This Thursday, June 4th, UC Irvine’s Hip Hop Congress will be throwing their first annual event, The Ruckus. The event will begin at 6:00PM at the UC Irvine Student Center Terrace. It’ll begin with BBoy Sessions featuring UCI’s very own BBoy’s Anonymous, the session will not be not be limited to these cats, everyone is welcome to session. There is also an Open Mic session for all our freestylers/emcee’s out there who’d like to test their skills on a mic. The Ruckus will feature some amazing performances by some of Southern California’s finest independent hip hop artists: VerBS & Intuition, AFTA-1, Tron, and East of L.A.’s very own Speak, Pheo, and DJ Alf Alpha.

So let’s boil this down for you, free hip hop event this Thursday & U.C.I. featuring some of the best hip hop performances on the market, be there.

The event is this Thursday, June 4th. It will begin at 6:00PM at the UC Irvine Student Center Terrace!

Address: Pereira Dr, Irvine, CA

 

 "Pheo - Turn it Up" : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 "Speak - Ballad of Pop Lock & Drop" : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 "Intuition & VerBS - Touch the Moon" : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 "AFTA-1 - Gaze" : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Random: After almost 8 years, Dre  appears in a Dr.Pepper commercial with a snippy snippet of Detox

It may just be a few seconds of music, but Dr. Dre fans will remember the new Dr Pepper ad as the spot where they heard the first officially released beats from the much-delayed “Detox.” The L.A.-based hip-hop producer appears in the latest installment of an ad campaign entitled “Trust Me, I’m A Doctor,” and teases a song titled “Shit Popped Off,” referenced by T.I., from the long-awaited album, currently slated for a late 2009 release on Aftermath/Interscope. The commercial will begin airing on Monday, June 1. Full Article

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Come Up Crew is hosting an event that is sure to be a treat for music connoisseurs.  DJ Exile aka “Beats For Days” will be holding down a DJ set featuring his right hand man DJ Day. Do your self a favor and check this set out, with rsvp admission at 5 dollars you really cant beat it on a Saturday night.

Los Angeles Native, Exile is a master on the MPC and incorporates samples from a large spectrum of music genres. He is responsible for producing some my favorite albums within the last few years, Anon and On, Dirty Science, Below the Heavens and the most recent release Radio Exile.

I included a Exile Mix which features one of his MPC freestyle sessions.. JustNasty… enjoY

For More information on the show visit The Come Up Crew..

 

 DJ Exile | Show Mix: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Ne-Yo drops a smooth R&B track “Miss You Crazy”,  a great record that really identifies with anyone who has been in a relationship and finds themselves reminiscing..

Sidenote: Why is a common search query in Google “Ne Yo without the Hat”.. smh..

 

 Ne Yo | Miss You Crazy [3:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Cant Front on solid visuals.  Rihanna makes a feature appearance in K.Wests video for “Paranoid” off 808 and Heartbreak.

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Premo comes classic on this rework of Jay-Z’s opening ballad off American Gangster, “Pray,” and then goes on to dub it as, “Can’t Cheat Death.”

Here’s the original “Pray” for a Before/After comparison listen:

 

 "Can't Cheat Death" - Jay Z (prod. by DJ Premier): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Im still grumpy at the fact that its Tuesday. I was beginning to get used to the three day weekend. Here are three tracks you shoulda had for your listening pleasure.

Matt and Kim | Day Light

Up until a few hours ago I was unfamiliar with Mat & Kim, its been some hours since and I’m hooked, Matt and Kim, a two person band from Brooklyn, New York formed in 2004 and released their self-titled debut album in 2006.  Their sound is hard to describe as it has  a bit of organized chaos, with a large emphasis on melody.

UNI | Land Of Kingz

Another Duo from Mountain Dews label “Green House Sound”, UNI are releasing another project “Land of Kingz”.  With this project the group brings in Live Instrumentation and broader concepts that show some maturity in their sound.

Slakah the Beat Child | Enjoy Yourself feat. Drake

I love this record,  definitely on a feel good tip reminiscent of Pete Rock and Slum Village .. “Slakah the Beat Child” a name if there ever was one definitely laces the track with a dope feature from Drake.

 

 Matt and Kim| Daylight [2:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 UNI | Land of Kings : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Slakah the Beat Child | Enjoy Yourself feat. Drake: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Toronto’s Jonathan Rome aka Big Scen  just released a new track featuring DJ Grouch and Heltkah Skeltah’s Sean Price.The beat produced by Pro Logic has great underground sound to it that I really enjoyed.

“Channeling the spirit of Biz Markie and the Fat Boys, BIG SCEN is bringing fat rap back in 2009.”
Big Scen myspace

The big man from T-Dot has humorous lyrics, a good vocal delivery and a playful slant to rhyming. He brings something that is sorely missing in Hip Hop….fun!

Will Big Scen be the one who puts Canada on map for most US Hip Hop fans? Probably not but he will give you a smile and something good to listen to.

 

 Broke As Fu*k (Radio version) - Big Scen ft. DJ Grouch & Sean Price [3:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Dear Readers & Supporters,

I wanted catch up with our readers new and old about our website. I feel like this website is a product of the community which frequents and invests their time with us and being so we owe you a shareholder’s update on our goals, ambitions and guiding principles. The start of this summer marks a year since we started to take this music blog seriously and being so, a good time for an update.

Firstly, I’ll tell you we are not a “hip hop blog”, however we are a site which has the ultimate goal of looking at the world of music through the lens of hip hop. We are striving to develop more of a regional identity and are on a path to tailoring the website to feature more Southern California artists & events. Unlike other blogs we are often compared to, we are not a music news & P.R. Wire. We don’t even claim to be experts, however we are a group of committed music aficionados which take pride and integrity in the music we recommend to the broader public.

Being so our glaring deficits in the content of the website are at least the need for one more stable Indie Hip Hop writer and a few from Dance/Electronica & Indie Rock/Progressive Rock as well. I’m asking you as the reader, if you know of anyone or are interested yourself please visit our Help Wanted page. We are also looking for people in web development, which will be able to help us offer new services and make this site more dynamic, I know there are a lot of skilled and ambitious young developers out there, contact us.

Our goal as a website is to increase visibility by 5-fold by this time next year, and being so we’ll need the help of the readers. All we need you to do is: subscribe via RSS, retweet, Facebook, Digg, and Delicious bookmark any content which you love. Contribute to the conversation, add your comments, no matter how wild. As a community, the more you as a reader get involved, the better this site will become.

We love to showcase innovative, cutting edge music, which carries a lot of integrity. However because of the nature of web blogs, we feel it is very important for us to stay on task with our original goals & ambitions, and stay true to what our modest but international readership which has learned to trust and invest their time in us. I’m not saying we’re always on point with our posts, we stumble quite often, but we keep going and striving towards these principles.

I hope you know a bit more about us, our website, goals & ambitions. I’m very glad and thankful to have you as reader. Feel free to reach out to us any time you’d like. With collaborative support from the readers, contributors, and editors; A year from now I’m confident we’ll have met our goals and continue moving forward.

Thanks again,
Gopi Sangha
Founder / Editor

Co-Signed by the Staff: Salim Mhunzi, Andrew Chun, Soham Patel, Hamza Umar & Julio Paz

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New Muslim Cool is documentary about Hamza Abdul Mumit Perez, emcee from group M Team (Mujahideen Team) and Wazir** of Jamaat of Uthman Dan Fodio in the US. It follows his life in Pennsylvania in where the Jamaat’s masjid (mosque) was raided by the FBI in 2006. (read the story HERE)

The masjid that is being raided in the trailer is Masjid Nur Uz Zamman named after shaykh uthman Dan fodio the head quarters of the Jammat of Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio For the whole united states
Hamza Perez

There will be a FREE screening of the documentary on Monday May 25th:

1:30pm - 5:30pm
WorldBeat Center
2100 Park Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92101

Hamza Perez himself will be there for Q & A session after the screening. However you must register beforehand to attend the screening. For more info and Registration:

Click Here

If you miss the screening no worries it is will be aired on June 23 on the PBS show P.O.V.. As well as be available for purchase online after June 23.

Watch the trailer below:

** Wazir comes from the Arabic verb Wazara. Which means to take on a responsibility or to carry a heavy load. It is usually translated as Minister.

 

 No Idle Threat - M Team [3:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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