Goodie Mob. Had a couple great albums and then a couple that just didn’t click once a lead member left to make more good music, some dubious life choices, and some straight up evil shit (the Cosby effect?). But hey, if we transport back 20 years, according to the Billboard charts things were all gravy for the Goodie Mob crew.

For a more in depth interview and what she’s up to check out i-D magazine’s exclusive. And for a list of what I love about Missy, she’s-

fun without the vapidness

conscious without the pretension or facade

thuggish without the ignorance

pop without being diluted

feminist without having to scrawl it on her forehead cuz she just IS

a rapper without having to have the prefix “female” affixed to it

Jaime and Mike (El-P and Killer Mike) are blessing us twice with a free, early download of their second album (I guess that technically makes it three things). Their concept is simple, make good music to give out for free and if you like it and want to support then you’ll buy a physical copy and/or go to their shows. Legit.

Grab the whole album of Run The Jewels 2. Buy merchandise. And check their tour schedule.

And big ups to Mass Appeal Records for putting them down.

It’s Wednesday. Time to kick off the shoes and just lay in bed staring at the ceiling trying to meditate yourself into a different dimension than the day to day grind. Relax. Put this mix on and get yourself into a hazed half conscious state and let the ethereal instrumentation lead you into some lucid dreaming. Or do some crazy closed eye line drawings. Or some stream of conscious writing. Or do some straight up easy like Sunday morning fucking. All these roads lead to a happy ending.

Cheers to Fader and Tycho for putting this mix together.

Being an ardent music fan and a fan of Elijah Wood since his Wilfred days (where’s more episodes?!), I never put the two together. Luckily for us OkayPlayer/OkayAfrica did cuz apparently he is a fairly legit crate digger, specializing in Africa and Psych from France and Brazil, and he even started a record label Simian records. Finding all this out, OkayAfrica recruited him for their Africa In Your Earbuds series.

Proof is in the pudding.

Tracklist after the jump…

TRACKLIST
Afro Express “Lahilah Ill-Allahu” [Nigeria (?)]
K. Frimpong & His Cubano Fiestas “Kyenkyen Bi Adi Mawu” [Ghana]
Osakpamwan Ohenhen and His Feelings “Owman Ghe Ma Wme Ye Wmen” [Nigeria]
Cos-Ber-Zam “Né Noya” [Togo]
Sir Victor Uwaifo & His Melody Maestroes “Ekassa 28 (Ebibi)” [Nigeria]
Thierry Boco “Divorce De Cecilia” [Benin]
Bongos Ikwue & The Groovies “Baby Let Me Go” [Nigeria]
Bella Bellow “O Segne” [Togo]
Sonny Okosuns “Ozzidi” “Steady & Slow” [Nigeria]
Victory Uwaifo “Destiny” [Nigeria]

“12 producers from all over the world remixing Hiatus Kaiyote’s debut release Tawk Tomahawk.”

Wax Poetics presents a remix project for free download of one of my more favorite new bands, Hiatus Kaiyote, coming out of Melbourne. I like. And this project produces some pretty interesting takes on their “future soul” sound. Geeeet it, mayng.

Vex Ruffin’s music is pretty out there but could be described as minimalist electro-punk filtered through hip hop beats and sampling, apparently he uses an SP 303 as inspired by listening to Madlib. His first release, Crash Course EP, is dope and he’s got a new one on the way Nov. 12th. Until then, here’s a free download, No Escape-

The Money Recordings, Bettye Swann is a good go to for some classic r&b/doowop.

Back From The Brink: Pre-Revolution Psychedelic Rock From Iran: 1973-1979, Now Again records unearths some really great recordings from Kourosh.

Lotus is a diverse live band featuring synths, horns, strings and they’ve teamed up with a host of rappers for an anticipated collaboration project. And it’s free. FREE, people (well, you can name your price from 0-trillion).

Features Doodlebug (Digable Planets), Lyrics Born, Mr. Lif, Gift of Gab (Blackalicious), and more. It’s also worthy of noting that Monks was mastered by thee Daddy Kev.