today we ponder D’s Jonestown 2 tracklisting (shown above in his ornate scrawl) and view his conceptually elusive album commercials of which there are thus far two installments. Beer cups are tossed, words are at a loss, and someone’s balloon has been bursted. Stay tuned for the February 22 release date and click below to check them out.

Tyler, The Creator has a way of making my heart break a little every time I hear and see him. But it’s not a horrible feeling, but kind of a perverted pleasure to be able to indulge in something so magnetic and mesmerizing, something so plainly not of this world but strangely in it. I think this is why most people are so fascinated by Tyler and the entire Odd Future collective. After just one listen, just a single view, something inside you will change forever. There is no going back.

I wonder if I follow Tyler’s music long enough whether I’ll eventually become numb to his disturbia. Or whether that disturbia will eventually become a part of me. Or maybe it is a part of me already, because as I literally feel “Yonkers” in my chest , hear him tell Jesus to “quit his bitchin,’” and watch him eat a roach and hang himself, I can’t turn my eyes away.

“Yonkers” will be the first single from Goblin, Tyler’s second full length album set to release this year. The visuals are directed by Odd Future’s Wolf Haley. Click below to watch, but if you haven’t experienced Odd future yet remember what I said above and take seriously this K-Lis advisory: This content is swag.

The title “student” of hip-hop is typically crowned when someone shows a genuine critical understanding of where hip-hop has come from and where it is going. Less often are emcees, producers, or fans, literally “students of hip-hop” in the sense that they actually attend an institution to learn about it. It may even seem like an oxymoron to attend a higher learning institution to learn about an artform that in many of its strains emphasizes street smarts over book smarts.

But in this century’s chapter of hip-hop, school is cool: Bun B is slated to become a professor, University presses are beginning to publish books on rap and hip-hop as younger and less academy constricted professors start to make their way into the classrooms, and programs start to become available to offer education on musics that aren’t just restricted to Bach or Beethoven, or any other of the five B’s from Deutchland.

Such is the case for 21 year old Double X, or Alexx Thomas who was born in Michigan, Flint and raised in Toronto. Alexx studied Independent Music Production and came out as a graduate with a couple snazzy awards determined to make it writing and producing hip-hop. And he seems well on his way, having scored a feature from Muneshine on this slick classic head bobber called “The Authentic.” I’m really feeling this Double X production with cuts from DJ Friss who also put in work on Muneshine’s recent EP Larger Than Life. It pays to stay in school, eh?

Stream then click below to download.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

We usually talk about Much Music Thursdays here on TCUS because that’s when T-Rexxx holds down Canadian hip-hop on the one and only Rap City. Recent Juno nominee and limelight hip-hop strangeheart D-Sisive held down a solid freestyle and spot on the couch there a couple weeks back, and just yesterday he was once again back in the Much studio along with frequent collaborator and TCUS favorite producer/emcee Muneshine.  But this time it’s not for a Rap City feature. This time, he was in for a unique and special performance on the experimental independent program The Wedge.

If there’s anyone who can pull off an indie/rap crossover it’s D-Sisive, because he’s always operated musically with one foot in both. And he’s in top form alongside The Wedge host and Fucked Up frontman Damian Abraham, whom is making his rap debut here as Pink Eye and does a pretty damn sweet job. It sounds the way it looks in that photo above. If you don’t know of Damian you should smarten up and get it straight because this is one guy you should definitely know exists. I’ve been a follower of Damian’s for quite a while for many reasons beyond Fucked Up’s music alone. Just thought I’d get that, uh, out in the open.

The track that came of their performance, “Wannabe,” was cut at Central Audio in Toronto live on The Wedge then made its way to Muneshine’s studio (The Bakker) for mixing before its bits and bites made their way on to us and then on to you. All in less than twenty-four hours. This is the digital age my children.

Stream “Wannabe” from our player then click below to download.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Philadelphia based emcee Gilbere Forte released a nice mixtape called Eyes of Veritas hosted by Don Cannon this past week with a whack full of features and production credits, the most notable being from TO’s very own home-city hero Boi-1da for “Time Life.” The entire mixtape merits download and listen, but I highlight this track as particularly noteworthy for obvious reasons beyond our quardanant exposed bias: It’s fucking dope.

Stream “Time Life” then click below to access the download link.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Damn. I’ve been through this album a couple times now and it’s a really, really, nice piece of work. Ohio-bred emcee Stalley has been generating quite a bit of hype with his relatable mid-Western style that isn’t flashy, gimmicky, nor outspoken. Instead, what he and producer Rashad have made here is an album full of classics. It’s actually hard to fathom you can head over to bandcamp and download this LP for free thanks to sponsorships from MNWKA, XXL, and others.

You can stream the hometown-love tune “Milq n’ Honey” from our player, then click below to see the back cover and tracklisting. Enjoy this one, for real.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.