If you are in the NYC area, you should check out this show next week. It features an open mic battle, beat boxer battle, and freestyle competition, plus a bunch of acts. Headlining will be the New World Side Order, who is releasing their new EP/DVD, and the entire show will be broadcast live worldwide at www.ChillyS.tv.

For more on NWSO, check out their music videos for Dollaz Outta Dimez, The Beginning of the End, and Spiders, Roaches, Bed Bugs Etc.

His new album is called “Yes!,” but K-os could just as easily have called it “Home!,” because that’s where the rapper and singer has been headed for at least a year: Home to hip hop, and home to Vancouver, a city he had never lived in but that suddenly last summer revealed a claim on him that he couldn’t refuse. (more…)

Hip Hop legends X-Clan have debuted the track “Down By Law” online at www.myspace.com/xclanmusic, from their upcoming new studio album “Mainstream Outlawz”, which is slated for a January 27th, 2009 release through Suburban Noize Records. The album takes aim at those planning Hip Hop’s Funeral.

The foundation for “Mainstream Outlawz” was built over a year long period with Brother J venturing into the heart of Houston, TX to re-ignite hip hop’s flame. The move brought out bouts of intense creativity bolstered by Brother J and his collaborators love for music. (more…)

DAMN! ScholarMan, one of my favorite underground emcees, is dropping a new album in January titled “Gameshift: The Movement.” He already gave us a handful of free glimpses with recent videos for The Answer II and What You Puttin’ Back. And now, for the month of December only, he’s offering a FREE PREVIEW of “Gameshift: The Movement.”

Click the link below for your free preview!
http://www.scholarman.com/

Cornel West’s last project, “Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations,” was off the hook – so I expect a lot this upcoming collaboration as well. Footage is from studio sessions of The Cornel West Theory’s “Second Rome” – coming soon, which will feature West on every track.

Seattle hip-hop group Common Market is all about the fight for change. With songs that focus on news and social issues, a performance for protesters at the recent Democratic National Convention, and an appreciation for the common struggles of American life, rapper Ryan Abeo lives out his rhymes. “I must be able to make music in the trenches,” said Abeo, who works as a janitor by day. “If I can’t stay in connection with people, I lose my target audience. And if I lose that, there’s no point in making music.”

Abeo, 34, better know as RA Scion in Common Market, has a need to tell it as it is, which shines through his latest album, “Tobacco Road,” coming out today, with a CD release party Thursday at Neumo’s. On the title track he raps: “Who said life is what you make it / Really, life is what makes you.” (more…)

Looking forward to this one dropping August 16.

C-Rayz Walz has teamed up with Kosha Dillz to create hip-hop’s first ever Jewish-African American collaboration album of it’s kind. 10% of all proceeds from the album, titled “Freestyle vs. Written,” will be donated to Netivot Israel Louna Terror Victim Fund and to the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, an organization dedicated to strengthening relations between ethnic communities.

It’s an album that breaks borders and pushes boundaries. Songs like “I Love Jews” and “Ariel Sharon” are packed with classic hip rock samples and party moving sounds. Boasting collaborations with Murs, Matisyahu and MF Doom between them, and gracing the covers of news magazines such as Entertainment Weekly and Source Magazine and spots on MTV, the two artists are ready to take the world by storm. PREVIEW AFTER THE BREAK! (more…)

9th Wonder, formerly of Little Brother, has once again teamed up with legendary lead MC of the mighty Boot Camp Clik, Buckshot of Black Moon, for their follow up album “The Formula.”

The duo released their first project in 2005, entitled “Chemistry,” as part of Duck Down Record’s “Triple Threat” Campaign, which also showcased albums from Sean Price Monkey Barz and Smif N Wessun. (more…)