Bonus* Baby Elephant ft. David Byrne “How Does the Brain Wave“.

Smash. Prince Po and Pharoahe Monch back together on a track! Damn, I miss them together. Organized Konfusion’s Stress: Extinction Agenda is hands down one of the most important albums to me, of all time, of all genres. I wish there was some of their rapid fire back and forth interaction on here but nonetheless they kill it. And I haven’t even mentioned D.I.T.C. alum O.C. yet, one of the most consistent emcees for decades. He makes the reunion complete, as he was also the featured rhymer on O.K.’s first single “Fudge Pudge” from ’91. I suppose I should also mention Madlib’s brother Oh No, a ridiculous producer in his own right, is on the track. Smash.

Check out Princo Po and Oh No’s new full length Animal Serum and Pharoahe Monch’s new album P.T.S.D. – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

You know it’s good when when he start’s off with quotes from John Bradford, Einstein, and Ice Cube (from his N.W.A days). And though the title focuses on Black America it’s really all about how hip hop rose from a black culture and has morphed into a mass culture dominating the mainstream with music and style. Along with that integration into the mainstream a lot of the fury and counterculture hip hop was built on has been diluted and turned back on itself, using it’s own power to ultimately subjugate itself.

Granted, the argument isn’t that easy or cut and dry. Being so accessible to mass culture has diluted the original invigorating elements but that’s still mostly only in the hip hop you’re going to ultimately find in pop culture. If you dig, it’s still there, there’s just more crap you have to dig through. I digress.

So far the first essay is incredible and even if I have arguments with some of the things ?uestlove says he puts things in a masterful way that lends themselves to debate and give and take as opposed to an all determinate I am right, you are wrong. ?uestlove, enigmatic drummer and hustler of culture.

Read NOW…

Make sure to keep an eye out on the Redef soundcloud for future editions from Damu The Fudgemunk, K-Def, Grap Luva, Kev Brown & others.

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.

Download “Kaleidoscope Theory”

Amp Live, also a member of Zion I, has always been a forward thinking producer pushing the envelope of Hip Hop/Electronic music. He’s a precursor to the whole Flying Lotus phenomena and I’m always hyped to hear what he puts out next (even if there’s a few lemons here and there). This is a free Ep put out by Plug Research (who despite having some great artists has absolute horrid customer service) in anticipation of a full length this fall.

And if you haven’t already, definitely be sure to check out Amp Live’s “RainyDayz Remixes” album featuring Too $hort, Del, and Chali2na, that is a near perfect remix of Radiohead’s “In Rainbows.”

“Frontin like he hard, dunn, he must’ve ate some thug cookies”

Some more from them here-

MaG also hits us with a free album download and while I can’t vouch for his craft personally I’m banking on the word of Mick Boogie, who hosts the LP and usually doesn’t throw his weight behind some slackers. RcrdLbl calls him an “ambitious, declarative and sprawling, MaG smashes through the rap wall and announces his presence as a refreshing new voice in New York hip-hop…”

Via RcrdLbl