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Your monthly run down of new, trending bangers, jams and slow jams. Photo by Callie Richmond for AThousandGrams.


Big K.R.I.T. featuring Yelawolf - Hometown Hero (Remix)

Southern home cooking via rising, well-received rappers from Tennessee and Alabama.


Charles Hamilton - Kat Stacks

The introspective, isolated Hamilton pops up from a semi-absence, raps impressively over a jacked beat and releases five mixtapes at once.


Drake - Do It All

Fresh rap from the genre's biggest summer star, set for some bullshit compilation.


John Legend, The Roots featuring Common - Wake Up Everybody

Legend and The Roots are making an album together, this is the first taste.


Kid Cudi featuring Kanye West - Erase Me

Once you get over fact Cudi's latest is not a rap song in any way, it's an agreeable little number.


Rich Boy featuring Drake, Lloyd - To The Floor

Nice slow burner for last call. I've always found Lloyd's insistence on going by his unremarkable first name to be a career obstacle. There has to be gravitas behind first name solo artists. You'll never hear, "we got a fresh new joint from Frank."


Rick Ross featuring Chrisette Michele, Drake - Aston Martin Music (Extended Mix)
Rick Ross featuring Raekwon - Audio Meth

The two best holdovers from Teflon Don. I'm telling you, the best album of the summer thus far. Recovery is a masterpiece but it's too thick and layered for a season when you need quick cuts between errands.

Bro, I think he might be.

Teflon Don, arriving on July 20, already sounds stirring and boasts an epic prequel. The final tracklisting is mouth-watering: short, cohesive, boasts immaculate guests. Rick Ross's authenticity as a boss/drug lord with connections was long ago disproven but he's retained a penchant for penning enormous, swelling anthems. His voice is a welcome addition to any posse cut (Ross steals just about every moment, especially 2009's who's who roll call, "Fed Up") and without a need to federate existence, we'll get winking, relatable nods to Honey Comb Hideouts.

And more car songs!


Rick Ross featuring T.I., Jadakiss, Erykah Badu - Maybach Music III

Rick Ross featuring Drake, Chrisette Michele - Aston Martin Music

Photo by Callie Richmond for AThousandGrams.


The Austin Ace, Phrancyhze, impresses at another national battle. Don't talk to me 'bout emcees got skills...

Check the furious, three-round fight post-jump. If this were 1997, he'd have a deal from Def Jam. Phran even gets dissed for being too good at freestyling and for being too smart.

His closing line is my favorite: "When I win, son, it won't be the first time a nigga came from Austin to Cali to get shit done...VINCE. YOUNG."

With a summer onslaught of big, stuffy summer albums closer than you realized, labels are passing down hearty helpings of "exclusives," generating interest in new recordings from names. Most of these songs range from solid to tight to sweet. Initial thoughts included.


Cee Lo - Georgia

Not as good as the singles from 2004's excellent solo album or the best Gnarls Barkley. But I'm intrigued to hear what a Cee Lo solo album sounds like post-household name status.


Black Milk - Don Cornelius

Milk money.


Blu & Exile - So Perfect

Reggie loves to overrate Blu. I get why on gems like this.


Bun B featuring Young Jeezy - Just Like That

Apocalyptic hustle rap. Gimme my respect.


Copywrite - Last Laugh

Khrysis produces for a relatively unknown white guy with miserably bad promotional art. He's a good rapper though, if a bit crass.


Estelle featuring Nas - Fell In Love

Same type of house/retro beat Estelle surfed on 2008's "American Boy." The guest rap is cool. I dig the synths.


Freddie Gibbs featuring Bun B - Rock Bottom

Gibbs makes up for an average, sung hook by bringing out a marvelous narrative from Bun.


Killer Mike featuring T.I. - Ready Set Go

Get ready for Killer Mike's album ya'll.


Madvillain - Papermill

Ever notice Jay Electronica sounds just like DOOM ten years ago?


The Roots featuring John Legend - Doin' It Again

One of the most delectable, ear candy mp3s the Roots have ever leaked. Instantly likable.


The Dream featuring Diddy - Champagne

You may be asking the wrong person, I love all these silly excess anthems.


Waka Flocka Flame featuring Roscoe Dash, Wale - No Hands

Tough to really enjoy even ironically.

Brilliant comic David Cross, prepping a new comedy CD/DVD slated for May 25, delved into hip-hop with Pitchfork in a Friday interview:

Pitchfork: Do you remember any examples of not liking an album everyone else did?

DC: I can't think of one off the top of my head, although I do think Biggie Smalls is overrated. I just don't think he's as good a lyricist as people say he is.

Pitchfork: You'd prefer a Jay-Z maybe?

DC: Yes. I love a good Jay-Z. I love a Kanye, I love a Lupe Fiasco.


It's a fair opinion. Biggie's catalog isn't deep enough for him to be considered the greatest ever, but his iconography is untouchable.

Cross also accuses Dane Cook of stealing material. Which is totally true. Read the whole thing here.

It looks like a cover. It's a nice cover story. It has Vibe's influential name attached.

What's the issue? Take a close look: It's a Vibe.com cover story. Vibe won't be releasing a proper issue for two months so for the interim, they are playing with Photoshop and making it seem as if J.Cole is a bankable cover icon, even though he's not and they'd never actually wage advertiser's money on a Cole cover. Not in May of 2010.

Here's Vibe's lame qualifier. Note that they basically say, "this was all Jay-Z's idea."

*We know, we know--two months is too long to wait for VIBE to hit your local newstand. So as a supplement, we'll highlight a celebrity making an impact as the VIBE.com cover story every Tuesday. We're going with Hov's choice for our first cover subject: Roc Nation's flagship rookie J. Cole. Check out the exclusive interview below as well as photos and an essential playlist.*

We think so. Coming soon, we guess? From who else?