The Cleansing: Goodies From The Inbox (September 23, 2008)

Sadly, I have been unable to actually listen to most of these songs (on account of my sinus infection killing my attention span), so hit me up in the comments below with your opinions. Regardless of what some folks may tell you, your opinion may, in fact, matter.

Count Bass D - Robbed Without A Pistol
Underground artist Count Bass D, who I am sure a lot of you two have heard of, quietly dropped an instrumental effort for free both on his own blog and in the inboxes of countless bloggers. Free music from an established artist is always a good thing, so have at it. Count Bass D also wants folks to know that he has another album, L7 (Mid-Life Crisis), that is scheduled to drop this year on 1320 Records, so be on the lookout.

Wordsmith - "Park and Ride 2: The After Hours Edition" (produced by Strada)
The name Strada isn't ringing a bell, but this cat Wordsmith has been flooding my inbox for quite a while now, and seems to have garnered quite a following. Here's his latest, and be on the lookout for his HipHopDX-sponsored mixtape The Revolution Begins With A Takeover, Vol. 2, which is supposed to hit the Interweb at the tail end of October.

Bino White - "Drink Alone (In Your Home)"
Sorry, my two readers: this isn't a download, but a link to hear the track that Bino White submitted to one of the Wake Up Show's URSessions contests. It's actually kind of funny, and considering the fact that I just mentioned Freaks and Geeks in my last post, the timing of this is pretty interesting. It's billed as "an anti-club song for the club", and while I don't buy that for a minute, it's still funny.

Rain - American Dreamin
I'm a bit late for the bus on this one, but already Rain's mixtape has garnered enough critical acclaim to be considered as the best mixtape of 2008. While I'm not one to buy into hyperbole, I'm always willing to give an artist a shot - at least, whenever I'm not under the weather. Give it a download and let me know what you think.

Rain - The 7 Day Theory
Here's another project that Rain dropped recently. This one features the artist paying homage to Tupac Shakur, which, if done poorly, can be disastrous (*cough* Ja Rule *cough*), but when it's done right, can be, at the very least, entertaining.

Diamond D - D-I-A-M-O-N-D
The self-proclaimed "best producer on the mic" (well, he is indisputably one of the best) recently signed a deal with Babygrande, who in my opinion kind of fucked up the distribution of the most recent Gza/Genius album Pro Tools (if your disc isn't made readily available on the day of its own release, you have a problem). Anyway, Diamond D's next solo disc, The Huge Hefner Chronicles, will hit stores October 14, 2008, presumably without the help and/or blessing from Playboy Enterprises (although one of Hef's girlfriends claims to be a huge hip hop fan, I'm presuming this isn't the type of hip hop she actively fiends for). Surprisingly, this track was not produced by Diamond D, but by underground fave Nottz.

Decay - "Easy" (featuring Selfish, Tone Liv, & Butta Verses)
Taken from Decay's The Unlikely Hero, which should have come out today on Molemen Records. Unfortunately, I don't have much other info on the song, as I haven't had a chance to hear it yet.

Decay - The Unlikely Villian
A free Decay mixtape that was, ostensibly, the lead-in for The Unlikely Hero.

Praverb - "Dedication"(feat Master 3) (produced by DJ Soulclap)
Praverb's another one of those guys that I've been meaning to listen to, but time always gets the best of me. "Dedication" is one of his more recent tracks to hit inboxes, and it sounds pretty good, especially DJ Soulclap's instrumental.

Blake Eerie - "House Of Mirrorz" (produced by Dak)
I found Dak's email regarding this track that he produced for Blake Eerie pretty fucking funny, since it contains essentially no information about the artist, but he does use the word "creepiness", and even though this is an unmastered track, it comes off as pretty damn, um, eerie. Give it a spin.

Dyslexic Speedreaders - Shoot To Kill
I received a link for this mixtape for a crew called the Dyslexic Speedreaders, an admittedly funny name for a group that includes Mickey Avalon, Andre Legacy, Beardo, andf the crew's biggest name, Dirt Nasty, also known as the actor Simon Rex. (These publicity emails often come with instructions on how to set up interviews, but I think I would be too distracted to ask valid questions about Dirt Nasty when all I care about is what it's like working with Amanda Bynes and exactly how much money was offered to him to shoot that porno early in his career). Anyway, the link above is to Mickey Avalon's website, where you can download the mixtape for free. I have to admit, I caught one of Dirt Nasty's videos over on Funny or Die and I thought it wasn't that bad. Drops on the mixtape include such "celebrities" as Paris Hilton, blogger extraordinaire Perez Hilton, Mark Ronson, Ron Artest, and, in a tragic twist of fate, both DJ AM and Travis Barker, both of whom are recovering from critical injuries sustained in a plane crash over the weekend. My best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Finally, a producer named MAKIN is on a personal vision quest to get Barack Obama elected this coming November, and the way he wants to go about it is to get aspiring artists to download one of his beats, spit some hot shit over it, and then email it back to him, so that he can create the world's longest political posse cut or something. These are the type of stunts that actually work, though, so if you either (a) rhyme in your spare time, or (b) just plain fucking hate George Bush, visit MAKIN's blog and follow the instructions provided.

I want to do more of these types of post with some sort of consistency, so I'm putting the call out to aspiring artists, beatmakers, and indie labels, to shoot me a message at max.hiphopisntdead@gmail.com. Of course, if a major wants to send me something too, I won't turn it down, but you probably shouldn't expect the new Jay-Z or Kanye West to appear on here anytime soon.

-Max