I had heard of and found out about Earl Sweatshirt through my minor glances and downloads of his brother and group member/leader Tyler The Creator. After a short search I had found sites praising Earl Sweatshirt’s debut Earl; I am completely with the reviews regarding the brilliance of this short album. Earl’s debut is awesome. My only gripe is the short length, but regardless of that minor issue I’m certain any fans of lo-fi boom bap style music will love this album. If you’re expecting some introspective style of music, you’re not going to get it here. Instead, you’ll be treated to a Kool Keith meets Eminem style album over grungy synth and hard drum breaks. Also, Earls group OFWGKTA, released this gem for FREE.

Of anything I EVER post on Lost Moniker for free, this album is not one to pass up. I’ve enjoyed this free album more than 90 percent of anything that’s came out in the passed two years. If you’re not convinced, listen to the Grooveshark links provided below (listen to Earl, Couch and Pigions), and then naturally because you have now been sold you will download it from the Megaupload link (also provided below).

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Posted by LostMoniker on March 29th, 2011 :: Filed under My Boombox: Fresh Hip Hop Videos, Music and Downloads
Tags :: boom bap, earl, earl sweatshirt, lo-fi, odd future, odd future wolf gang kill them all, OFWGKTA, tyler the creator

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“If every nigga in your clique is rich your clique is rugged, Nobody would fall cause everyone would be each others crutches”

Yup. Jay-Z is apart of my collection of articles that take a look at unheard-of and underrated Hip Hop albums. Am I crazy? Probably, but really, Reasonable Doubt is a brilliant masterpiece that does not get the recognition it deserves. In many ways, Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt is an underground classic, whilst also being the album that propelled Jay-Z to success; unlike most artists, Jay-Z did not take the major label route until later in his career, even turning down a contract from Payday records, and instead started his own label. Reasonable Doubt is the result of this. I guess in some ways it’s ironic to talk about this album now in the context of an unheard of album, but it got slept on by many people who weren’t outside the New York scene when it was released, and by a lot of heads who only know of new-school Jay-Z. In other words, this album IS successful in many ways, but is not nearly as well known as Jay’s subsequent releases or even held in the same regards to a lot of people.

What Makes This Album So Unique?

Lyrically I consider this one of Jay-Z’s finest outings. Arguably you could say that Jay’s structure in terms of rhyme-schemes is lacking in some cases, but the smooth cadence and intricate lyricism make it hard to linger on any sort of structural issues that Jay-Z has from time to time on this album.

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Posted by LostMoniker on March 16th, 2011 :: Filed under Under The Covers: Hip Hop Obscurities
Tags :: Big Jaz, Can I live, Clark Kent, D'Evils, dj premier, Feeling It, Jay-Z, Reasonable Doubt, Regrets, Sauce Money

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I hate making filler articles such as this one, but it’s been a slow couple of weeks! I know, I know… I should be keeping up! Butttttttttt… I’m busy with mid-terms and projects for school at the moment, so I’ve been taking a back seat to updating and posting! However, I AM working on a bunch of big articles and have a lot of other tutorials pending for later times, but in the meantime, be sure to check out all the Mobile-Minute posts and Under The Cover’s articles if you haven’t already! Otherwise, keep checking back; next week is when I’ll be rolling out more tutorials, more reviews and of course, more commentary! In the meantime, I’m listening to this new group H.I.S.D.’s album The Weakend, and definitely plan to have a review of that brilliant album sometime this month!

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Posted by LostMoniker on March 10th, 2011 :: Filed under Moniker's Minute
Tags :: H.I.S.D., Slow week, the weakend

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Sampling is a fundamental component in Hip-Hop; sampling is also one of the most controversial elements too. While in recent times producers are resorting to their own instrumentation to craft the sound of their production, sampling still remains as one of the most prominent ways to create beats.

Many people argue that sampling destroys the original intent of whatever has been sampled, and while that CAN be the case, in many circumstances it follows the pattern of a classical hip hop ideology: take something from a song and turn it into your own. Just as Kool Herc started by looping breaks, producers take samples from other songs and turn them into their own.

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Posted by LostMoniker on March 1st, 2011 :: Filed under LM's Mobile Minute,Moniker's Minute
Tags :: beautiful, classic, emotion, sampling

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