August is already 3/4ths of the way through and before you know it t shirt and cargo shorts weather will yield to pants and pullovers weather again (Unless Kendrick Lamar can stop the seasons from changing, that is…). Before that happens, we here at Hip-Hop Wired have 20 indie & underground Hip-Hop albums from this month to introduce you to before you need to direct your attentions to Cuffing Season 2013-14. You know the drill, we give you 10 now and then another 10 next week.
“While You Were Sleeping” is a feature exclusive to Hip-Hop Wired which showcases the quality indie and underground Hip-Hop and Rap releases that fly under the radar due to a lack of sizable marketing and promotions budgets at the disposals of the individual artists or their indie labels. This results in these projects not getting the attention in mainstream Rap publications or even on the radio that they deserve based on the quality of their music alone. The first three weeks of August yielded 10 quality albums from legendary DJ/producer K-Def, No Malice of The Clipse, NC veteran MC Rapper Big Pooh, Homeboy Sandman (with producer M Slago), Brown Bag All Star’s The Audible Doctor, brand new SoulSpazm signee Boog Brown, Terrace Martin, ScienZe, MidaZ The Beast, Detroit producer Slautah and Mello Music Group’s CASTLE.
If you missed the previous seven months of “While You Were Sleeping” you can just click here and feel free revisit the previous installments at your own leisure. Seeing as how time is money and it’s still hot as hell outside I don’t need to waste anymore time. Let’s just launch into it already.
Here’s what you all may have missed, while you were sleeping…
Boog Brown – The Late Bloom (Bandcamp/SoulSpazm) 8.3.2013
Boog Brown (Grind Season Vol. 1 & Brown Study) is one of the most underrated MCs in the game regardless of gender. Her coming out party was on the collaborative Mello Music Group LP Brown Study with Apollo Brown. Her lyrics, delivery, vocal presence and command of the language stems from a spoken word/poetry background and when coupled with top flight production the final product is undeniable Hip-Hop music. Boog’s long awaited sophomore album The Late Bloom has been in the works since early 2002. The singles Life & In Tune soon yielded to the EP Before The Bloom featuring tracks that didn’t make the album. If THESE didn’t make the album what does the album sound like? Damb!
The Late Bloom features production from Illastrate, Lex Boogie From The Bronx, Joe D & Dynamite Bruhz. You can purchase the album directly from the Bandcamp page for now but after Boog’s recent signing to SoulSpazm the album will soon be available in both digital & physical form via the usually musical marketplaces. If you want to be ahead of the curve (like I am), cop it now rather than waiting. You claim you want the game to go back to beats and rhymes? Well prove it!
Homeboy Sandman x M Slago – All That I Hold Dear (Stones Throw) 8.6.2013
This 7 song EP comes courtesy of Homeboy Sandman (The Good Sun, First Of A Living Breed & Kool Herc: Fertile Crescent) and producer M Slago (Rampage EP, Attack The Wack, Let Me Holla At Ya, Let Me Holla At Ya Too & Negro Please) who he worked with previous to his signing to Stones Throw. Homeboy Sandman had recorded quite a few tracks over M Slago’s production over the years but he hadn’t released any of them as he maintained his prolific release schedule. This August Homeboy Sandman and M Slago’s collaborations led to the Stones Throw digital release of All That I Hold Dear.
All That I Hold Dear features guest appearances from MED & Gab Goblin and Homeboy Sandman and M Slago’s production perfectly compliment each other. All That I Hold Dear can be copped in digital form from iTunes (for only $3.99) and Amazon. It can also be purchased directly from Stones Throw. The song “Runts” dedicated to his niece & nephew & Slago’s son is a favorite of mine. Physical copies of All That I Hold Dear will be available on September 9th.
ScienZe – Ella (Bandcamp) 7.9/8.7.2013
First there was Ella: The Prelude and now there’s the full length album Ella from ScienZe. First it was released on Bandcamp then the physical copies were made available in August. ScienZe’s concept album about the pursuit and acceptance of love features production from Ski Beatz, Blu, NAMELESS, Vinyl Frontiers, Lord Quest, King I Divine, EOM and more. Guest appearances from Blu, Fresh Daily, Maffew Ragazino, sene, Rebecca Lord, LeXuS, Luxx, LD Henriquez add to the album’s overall theme. ScienZe is one of the MCs that should’ve been on the cover of XXL by now as a Freshman but he doesn’t have anyone with pull or any money behind him to give him those looks. All you need to do is hear his music. Speaking of which, you can purchase Ella from iTunes, Amazon or stream and purchase it from ScienZe’s Bandcamp. Don’t sleep…
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Photo: Malice
