Above is the brand new video/song from NJ native Shawn Lov who has been hard at work to bring in the new year with a bang by releasing a music video as part of an underground Hip-Hop coalition of pioneering artists from Trenton, NJ area called 7 Immortals which consists of many members that regularly recorded with the late, veteran Trenton NJ producer (and emcee) Tony D who is best known for his work with Poor Righteous Teachers and YZ. Produced by The Custodian of Records "Thursday Night Live" is the lead single from the forthcoming 7 Immortals album - one of the many new releases to drop in 2012.

Welcome to the new year of 2012 in hip-hop when there should be some real good releases (and lots of them) dropping; albeit most will be digital files since, of all genres, hip-hop seems to be releasing the least physical copies - ironic considering that the genre was built on vinyl records. As with the past numerous years 2012 got off to a start with Skillz (formerly MC Skillz) doing his always fun, annual wrap of the main happenings (hip-hop and mainstream news) of the previous year in a nicely wrapped up rap song. Uploaded on January 1st below is Skillz' "2011 Rap Up" with references to such folks as white Oakland rapper Kreayshawn and the late great golden era hip-hop star Heavy D. 


Due out later this month is Kid Cudi's anticipated new album which will feature the popular Dot Da Genius produced-song "No One Believes Me" that was released in advance several months ago. The video below, directed by Craig Gillespie (Mr. Woodcock), was featured on Fright Night movie soundtrack. Note that the album is not the follow up to 2010's Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager but rather the first release from the rock band he and Dot da Genius formed called WZRD (formerly Wizard).

Throughout Lateef the Truthspeaker's recently released album FireWire on Quannum Projects the longtime Bay Area emcee / Solesides founding member shows nothing but pride and love for his hometown of Oakland,  CA. 
LiveWIre contains countless shout outs to "The Town" including mentions of Interstate 580, SoulBeat TV, and Skyline High School. In fact the East Oakland born & raised emcee even arranged a Skyline High School rap reunion of sorts on the new album's lead single "Oakland" which features cameos from two fellow alumni of the Oakland high school: Del the Funky Homosapien and The Grouch.

One morning last month I caught up with Lateef at World Ground Coffee cafe on MacArthur in East Oakland's Laurel District where he was grabbing a hot drink before heading out on the road, along with fellow Solesides/Quannum member Lyrics Born, to travel up to the North West to do some shows. The two emcees, who as well as having their own individual careers collaborate together as Latryx, (but had not in a long while) had just done two nights of "reunion" shows at The Independent in San Francisco along with such other local artists as Bayonics, Honor Roll, and Hopie Spitshard. "Awesome" was how Lateef described those two shows. In addition to being one of the founding members of the Solesides crew/hip-hop collective that morphed into Quannum Projects Lateef is also part of The Maroons (with Chief Xcel) and has another side career recording with Fatboy Slim. He told me that he and Lyrics Born were busy working on the long overdue follow up Latryx project - that he and Lyrics Born, along with some help from individuals like DJ Shadow and Chief XCel, began almost two full decades ago - but haven't released anything new in over a dozen years with the exception of a few new bits on a mixtape CD (and now a download for sale on LB's site) Latryical Madness Vol 1 mixed by DJ Zeph .  "We are about six songs into it [new Latryx album] right now with production on there by Amp Live, Cut Chemist, the Bangerz [formerly Finger Bangerz] are on there doing some stuff. And a few other cats as well: DJ Shadow and [Dan the] Automator is supposed to give us some stuff. And Chief Xcel is supposed to give us some stuff. We've got a bunch of stuff," he said.

People tell me I have good taste in music. I have to disagree with them. It’s not that I’m humble, because I’m not, it’s that I’m a natural-born skeptic and my cynicism gets the best of me, especially with music. Most people can like a band, song or album instantly. I have to scrutinize it until I see everything that is wrong with music before I see what is right. This is especially true when I see an artist perform live without knowing anything about them. Without having the knowledge of an artist’s music beforehand, I’ve denounced many artists that later on I've found myself loving. Here are a few of my worst blunders, in no order.

Latryx @ The House Of Blues (1996)

I went to check out DJ Shadow, who was opening for Jeru The Damaja & De La Soul. When the curtains opened, Lateef The Truth Speaker & Lyrics Born, otherwise known as Latrx, came out, rapping simultaneously with two different rhymes. I thought, “What is this weak shit?’ The truth was I just wanted Shadow to do his Endtroducing jams and I wasn’t in the mood to hear anything new. I remember some kid in the audience scolding the L.A. crowd after their lackadaisical response to the group’s performance. “Yo kids, ya’ll sleeping on them!” A year later I couldn’t put the Latyx CD down, as well as the Blackalicous e.p. I guess I was sleeping.


Bikini Kill @ Jabberjaw (1992)

L.A. was the home of The Runaways, The Go-Go’s, The Bangles, L7 and Hole. Frightwig, The Mudwimin, and Tribe 8, and Spitboy from The Bay area played in Los Angeles years before the arrival of the Riot Girl movement. So what was the big deal about Bikini Kill? Most people at the show were there to antagonize them for their outspokenness. We also had to suffer through one of the worst opening bands in the history of music, a short-lived band called Pussy Willow, who droned and wailed for more than an hour. The show was just a back and forth with the audience, who tried hard to break the spirit of the group. The show ended with the band exhausted and in tears. It was like seeing the Sex Pistols in Texas on their first tour. Since I really didn’t know their music at the time, I lost out on Bikini Kill's barrage of Black Flag licks with Exene meets Poly Styrene vocals. To top it off, the band wrote best punk songs to come out of the 90’s...in retrospect, of course.

Helios Creed @ Raji’s (1990)