Blog: The Mark Out

<!-- More on the Def Jux front, they've opened a Itunes style Digital Download Shop with pretty much every release and video they've ever done, including a couple of exclusives. Check it - The Pharmacy There's an exclusive new El-P track Everything Must Go which has a daft beat, it changes completely halfway through into a deranged detuned stomp and is one of the best things he's done for a while. He totally kills it lyrically near the end too. Well worth [...]

I bought this a couple of days ago on a whim and it's utterly dope, DJ Ese (aka Jesse Ferguson) is the label manager of Definitive Jux and runs Embedded Music. The guest MC lineup reads like a Def Jukies wet dream: Murs, Rob Sonic, Aesop Rock, Vordul Mega, Hangar 18, Babbletron to name a few. The production ranges between harder electronic cuts to lighter acoustic led tracks, a real mixture. Not all the MCs are as great as each other, but the production is top-notch throughout. DJ Ese - Fight Song [...]

Although a well-known name for followers of the Boston hip-hop scene (Mr Lif, Edan etc), Insight is a MC/Producer who's been rather unfairly looked over by the scene at large. As well as producing some excellent cuts on Mr Lif's classic I Phantom , he's released some tight solo albums himself. His most recent album, The Blast Radius , is probably his best work yet and shows an genuine inventiveness - ranging from the psuedo-possee cut of "17 Emcees" (which is himself pretending to be 17 different MCs, all with their own style and [...]

J-Dilla - We Must Be In Love feat Pharoah Monch (MP3) The first track I've heard from the late great J-Dilla's posthumous album "The Shining", due out later this year, and it's a killer. A move away from the instrumental genius of Donuts (one of my albums of 2006 so far), this is lush string lead sweetness with a smattering of horns. Pharoah Monch voice flows well over the production but doesn't say anything of too much import; it's all about [...]

After a break of a couple of months, I've decided to start up another music blog (I used to do No Inspiration if anyone read it). Like before, it'll be mainly hiphop but there'll be a couple of curveballs of sheer musical awesomeness too, updated regularly as a bonus. First proper post soon!