SNOOP / Jasper Andries

A$AP ROCKY

Instagram.com/Reedwan_

asap-art bloodonthaleaves

New illo: “The star (has no) Money”

by Venice

IYRT Vol X / Drake Features

to celebrate our 10th playlist, I decided to dedicate it to one of the biggest game changers in hip hop history. The living legend that is Drake. I’ve been a fan since his album Take Care and his voice sounds like heaven, so enjoy these features.

Cat

Tracks of the Week - 1st April 2016

A$AP Ferg - World Is Mine ft. Big Sean Compared to the full on Ferg we've come to know and love, 'World Is Mine' is super reserved, the crawling pace and generally quite sombre vocal tone and production adds a nice variety to Ferg's repertoire. Big Sean's feature is actually the only tonally bright part of the track, the juxtaposition between the two working well. With some prior duds being released prior to this, and on the run up to Always Strive And Prosper being released at the end of April, it's good to see Ferg trying some new stuff, whether it's accepted or not.

Kanye West - FML With The Life of Pablo actually seeing a proper although confusing full release, I've returned to it after a month or so of not listening and, just as it did originally, this track lands better than anything else on the record by miles, and the small vocal harmonies added in Kanye's post-listening edits are a nice tweak. Originally one of my favourites from the record anyway, it just seems to bring the pace down brilliantly in between 'Waves' and 'Wolves', and The Weeknd's feature is quite frankly the best on the record besides Chance's verse on 'Ultralight Beam'. If you've been sleeping on this cause you hate Kanye, and he's a dick, and blah blah blah… stop being stupid. Give this a listen. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's very good.

Earl Sweatshirt - Luper Tyler recently came up in conversation with a friend, and it reminded me of all the good shit OF put out 'back in the day', and I came across this piece of gold. Mid pace beat, slightly rough production, and Earl completely on point. Regardless of the state of Odd Future or their individual careers - that said, The Internet are fantastic - for quite some time most members of the musical side of OF seemed like they could take off with their careers at any moment, and this track really does reflect that for Earl.

The Life Of Pablo

Drizzy saviour

IYRT Vol IX / TOP DAWG

Since Bill so kindly noted, top dawg need to work on their promo game, so here’s everyone on the roster so far, no need to thank us

IYRT Vol VII / Issue 2 To celebrate Issue 2 of If You’re Reading This being released, we’ve made a playlist based on our feature of 10 New York rappers to watch out for in 2016. You can read the feature here, and listen above.

IYRT / ISSUE 2 - click OPEN PUBLICATION to see in high quality

IYRT Vol II / Firsts

These are the first tracks I heard that made me fall in love with Hip Hop & the artists. Enjoy

Tracks of the Week - 4th March 2016

A$AP Rocky & Tyler, The Creator - WHAT THE FUCK RIGHT NOW Tyler absolutely goes in, and in an actual educated way, not just spitting shit about wealth and possessions which was featured on his last record Cherry Bomb a painful amount for someone who had previously shit talked "40 year old rappers talkin' about Gucci". In an almost bitter sweet way, it's a shame this is easily the best track Tyler has released in quite some time - easily better than anything on his last release - especially as it is effectively just a freestyle-esque rap over a Kanye beat that's been chopped up. As good as this is, it's hard to enjoy when Rocky - who barely features on this besides call outs here and there - and Tyler's last full lengths were, in short, shit.

Kendrick Lamar - untitled 02 02.23.2014 It's rare Kendrick strips back his instrumentals to pure hip hop - there's still the occasional piano piece and trumpet here and there - but when he does, as is evident on 'untitled 02', he makes everyone else need to step their game up. The guy barely seems like he's trying and yet, his flow, the instrumental, and the breaks and introductions of warped and reverbed sounds is just incredible to hear. Kendrick is something else and it'll be a surprise if his next full release isn't anything less than magnificent.

Cal Chuchesta - Parody Considering this is a parody track from a parody character from The Needle Drop's Anthony Fantano… it's unnerving how good the flow is. Put over a 'Started From The Bottom' beat that isn't simply a chopped and screwed job, Fantano's really put the effort in with this parody mix tape, to the point where there's actual enjoyment from the references and quality on display.

IYRT Vol VI / Female Power

100% Female Hip Hop

@kendricklamar by maha_sattva http://ift.tt/1nBp3Ki

IYRT Vol V / Friends Having some fun with this playlist - the feature on one track being the main artist on the next, and so on. Featuring Kanye, Beyonce, SZA, Kendrick, and Tyler, among others - enjoy!