So yesterday I gave a bit of back story as to how I’m probably among the least deserving people to talk about hip hop, but i want to talk about some stuff that has come out during my “vacation” and why I think you should check it out.

Action Bronson – Dr. Lecter: Bronson comes from Queens and you better not forget it, and through the course of this debut album, you probably won’t. Bronson reminds me of that kid who’d eat bugs for a dollar and say and do horrific things just to amuse himself. He’s got a flow that reminds me superficially of Ghostface Killer with the same bursts of speed and he has the same level of deft wordplay that makes me smile even as I think to myself “that’s nasty.”

Check out this video for “Barry Horowitz” below then cop the album from iTunes.

Camp Lo & Pete Rock – 80 Blocks From Tiffany’s: Download the Mixtape here This is an excellent collaboration which makes me kind of ashamed that I wasn’t really familiar with any of these guys previous to this (see yesterday’s post for a list of my sins). It makes me somewhat nostalgic for something with which I was never involved. My favorite track on the mix is “Ha.”

Clams Casino – Instrumental Mix Tape: I feel kind of goofy talking about this now, because this kid has been all over the place recently loved by indie blogs and hip hop blogs. Clams Casino is a 23 year old producer from NJ who has done tracks for Soulja Boy, Lil B and Main Attrakionz. He released this mix tape because people were asking to hear them and then it just exploded. One friend of mine said he liked this better than Teengirl Fantasy’s amazing album 7AM. I can see the connection. They’re both of and outside the genres with which they’re apart and both have a similar texture and feel. The aforementioned Space Age Hustle blog compiled 19 additional instrumentals and remixes into one file. You can get that here.

Based on the strength of his music, Clams signed a deal to put out an instrumental album on TriAngle records. The first single “Gorilla” was recently released along with a video.

Clams Casino : “Gorilla” from Jamie Harley on Vimeo.

Danny Brown – The Hybrid: The name comes from Danny Brown feeling a part of two scenes, both the rugged Detroit Hip Hop scene, but also being a part of that indie crowd and you can tell. This album came out last year, but was recently re-released with additional tracks and put out on 2xLP. It was this release and Das Racist’s Himanshu talking him up which made me interested, and Himanshu has a great ear for hip hop so I was into this pretty much immediately from the seesaw sawtoothed bass of “Greatest Rapper Ever.” Danny Brown’s style is offbeat mildly off kilter like someone who’s had too much to drink rapping in a nasal falsetto which drills its way into your brain. I can’t listen to Danny Brown and try to do anything else, because his voice and his lyrics force their way to the forefront of whatever it is you thought you were doing. My favorite song on The Hybrid is the great “I’m Out” which is probably one of the saddest rap songs I’ve ever heard. It speaks to an urban isolation and boredom in the same way that a million suburban bands have done spinning a tale of driving around looking for something to do where your evening becomes that quest rather than the destination.

You can listen to the album here. If you buy it on iTunes, you get 11 videos that give a great visual sense to what Danny is trying to do; Lo-Fi Indie Rap.

Here’s the video for “Greatest Rapper Ever” where he makes an awesome Phil Collins reference flipping an urban legend into a hilarious threat.

Man Mantis- Cities Without Houses: This is an nominally an instrumental hip hop album but sounds more like it belongs to 90s Cardiff experimental downtempo scene than anything mixing elements of dub, hip hop, IDM tinged drum and bass, film scores and sampling progressive rock, primitive rock and things which hover just outside of memory.

There was a video recently released for “Red Dragonfly” off of the Sea Ambulance EP, which you can pick up from here.

Meyhem Lauren – Self Induced Illness: Also hailing from Queens like Action Bronson, Meyhem Lauren and his FORTY-ONE TRACK debut album are fucking beasts. I know that I’m missing some underlying elements which would tie this back into the 1990s and that solid wall of drums. I don’t really have the vocabulary to describe this album other that when Meyhem is on a tear ripping words to pieces, it give me the screw face and it makes me want to drink something cheap and whistle at girls on my block. “7000 Thoughts” is the stand out track here, though to be honest there are very very few duds on this album.

Every video that Lauren has released has been amazing, but here are the two which I like the best.

There’s more to come, but that should get you all started.