DJ Quik & Kurupt – “Do You Know”
from Blaqkout (Mad Science, Available June 9)

Early leaks from the anticipated (by some) Blaqkout have seen Quik stepping out of his traditional genius music summertime slaps mold to take a more eclectic approach. Because he’s an artist, not a gangsta, remember. (For those keeping score: “9X Outta Ten” was a successful experiment, in a Prefuse 73x”Grindin” way, but the two outta three that followed weren’t as effective. Maybe he should stay out of the world music crates.) Well “Do You Know” is more what you’d expect from the duo, on the laid back top down tip. These are the types of beats Quik should be lacing Kurupt with, but if the LP splits down the middle between styles it’ll probably be enough of a success to be better than most summer albums.

Freddie Gibbs – “Summa Dis“

Freddie Gibbs f/ Devin The Dude – “Stray“

from The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs (Mixtape, 2009)

Gibbs is from Gary, Indiana and we all have been sleeping on him for too long. The Interscope refugee seemingly salvaged a bunch of tracks from his aborted major label debut for this, yet another album-as-mixtape track. Gibbs is a spitter from the Twista school, but seems to draw on more of a southern demeanor. Hopefully one of these A&Rs ODing on overpriced t-shirts will take note and pick him up again. It would be a shame to see him get Ray Cashed. I’m thinking “Stray” is some Waitin To Inhale era Devin, given the Pitchfork parental advisory warning levels of women hating on the hook “Stray” was on Devin’s Landing Gear but sounds a lot better here: “I can’t stand stupid bitches.” Pretty to the point.

Doey Rock f/ Raekwon – “Teacher Teacher“

Doey Rock f/ Marty James – “Cold Game“

from Trophy Case (Cornerstore, 2009)

Quiet as kept one time Sick Wid It affiliate and all around beast of a rapper Doey Rock dropped the underground collabalation Trophy Case to little fanfare last month. Consider this its fanfare. As I mentioned before, Doey is equally skilled in being both a party record placeholder and a lyrically dexterous cat. Dude needs to be on the mainstream blog radar already. The guy is making records with Raekwon! (Rae, too, has been sounding uniformly excellent recently. Hopes for Cuban Linx 2 seem to be on the rise…)

Kingpin Slim – “Powder 4 The Babies“

Again with one of those Not-Wale great DC rappers that I’m trying to put you guys up on. Slim usually comes on the grimier tip but proves adaptable here almost kicking some approximation of a classic Mix-A-Lot flow (it all comes back to Sir Mix today) over a beat that seems to be bending itself backwards to be a party joint but ends up more on that claustrophobic Neptunes futurist old school vibe.

Lil B – “Drifiting In The Water“

Lil B’s music needs to speak for itself at this point. In the time it took you to read this sentence dude probably put up a dozen more myspace pages.

Truck North – “Never Ending Flip“

from Truck Jewels (Mixtape, Available June 2)

You might remember Truck from the last Roots album. He wears his Black Thought influence a little too blatantly but somehow avoids his most common trappings (infamous b-word-related). Maybe it’s just that the beat is too vicious.

C-Loc f/ Lil Boosie – “Ain’t The Same No More“

C-Loc – “In They Face“

Concentration Camp frontman and first generation Baton Rouge rapper C-Loc has been recording heavily with his one time protege Boosie as of late. Those tracks – “Ain’t The Same No More” and “What Must I Do” are incredible in their own right and have been making the rounds of some of the bigger blogs, sometimes with C-Loc as a footnote. Which is great, Boosie deserves all the attention he can get. But, for what it’s worth Loc, too, sounds as good as ever, prepping a new full length with a very impressive lineup. These tracks are the precursors from a tape that, in true BR obliquity, came out of a zip file that was simply labeled “C-Loc Mixtape.” No tags or titles. Anyone have more information?

Lil Boosie – “Mind Of A Maniac Pt. 2“

Case in point. Boosie just keeps getting better. It would be great if this was the direction he took with the forthcoming Superbad full length but if he ends up dropping another string of “Ratchet”s then that’s okay as well.

All Star – “Ball”

All Star – “Blame It On Antares Audio Technologies”

from I Love You Too (Mixtape, 2009)

Who knows if All Star is still on Cash Money and who cares? I guess I could whine about how he should be getting the push that Drake is, but I guess he isn’t as pretty as Drake. Whatever. As long as he continues to drop yearly mixtapes of this quality he can stay in label limbo forever. The few of us who have been paying attention to the Nashville emcee over the past few years have seen him bounce from a post-Jeezy punchlining dope boy to a personal and introspective dude and back again. Despite it’s weirdly emo title, I Love You, Too often steers closer to the former. His “Blame It” freestyle is pretty much filler. I’m mostly posting it for the funny title, but it also goes to show just how self aware he is for ‘just’ a mixtape cat.

Nocando f/ Busdriver – “Other“

from Patient EP (Internet, 2009)

Nocando is a long time late period Project Blowdian. His Patient EP has been out for a while
Rapping is exactly what you would expect from the camp. A lot of the production here seems to be drawing on that ‘lazer bass’ glitch mob/flying lotus scene, which is usually pretty self indulgent but here it’s complemented (anchored) by Nocan and Bus’ spastic styles pretty well. Your tolerance for this will be reflective of your taste in double time nerd rap. I love it.

E-40 – “On Oil“

from Bay Bridges 2 (Sick Wid It, Coming Soon)

[Ed: write something about how hyphy never actually died right here, because it isn't obvious to everyone] 40 is the only rapper over 40 who is still kicking new styles. “Rapping like a youngster,” oh for sure. Droop kills it too behind the boards, there is some sort of ring modulated monster growling in the background of his otherwise sparse beat.

Killer Mike – “Man Up“

from Greg Hustle (Mixtape, Coming Soon)

“It’s going down in the big and tall store”!