
Theophilus London - I Want You

Poor Righteous Teachers - The New World Order

Diggy - Past Presents Future

Smoothe Da Hustler - Once Upon A Time In America

John Murphy - Armored Soundtrack
Hip-Hop and Other Items of Interest









Plies - The Real Testament [2007]

Portishead - Third [2008]
"Whole Foods" is a mixtape featuring some of the highlights of Andre 3000's career to date. Oddly, the album does not include any material from the debut Outkast album, Southernplayalisticadillalmuzik. Most of the selection is mellow and laid-back.
A solid album. It really doesn't sound four years old. It sounds like it could have been produced in today's (underground hip-hop) soundscape. About three weeks ago, I purchased his most recent release ("The IV Edition"), but hadn't yet listened to it. After hearing "Shades of Grey," I will certainly move Braille's new material to the top of my "to do" list.
I am a fan of Lupe Fiasco's lyricism and Fahrenheit mixtape series. "It Was Written" lived up to his reputation. As I expected, there were solid guest appearances (Jay-Z, Nas, Kanye West, Naledge, Evidence, Ghostface and more).
I took it back on this one. I remember coming across a Chill Rob G video or two back in the day, but I didn't know that much about him. While checking out this album, I did a little research and learned that he was in the Flavor Unit with Queen Latifah. (I had no idea.) Most of the album was produced by Mark the 45 King (who also produced songs for Rakim, Queen Latifah, Gang Starr, Biz Markie, MC Lyte, Jay-Z ("Hard Knock Life"), and Eminem ("Stan")).
I am surprised that Trae doesn't get more national attention. It amazes me that he failed to garner that attention when Houston was the temporary center of Hip-Hop's world a couple of years ago. 2004's "Same Thing Different Day" and 2006's "Restless" were strong albums, but for some reason Trae seemed to remain in the shadows of other Houston MCs such as Paul Wall, Slim Thug, Lil Flip and Chamillionaire.
This is an extremely short CD with only 12 tracks. Moreover, only two songs exceed 4 minutes in length, with three more songs falling in at 3-4 minutes in length. No major highlights here. The vocoder voice box toy of the year shows up on a couple of tracks. Also, Jeezy raps over Lil Wayne's Lollipop beat.