The great adventures of Slick Rick

I've had this in my collection for a long but only recently given it a proper second listen which I now realize I should have done a lot earlier. Honestly, this is one of the most charismatic albums there has ever been released. Every single song is "story telling" and tells a story about something he has witnessed (quite a few are probably fiction) in such a humouristic way.
I think Jay-Z said in his book that Slick Rick was a master of expressing feelings that he couldn't name so he kindda made funny stories and let the story itself reflect how he felt at the time (the ending of Children's Story is a prime example of that).

When it comes to studying the art of telling stories through rap, this album is the blueprint. You can clearly hear how someone like Eminem was influenced by this album if you listen to a song like Brain Damage.

The production is quite boring although I gotta say that I love the old school sound on some of the tracks (mostly Teenage Love).

New album: Apollo Brown - Clouds

I learned about Apollo Brown last year when I heard The Left's debut album called Gask Mask. Every single beat on that album goes hard and is definitely one of the most interesting projects I have heard in years. It has such an insane feel of the 90's and was rightfully amongst DJ Premier's favourite albums last year.

This year he has decided to put out an instrumental album called The Clouds, and it is absolutely crazy stuff here. Same sound as the Gask Mask which means tons of beautiful beats with a shit load of vocal samples from other genres such as Jazz.

Talking of Apollo Brown, he acutally had a beat on D12's most recent mixtape so I guess it is only a matter of time before he really blows up.

Without a doubt the most exiting young producer at the moment.

Online hip hop "library"

I found this blog a couple of days ago and thought I'd share with you all. I love the history of the whole genre, and I think people should show some respect for legends such as Kool g rap and Rakim and unsung heroes such as Jeru the damaja and Brother J who helped shape the music.

I think the owner of the blog tries to update it regularly with new artists and albums so there's something for everyone.