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Swizz Beatz has been largely silent since making his guest producer appearance on Jay Z’s monumental Magna Carta… Holy Grail album. This week though, he unleashed a new record that will have his music beating down club walls worldwide this fall. Swizzy’s “Hands Up” features the crème de la crème of MCs: Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, 2 Chainz and Nicki Minaj. Surprisingly there is no Swizz verse but with this all-star cast of rappers, all he needed was his Chairman of the Boards hat…

I used to hang out with singer M.I.A. back when I worked for Cornerstone Promotions, now known as Cornerstone, The Agency. She was a staple in The Fader magazine. Her entire style, on and off the mic, was fresh and way ahead of its time. I never knew she would go on to CRUSH the music world. Remember the cult effect of “Paper Planes” after Kanye? M.I.A.’s latest “UnBreak My Mixtape” is one of those hip-hop joints that could become another cult classic. Peep…

Big up all my people that will be on Eastern Parkway in a few weeks for Labor Day. You know how we do in Brooklyn for the Carnival. To get you in the mood, peep this new track “Riot,” by Damian Junior Gong Marley and Sean Paul. It’s a mixture of roots, reggae with a smidgen of dub step, Kingston style! The surprise on this is Sean Paul who is more of pop chart artist. He’s definitely in new waters on “Riot” and it sounds dope.

The Braxton family name has been apart of the urban music landscape since the early 90’s. First it was Big Sis Toni making history with hit after hit. Nowadays it’s Lil Sis Tamar making headlines both on TV and in the music world. This new track “All The Way Home” is the first peak into her sophomore album Love and War. Tamar’s album drops next month. It’s definitely worth the extra dough.

I’m a bit of homer on this. I’ve always been an AZ fan. Eons ago when he did “Life’s A Bitch” with Nas, I thought a hip-hop super group was born. Sadly, even though they did more music together thru the years, it was not to be. Still though, AZ continues to be one of the most revered MC, with a voice that is legendary like the late Keith Guru Elam. His latest single “I Excel” pulls a sample from Nas’ vocals, but still has that dynamic wordplay that made Brooklyn’s AZ a household name in hip-hop.

Until we read again.