KN Staff

Vision Behind The Spittin: Phonte

by KN Staff February 2, 2012 Vision Behind The Spittin’

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The latest edition of our Vision Behind The Spittin’ series is special not only because we have Phonte sharing his visions with us, but also because it’s our first audio entry. Unlike our past versions, you’ll get to hear direclty from the Little Brother and Foreign Exchange emcee as he breaks down some of the best tracks in his [...]

Visions Behind The Spittin: Boog Brown

by KN Staff January 25, 2012 Vision Behind The Spittin’

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There is nothing like listening to or reading about what went into the making of an artists’ musical catalog. From single songs to full albums, that inside view into the creative process, the meaning behind certain lyrics, studio session stories, and overall perspective is always interesting and nothing shy of fascinating. And our column Visions [...]

Top 10 Hip Hop Albums: 2011

by KN Staff January 5, 2012 Lists

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Kevin Nottingham: 2011 brought us a lot of great hip hop. So much that it was almost impossible to do a Top 10 list. If you look at are lists below, you’ll notice we have just as many honorable mentions, making these more or less a Top 20 list! For me though, the Top 5 [...]

Top 10 Smaller/Slept On Albums: 2011

by KN Staff January 5, 2012 Lists

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Justin Ivey: For this list, I always like to spotlight albums that even the most ardent Hip Hop fan tends to overlook or completely misses altogether. Señor Kaos, with the help of producer Illastrate, hit a home run on his solo debut The Kaos Effect LP and earned the #1 spot for me. Houston legend K-Rino ended up with two picks [...]

10 Most Disappointing Albums: 2011

by KN Staff January 5, 2012 Lists

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Justin Ivey: The albums on my list “earned” their spot by delivering subpar quality and in some cases, a simply awful effort on their LPs. The worst offender was Lupe Fiasco, whose fans battled Atlantic Records to get Lasers released and were rewarded with an awful mess of pop cliches. Blu continued his streak of dropping albums that sounded [...]

Top 10 Emcees: 2011

by KN Staff January 4, 2012 Lists

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Justin Ivey: After years of having fans anticipate when his L.A.B.O.R. album would drop, One Be Lo made it well worth the wait by delivering one of the best LP’s of the year which earns him the top spot in my book. Nemo Achida went from breakthrough artist in 2010 to one of the most [...]

Top 10 Producers: 2011

by KN Staff January 4, 2012 Lists

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Justin Ivey: Kno continues to cement his spot as not just one of the best producers at it right now, but of all-time and 2011 just added to his amazing resume. The Atlanta beatsmith unveiled some amazing sounds handling all the production on the latest CunninLynguists album as well as his collaboration with MarQ Spekt. Ski [...]

Top 10 Free Albums: 2011

by KN Staff January 3, 2012 Lists

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Justin Ivey: Another year, another #1 free album for Big K.R.I.T. The Mississippi emcee/producer stole the show once again with Return Of 4Eva, the follow-up to his breakthrough K.R.I.T. Wuz Here. After releasing the very dope Digital Dan LP in the spring, Nemo Achida showed he was holding onto some even better material on his album Nemotional. THURZ broke away from [...]

Top 10 Mixtapes: 2011

by KN Staff January 3, 2012 Lists

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Justin Ivey: There were plenty of high quality mixtapes released in 2011, but the one thing Jeremiah and I could agree on was that nothing topped Elzhi’s outstanding Illmatic tribute, ELmatic. A lot of “sequels” made their way onto my list from the likes of Killa Kyleon, Young Gully, Dee-1 and Tommy Nova. Portland emcee Luck-One manage [...]

Top 10 EP’s: 2011

by KN Staff January 3, 2012 Lists

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Justin Ivey: I’m a huge fan of the EP because it’s a great quick way for up & coming artists to introduce themselves and a chance for veterans to hold fans over until their full length projects are released. 2011 brought a lot of high quality. The top spot came down to Nemo Achida and [...]

Top 10 Breakthrough/New Artists: 2011

by KN Staff January 2, 2012 Lists

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Justin Ivey: A lot of new talent emerged in 2011, but none of them stood out quite like the duo known as The Doppelgangaz. Matter ov Fact & EP were the clear choice for breakthrough artists of the year in my mind. The duo wowed listeners with their album Lone Sharks, which helped introduce Hip Hop fans to the black [...]

A-La-Bronson: A Food Inspired Breakdown of Action Bronson & Statik Selektah’s Well-Done

by KN Staff December 26, 2011 Analysis

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Considering Action Bronson’s well-known love affair with food and his history as a chef, we thought it’d be fun to give his latest work a listen with food in mind. KN staffers Alex Edelstein and Daniella Kohavy bring you A-La-Bronson, a quick food-inspired run through of Bronson’s collaborative effort with Statik Selektah, Well Done. We [...]

Settle The Score: Kendrick Lamar or Danny Brown

by KN Staff November 9, 2011 Editorials

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Danny Brown and Kendrick Lamar are two of the more hyped artists in the game right now. With Danny’s joint project with Black Milk just dropping and Kendrick getting cosigns from everyone from Dr. Dre to Pharrell, each seems destined for stardom. So in this issue of Settle the Score, KN staffers Alex Edelstein and [...]

Vision Behind The Spittin’: Torae

by KN Staff November 3, 2011 Vision Behind The Spittin’

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Our second edition of Vision Behind The Spittin’ brings you Brookyln’s finest Torae explaining the inspiration, back-story, etc. behind his top five tracks. Also, make sure to check out Jeff’s review of his latest album, For The Record and Erin Elise B’s in-depth interview. And don’t forget to let us know what your favorite Torae [...]

Vision Behind The Spittin’: Co$$

by KN Staff October 19, 2011 Vision Behind The Spittin’

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2IJAy-8ZqM”

When we introduced Co$$ as our first ever KN Certified artist back in August, we asked Co$$ to write a guest blog for the site. What started as a guest blog, turned into an idea for a new KN column that we’re calling Vision Behind The Spittin‘. This series will bring you the back story [...]

Settle the Score: J. Cole or YelaWolf?

by KN Staff October 12, 2011 Exclusive

With J. Cole’s full-length debut just dropping and Yelawolf set to make his major debut soon, what better way to welcome them then a debate about which rapper is better? We’re leaving this intentionally open-ended so that we may use a variety of opinions on what better really means. Each artist has the shadow of a [...]

What’s On The iPod: 2Pac Edition

by KN Staff September 16, 2011 What's On The iPod

The entire KN staff chimed in with their Top 3 Pac songs and we’ve compiled them into the following playlist. Hit the jump to see what’s on our iPac…

30 Most Anticipated 3rd Quarter Releases

by KN Staff July 6, 2011 Coming Soon

As we close the book on the first half of the year, it’s time to look forward at what’s on the way. Plenty of high profile albums have been announced recently and we bring to you our 30 most anticipated LPs of the 3rd Quarter. Major label debuts, exciting collaborations and some surprising returns make up just a [...]

Best Of The 1st Half: Top 20 Albums

by KN Staff July 6, 2011 Exclusive

Last but not least, we give you the top 20 albums of the first half. If you haven’t heard any of these LP’s, we hope you change that ASAP as you’ll truly be missing out on some great albums. Our list compiles a wide variety of styles with the likes of CunninLynguists, Raekwon, Killer Mike, Random Axe, Atmosphere [...]

Most Disappointing Releases Of The 1st Half

by KN Staff July 6, 2011 Exclusive

The bummed look on Xzibit’s face says it all. We’ve showed you examples of the high quality releases so far this year, but now it’s time for the letdowns. This list compiles our 15 most disappointing releases so far in 2011. The reason for inclusion varies, some just being downright awful while others just didn’t live [...]

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