DJ Premier & Bumpy Knuckles - Kolexxxion

In this era where hip-hop is making more money than it ever has off a raft of jokers that would have never recorded a syllable in the analog era, it's refreshing to see the old school continue to make quality records. Even better, in the first quarter of 2012 we are seeing those artists return to the one mc/one producer/DJ aesthetic that made the old boom-bap records so great. The KRS-One/Kenny Parker BDP record is bananas and now DJ Premier and your man Bumpy Knuckles have dropped Kolexxxion.


Primo and Bumpy are a combination that is pretty unfuckwithable. Kolexxion serves up seventeen hot tracks (nineteen in the deluxe version), mostly new, but there is a Primo remix of Turn Up The Mics and The Lah reappears for nostalgias sake. Listening to Primo rip tracks like The Key, it becomes painfully obvious that most of the new school cut and paste kids have a lot to learn about making quality hip-hop. Bump bodies the mic for the duration here rhyming on and off the beat between ridiculous scratching and beat dropping. Highly recommended to anyone who still remembers that hip hop was light years better last century.

R

Bumpy Knuckles - Leaks Vol. One

Contemporary hip-hop is a pretty ugly place. I try and keep up, but this world of Wiz Khalifa and other improbable hitmakers does not make me want to wade in like I did in years previous. Of course, I am old, but luckily there are MCs older than me and some of them can still bring it in their old age.

Like myself, but with 1000% more street cred, Bumpy Knuckles isn't crazy about the rap game of today. He's been trying to beat the system for a while now, and has pretty much succeeded. Not like he's Master P or anything, but he's done ok. Foxxx was one of the first to embrace home and digital recording, as well as independent releases, and the result is a whole lot of unreleased material. There was the release of Crazy Like A Foxxx a couple years ago, and there has been the long rumored, but to the best of my knowledge still unreleased Amerikkkan Black Man, but I've heard from the man himself that he has four records done and in the can. I'm not going to push the man about release dates, but it appears like the inertia has been overcome, as JS-NYC has just received word that Freddie Foxxx has released Leaks Vol. One. It's 14 songs and pretty good for the most part. The Gary Coleman track may be a wee bit of a misstep to these ears, but Leaks Vol. One is pretty damn solid.

And did I mention that it's free? Bumpy has linked up with DJ Chanin to give Leaks Vol. One away here. You certainly can't beat the price, and it will serve as a fine way to whet the appetite for Royalty Check, the upcoming collabo record with the Blastmaster himself: KRS-One. JS-NYC has it in-house and rest assured that it is pretty bananas. Stay tuned for a review in the next couple weeks, but Leaks Vol. One should more than tide you over in the meantime.

R