What do you get when you mix a whole lot of Southern and Midwest hip-hop and some fond memories of the Nintendo Entertainment System?  You get a fella by the name of Tugboat who has alot of talent and a whole lot of time on his hand.  I’m not gonna type much more because the proof is in the pudding.  The tracklist is below.  Just be ready to grin like an idiot at the skills shown.

Jay-Z – “Dirt Off Your Shoulders”
T.I. – “What You Know”
Chamillionaire – “Ridin”
Ludacris – “What’s Ya Fantasy”
Bonecrusher – “Neva Scared”
Twista f/ Kanye West – “Overnight Celebrity”
Ludacris – “Move Bitch”
Lil’ Jon – “Get Low”
Kanye West – “Gold Digger”

Yeah the song’s old, so what?  I’m sure Aeon felt the same way when he decided to take this and give it a fresh nip / tuck.  Mind you, he didn’t take the proper acapella and just lay it over an instrumental.  He decided to do it the hard way.  Aeon went in, tweaked levels and layered shit to make this happen.  This is “super duty tuff work” (c) Kase, Wild Style.  It gives it a great, kinda mystic effect (you can hear elements of the original beat if you listen close).  I don’t know if that was intentional or not.  What I do know is that I wanna sip a rum punch on a spaceship now.  Big ups to the homie for sending this gem over (previously only for stream on his blog).

DOWNLOAD | Kanye West – “Stronger (Aeon’s Deep On the Beach Remix)”

FINALLY!  Remember the Kanye West / Plain Pat Can’t Tell Me Nothin’ mixtape that dropped way back when?  And the criminally-short snippet of this song that Yeezy threw on there?  Well, since 88‘s The Death of Adam is dropping very soon, you gotta drum up some kinda excitement, right?  If the Adam’s Case Files mixtape didn’t wake you up (which I don’t see how it couldn’t), then this will. 

Big ups to Decon for setting this free.  It knocks.  And it’s honestly one of the best Kanye verses I’ve heard in a minute.  I hope you have some bass handy.

DOWNLOAD | 88 Keys f/ Kanye West – “Stay Up (Viagra)”

It’s videos like this that keep my attention.  No cars, no half naked women, no large groups of people making pseudo-threatening gestures at the camera.  Just plain ol’ fun and creativity.  The one and only Hype Williams is the man behind this.  By the way, the crazy pixelation is intentional. 

It almost makes me wanna break out my old Atari 7800 and Apple //c.  I was never a big Space Invaders fan but I was Donkey Kong ALL DAY.  I’m also posting this because I was fortunate enough to catch the Glow In the Dark Tour this past Tuesday @ MSG.  I’m STILL blown away by what I saw.  Enjoy.

Remember the whispers of Fonzworth Bentley dropping a solo album?  It was to be called C.O.L.O.U.R.S. (Cool Outrageous Lovers of Uniquely Raw Style).  Those whispers got louder when this song, “Everybody,” dropped over two years ago.  A fresh-to-death collabo joint w/ ‘Ye, Andre 3 Stacks and the always-futuristic Sa-Ra.  I remember playing this over and over the first day I found it.  Folks were like “Wow, Fonz can spit a lil’ somethin.”  And then…nothing. 

I still have no idea what’s up w/ the project.  But today I come across this and it made my day.  A video for “Everybody.”  You can never go wrong w/ choreographed black tie affair.  So maybe there’s a glimmer of hope that this album will finally drop after all.  I’m ready for more.  Oh, you want the MP3 too?  Look below.  You’re welcome. 

DOWNLOAD | Fonzworth Bentley f/ Andre 3K, Kanye West & Sa-Ra – “Everybody”

Beatsmith 88-Keys has an album dropping this October (executive produced by Kanye West) called The Death of Adam, which revolves around one main theme:  SEX.  And who the hell doesn’t like sex?

I’ve been anxiously waiting for this album ever since he started hyping it up over on the Okayplayer boards.  This mixtape, Adam’s Case Files, is an appetizer to hold you over until the album hits the shelves.  88 is probably one of the more slept-on producers in the game.  I’m glad he’s finally getting a chance to rock w/ his own solo.  So I expect nothing but greatness.  Download this immediately.

TRACKLIST:
01 A Happy Ending?
02 Fibs f/ Grafh
03 Wasting My Minutes f/ Kid Cudi    
04 21 & Over f/ Big Sean   
05 Deal Breakers f/ Fonzworth Bentley   
06 Typical Maury f/ Izza Kizza    
07 Quit Playing f/ Serius Jones   
08 True Feelings  
09 Cuddle Bums f/ Tanya Morgan
10 Just LIKE A Man f/ Guilty Simpson  
11 Young, Dumb & Full of…    
12 Outro

DOWNLOAD | 88-Keys – Adam’s Case Files (mixtape)

(click here for for a larger, clearer image)

This is just something that I find kinda cool that Kanye posted on his blog.  Yeezy received a very nice email from one Tinker Hatfield complimenting one of the recent Glow In the Dark shows. 

If you are unfamiliar, Mr. Hatfield is a world-renown designer responsible for the creation of some of Nike’s most successful sneaker models.  Namely some of my all-time favorites — the Air Max, Air Safari and Huarache lines to name a few.  However, one of his most notable contributions to Nike’s Innovation Kitchen is probably the Air Jordan III, one of the most successful pieces in the Jordan collection.

What I love the most about this is just the proof of how closely the art and music worlds can intertwine from an aesthetic point-of-view.  They are two of the most powerful things in the universe in my opinion.  And it’s great to see one of the masters of one field give props to one of the masters of the other.  Being an artist / designer myself, it’s very uplifting and inspiring.

I’m saving this quote forever:  “Art is a worthy pursuit, but I think design is an even higher form of creativity.  Design fuses art and science, or art and problem solving, or art and usefulness, sometimes all the above in the same project.” 

Yes I know this song is pretty much old at this point.  But if something dope, it’s dope.  Plain and simple.  Shoutout to Chuck P (of the Steel Town Sounds crew) for sending me this remix he did of one of my favorite tracks on Graduation, “Barry Bonds.”  This beat goes harder than an alcoholic rhino afterwork.

DOWNLOAD | Kanye West f/ Lil’ Wayne – Barry Bonds (Chuck P remix)