A signee to DJ Khaled’s We the Best/Def Jam imprint, Ace Hood is riding the shockwaves from the success of “Overtime” with a brand-new single, “Loco Wit the Cake.” Ace Hood shows off his flamboyant lifestyle (“Spend 30 in the mall/Five cars sitting tall”) over a treacherous Schife beat. “Loco Wit the Cake” reveals that the cards are in Ace Hood’s favor. If you like the track, check out the album.
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Group Therapy is the project of Crooked I and King Tech, who work together (the former on the mic, the latter on production) honing skills and verses over claustrophobic live beats dotted with heavy synths and guitar arpeggios. Crooked I rallies against hip-hop’s current state, decrying the auto-tune (“unless it’s T-Pain”) and ringtone jams. But this cut is more than a “back in the day” ode to old-school. Group Therapy takes things forward with its dark minimalism and righteous anger.
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Long Beach and Compton command attention as West Coast rap epicenters, but Jay Rock is here to put Watts on the map. The rapper caught fire through underground mixtapes and the Lift Me Up EP before blowing up with “All My Life in the Ghetto.” It’s a biographical tale of Jay Rock’s come-up inside and outside his native Nickerson Gardens projects. Backed by sweet strings and a sung hook, “All My Life” stacks up nicely against Biggie’s “Juicy” and the Game’s “Hate It or Love It,” but with an upgrade: Lil Wayne drops a sick, 16-bar cosign.
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The cascading synths remind us of Kraftwerk, while the slow-paced drums exude hip-hop swagger. Paper Route’s MCs do their part, too — spitting clever braggadocio between choruses that call to mind Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em (“Ohhh!”). The result is something you can lean and rock with. If you like the track, check out a capella version.
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SLO-O skates over a classic Dr. Dre-style production with his crisp, laid-back flow. The San Francisco newcomer’s hazy tale about grinding on sleepless streets takes on added drama thanks to strings that sweep across a hypnotic keyboard riff. The song’s title references Eldridge Cleaver’s collection of essays and SLO-O proves he too has literary flare: “I walk with my soul on ice, on gasoline blocks, matchbook ready to strike, I’m trying to weave out.”
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Whether you’re 18 or older, you can’t vote in the presidential election if you’re not registered. Do what Sean Kingston did – register on-line at Declare Yourself, the national, nonpartisan youth voter campaign. It only takes a minute. Register. Vote. Declare Yourself.
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Check ‘em out on MySpace.
Free iTunes Download: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.