Amongst all the new music that’s coming out at the moment (particularly Gnarls Barkley’s ‘The Odd Couple’ – super fricking excited), one album that almost passed me by was a compilation called “Beat Studies: Lesson One”, from 2007.
Track it down – it’s worth a lot of hunting. The album harks back to the casual style of Hip Hop similar to groups like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and early Black Eyed Peas. Featuring tracks from People Under the Stairs, Speech Defect, Starving Artists Crew, and many other artists that I hadn’t heard of before.
Not that I’m saying that you shouldn’t chase down ‘The Odd Couple’, just get this while you’re at it!