WE SAY:Glitchy, synthy and melodic breaks n’ beats from Tacoma, WA’s Lipp. Displaying influences ranging from funk and disco to electro and downtempo, Tacoma Mockingbird also has a strong hip-hop sensibility. THEY SAY:“Lipp weaves some fine textures…the kid’s scrap-savvy instrumental hip-hop is just what you’d expect: loose, breathable funk fabric.”-XLR8R“…The subtleties here make all the...

straight from the guys themselves – download their album “bare food” for free!:The blurred lines of hip hop have been crossed and a new sound emerges as Mr.Len and Kimani Rogers serve up their second offering as Roosevelt Franklin. “bare food” is a genre crossing, comedic, emotional, mind altering experience that will make you want...

WE SAY:Another Fat Jon production. This one displays another side to our hip-hop hero, adapting his style to provide the spacey, soulful backdrop to German R&B vocalist Amleset Solomon. LEARN: Looking for a place to relieve himself, fat jon stumbled into a café in berlin and met the german r &b soul sensation, amleset solomon....

OhWord has started taking orders for J. Dilla tribute T-shirts – 100% of the proceeds will be given to Dilla’s mom to help her pay the enormous medical bills she is left with. Please visit: http://www.ohword.com/blog/169/pre-order-jay-dee-tribute-shirts-to-benefit-his-familyAlso read this touching article about Dilla from the Free Press

WE SAY:More dreamy electro-pop from Frou Frou frontwoman, Imogen Heap. Impressively, she wrote and produced the entire album.LEARN: Part cool ‘n’ collected statuesque beauty, part thrilled eight year old, Imogen Heap is struggling to contain her excitement. “For the last year, I’ve had a mission to accomplish,” says the former Frou Frou lass, kicking her...

Om Record’s excellent jazz hip-hop group Colossus now have a video for “The Tribute.” You can find it on Google Video . In all honesty its pretty lo-fi in all aspects, but the song is dope so check it out anyways. More info on Colossus

Fresh from the MySpace presses, this message from King Britt, along with a free download/podcast:“Hey everyone…..Here is the first on hopefully a long series of mixes, dedicated to all music cosmic in nature. Go Astral Travelling through time and space with these mixes. Music from the vast King Britt collection.Collect and spread the love of...

WE SAY:Consistently underexposed producer Fat Jon continues to release music under the radar of many North American listeners, but fans should definitely seek out this accomplished effort. Using hip-hop as the foundation, Fat Jon continues to push the genre, with influences ranging from orchestral to electronic. Afterthought builds on his ever-increasing legacy of unqiue instrumentals....