shawnr's music links

Hollywood Holt's video for "Put a Kit On It" has been blowing up on YouTube. If you dig the Cool Kids, then you should definitely check out Hollywood Holt. Also from Chicago, Holt collides the retro-minimalist beats (a la the Cool Kids) with more contemporary anthems, creating some of the most interesting party bangers and thick beats around.

Food for Animals is a Baltimore-based hip-hop group clearly following in the footsteps of earlier avant-garde rappers like Busdriver, El-P, Deep Puddle Dynamics, and Prefuse 73. Noisy electro-thrash complimented by stuttery beats and quality rhymes augment a sound that draws from almost every genre of music.

Another great resource for some streaming tracks from Sleep. The MySpace site currently features some new tracks from his 2007 album with Zelly Rock, "Combination Locked." The Old Dominion Collective and Sleep deserve a lot more notice, bringing a bouncy style, unique composition, and infectious beats.

Sleep's solo album, Christopher, is one of those great things that somehow never got noticed. If you haven't heard him, be sure to check out tracks like "Guys Like Me" and "Fall Guy".

Strange Famous records is most famous for putting out Sage Francis and Buck 65, but they also put out a few other heavily poetry-influenced hip hop acts. They maintain a video channel on YouTube which features some great stuff.

Saul Williams posted his latest album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust (produced by Trent Reznor), a couple months ago for free download. (It's now $5 for the download.) Williams brings a spoken word poetry to experimental hip-hop arrangements. He's not a typical rapper.

Atmosphere released a free album on December 24, 2007, showing a little fan appreciation. "Strictly Leakage" is a full 13 track album available free for the downloading. No email addresses or registration required.

Classified is the hottest emcee to come straight outta the Maritimes. One of the hardest working rappers in Canada, he releases an album almost every year. His site always features samples from the latest album plus lots of videos and music downloads (scroll down the page -- it's easy to miss at first).

Immortal Tech is a hardcore militant leftist rapper. His two albums, Revolutionary vol 1 & 2 should not be missed. He hasn't released a new album in over 3 years, but he posts freestyles and singles on his MySpace page.

OK, so Jay-Z signed her to Def Jam, but mainstream hip-hop ain't ready for the S-O-V or UK Grime.