NY emcee Emilio Rojas is typically at his best when he gets on some story telling shit, and his tales tend to be deep. One of the best examples of this was his 2010 track “Sympathy For The Devil,” which appeared on his mixtape, The Natural. Today, he continues the story with “Sympathy For The Devil II (Diablo),” which has Emilio once again telling a gripping tale over !llmind‘s production. No Shame… No Regrets is coming soon.

>>>Download

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That hard hitting !llmind beat has all kinds of club playing potential, so it’s only fitting that Skyzoo takes it right there for his new video, “Give It Up.” !llmind lays that boom-trap sound while DJ Prince comes through to assist on the bars, watch below. Video directed by Alex Ghassan. Skyzoo’s sophomore album, A Dream Deferred, is in stores today, with features from Jill Scott, Freeway, Talib Kweli, Raheem DeVaughn, and more.

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From Brooklyn to Bangkok, Torae takes it international to put the beats on bootleggers (word to Pac) with his latest video “What It Sound Like.” The track features Pav Bundy with !llmind on the production, and can be found on Tor’s last LP, For The Record. Video directed by Todd Angkasuwan.

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After the early 2012 release of his last mixtape, Breaking Point, NY emcee Emilio Rojas is reloading and getting ready to drop another project soon. We don’t have a title, release date, or leak from the tape as of yet, but he did link up with !llmind to give us this hard hitting loosie today, “Ride Around Slow.” Expect more music and details on the tape soon.

>>>Download

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With Skyzoo‘s sophomore LP, A Dream Deferred, just weeks away with an October 2nd release date via The Faculty Inc./Duck Down Music, the BK lyricist drops single number two on us today. Sky gets up with DJ Prince and !llmind for “Give It Up.” !llmind laces the track with his new signature “boom-trap” sound and Sky and Prince handle the rest – turn the bass UP. Other features on A Dream Deferred include Jill Scott, Freeway, Talib Kweli, Raheem DeVaughn, and more with !llmind, Jahlil Beats, 9th Wonder, Black Milk, and more on the beats.

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Skyzoo really put together a great project, with his 2011 releas, The Great Debater. So I’m glad to see he’s still churning out videos off the release to this day. The latest vid, is one of the cuts off the retail extended version of the tape, The Great Debater-Revisited. Check the visuals for the !llmind produced joint “Rocket Science.” Video directed by Anthony Sylvester.

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Because everything about Torae’s (official) debut LP screams old school quality, from the needle hitting the wax on the cover to the production credits that read like a who’s who of boom bap: Pete Rock, DJ Premier, 9th Wonder, Large Professor, Diamond D, plus the next generation represented by Marco Polo, Illmind and others. If you close your eyes, you’ll be able to imagine what most of For The Record sounds like: heavy drums and soulful samples that are made to get necks snapping and fists pumping in the air. Primo does his thing on “For The Record”, Pete Rock turns in a classic on “That Raw” while 9th’s work on “Shakedown” is a master class in simplicity. A special mention should also go to Illmind’s “What It Sound Like,” a grimy number that hits particularly hard.

Torae himself is blessed with a warm flow which he switches up to deliver sharp verbal jabs (for the record, he’s “not for the fuckery”) and slows down to show his sensitive side (on the yes, classic, slow jam “Over You”). He’s so old school that he reserves as much of his ire for that new-fangled Twitter thing as his rivals: “You can send shots with hash tags, I’ma send my shots back with the pistol.” That’s Torae in a nutshell – representing the traditions of hip hop’s golden age (even the name of his own record label is a shout out to Pharoahe Monch) but fresh with it too.

If it all sounds familiar, well, it doesn’t make it any less effective. For the Record is the sound of a sharp MC rhyming over some dope beats from some of the best producers in the scene. If that doesn’t make it a classic record, I don’t know what is.

- Will Georgi

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This past summer, BET kicked off their Bars on Deck freestyle cypher segment right here in DUMBO, Brooklyn at PNC Radio. !LLMIND supplied the beat while Oddisee, Das Racist, Final Outlaw, Homeboy Sandman, and Blu passed the mic around.

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New Jersey emcee A.P. aka All Profit aka Apply Pressure hits us today with his latest video “All I Seen.” !llmind handles the production while A.P. pours his soul over the beat.The video was directed by Rik Cordero, and the song appeared on the soundtrack to Rik’s ’09 indie film, Inside A Change.

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Now that his Penny Freestyle Series is all wrapped up, Skyzoo has re-released his project, The Great Debater. The Great Debater Revisited is available now on iTunes (for just $7.99) and comes with 4 new bonus cuts. Today, we get to listen to one of them, the !llmind produced song, “Rocket Science.” NYC: catch Sky tonight performing live at the SoHo Apple Store (more info here).

Skyzoo “Rocket Science” (Produced By !llmind) by duckdown

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