Independent Albums of the Year, 2010. What's YOUR top 5?

[RuffDraft]

Yeah, some of the instrumentals are mindblowing. I thought the bonus tracks weren't the best but having all the instrumentals made up for it.

Those songs posted are pretty good; I'll look out for the others at some point. Like I said, not really an underground head but I guess I've never been pointed in the right direction.

I'll check out that other thread too.

(and as for stuff I like; Madvillain, Dilla, I liked the Blackstar work too. I haven't really heard that much so yeah, I'm sure there'll be more stuff I'll like too)

Yeah, Soul on the Road, Miss Bus Driver, Shine and Whirlwind are some of my favourites, here's the thread for when it come out... Eligh Grey Crow (2010)

Keep listening to CYNE, they're heavily slept on, which is a shame because they're incredible:

[video=youtube;RT3wvLKu4f4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT3wvLKu4f4[/video]

Here's being pointed in the right direction:

Take a trip to the Artist of the Month thread for January, the Cunninlynguists. Following the listening of those tracks you might like to listen to a few Essence mixes, they're all available here in the Essence Essentials thread. The threads from the past such as the Essence Playlist of the Year 2004 might be a good place to start and then when you're more heavily into it, go into the personal mixes to discover more artists :tu Finally, the top 5 fav. underground albums thread is pretty good too :tu

If you like Madvillain & Dilla, you should check out RJD2, Madlib is a dope producer (Dilla doesn't need a mention), RJD2 is definitely up there with them IMO:

An unofficial video of one of his best tracks:

[video=youtube;GIo4JGuwo1w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIo4JGuwo1w[/video]

Finally, the artist that made a lot of people come to The Essence a few years back was Nujabes (RIP), he's got some classic albums filled with chilled out peaceful music that's dope:

[video=youtube;EN3fIVhNmqg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN3fIVhNmqg[/video]

 

[Food & Liquor]

My favourites are probably Shine and Angel of Death (love the production especially on the latter)

Yeah CYNE I had never heard of but I'm impressed.

Hmm, I'll check out Cunninlynguists at some point too as well as Nujabes (I recognise the name actually, I think someone else might have recommended them but I never got around to it properly or something)

Thanks for all the suggestions though, so far they've all been dope. I'll check out some other threads on the board too.

 

[RuffDraft]

My favourites are probably Shine and Angel of Death (love the production especially on the latter)

Yeah CYNE I had never heard of but I'm impressed.

Hmm, I'll check out Cunninlynguists at some point too as well as Nujabes (I recognise the name actually, I think someone else might have recommended them but I never got around to it properly or something)

Thanks for all the suggestions though, so far they've all been dope. I'll check out some other threads on the board too.

Yeah, it's a muddy bass heavy sound that I love too, he's dope with his flow on that track too, I just think there are better hooks on the album that grip me more emotionally such as the songs I mentioned, but definitely a fan of Shine :tu Oh and if you like Pigeon John on Whirlwind, then you should check out Pigeon John... and the Summertime Pool Party. Classic album, IMO. He has such a great sense of humour on the mic but also has a great story of struggle through uplifting music, which to me, has always been the perfect formula. Check out Fashawn's Boy Meets World as well, as you'll probably love that. The production is up there with Eligh's Grey Crow and Fashawn holds the mic as well as if not better than Eligh.

Props :tu Yeah, Nujabes is a hip hop producer from Japan who unfortunately passed away almost a year ago now, He was heavily slept on in the mid 00's but I caught wind of him through his work with CYNE following Evolution Fight in 2004. He's a great artist though, his best track with CYNE is from Modal Soul:

[video=youtube;2lWJnEY-l28]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lWJnEY-l28[/video]

Get Metaphorical Music through iTunes, apparently it's dropped and is at a much more respectable price than what you'd pay for a CD online.

 

[Food & Liquor]

Yeah, I see what you mean, I just think Angel Of Death is the best produced song on there (when I first heard the album I was like "after you're done go listen to Angel of Death again"). Pigeon John I'll look out for and Fashawn I have heard some stuff of (actually it was Boy Meets World iirc; dope album); really good from what I've heard. I'll think about getting it; my iPod is full at the moment though so I need to delete some songs off of it first.

I'll give the whole Metaphorical Music a listen to as well, I've heard a few more on YouTube and it was all good.

 

[RuffDraft]

Yeah, I see what you mean, I just think Angel Of Death is the best produced song on there (when I first heard the album I was like "after you're done go listen to Angel of Death again"). Pigeon John I'll look out for and Fashawn I have heard some stuff of (actually it was Boy Meets World iirc; dope album); really good from what I've heard. I'll think about getting it; my iPod is full at the moment though so I need to delete some songs off of it first.

I'll give the whole Metaphorical Music a listen to as well, I've heard a few more on YouTube and it was all good.

haha I love when an album has a standout like that built around a bunch of other solid sounds as well, good post. And if you've heard boy meets world and enjoyed Exile's beats, check out Blu & Exiles' Below The Heavens. Dude, wipe your iPod and bless it with this new music lol

Props, as soon as you get on top of what I posted, ask again and I'll hook you up with more artists to explore, seriously though, check for Pigeon John too:

[video=youtube;OcP_6f4nC5g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcP_6f4nC5g[/video]
Beat is wooooooooooooooahhhhhhhh as is:

[video=youtube;dcCZovhBGIk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcCZovhBGIk&feature=related[/video]

Rock with me through the waves on the TV screen... both great tracks :tu

 

[Food & Liquor]

Yeah, I was thinking of checking out Below The Heavens. I would wipe it but I've got a load of songs on there I wouldn't want to; I think I just need to sort it out still though.

That'll be dope; I'll just get through this batch over the week or so and see if I need any more new songs

 

[RuffDraft]

Yeah, I was thinking of checking out Below The Heavens. I would wipe it but I've got a load of songs on there I wouldn't want to; I think I just need to sort it out still though.

That'll be dope; I'll just get through this batch over the week or so and see if I need any more new songs

Props and good looks on peeping the forum :tu Stick around and keep posting and feel free to ask and make any threads about what you're listening to :tu

 

[Food & Liquor]

Will do. I'll keep an eye out for future work some of these artists I'm getting into release too.

 

[Lou Cypher]

Big Remo - Entrapment

The Roots - How I Got Over

Atmosphere - To All My Friends

Kanye - MBDTF

Celph Titled and Buckwild - Nineteen Nintey Now

 

[renagade410.]

damn aint none of yall up on that k-rino??

 

[BReddy]

damn aint none of yall up on that k-rino??

hell yeah. i was fucking with that evil machine joint.

 

[Dopefiend]

On Facebook, Kendrick Lamar stated that he's not made it yet, just created an opportunity, but I think he mistakes the success of creating his own music... that he wants to make... that's success.

Just rantin about shit that came to mind after readin this thread and smokin a blunt:

Since when? If that was success there wouldn't be an industry, period. Everybody would just rap to themselves and their family's, but niggas wouldn't try and make a career about it. Kendrick said it himself, that's why he's tryin to get in wit Dre and Aftermath and shit. It's like if you got two dudes tryin to be pro athletes and ones starting for Lakers and one got cut from his college team and is sellin crack 10 miles from the campus, you wouldn't say he was more successful because he tried super hard. I think that's the problem with all these backpackers that wanna change hip-hop (And I'm not saying that state of hip-hop doesn't need a change, beacuse it does) is that they wanna preach on every damn song, and people don't wanna hear that shit. They don't drop hot singles that are gonna get any radio play and then hide behind the excuse that they didn't want to sell out. But first of all if you wanna make music a career, you gotta make music people wanna hear to make money. But more importantly if you really do wanna change hip-hop, you gotta give yourself a fuckin chance to be heard. Make a song that's gonna get play on the radio, so that people start feelin you, and they can buy your album and then you can preach your ass off. But mosta these backpackers don't do that either because 1.) they CAN'T make a hit song because there's a lot more that goes into it besides having a big vocabulary and a lot of opinions 2.) Or they're just plain stubborn about it and don't wanna "sell-out", but that right there's the fuckin problem. If GOOD rappers are happy and consider themselves "successful" just making the preachy music they all wanna make and the fans don't wanna hear hip-hop isn't ever gonna change.(And I'm not talking about the underground fans that are mainly kids at a shitty state college, half of them white don't front, trying to be down, I'm talkin about people in the club, people in their cars on the way from work, people tryin to get their parties goin etc. etc.)

And LOL @ everybody listing Drake, Rick Ross, and Eminem as top 5 indie records. Those ain't indie people. See that right there proves my point. The general public isn't gonna sit around all day and research upcoming rappers on like fuckin myspace music and read underground magazines that don't even get sold on the shelves anywhere. Nobody knows how these niggas are. How are they supposed to change anything.

Just my opinion, no hate.

 

[RuffDraft]

damn aint none of yall up on that k-rino??

I've listened to him before, but not last year, that your album of the year for last year?

Just rantin about shit that came to mind after readin this thread and smokin a blunt:

Since when? If that was success there wouldn't be an industry, period. Everybody would just rap to themselves and their family's, but niggas wouldn't try and make a career about it. Kendrick said it himself, that's why he's tryin to get in wit Dre and Aftermath and shit. It's like if you got two dudes tryin to be pro athletes and ones starting for Lakers and one got cut from his college team and is sellin crack 10 miles from the campus, you wouldn't say he was more successful because he tried super hard. I think that's the problem with all these backpackers that wanna change hip-hop (And I'm not saying that state of hip-hop doesn't need a change, beacuse it does) is that they wanna preach on every damn song, and people don't wanna hear that shit. They don't drop hot singles that are gonna get any radio play and then hide behind the excuse that they didn't want to sell out. But first of all if you wanna make music a career, you gotta make music people wanna hear to make money. But more importantly if you really do wanna change hip-hop, you gotta give yourself a fuckin chance to be heard. Make a song that's gonna get play on the radio, so that people start feelin you, and they can buy your album and then you can preach your ass off. But mosta these backpackers don't do that either because 1.) they CAN'T make a hit song because there's a lot more that goes into it besides having a big vocabulary and a lot of opinions 2.) Or they're just plain stubborn about it and don't wanna "sell-out", but that right there's the fuckin problem. If GOOD rappers are happy and consider themselves "successful" just making the preachy music they all wanna make and the fans don't wanna hear hip-hop isn't ever gonna change.(And I'm not talking about the underground fans that are mainly kids at a shitty state college, half of them white don't front, trying to be down, I'm talkin about people in the club, people in their cars on the way from work, people tryin to get their parties goin etc. etc.)

And LOL @ everybody listing Drake, Rick Ross, and Eminem as top 5 indie records. Those ain't indie people. See that right there proves my point. The general public isn't gonna sit around all day and research upcoming rappers on like fuckin myspace music and read underground magazines that don't even get sold on the shelves anywhere. Nobody knows how these niggas are. How are they supposed to change anything.

Just my opinion, no hate.

Long rant, what you're asking an emcee to do is to make party records, yet a lot of records on their albums can get you amped or they produce a product that flows so fluently that they haven't got room for a radio record. The problem isn't with the Artists, it's with the radios, nobody told Jay Electronica to come out with a song for their car, yet radios still played him for his ability on the mic and respect on the Net. If they did that with more artists instead of playing what they're paid to play, then these independent artists wouldn't have to make the changes that you want them to. IMO, it's obvious that the independent lane works and that you can make a profit and do a worldwide tour being independent at smaller shows. If they're dope and create a solid fan base they will make more money than one of these one album wonder rappers.

Point is, music is a business, yes; but that isn't why an artist should create music, at the end of the day, it's out of love for the art. If you want to listen to a bunch of 9-5 rappers who are there for the money creating a heartless product, then that's on you. I can enjoy that type of music too, but it won't be what I listen to the majority of my time.

 

[skeep]

GodAWFUL- Beats & Rhymes in The Key of AWFUL Vol. 1

FREDDIE FOXXX- Music From the Man Volume 1

KRS and TruMasta- Metahistorical

Illus- Feel Good Music

J-Live- Undivided Attention

 

[qez wuz here]

Could someone give me a link to Eligh's Grey Crow and that Buckwild album?

 

[RuffDraft]

GodAWFUL- Beats & Rhymes in The Key of AWFUL Vol. 1
FREDDIE FOXXX- Music From the Man Volume 1
KRS and TruMasta- Metahistorical
Illus- Feel Good Music
J-Live- Undivided Attention

Few on here that I haven't checked, props Skeep :tu How's that KRS album and the GodAWFUL?

Could someone give me a link to Eligh's Grey Crow and that Buckwild album?

We don't support links in this forum (not just The Essence, but the I.C. as a whole). If you must, find them elsewhere, but we want people to purchase the music of the artists. As for Eligh's album, it's cheap on iTunes and has bonus tracks as well as instrumentals. It's a fantastic deal and well worth your cash. The album was my favourite of last year, so I can vouch for it in saying that it's not a waste of money :tu

You can listen to the majority of the album here:

Eligh: Grey Crow (2010) Don't Sleep, Contender for Album of the Year!