where'd you see that? I pre-ordered LORD from their site, and got an email a couple weeks ago that the release date was Jan/Feb 2015.

EDIT: Just saw the Yams' twitter posts. Makes no sense. They already released 3 singles from the album (which I got as mp3's when I pre-ordered). Why not just release the album already? If they don't have enough material they feel good about, make it an EP. Kind of confusing, especially since all 3 singles were good.

I wonder if pre-orders will be canceled, or if they'll send *something* - probably just canceled though.

you have a good point there.

A$AP Rocky - Live At Rock Im Park - 2013 - Star Live Concerts
As a fan of the artist, I should hate the idea of this bootleg. But the fact that such a good sounding, well-curated live show is reaching retail so easily is kind of awesome to me. Live At Rock Im Park finds A$AP Mob performing live in Germany, and the fidelity is fantastic. Enough so that it would almost justify a legit release, except actual live hip hop albums tend to be few and far between. The setlist is excellent, incorporating tracks from Live.Love.A$AP, Long.Live.A$AP as well as rarities like the early Youtube release "Purple Kisses," or "Hands On The Wheel," which is actually a Schoolboy Q track. But what makes this brief (dozen song) set so awesome is the love that the bootleggers put into making it a full package. They also included another six tracks at the end of random freestyles by A$AP Mob. It's kind of awesome to hear them spitting over Tyler The Creator's "Goblin" for example. Unfortunately, the freestyles don't sound as good, as they're obviously ripped from radio broadcasts and aren't mixed well with the beats far too low. That said, this still feels like a really solid release for fans A$AP fans and is totally worth checking out.


The Roots - Present - 2004 - Image Entertainment
This is a weird one. Not a bootleg. But not really endorsed by the band (they don't even list it on their own discography). Yet, at the same time it got very wide distribution and lists Richard Nichols (their manager) as an executive producer. Coming after their desire to leave Interscope, it's almost a possibility that this was some kind of deal cut with Image begrudgingly. At any rate, it's an interesting idea. A concert that documents "The Roots & Friends." So it's a Roots album, but with lots of other voices. The problem is more the editing. For instance, opener "Break You Off" from Phrenology fades in jarringly. The song doesn't start so much as you're just suddenly in it. And the weird fade-ins and fade-outs are abundant here. It makes for a total fuck up of the live document. Take the Jazzyfatnastees take on Britney's "Toxic." It's really good... but it feels like a fragment rather than a full song. It's earnest, and awesome, but the fact that it doesn't play out in its entirety makes it feel like some kind of half-assed interlude. A let down. But there's some stuff worth hearing here. The Roots with Mobb Deep doing "Shook Ones Pt 2" is just as good as you imagine. (Mad) Skillz rocking "The Nod Factor" is amazingly just as good in 2004 as it was in 1995. And the soulful "Daily Bread" by Martin Luther is kind of a show-stopper. But man, this just feels like a cash-cow where it could have been a very solid follow-up to The Roots Come Alive. It's completely worth hearing if you're a Roots obsessive, but totally worth passing over if you're not.

TODAY IT HAPPENS: Young Thug, Rich Homie Quan & Birdman - Rich Gang: The Tour, Part 1

live countdown & download here - http://www.livemixtapes.com/mixtapes...ur-part-1.html

@NR -

Yams went to rehab, so it kinda ruined their plans. if they released the album earlier this year it would be OK, but now there's a new Rocky album on the way, the group album would take away from its hype.

i think i'm more interested in a Nast project than a group album anyway.

went yesterday to the record store to spend a gift card I got for my birthday and I bought this. quadruple vinyl, gatefold, pristine condition. $20

Yeah, I remember seeing Rich Gang pop up in someone's (Louder's maybe??) top ten hip-hop albums of 2013, to my utter surprise. I've seen the album from last year in stores, given in a trial spin or two, and found nothing to be excited about, so I never listened again.

So this is the same Rich Gang? And it's a "new name" for YMCM? Then why is YMCM still being used? I'm fucking SO confused!!!!

Anyway, I trust Louder's instincts as much as anyone's so I'm gonna download that 2013 record now, and I'm going to go ahead and let myself be excited about these new prospects for the label. Like I said, I knew of and already enjoyed Young Thug but O am completely unfamiliar with the other two. Still I will check them out.

What the fuck is Masta P up to these days anyway? I imagine him in MC Hammer-esque dire financial straits, preaching for a living. Which sounds just about right for that whack ass ninja.

Hi, thanks for reviewing this tits album.

I have only one question: when you refer to the "mixtape" called "Live.Love.Rocky" are you talking about Rocky's debut, or are you referring to something else? perhaps an actual mixtape with that actual title from before the release of Live.Love.A$AP? Or are you just using a more colloquial definition of "mixtape" that includes full length albums with multiple producers?

I've gotta know, because if I'm missing something in my discography, then I need to remedy that shit right the fuck away.

Props on the review... (For both albums but mostly for Rocky, since I Prefer him to Game, or would if I had to choose, and when it comes to Game I'm actually a bigger fan of his later material, even that makes me the only one)....
Anyway, at first I was unimpressed by Long.Live.A$AP (and yes I feel an appropriate amount of shame about that) but even when I felt that way, I fucking LOVED "LVL" and "Fuckin' Problems." "LVL" may be my favorite Rocky track to date, and that's saying a lot.

Wait, never mind about my mix tape question:

Live.Love.A$AP is totally a mixtape

Hmm..

haha yeah it's a mixtape as in a promotional release, given away for free download. Though certainly it feels like an album. Same as Acid Rain or those early OF releases.

Though Live.Love has been bootlegged and reached retail stores in physical form under various other titles like GOLD or ASAP MOB! THE RE-UP, an actual official retail release of Live.Love never happened. Kind of a shame, there was at a time talk of it coming out as a deluxe edition CD package.

the Rich Gang album from last year was.. interesting (not even close to my top 10), but Rich Gang 2 will be a lot better!! trust me, it'll have almost nothing to do with the first one.

Birdman basically "adopted" Young Thug, and that album is gonna highlight him and possibly make him the next superstar to come out of the YMCMB camp.

i'm excited cuz i hear a lot of old Wayne in Thug, as well as something entirely new.

OUT and it's great!!

The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde - 1992 - Delicious Vinyl
To understand just how unique and impressive The Pharcyde's debut was, you have to go back to 1992 and realize that these guys were from the West Coast. Nothing in their environment sounded like they did. Instead they looked to the likes of the Native Tongue collective and its embracing of jazz samples, but they also looked to comedy as inspiration. Which is not to say that this is a silly album, but it's a fun one that understands the importance of timing (to both jazz and comedy) and had no trouble straddling the line between sincerity and goofing around. The record is almost entirely produced by J-Swift who did an excellent job not just with sampling, but with also crafting the jazzy piano-n-drums interludes that would give the album some solid thematic glue. There's certainly some fun (and funny) stuff here - single "Ya Mama" being the obvious point of reference (key lyric: "Ya mama got a pegleg with a kickstand"), or "4 Better Or 4 Worse" which treats Hip Hop itself (aka, Rhymalinda) as a woman to court and eventually devolves into a disturbing obscene phone call to her. But even when it's not straight silly, it's almost always fun. Take the uplifting "Soulflower" or the awesome 80's throwback "Return Of The B-Boy" for examples. And yet the group can also hit on a more serious side, whether that's fear of being pulled over for no reason on "Officer," lamenting an unrequited love on perhaps their best remembered single "Passin' Me By," or talking about the skeletons in our closets on "On The DL." This is a seriously brilliant record that seemingly came out of nowhere. And much like the cover and title indicate, it is indeed a bizarre ride, but also an exciting and fun one. Highly recommended.

meh!!! if i hadn't heard the Beastie song and said sample by the isley bros so much i might be impressed. im a little impressed but not what i expected though its good. maad city is ill. still play it. hearing The Love Below vibes towards the end and the Andre flow throughout.

maybe will get back some old school R&B sample vibes back in hip hop. i doubt it and don't really want it tell you the truth.

any word on a Denzel Curry mixtape or album whatever? i find myself listening to Nos 64 moreandmore. Asap rocky like or not.

now that i'm looking at my post again, my intial reaction was a little overhyped, obviously because it's Kendrick..
still a good song, but i'm gonna be upset if the rest of the album will have this sound (and i know it won't because Kendrick described it with words like "dark", "aggressive" and "emotional").

how does nobody comment on The Pharcyde?

#lame

not really hip hop but

sorry for not responding earlier, of course i read your review and learned a lot from it, like always.

just trying to imagine what it would be like to have a group like Tha Pharcyde nowadays, crazy.