UK Beat alchemist, Mute Speaker, is arguably the first contender for album of the year. “Take yourself Apart,” an anarchic collage of Funkadelic’s ‘Maggot Brain’, ‘Boot Camp Click’s boom-bap, and Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer’ all held in place in Mute Speaker’s rudie-in-outerspace, dub soundscape. Featuring a litany of young, hungry MC’s …

As hip hop tries to untangle itself from the ‘Hair Metal’ phase, new voices like Oklahoma City rapper Jabee bring the beat back to basics. This Cadence-produced single ‘Dreams’,  comes from the new album ‘Everything Was Beautiful And Nothing Hurt’.  The song opens gently with a haunting piano that floats …

Portland native Tope, delivers a heartfelt ode to Neo-Soul Priestess Erykah Badu on “Take Your Time”. Smokey, late-night grooves, are punctuated by the silky flow of his vocals and crowned beautifully by the bluer than blue jazz outro of Jill Scott trumpeter, Farnell Newton. I implore you, check out Tope’s …

Former “Arrested Development” member Eshe, drops her first solo single, “Love sick.” This delicious slice of summer breezy, hot-buttered soul, will melt the ice off your frozen heart in the dead of winter.   

Planet of Brooklyn’s Logan P. McCoy’s “Black Morning,” builds into the perfect Blaxploitation theme, is promptly deconstructed and resurrected as dark, cyber-punk Funkadelic hip hop. Yes, 2014 is off to a great start. video: LOGAN P. MCCOY, “BLACK MORNING” directed by Dylan Verrechia | beat produced by Logan P. McCoy grab …

   Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is. – Saul Bellow      On October 27, we lost Lou Reed. As the internet lit up with shock and then sadness, I felt numb. “These are Coptic times” to paraphrase Bad Brains. Cynicism reigns supreme. Here I am a struggling writer …