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A couple of years ago Zilla put me up on this group called MAGr ("Major"), comprised of Al Mighty and DistantStarr, that he and Nico had begun collaborating with as part of their super group Rap Pack. Residing just across the river from Beat Garden's center of operations in Philly, the duo out of Camden, NJ, had signed a deal with a label over in Ireland. Though MAGr never managed to release an album under that label - I believe they've since been released from the deal - the experience wasn't a total loss, having hooked up with European producers Mike Slott and Hudson Mohawke as a result of their label affiliation and amassing a rather substantial back catalog that they've slowly been releasing piece by piece since then.

Last week, MAGr put out No News is Good News, a free album featuring everything from bass heavy boom bap to futuristic club joints courtesy of Hudson Mohawke. Though the duo are at their best on this album when doing their own thing - thankfully, as the majority of the production comes in-house from DistantStarr - or when backed by the aforementioned HudMo, there are a few noteworthy guest appearances: Fel Sweetenberg contributes an amazing beat on Tokyo Raul, Ethel Cee and Cymarshall Law drop verses for the indie hip hop heads, Clean Guns show up for the album's Rap Pack anthem and Blu drops a guest verse that should keep blog rap nerds happy. No News is Good News serves up consistently good hip hop throughout and, on a couple of occasions, has moments that are truly memorable.

Two of the best tracks from No News is Good News:

MAGr - Feste (produced by Hudson Mohawke)

MAGr featuring Zilla Rocca, Nico the Beast and 2ew Gunn - Rap Pack Outro

For those of you curious as to how MAGr hooked up with Blu, I asked their manager Dom P for details:

The Blu collab came about because I'm also a promoter and we booked a show with him. In booking it, we put it on the table that MAGr wanted to do a collab, and he was feeling their music, so he did the collab in person the afternoon before the show. Great experience.

For further info on MAGr's collaboration with Blu, Laminated Looseleafs, head on over to rockthedub.

So there you have it. Now go download the album!

Download Link for MAGr's No News is Good News (sharebee link)

Further Listening:
MAGr on 33Jones
MAGr on MySpace
DistantStarr's blog
No News is Good News on RockTheDub

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