I listen to a lot of hiphop so this website features a lot of hiphop but I’m trying to make an effort to shine the light on other kinds of music. Which leads me to making a rock Free Album Friday post. The Wild are a four member group from Atlanta. They play rock with a bit of country/folk twang. They made Set Ourselves Free as a free download but you can send them a few bucks via paypal or buy the record or CD here. It’s a good album, some of the songs sound a little too much alike for me but overall it’s worth checking out. You can download Set Ourselves Free here.
In addition to being in the band the members also work at Wonder Root which is a non profit center for artists. They have a production studio, dark room, place to practice etc. Sounds like a really great idea you can visit WonderRoot.org to learn more about it and donate some money.
This Free Album Friday post is an album from Washington D.C. producer Damu the Fudgemunk, don’t let the strange name fool you he is nice. Damu started to gain some attention thanks to some videos on youtube of him playing live on his MPC in a New York park. He is in a group Y Society with rapper Insight. I haven’t really made an effort to seek out their stuff but I’m a fan of his production. Spare Time was a free album he put out in 2008 with beats, remixes and Y Society songs. He put out a full length for purchase in 2010 called How It Should Sound: Volume 1 & 2 which I recommend. You can download Spare Time here
Damu The Fudgemunk “Colorful Storms” [Instrumental]
Note since I missed Free Album Friday last week I’m changing the date of this post to make up for it. Been busy will be back to updating on the regular very soon.
Now I don’t know you guys/gals but I’m a huge Prince Paul fan, he is easily one of my favorite hiphop producers. From his work on classic albums with De La Soul, Gravediggaz or Handsome Boy Modeling School or songs like “It’s Hard Being the Kane” for Big Daddy Kane or “Wax Paper” for J-Live if he is involved in a project I’m checking for it. When I got word that he recently put out a lost album for free it was like a late birthday present. As Paul writes about the album
“This was a project that I wanted to put together with Amityville MC legend Superstar. As I thought about it the more I wanted to recruit more MCs we knew to make it diverse . Superstar already had the name “Horror City” so we recorded under that name. This project was recorded right after the first Gravediggaz album 6 Feet Deep in 1995. I shopped the demo but unfortunately it got looked over and never got signed. I sat on this project for a while but it always had a dear place in my heart because I thought it was really good and the talent was there.”
A few of the beats he ended up reusing for his A Prince Among Thieves album so they will be familiar but it’s a pretty nice album. Hopefully we get more stuff from the Prince Paul vault in the future. Download Prince Paul Presents Horror City here
This just dropped today so it makes sense to have another Free Album Friday post. As you might have guessed by the title Ode to Illmatic is Fashawns take on the Nas classic. Now my first reaction (which was the same when Elzhi announced over a year ago he would be doing the same thing but never released/finished it) is why even bother. Illmatic is one of if not the greatest hiphop album of all time, you wont be able to top it. But Fashawns last album Boy Meets World dropped in late 09 and he needs something to keep his name out there. It just seems like a waste to me. People shouldn’t be trying to redo Illmatic they should be trying to make their own great album. That said it’s solid, I like Fashawn and the Illmatic beats are great so its a good listen. Download Ode to Illmatic here
Late Bloomers is a Californian hiphop trio made up of Nonstop (mc), Ahh’zel (producer/mc) and DJ Giant Squid (DJ/Producer). The recently released their Growth Series 2 EP for free. I wasn’t really up on them before this but they are certainly on my radar now. After a few listens the production is really what makes them to me but the more I listen the more ill pay attention to what Nonstop and Ahh’zel are spittin. Check it out, you can download Growth Series 2 here.
I don’t know a lot about california based DJ/producer/audio engineer LDonthecut but he recently dropped a free instrumental EP that I thought would make a good Free Album Friday post. It’s called Road Work because he was on a west coast tour with LMNO and Kev Brown (as their DJ) and made these beats while on the road. Download the album here
If you listen to Squeeze Radio (and you should be by the way) you are familiar with Homeboy Sandman. He is a New York MC, part of the AOK Collective and on the High Water Music label (owned by Squeeze Radio host Sucio Smash). Homeboy Sandman has been one of my favorites of the past few years due to his witty and nimble flow. So since his new album, The Good Sun, drops on June 1st (buy it at http://amzn.to/GoodSun) I thought it would be a good idea to have a couple Homeboy Sandman posts over the next few days including this Free Album Friday treat.
In 2008 he dropped a free mixtape called There Is No Spoon. It features a decent amount of songs from his 2007 album Nourishment (Second Helpings) and a little from his 2009 album Actual Factual Pterodactyl plus exclusive content. Although it has the stuff that makes mixtapes annoying (DJ drops, shorter versions of songs, etc) it’s a good intro to the boy sand. Download There Is No Spoon here.
Merchandise
Homeboy Sandman – Nourishment (Second Helpings) album MP3
Homeboy Sandman – Actual Factual Pterodactyl album MP3
Homeboy Sandman – The Good Sun album CD / MP3
A-trak (Alain Macklovitch) has been around for a while now he first made his name winning the DMC’s (the DJ competition) in 1997 when he was only 15. He is a member of The Allies which is a collective of seven DJs the most well known being himself and Craze. He also produces, runs his own label Fools Gold Records (released music from Kid Sister, Kid Cudi and Cool Kids among others) and is Kanye’s DJ for live performances or when he needs some DJ work on a song (and the one that hipped Kanye to Daft Punk which led to his hit “Stronger”). Also fun fact he is the younger brother of producer Dave One (one half of Chromeo).
This week A-Trak released Dirty South Dance 2 which is the followup to his 2007 album. The dirty south albums feature for the most part dance reworkings of hiphop songs. The first one, although it did have quite a few songs I skipped, the songs I liked I played a ton. So I was looking forward to the new one. But after checking it out I’m not really feeling it, there are a few ok songs but nothing compared to my favorites of the first one. But being Free Album Friday I figure I might as well share them both. So you can get 1 here and 2 here.
This Free Album Friday post is an album of remixes (with some original work) by Freddie Joachim. Joachim (pronounced “JO-AH-KIM”) has been producing most of the 2000s, although I came across his stuff recently. He has released a good amount of work between volumes of hiphop remixes, instrumental albums and a few retail albums. For his hiphop remixes his style is kinda chill. He seems to be influenced by J Dilla’s Fantastic Volume 2 type stuff. It works but his beats could do with a little more switch ups and variety. Out of the four hiphop remix albums I feel the fourth is the strongest (download here) so that’s the one I’m spotlighting. Over on his download page you can download all of them plus some of his instrumental work. He is working on a new album, Midway, that will drop sometime this summer.
Common “I Used To Love Her [Freddie Joachim Remix]”
This Free Album Friday album comes from Los Angeles MC Diz Gibran and New York producer Moonshine. Soon You’ll Understand came out around this time last year. The clothing label Crooks and Castles put it out as a promo. Don’t get me wrong Diz is nice on the mic but the production really carries the album. Overall it’s good, there are only a few skippable songs. Download the album here.
Diz Gibran “The Hardest Word”
you need flash to play the song
Diz Gibran “New Religion”
you need flash to play the song
Related Links
Diz Gibran – Myspace / Twitter
Moonshine – Myspace
Diz Gibran – featuring BJ The Chicago Kid “Truly Yours” music video
Diz Gibran Soon You’ll Understand album free download
