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Featuring Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco and Pusha T outta The Clipse.

Also, Joe Budden - Who.

And the new TIP joint, T.I. - Whatever You Like (video’s on youtube).

While I’m posting new hip hop stuff, here’s another dude who’s gonna be big soon. Along the same sorta lines as The Cool Kids or Wale and that kinda style. This guy goes by the name of Kid Cudi, and this be his debut mixtape “A Kid called Cudi”. Enjoy.

Download

I know I’m late on this one.

One of the dopest rappers around at the moment, Wale, put out this tape about a month ago.

It’s called ‘The Mixtape About Nothing’ and this guy is one of the freshest rappers out right now. I’m sick of people saying he’s the next Kanye or the next Lupe - dude is the first Wale. He’s rapping about stuff aside from girls, drugs or cars which is where the comparisons come from, I guess. He’s out of Washington D.C. and is recently signed to a seven-figure deal with Interscope (so expect big things to follow). I’ve posted a few of his videos and his tracks before, but I just haven’t got round to putting this up for some gay reason.

Definitely worth checking out if you’re into hip hop away from the 50 Cent stuff. It’s better than 90% of the albums I’ve picked up this year, that’s for sure.

Wale. A Mixtape About Nothing. Download it now.

Tracks 1-10: Download
Tracks 11-19: Download

If you hadn’t already guessed, there’s a Seinfeld theme… dope stuff. Track six “The Kramer” is highly recommended.

New album from The Roots, and its absolutely amazing.

I feel like I’m adding to their problem by sharing this with you, because The Roots really need commercial support from their listeners, but at the same time they’re not promoted well enough! So sharing this with you is in a naive hope that you will listen to it, love it, and go out and buy their whole discography. Then Roots drummer ?uestlove will text me saying ‘thank you!’ and I will take a photo of it and post it here. Maybe, maybe not.

Every single album this group have put out has been fantastic and timeless. Whether you’re a fan of soul music, hip hop music, rock music or good instrumentation The Roots do it all. They’re completely unique and balance the underground/mainstream perfectly.

Unfortunately they’re not getting the support or the love from Def Jam that they deserve, so you might not even know that they’ve got a new album out. Well, they have, and you can download it here. I highly recommend the title track, ‘Rising Down’, and track 7 I think it is, ‘Criminal’ featuring Saigiddy, as your first port of call.

As GTA fans will know, the music/radio in the game is one of its best features. With GTA IV Rockstar Games have again surpassed themselves. They roped in a whole host of artists to record new material for the game, and I’ve just found this, the official soundtrack, floating around on the net. Some good shit in here, ranging across a number of genres, and including artists like Nas, Busta Rhymes, Prodigy, The Rapture and errr… Bob Marley… but surprise surprise Bob didn’t record new stuff for this one ;).

Brilliant game, made even better by radio stations hosted by the likes of DJ Premier and DJ Green Lantern.

Enjoy!

01. Michael Hunter - Soviet Connection (The Theme From Grand Theft Auto IV) [02:51]
02. Mobb Deep Ft. Havoc & Prodigy From H.N.I.C. Part 2 Sessions - Dirty New Yorker [02:52]
03. The Rapture - No Sex For Ben [04:02]
04. Munga - No Fraid A [03:35]
05. Busta Rhymes - Where’s My Money [02:45]
06. C.J. - I Want You [03:24]
07. Joe Walsh - Rocky Mountain Way [05:10]
08. Bob Marley & The Wailers and Damian Marley - Stand Up Jamrock [05:39]
09. Seryoga - Liberty City: The Invasion [03:50]
10. Greenskeepers - Vagabond [02:58]
11. Electrik Funk - On A Journey [05:34]
12. Qadir - Nickname [02:18]
13. David Axelrod - Holy Thursday [05:26]
14. Nas - War Is Necessary [02:27]
15. Fela Kuti - Zombie [12:23]
16. Global Communication - 5:23 [05:23]

Click here to download.

I’m bored, man.

I just tried to watch some American Dad but the streams fucked up after like 5 mins or so. Then I tried to find Drillbit Taylor online and that was no good. So while I figure out what I’m going to do now, I’m gonna send some free music your way. Hooray.

• First up, the new Kooks album “Konk”. This has leaked online in the last hour or so, so nobody else will have this. I haven’t even heard it yet, I’m still downloading. THAT’s how hot off the press this is. Click here to download that.
• Also, Estelle and her new album “Shine“. “American Boy” is infectious as fuck, and I wish it wasn’t because there’s nothing gayer than singing or humming a song about relationships with men when you’re a guy yourself.
• “Matters of the Bittersweet” is a live album/recording by Matthew Santos. He’s the guy who sings the chorus on Lupe Fiasco’s “Superstar”. Yeah, you know who he is now.
• Flo Rida seems to be pretty popular at the moment. “Low” and “Elevator” have kind of come out of nowhere. Here’s his debut album “Mail on Sunday” which seems an incredibly strange name for an album…
• And last but not least, the new album from Mariah Carey, “E=MC2″ which comes out this week.

Enjoy.

For my hip hop lovers - the new Clipse mixtape just leaked onto the net. With the exception of Joe Budden, Clipse are the only hip hop act that bully the mixtape circuit. We Got It For Cheap Volume 2 was better than most albums out in the past few years, and “Hell Hath No Fury” was even better than that, so I’m posting this before I’ve even heard it… I know it’s gonna be good. Clipse are seriously slept on in hip hop, if you consider yourself a hip hop and fan and you’re asking yourself “who are Clipse?” then you’re guilty of ignorance. Give it a listen. Download “WGIFC vol.3″ by clicking here. Enjoy.

A couple of brilliant hip hop albums to fill your digital stockings.

First off, Lupe Fiasco, who follows up the highly-acclaimed “Food & Liquor” with “The Cool”. Personally I think “The Cool” is a much better LP than Lupe’s debut, but at the same time there’s some whack shit on there too. To download click the album cover below.

Secondly, Joe Budden, who finally puts out some new material in the shape of “Mood Muzik 3″. I’m a big Budden fan and MM3 is as good as MM2 once you give it a few listens. Stand out tracks include “Send him our Love” (the tribute to Stack Bundles), “Dear Diary” and my personal favourite “All of Me”. Listen carefully to that track. Download the album by clicking on the album cover below.

Merry christmas. Two of the best records of the year drop just a week before Santa’s coming to town. Get them on your Xmas lists if it’s not too late and support these two amazing artists.

Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two, was found liable Thursday for copyright infringement in the nation’s first file-sharing case to go before a jury.

Twelve jurors here said the Minnesota woman must pay $9,250 for each of 24 shared songs that were the subject of the lawsuit, amounting to $222,000 in penalties.

They could have dinged her for up to $3.6 million in damages, or awarded as little as $18,000. She was found liable for infringing songs from bands such as Journey, Green Day, Aerosmith and others.

After the verdict was read, Thomas and her attorney left the courthouse without comment. The jurors also declined to talk to reporters.

The verdict, coming after two days of testimony and about five hours of deliberations, was a mixed victory for the RIAA, which has brought more than 20,000 lawsuits in the last four years as part of its zero-tolerance policy against pirating. The outcome is likely to embolden the RIAA, which began targeting individuals in lawsuits after concluding the legal system could not keep pace with the ever growing number of file-sharing sites and services.

“This is what can happen if you don’t settle,” RIAA attorney Richard Gabriel told reporters outside the courthouse. “I think we have sent a message we are willing to go to trial.”

Still, it’s unlikely the RIAA’s courtroom victory will translate into a financial windfall or stop piracy, which the industry claims costs it billions in lost sales. Despite the thousands of lawsuits — the majority of them settling while others have been dismissed or are pending — the RIAA’s litigation war on internet piracy has neither dented illegal, peer-to-peer file sharing or put much fear in the hearts of music swappers.

According to BigChampagne, an online measuring service, the number of peer-to-peer users unlawfully trading goods has nearly tripled since 2003, when the RIAA began legal onslaught targeting individuals.

At the time, BigChampagne says, there were about 3.8 million file sharers trading over the internet at a given moment. Now, the group has measured a record 9 million users trading at the same time. Roughly 70 percent of trading involves digital music, according to BigChampagne.

The case, however, did set legal precedents favoring the industry.

In proving liability, the industry did not have to demonstrate that the defendant’s computer had a file-sharing program installed at the time that they inspected her hard drive. And the RIAA did not have to show that the defendant was at the keyboard when RIAA investigators accessed Thomas’ share folder.

Also, the judge in the case ruled that jurors may find copyright infringement liability against somebody solely for sharing files on the internet. The RIAA did not have to prove that others downloaded the files. That was a big bone of contention that U.S. District Judge Michael Davis settled in favor of the industry.

Thomas, 30, maintained that she was not the Kazaa user “Tereastarr,” whose files were detected by RIAA’s investigators. Her attorney speculated to jurors that she could have been the victim of a spoof, cracker, zombie, drone and other attacks.

The jury found her liable after receiving evidence her internet protocol address and cable modem identifier were used to share some 1,700 files. The hard drive linked to Kazaa on Feb. 21, 2005 — the evening in question — did not become evidence in the case.

According to testimony, Thomas replaced her hard drive weeks after RIAA investigators accessed her share file and discovered 1,702 files. The industry sued on just 24 of those files.

Damn.

$220,000 (£110,000?) for 24 songs… I can’t think of 24 songs that I would pay £110,000 for. And I can’t help but feel that fine is a little bit over the top…

Let this be a lesson to you all. If the RIAA come knocking at your door, a) don’t answer, or b) settle - haggle them down, but when they say “court or settlement” take the damn settlement.

£110,000 for 24 songs… That’s like the most expensive double disc album in history.

:/