Song of the Week - Cold World by GZA

I love the storytelling on this track. The lyrics do a great job of illustrating a scene in your mind, which is something I love in music.

The production also lends itself to the vibe really well. All the individual parts come together to create this kind of late night, lonely, mysterious vibe. It's almost reminiscent of a horror film.

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Song of the Week - You Never Knew by Hieroglyphics

I love basically everything about this song. The beat is amazing, the rhymes are tight and catchy as hell, and we get a whole bunch of amazing rappers on the same track. This, and a lot of Hieroglyphics/Souls of Mischief songs, just captures the perfect vibe for me. Just by listening you can tell they had fun every step of making it.

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Song of the Week - I Am Hip Hop by Jazz Liberatorz & Asheru

Just a good, catchy, song that serves as an homage to hip-hop and its culture.

The actual circumstances of the creation of the song are cool as well. It was recorded in Paris for the album Clin d'Oeil as a collab between French group Jazz Liberatorz who made the beats, and a bunch of different American rappers who wrote and rapped the lyrics.

This song, and the album as a whole, is just a sincere love letter to the medium of rap and a celebration of all the people and influences that made it what it is and I think that's really cool.

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Song of the Week - Mathematics by Mos Def

I love the concept of this song, every bar being presented in the context of math, numbers, and stats is really novel and I can't say I've seen anything quite like it before. His line delivery and rap flow is, as always, top-tier and really makes the cleverness of each line shine through. Mos Def is easily in my top 5.

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Song of the Week - Le Bien, Le Mal by Guru

This song's use of two different languages, french from MC Solarr and english from Guru is just such a cool concept and is executed expertly. This track is also just plain good, you can tell because I don't even understand french and I don't need to to realize that Solarr's verses are still great.

The entire album, Jazzmatazz, in general is just formed from a great idea, to mix jazz and hip-hop directly. It's no surprise that something like that would come from the mind of Guru, as Gang Starr helped to define jazz rap as we know it.

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Song of the Week - Make You Feel That Way by Blackalicious

I love listening to this song because it really accomplishes what it sets out to do. Every time I listen to it it's just wholesome fun vibes, it does make you "feel that way". The lyrics, while simple, are pleasant and Gift of Gab's delivery is excellent as always. Xcel does a great job on the production, especially the opening to the song which feels like a nice stretch after opening your curtains on a new day.

RIP Gift of Gab, genuinely one the best to ever do it.

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Song of the Week - Jazz (We've Got) by A Tribe Called Quest

Everything about this song is just so rhythmic and catchy. When this comes on, it's just impossible not to bob your head to the beat. The piano and snare really work so well together to make the beat bouncy, and the saxophone sample is just so soulful. It's really a great example of what makes a good jazz rap song.

Now, while not really relevant to this song in particular, I wanted to talk about how A Tribe Called Quest, and to a greater extent Zulu Nation and Native Tongues, really exemplify what hip-hop is truly about in my mind. It's about really speaking your mind through music. That is not to say that if a song is just catchy with no story or moral it's bad or wrong. What I'm trying to say is that, at its core, hip-hop is about getting your message out there, talking to the people, and expressing yourself, and I think that A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and similar groups really exemplify this, which is what I admire about them so much.

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Song of the Week - Born 2 Live by O.C.

When I first heard this song, I was convinced that the beat was sampled from a Pete Rock & CL Smooth song, and that's saying something. The chorus is really catchy and the song has a nice premise. It's overall just a nice listen. I will definitely be checking out some of O.C.'s other songs.

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Song of the Week - If I Had a Day to Live by Funky DL

I absolutely love the instrumental of this song and it's easily my favorite tracks off of Classic Was the Day. The way the saxophone swells paired along with the looping sampled vocals from Biggie, its just phenomenal production work. Not to mention the entire framing of the song which I also really enjoy. I really do believe that Funky DL is a super underrated producer and artist. In fact, he's still making great music today over 25 years later.

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Song of the Week - Just Begun by Reflection Eternal

I actually found this song pretty recently, but I've been listening to it quite a bit. Between Mos Def, Jay Electronica, Talib Kweli, J. Cole, and Hi-Tek there is some serious talent behind this song.

Honestly there isn't much to dive into about the song, it's a really catchy track that has a bunch memorable lines that I can find myself rapping absent-mindedly.

Don't usually listen to J. Cole but thought his verse was good.

Click on the song name to listen on various platforms (including YouTube where you can listen for free)