Jay Stay Paid.

“Possibly the best posthumous rap record since the final releases of 2Pac and Biggie.”
-Rolling Stone Magazine

By now most everyone is familiar with the story of musical legend J Dilla. The quiet, prolific producer collaborated with everyone from Eryka Badu to Common to Janet Jackson to Prince. Dilla was just beginning to capitalize on his cult status when he sadly passed at age 32 due to Lupus-related complications. Jay Stay Paid is a 28 track collection of unreleased Dilla beats mixed and arranged by Pete Rock. Yes, that Pete Rock. While mostly instrumental, “J$P” also offers a few guests vocals from artists that Dilla worked with or admired including Black Thought of The Roots, MF DOOM, Havoc, M.O.P. , Raekwon and more.

Curtailing any notion of jumping on some sort of Dilla bangwagon, Jay Stay Paid was executive produced by Dilla’s mother Maureen Yancey (aka Ma Dukes) along with the musical supervision of Dilla’s only real musical idol, Pete Rock. “It wasn’t rushed and it wasn’t haphazard,” explains Ms. Yancey. “This album combines what he did in the beginning of his career, what he did in some of our early hospital stays, which was very deep, and some stuff pulled from old floppy disks & DATs. Its mind blowing…this is like the missing links to Dilla’s legacy.”

The format of the album plays like a radio show with Pete Rock as the program director. With regards to Pete’s involvement, Ms. Yancey gets very excited, “Dilla wanted to pattern himself behind Pete. His dream was to become as close as possible to what Pete stood for. Pete meant everything to him. Dilla would have just been flabbergasted! ” Pete’s sentiments were the same toward Dilla, “Dude was amazing. He just kinda came outta nowhere and the more you heard his beats the better they got. He may not be here with us, but it’s all good we’re going to keep his music alive and well.”

The album drops June 2nd. The tracklist is below:

1. KJay FM Dedication
2. King
3. I Told Yall
4. Lazer Gunne Funke
5. In The Night (Owl N Out) – While you slept (I crept)
6. Smoke feat. Blu
7. Blood Sport feat. Lil Fame of M.O.P.
8. caDILLAc
9. Expensive Whip
10. Kaklow (Jump On It)
11. Digi Dirt feat. Phat Kat
12. Dilla Bot Vs. The Hybrid feat. Danny Brown & Constantine
13. Milk Money
14. Spacecowboy Vs. Bobble Head
15. Reality Check feat. Black Thought | Clean
16. On Stilts
17. Fire Wood Drumstix feat. DOOM
18. Glamour Sho75 (09)
19. 10,000 Watts
20. 9th Caller
21. Make It Fast Mega Mix (Unadulterated Mix) feat. Diz Gibran
22. 24K Rap feat. Havoc of Mobb Deep & Raekwon
23. Big City
24. Pay Day feat. Frank Nitty of Frank n’ Dank
25. See That Boy Fly feat. Illa J & Cue D
26. Coming Back
27. Mythsysizer
28. KJay and We Out

Wu-Tang Covers Remixed.

Wow, this is super duper fly. Wu fans and design heads are gonna love this. I know I did, and I'm both. Graphic designer Logan Walters has remixed all the original Wu-Tang covers in the style of classic old school Blue Note jazz record covers. Iconic covers meet a timeless look. They are calling the project either Blu-Tang Clan or Wu Note Records. Call what you want, I call it incredible.

The designer plans to do all 21 Wu-related albums, but here are the first 8. I can't wait for the next ones...

Eminem Covers XXL.

Marshall Mathers gets the cover treatment for the June issue of XXL. In the article he talks about some pretty personal topics including his drug addiction and Proof's death.

“Everyone felt his loss, from his kids, to his wife, to everyone. But, for some reason, in hindsight, the way I felt was almost like it happened to just me…Maybe at the time I was a little bit selfish with it. I think it kind of hit me so hard. It just blindsided me. I just went into such a dark place that, with everything, the drugs, my thoughts, everything. And the more drugs I consumed, and it was all depressants I was taking, the more depressed I became, the more self-loathing I became…By the way, I’m just now at the point where I’m better talking about it. It took me so long to get out of that place where I couldn’t even speak about it without crying or wanting to cry…Proof was the anchor. He was everything to D12. And not just the group-for me, personally, he was everything.”

Courtesy of Rap Radar.

[NEW] The GZA - "Alphabets"

New GZA!

This is the first single off his upcoming album Pro Tools. This is way tighter than his Curtis diss. Check out the tracklist...

1. Intromental
2. Pencil Feat. Masta Killa & RZA
3. Alphabets
4. Groundbreaking Feat. Justice Kareem
5. 7 Pounds
6. 0% Finance
7. Short Race Feat. Rock Marcy
8. Interlude
9. Paper Plate
10. Columbian Ties Feat. True Master
11. Firehouse Feat. Ka
12. Path of Destruction
13. Cinema Feat. Justice Kareem
14. Intermission (Drive In Movie)
15. Life Is A Movie Feat. RZA & Irfane Khan-Acito (of Outlines)
16. Elastic Audio

[NEW] T.I. - "Whatever You Like"

This is the new single off his upcoming album, Paper Trail, which drops Sept 2nd. Above is the abstract cover art for aforementioned album. It features a conceptual drawing of the potent MC made of scraps of paper. Get it? Paper Trail, scraps of paper!?! Brilliant.

"We didn't want to just do a typical cover, especially for my sixth album," T.I. told us via e-mail. "I wanted to try something a little more different. The illustration for Paper Trail pays an obvious homage to my rekindled affinity for writing my lyrics down as well as displays my commitment to keep my art slanted towards the abstract."

What he said. But I actually like it. It's different. I mean, he could have half-assed it and put himself in a Bentley or in front of a table full of assault rifles, or something.

As far as the song, it's pretty alright. I'm not the biggest Tip fan, and when the song starts its kinda sounds like "What You Know" but it actually grew on me as the song went on. I mean, it's not going to make my iTunes Essential playlist or anything, but it's got potential.

DOWNLOAD: T.I. - "Whatever You Like"

Ice Cube - Raw Footage (Artwork + Tracklisting)

Album drops August 19th.

01. What is a Pyroclastic Flow?
02. Jack In the Box
03. It Takes a Nation
04. Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It
05. Hood Mentality
06. Why Me? (feat. Musiq Soulchild)
07. Cold Places
08. Do Ya Thang
09. Thank God
10. Here He Come
11. Get Money, Spend Money, No Money
12. Get Use To It (feat. The Game & WC)
13. Crack Baby
14. Tomorrow
15. Stand Tall
16. Take Me Away (feat. Butch Cassidy)

[NEW] Jean Grae (feat. Busta Rhymes) - "Love Thirst (Remix)"

This is the remix to Jean's fsingle of her upcoming collabo album, Jeanius, which is produced entirely by 9th Wonder. The remix features Busta Rhymes.

Jean Grae (feat. Busta Rhymes) - "Love Thirst (Remix)"

What's dope about her album, is that it will feature different covers that all pay homage to classic 90's albums.

The RZA's Digi Snacks Cover

Here's the official cover from the upcoming Bobby Digital album Digi Snacks, due July 1st. Digi Snacks is 15 tracks and features guest appearances from only one other Clan member, Inspectah Deck. It also features Crisis, Dexter Wiggles, Thea van Seijen, and the Stone Mecca. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante, Shavo Odadjian of System of a Down and the new RZA collabo Achozen, and George Harrison's son Dhani Harrison (who you might know from the Wu's "The Heart Gently Weeps "), and Mississippi's David Banner produced a track.

In case you have heard the first single off the album, here it is:

Rza (feat. Inspectah Deck) - "You Can't Stop Me Now"


More Digi art courtesy of Pitchfork


ALSO...Check out our Hip Hop Official Exclusive, where the Rza talks his Shaolin Style