Mixtape Monday: Benny The Butcher x DJ Green Lantern, Statik Selektah, KXNG Crooked + More
This Mixtape Monday we go back into the booth with a handful of MC's and producers serving up plenty of heat for the winter months.
Benny The Butcher and DJ Green Lantern juice up the track with Butcher On Steroids. Statik Selektah teams with Curren$y, Run The Jewels, 2 Chainz, The LOX, Joey Bada$$ and more to drop jewels on 8. KXNG Crooked tackles the "Red Empire" on Good vs. Evil 2, Retch is Still Up and Soul Group Universe serves Soul Food.
Bringing up the rear this week, $wipe takes a quick trip down i95. Tobe Nwigwe puts on for Southwest Alief, Texas with Tobe From The SWAT, The Fifth Estate is Stuck In The 90s and if anyone asks, QThree is Already Dead.
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Benny The Butcher x DJ Green Lantern - Butcher On Steroids
Griselda Records’ own Benny The Butcher teams with DJ Green Lantern to drop Butcher On Steroids. The 13-track tape is a gutter opus that boasts production from Green Lantern, Daringer, Noc, Camouflage Monk, Trypps Beatz and IceRocks. Conway and El Camino account for the features.
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Statik Selektah - 8 [Preview]
Statik Selektah follows the Run The Jewels assisted single “Put Jewels On It” with a 6-track preview of his new 8 LP. The teaser for the 15-track project features the aforementioned single as well as features from The LOX, 2 Chainz, Joey Bada$$ and Wiz Khalifa amongst others.
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Soul Group Universe - Soul Food
Queens collective Soul Group Universe recently dropped the aptly titled Soul Food mixtape. Decidedly more gritty than the Goodie Mob classic of the same name, the 10-track project from MCs Star, 808, Saj, and Chello is a raw snapshot of street life in New York City.
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$wipe - i95 EP
Rising Philly spitter $wipe hits the interstate on the 5-track self-produced i95 EP. Throwing back to trunk tapes, $wipe drops a collection packed with raw imagery and very little polish. The magic is in the sample selection, which leans heavily on 90s r&b, and $wipe’s straight off the block flow.
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KXNG Crooked - Good Vs. Evil 2: The Red Empire
Almost one year after the inauguration of Donald Trump, KXNG Crooked takes on “The Red Empire” on the socially charged Good Vs. Evil 2 project.
“When I first started creating Good Vs Evil I wondered how I would get my audience to listen to a project covering social injustice, racism, classism etc. in a climate where most rappers are making music about poppin' Xanax and drinking lean” Crooked commented. “My immediate afterthought was who gives a fuck what other artists are doing, Hip-Hop needs this album! Look at the world today. We have a president whose ex-wife is on record saying she was raped by him. We have police officers who are on film killing unarmed citizens with no consequences. We have entire cities like Flint, MI drinking poisonous water. Good Vs Evil 2 is just as necessary as part one. From the production to the content to the music sequencing to the artwork everything is designed to provoke thought. And the shit slaps too!”
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The Fifth Estate - Stuck In The 90s
El Paso native The Fifth Estate puts on for the Lonestar State with Stuck In The 90s. The 16-track mixtape is a hyper melodic collection of joints that showcase The Fifth Estate’s pen game. The mix is packed with Easter Eggs that throwback to sounds from A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan, Kanye West and more. One Man Jazz assists on cuts while Theloneliest Monk contributes on trumpet.
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Tobe Nwigwe - Tobe From The SWAT
Southwest Alief, Texas native Tobe Nwigwe drops a candid 10-track autobiography with the release of Tobe From The SWAT. Spitting with the passionate drawl of K.R.I.T. and the swag of Daddy Fat Sacks, Tobe dresses down industry fakes and takes listeners through the highs and lows of his life over production that combines the slab with the trap.
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Spazzy D - Nothing To See Here
Naptown representative Ashton Mallory aka Spazzy D represents for the rising MC’s with the Nothing To See Here EP. Pouring his heart out over hazy trunk beats, he drops track after track of real life rhymes on the follow-up to the 2016 Free EP. With a flow that channels Kendrick Lamar and production the proves his versatility, Spazzy D is spitting for the long haul.
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Retch - Still Up
Jersey’s own Retch returns from a brief hiatus to take fans out for a spin with Still Up. The 8-track project finds Retch buoyed by the lead single “Run Up Them Racks” and spitting like he never left, despite shaking off a recent bid. The beats are still ominous and Retch is still rapping without a filter.
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QThree x Foozy - Already Dead
Baked Recordings’ own QThree teams with Foozy on the Already Dead tape. The 9-track score for the bruisers and basement dwellers is way too grimy. QThree spends the bulk of the project crapping on the nominees with a flow that is solid and relentless across a collection of industrial boom-bap tracks. Features include production from EARDRUM and Wiles Martyr, and bars from Javan.
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Karas Lamb writes and digs for tunes you haven’t heard yet. She actually wants to listen to your mixtape. Follow her on Twitter @karaslamb or Instagram @blamblamkaraslam.