NAS - "THE DON"

Here's Nas with another drop, continuing to raise expectations for upcoming tenth album, "Life is Good". Esco comes back still in the old-skool steez he's been sporting of late, but this time on a ragga tip (shouts to SL2), assumedly a result of working with Damian Marley on the "Distant Relatives" project. The track was produced by frequent collaborator Salaam Remi, Da Internz and, apparently the late Heavy D.

Rap-reggae tracks are notoriously bad ideas (remember when KRS went rap-reggae? with Shabba Ranks?), but this is pretty cool though - Nas sounds hungry. Gets especially interesting when the beat switches up a bit. More of that please.

"Life is Good" is due out later this year.



- FBZY

J'LYNN - "MONA LISA" FEAT. KENDRICK LAMAR

Found this little treat in my inbox this morning, like a toy in the bottom of a soul-food cereal box - it's J'Lynn's (@LynnandLearn) "Mona Lisa" featuring Kendrick Lamar, with nice production by Miami-based DJ and producer Dashius Clay. The blissed-out soul loops and rapid-fire cadence give this track an overall vibe reminiscent of Camp Lo (big shout out to 1997) - and that's no bad thing. Dashius is actually quite a funny dude - check out his interview over at MetroSeeker ("bald so hard"). Good to hear sample-based hip-hop is still thriving, what with everyone else rhyming over Greek dance music from 1992.