Clean Guns and Beat Garden Entertainment - The Yadibox.com Mixtape:
Over the weekend, my man Zilla Rocca laced me with the newest mixtape from Beat Garden Entertainment, the Philly-based hip hop collective that has been laying the blueprint on how to succeed as independent artists in the digital age. Over the past year and a half, Zilla and his label have been an almost inescapable presence in the world of Internet hip hop, releasing a constant stream of music that has, more often than not, far surpassed the quality of the commercialized rap that has dominated the mainstream airwaves. This latest tape, released in conjunction with Yadibox.com, is no exception, loaded with bangers from start to finish.
It's reminiscent of the mixtapes of old, the kind of tape Tony Touch used to put out, where it sounds like someone just brought a microphone to a cipher and left the tape player on record while a bunch of emcees dropped rhymes just for the sake of rhyming. Their love for hip hop is evident throughout, and it's a refreshing change from a lot of the other mixtapes that have come out in the past year, where the featured artists often sound like rapping is just their day job. It's not all about the lyricism, though, and there's a pretty wide variety of beats on here with some new production alongside classic beats jacked from Liquid Swords, The Chronic and The Black Album.
In a lot of ways, Beat Garden is shaping up as a 21st Century version of the hip hop crews that were running the 90's, like Wu-Tang and Boot Camp. They've got a bunch of emcees, all with their own style, all with a seemingly endless supply of rhymes. I've been genuinely excited watching their development, and there aren't a whole lot of groups out there, signed or unsigned, that I can say that about.
With twenty six tracks on the tape, I had a hard time choosing which ones to highlight. The three that follow are a pretty good representation of what you can expect from the rest of the mixtape. The first one I'm putting up features Clean Guns and DAME freestyling over GZA's Shadowboxin' beat:
The bitrate on all three of these tracks is significantly lower than the official versions, so cop the mixtape to hear them in all their 256kbps glory. You can purchase the cd and/or download the mp3s for the Yadibox.com mixtape over at CD Baby. Consider it a six dollar investment in the future of Philly hip hop.
At some point in the very near future (tomorrow?) I'll be putting up an interview with one of the groups featured on the mixtape, Triple Nickels. In the meantime, you can hear more from the entire Beat Garden massive over at their website. And if you haven't gotten your fill of Zilla Rocca, he's got another new track up at 215hiphop.com.
1/29/2007 08:00:01 PM posted by Fresh
Comments:
I think I said this the last time you posted one of their mixtapes, but I really like this kid Ask. His style just sounds different from what everyone else is doing, dope. The other two songs were nice too, I'm surprised more cats haven't jumped on those liquid swords beats.
1/30/2008 6:44:15 AM posted by Will I Am
@Wax: Haven't heard from you in a minute! Good to see you're still checking in from time to time.
@Will: I think ASK also did the artwork for the tape. He's got some nice beats on his myspace page, check it out if you haven't already.
Speaking of the liquid swords beats, there was an instrumental version of the album going around the internet about a month ago. Anyone still have a link to that? I'm kind of regretting not grabbing it when I had the chance...
1/30/2008 10:00:17 AM posted by fresh
I need to hear more triple nickels. I been a fan since RBGeeZ. MOG is a lyrical genius. You guys chose some songs that were okay but triple nickels be saying some stuff. I growing to like clean guns, too-don't get it twisted. The yadibox site is the site of the future. Keep banging hip-hop and staying true to the game.
1/30/2008 2:43:56 PM posted by Miss Jones
@DAME: Most of our visitors are notoriously shy, so don't expect a whole lot of commentary from them. They are definitely listening, though. Thanks for coming through.
@Miss Jones: Check back in the next day or two, I'll have some more RBGeez tracks up before the weekend. (Nice name, btw!)
1/30/2008 6:41:42 PM posted by fresh
I remember seeing the GZA instrumentals on a few blogs before Christmas but they seem to have been taken down. UGHH has a vinyl version of it for sale ---> http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=GEN125LP
But back to the matter at hand...some real good music here. The Puttin on the Ritz song is the best of the three. The hook on it gave me a bad 80's flashback but otherwise it's real dope.
sign these dudes now. this mixtape is one of the best I've heard in a long time. not filled with a bunch of "my bullets hurt more than your bullets" sh*t that become the industry template. it features banger after banger after banger. my fav's PREPARE FOR GLORY, PUT IT ONNA RITZ, NICO'S THEME AND P-H-I-L-A. anything with that kid ASK? is special.
1/31/2008 12:24:19 PM posted by PR
Beat Garden stocked witta bunker fulla lyricists. Dope emcee's. Real emcee's. Put it on the ritz my new anthem.
2/2/2008 11:12:35 PM posted by Travis
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