15 Jul
A new song produced by Lukalee featuring Shogunna, Mye-T and Jolly-V appropriately called “Collaboration” was recently released online. The beat is sick and has a great strings sample and each MC comes correct. The scratching it just icing on the cake. Plus it’s always dope to hear a female rock the mic and carry her own. I’m loving this track.
Credit: AHHT
25 Apr
Jin, arguably the most well-known Asian-American MC, decided to drop a track in tribute of all the Asian MC’s he respects that are doing their thing right now. This song is in response to a list that was published by a blogger on their top 10 Greatest Asian MC’s list, where Jin made the cut at #1. It’s encouraging to see Jin give a nod to his fellow colleagues, or as his once famously said in a Freestyle battle “cause Game recognize game”. He spits over the instrumental to Drake’s “It’s Over”.
Here’s the complete list of rapper’s he shouted out on the track. Ill.
11 Apr
Although Johnnyphlo debuted with a mini-album last year entitled The Notebook, he is making his first feature length album debut with his latest release, Basic Strategy. His mini-album was a very strong, albeit short, collection of songs that showed a lot of potential and promise for the relatively new artist. Though he’s spent a lot of time behind the scenes in music, only in more recent years has he stepped into the spotlight and he’s really had a strong start to his career since then. With the release of this album, the biggest question to be answered was whether he could sustain the quick pace of his artistic growth and development or would his progression stagnate? Looking at the track listing it’s clear that Johnny’s enlisted the help of a lot of other artists so let’s jump right in and see if all the work and collaboration paid off. Note: The album includes a couple re-releases from The Notebook, which I will not include in this review since I commented on them in the last one.
4 Feb
Hello folks, it’s that time again! We got another Weekly Thursday Freebie for you courtesy of Shogunna himself.
Shogunna has released a lot of the instrumentals from his Signed 2 The Streets. All the beats he’s released are produced by X-Facta. The production was definitely more than solid on this one so be sure to check it out. For all you beat heads out there, or any MC’s looking for some music to spit to, here’s a great collection for that mixtape you’ve been working on.
Don’t forget, Shogunna’s earlier work, including Signed 2 The Streets, was featured as a Weekly Thursday Freebie in the past and is still available! So you can always hear the finished product in addition to the beats.
Link after the break!
19 Jan
After thanking all his supporters at his album released party, Johnnyphlo goes on to announce that his debut full-length album ‘Basic Strategy‘ has been officially released today.
The album is on sale for $10 via paypal but 50% of the proceeds will go towards the relief efforts in Haiti. It will also be available via different online retailers in the near future.
Like I explain in the video blog, I’m going to donate 50% of my sales to Haiti. I’ve never been the type to really go out of my way to help the others around the world. I was always caught up in my own life and lives of those around me that I never bothered to look around to help those that’s really, really in need. With everything that’s happened for me for the past year or so, I just feel so blessed and felt like it was only right to give it back to the world, no matter how small it may be. Also to be honest, I did feel like it will motivate some of you to purchase the album to support the cause. It ain’t about the money. It’s more important to me that you listen to my music and I hope you can feel better knowing that part of what you pay for will go to help those in need!
If the album is as strong as the singles he’s dropped so far, it should be a great listen. We’ll have a review for you as well soon.
Tracklist after the jump:
20 Dec
Johnnyphlo’s has just announced the release date for his upcoming debut full-length album ‘Basic Strategy’. It’s all set to drop January 19th, 2010, nearly a year after the release of his mini-album ‘The Notebook‘. This time around he’s collaborated with a list of artists that reads like who’s who of all the top Asian American talent.
We’ve been informed that Ailee, Decipher, DJ Zo, EXP (aka Explicit Linez), James Ha, JL, Lyricks, Manifest, Sam Ock, Schoolboy DUKE, Shogunna, and Viruss 44 are all on the album! A couple of the tracks have been released already like ‘One of the Best‘ and ‘‘Too Late‘ but it seems like there’s a lot more to look forward to.
JP is also holding an album release party in NY, so if you’re in the area you can find out more details at his site.
15 Oct
Yo a-Tunes readers! I know I’ve missed the past couple weeks of WTF due to my vacation but I’m back with a new one for you today courtesy of Asian Rap Worldwide. ARW has posted up their first release, ‘The LS Mixtape’. This compilation album is dedicated to none other than LS, a veteran asian american MC who was part of the early movement but has since left the music scene a few yrs back.
Read what ARW posted about the mixtape including the dialogue w/ LS himself:
I’m very proud to announce that Asian Rap Worldwide has just released its very first mixtape called The LS Mixtape!! The LS mixtape features 12 songs from LS, a Chinese-American rapper from New York that rapped about his life experiences in the streets of New York’s Chinatown. He was coming up in the rap game around the same time when Asian-American rappers such as Jin, Chan and Shogunna were also coming up. That was in the early millenium which marked the beginning stages of an Asian-American hip hop movement, which LS was a part of. If you haven’t heard any new songs from LS lately, that is because LS is not rapping anymore (or at least is putting his rapping on hold for a while). LS explains it all in this the email he sent to me:
Wuts good Royal? Sorry bout the delay, after i got out the hospital n all i had to catch up on mad shit but i didn’t forget about you… i appreciate the luv fam… i juss wanna let you kno that, i haven’t been in the game for a minute now… it seems my time has come and gone… it’s funny because when i was younger i had dreams of making it big but i never thought it could ever happen… then when it really did start happening n things started to take off it kinda took me by surprise because it was happening so fast and i didn’t really kno what to do with it, all the visions i was having was coming tru but i wasn’t really taking it that seriously when i should of been… but thats how life is sumtimes… whether i decide to pursue music again or not i could say say that i’ve definitely made my mark… even with the limited amount of songs that i put out there, i’m still arguably one of the best asian american artist that did it… it was definitely fun while it lasted and who knows, maybe i’ll pick up the mic again n show these niggas wuts up lol… HOLLA AT THE KID!
-LSWell… you heard it straight from LS. Now about the mixtape. The LS Mixtape is a mix of some originals, some covers over instrumental beats and some collaborations with other Asian rappers.
The mixtape also features Jin, Jay Chou, Shogunna, Chan, Rook, Young Mac, Thai Streets, South Star, FM, & Ailee. You can check out the back cover, tracklisting & download link after the jump. Thanks to ARW for putting this one together!
27 Aug
This marks a special edition of Weekly Thursday Freebies as we are presenting what is hoped to be the first of many releases to come in a series uncreatively titled ‘a-Tunes Mix’. In short, the a-Tunes Mixes are going to be digital mixtapes comprised of music released by Asian/Asian-American artists here in the states. These mixes should fit on a standard 80 min CD when burned and/or play on the media player of your choice.
The main purpose of this project is to promote artists you wouldn’t normally hear in mainstream media and increase their exposure because they truly do deserve it. In no way are these mixes meant to undermine or serve as a substitution to actually supporting these artists by buying their music. In fact, it is meant to encourage all of you to find new artists you really enjoy and show your support. That being said, if there any artist(s) or members of their staff who are reading this and object to their inclusion, then please let me know (giftedthought at gmail) and I will respectfully leave you out of future releases.
Now, with all the information and disclaimers out of the way… a-Tunes is proud to present the ‘a-Tunes Mix Vol. 1: Summer Break’. I know the summer season is rapidly winding down, and many of you will find yourselfs back at your fine educational institutions soon (if you haven’t already). However, that doesn’t mean we still can’t appreciate some fun, catchy music. All the songs included on this mix were released in roughly the past yr (given a couple exceptions), and are light and infectious enough to simpley relax and enjoy like it’s summer break all over again.
You can find the tracklist, links to the artists, and link to DL all after the jump!
20 Aug
Wow, time flies… it’s another Weekly Thursday Freebie (It’s already the 18th one!).
But all the credit for this one goes to the good fellas over at Urban Azn. They are the ones that compiled this hip-hop mixtape together for your listening pleasure.
A compilation album of the most prominent Asian rappers in hip hop, War For Respect focuses on the street life that many of us are dealing with today. The album is free for download and promotional uses, hit the jump for details on the album.
The mixtape features Jin, Decipher, Mondega, Shogunna, Rookadamus, Flowsik, Reign Era, Roscoe Umali, Thai, Chan, LS, Yung Mac, & Chuckie Akenz. Some of the songs are pretty dated but the project gives a fair representation on the numerous street singles by Asian-American/Candian Hip-Hop artists over the past few years. The cover art borders between a stylized cool and excessive to the point of cheesy but that doesn’t detract from the fact it’s a pretty good collection of tracks.
You can find the back cover w/ the tracklisting and link for DL after the jump!
6 Aug
Welcome back to another Weekly Thursday Freebie. This week we have last summer’s hit hop-hop single ‘About That Money’ featuring Flowsik, Decipher, Shogunna & Reign Era. It’s a pretty hot collab, though not as nice as the more recent ‘One of the Best‘ in my opinion.
In case you missed the original post, you can check the MV below:
If you’re interested you can dl the MV and song after the jump!
Download the FREE a-Tunes Mix Vol. 1: Summer Break!
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