Build & Destroy

by Black Spade

Black Spade's To Serve With Love was a great album when it came out a couple of years ago, and it's good to hear some new stuff from this talented rapper/producer/sometime singer.  This mixtape is eighteen tracks deep, and over seventy minutes long, which would usually  be way too much for me, but in this instance, the length is perfect.

Spade has a very nice, very chill, post-Dilla quality to his work.  He handles most of the production himself (under the name stoneyrock), but there are also beats from Dorthy Ashby, J. Davey, and Ced No.  This being a mixtape, he's able to sample The Beatles and Stevie Wonder with impunity.  There are guest appearances from Coultrain, and a few people I've never heard of before.

My favourite track on here has to be 'Fall in Love', where Black Spade sings over the Miguel Atwood-Ferguson instrumentation of Dilla's classic beat.  It's a bit of a mash-up as well, with the lyrics coming off the first album.

The aesthetic of the mixtape is best understood on 'The Cool Out', which keeps referring to itself as "the cool out song".  This is a great summer mixtape.

The Doomtree Standards Mixtape

mixed by Paper Tiger

I love Doomtree, so this is the type of project that I feel was created just for me.  Paper Tiger, in advance of his upcoming new album, has put together this half-hour mix made up of the best of Doomtree's catalogue, but with a twist.

The twist is that this is a mash-up project, where he has combined the instrumentals for songs with different a capellas.  This makes listening to this project pretty disorienting - a beat comes on, and suddenly the lyrics aren't what I expect.  However, it's disorienting in a good way, as I find that I'm hearing things in some of the songs that I've never noticed before, and I'm appreciating them on a different level.

The entire Doomtree crew is represented on this disk.  Now I can't wait for the Paper Tiger album.

Deleted Scenes

by Super Chron Flight Brothers

In preparation for the holiday season, the good people at Backwoodz Studioz gave us a free Super Chron Flight Brothers mixtape.

While by no means a classic mix, this does work as a good way to introduce someone to Billy Woods and Priviledge. And for a real fan, there's plenty to hold your interest, as you run through these21 tracks of remixes, or otherwise unreleased gems.

Production is by Bond, Marmaduke, Willie Green, and a couple of cats I've never heard of. A lot of the usual suspects appear on this: Cannibal Ox (together and individually), Invizzibl Men, Trife da God (now called Trife Diesel?), and some other up and comers.

I found the Willie Green remix of 'Guy Fawkes' sucked a lot of the energy out of the original, but the track 'Forms', credited to AM Breakups featuring Billy Woods is worth downloading the whole file for.

Her Favorite Colo(u)r

by Blu

Blu has had an amazing run the last couple of years, showing himself to be a versatile and exciting rapper. He floats over beats by Exile and Mainframe, or plays well with Ta'Raach on his official releases.

This is a mixtape that shows he has some skills behind the boards as well - most of the tracks on this half-hour mix are purely instrumental, and Blu really comes correct with his jazzy beats and entertaining audio samples. He only spits on a couple of tracks, and while I've seen some complaints that he should have more vocals on this, I found that the mix is very nicely balanced.

I'm very much looking forward to any future releases he may have. You can download this on his Myspace page.