Apollo Brown and Hassaan Mackey – Volume (pre-release)

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The new album from producer Apollo Brown & emcee Hassaan Mackey, Daily Bread,
is officially out today exclusively at itunes!
Get the 1st single “Volume” free today and then head over and buy the album!

Ascending production star Apollo Brown started making waves in 2009 after winning the Detroit Red Bull Big Tune Championship. The next year he signed to Mello Music Group and released a series of critically acclaimed albums: The Reset, Brown Study (selected by iTunes as one of the Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums of 2010), Gas Mask (with his group The Left, which made DJ Premier’s Top 25 list in 2010), and most recently the instrumental opus Clouds. It’s been a busy couple years. Add into the mix Hassaan Mackey of Rochester, New York, and the new group Daily Bread was formed.

The two had worked on individual tracks before, “Odds Ain’t Fair” from The Reset, and “How We Live” from Gas Mask. Both songs became top sellers off their respective albums, giving the two an indication of their chemistry. Hassaan has one of the best voices in Hip-Hop today: deep, gravelly, low-key, and swirling with emotion. While Apollo has cornered the market on grimy Detroit production along with the likes of Black Milk, Mr. Porter, and a few select others.
When asked about the lead single “Volume” Hassaan said:
“yo man, that was the first beat Apollo played when I walked in his crib in Detroit… this was the first song I wrote to when I got there, and we knew it was the lead joint. It was dumb early in the morning, I had just gotten off the train from New York. Apollo had picked me up and I started writing it at Apollo’s crib and finished it in the studio that night, recorded it, and it was in the pocket. We knew that was the opener!”
Daily Bread will undoubtedly be compared to previous Apollo Brown releases but this one, to put it the way Hassaan says, comes “back with that grit”. The album seems to be ready made for fans of D.I.T.C., Gang Starr, Black Moon, and M.O.P., while maintaining it’s own artistic integrity. It is an album of really very rugged and raw rhymes developed and written at a time when Hassaan was going through a lot of personal issues, dealing with loss, hardship, and basic survival, so the lyrics come across as emotive but not in any way weak – just raw. The beats are straight forward gritty dripping with soul, and bang out the speakers with the best of ’em. Interspersed throughout the album are clips from 70’s blaxploitation films that lend a feel as though the album is from a different era entirely, like it was first made on vinyl 20 years ago, and delivered to us fresh in an era of glitchy, computerized, auto-tuned music that often lacks the punch that Daily Bread delivers.

Audible Doctor – Stayin Busy Remix Feat. Silent Knight, KON, Rasheed Chappell, YC The Cynic, and Soul Khan

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The Audible Doctor’s “Stayin’ Busy Remix” is a bonus track off of his upcoming “You Should Buy Music Not Make It” EP. The bonus track will only be available on the CD version of the EP as well as the free download card that comes with the “You Should Buy Music Not Make It” T-Shirt (both set to drop later this year).

The original track “Stayin’ Busy” (also produced by The Audible Doctor) was released in February, and is the first single from Silent Knight’s upcoming album “Busy Is My Best Friend”.

The single has reached #10 on the nationwide college hip hop charts, and received acclaim from fans, as well as many respectable names in the hip hop community.
SK’s Busy Is My Best Friend (BIMBF) was pushed back from it’s original release date but now, after a few new songs and notable guest appearances have been added, It’s ready to be released to the public very soon!

Trek Life – Wouldn’t Change Nothing (produced by Oddisee)

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West Coast great Trek Life just dropped his newest project “Wouldn’t Change Nothing “!! To celebrate, we are giving away the all new title track “Wouldn’t Change Nothing ” produced by Oddisee. Additionally Al Lindstrom’s Chris Moss, in conjunction with Mello Music Group, ran a debut of the track today with an in depth Q & A that highlights Trek’s amazing path in the rap game.

Q: Tell us a little about your background in the game.

Trek Life:
I’m an LA artist who was a fan of LA hiphop in the mid-90′s: I watched Dilated Peoples, Pharcyde, Souls of Mischief, all those people come up, and I studied what they were doing. From there I grew and started making my own music. The first producer I ever did a song with was Will.I.Am and from there I worked with Motiv-8 (Black Eyed Peas producer). Then I started doing records from there on working to hone my craft. At the time, I was running with Bishop Lamont and Spontaneous.

Probably my first big break was being on Showtime’s “The Next Episode” and meeting DJ Babu of Dilated Peoples. Babu then did my first official 12” called “Hard Work” and FatBeats picked it up. After that I worked with Evidence and Rhettmatic, Khalil and J Bizness, and managed to make my first full-length album “Price I Paid”. Over the next couple years I worked the record, toured with Kev Brown and met Oddisee. I was touring the States and Europe this whole time. Oddisee then remixed the whole “Price I Paid” project and we called it “New Money” – which Oddisee brought to the new brand new label he was working with, Mello Music Group and they picked it up. This was only MMG’s 2nd project, so it was a learning experience. Odd & I then decided to do an original album together called “Everything Changed Nothing”. At the same time a lot of my music was getting on television shows like MTV‘s “G’s to Gents”, “The Hills”, “Breaking Bad”, “The Eddie Griffin Show”, and ESPN used the track “So Supreme” during the NBA Finals with the Lakers. That was last summer, so now I just finished the remix project called “Wouldn’t Change Nothing”.

Q: Tell us a little about the new project “Wouldn’t Change Nothing”.

Trek Life:
“Wouldn’t Change Nothing ” is coming out on my label, Mello Music Group, Tuesday July 12th , it’s another summer record. We brought on a lot of dope producers to revisit the “Everything Changed Nothing” album. This one’s got some of my West Coasts people like J Bizness, Duke Westlake, A3, Captain, and DJ Buddy. Plus it’s got Detroit’s Apollo Brown and MarvWon, Philly’s Has-Lo, Audible Doctor who did Joel Ortiz’s Battle Cry, ST/MiC came through with some heat, SlimKat78 who did a lot of work on yU’s Before Taxes killed a joint, and of course Oddisee jumped in for two tracks. It’s a big record. Aaron Sutton from Visual Goodies did the cover art.

Q: What direction was Oddisee taking the production on this single?

Mike Tolle (Mello Music Group): Oddisee’s range and ability to produce songs that fit into a variety of genres has always been one of the reasons for his success, whether it’s producing a track with artistic sentiments and irregular rhythms, or making a classic grimy boom bap track, or even a polished commercial gem. For this one Oddisee dipped into a more commercial sound, polished and more epic in it’s tone. It is completely sample free as well, he used nothing but stock Pro-Tools sounds this time around.

Q: What’s ahead for Trek Life?

Trek Life:
First and foremost, working this record – everybody needs to be at itunes on opening day and cop “Wouldn’t Change Nothing”. On top of that, I’m working on my next record called “Hometown Foreigner” with Duke Westlake. Otherwise, just spending time with my family and making music. Shout to Al Lindstrom for hooking up the debut!

Beat Gates – Nuevo EP (2011)

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Paul White feat. Guilty Simpson – Trust

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Mastered by Mandy Parnell
Illustration by Penny Davenport
Design by Made In Earnest