New shit from Immortal Technique, Ill Bill & J-Live soon!

Over the next couple of weeks there will be some highly anticipated underground Hip Hop coming out. This year has been pretty good to us so far. That new Roots album (Rising Down) is hot. The Gnarles Barkley album (Odd Couple) was no disappointment either. And with Nas (The N - formerly N*gger) and Common (Invincible Summer) about to release new albums soon, 2008 is looking pretty nice. On the underground tip, the game ain't been slackin' neither. Kidz in the Hall (The In Crowd) and 7L and Esoteric (Esoteric vs. Japan: Pterodactyl takes Tokyo) set it off proper. I suggest you go out and support your struggling independent artists and cop them joints early.

The next four weeks or so include some underground shit I've personally been anticipating for a long minute.



First off is J-Live who has a an album entitled Then What Happened? dropping May 27, 2008. J-Live has made this album available to listen to on his myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/jlive. I never been disappointed by any of his releases and it's been a good 3 years since The Hear After, so I'm definitely gonna cop. The album includes guest spots and production from the likes of Jazzy Jeff, DJ Spinna, Posdenous of De La Soul, Chali 2na and DJ Nu-Mark of Jurassic 5, Evil Dee of Da Beatminerz, Nicolay, Marco Polo, Probe DMS, Yallzee, Locsmif, Kenny Keys, Cap D and Usef Dinero. Yeah. Behemoth.



Second, Non-Phixion alum and La Cocka Nostra co-founder, Ill Bill is set to release his second full album since his 2004 album What's Wrong with Bill? on June 17, 2008.
It will be called The Hour of Reprisal and will feature B-Real of Cypress Hill, Darryl Jenifer, Everlast and Slaine of La Coka Nostra, H.R., HERO, Howard Jones of Killswitch Engage, Jedi Mind Tricks, Max Cavalera of Soulfly, Mike Shinoda of Fort Minor and Linkin Park, Ill Bill's brother Necro, Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan, Tech N9ne and Immortal Technique. Sounds like it's gonna be a dark and aggressive album. There are some snippets and videos from his studio while recording the album on his myspace page as well: http://www.myspace.com/illbill



Lastly, Immortal Technique has a new mixtape called The 3rd World. My understanding is that this is NOT to be confused with his ever-being-pushed-back Middle Passage album NOR his follow up to the Revolutionary series, appropriately titled Revolutionary Vol. 3. 3rd World is being released on June 24, 2008 and has DJ Green Lantern at the helm. Here is a a taste:



So be sure and support these cats. PAY for the music. They ain't ballin'. They're busting their ass and scraping by to put out quality music outside of the industry.