West Coast producer D.C. who hails out of California is constantly putting in work in the independent arena. In his pursuit to build a name for himself, D.C. has gotten placements on a variety of TV Shows: and recently placed in the top 3 for the Dynamic Producer x Common Remix competition. Midwest emcee Penn “The God” has lived all over the Midwest which probably explains his knack for switching flows and timely punch lines. He brings those lyrical ingredients from all his past homes into a stew as he dives in and out of rhythms while trying to capture the essence of a song. “The Come Up” is the lead single from D.C. & Penn Bannekar’s forthcoming album The Point Of Convergence. Peep the new joint and let us know what you think.

Download: D.C. & Penn Bannekar – “The Come Up”

As we continue to support Danny Swain’s Def Jux campaign leading up to his LP, we release another single, this time with highly acclaimed emcee of Tanya Morgan fame, Von Pea. The prior leaks have been excellent, but this one takes the cake in my opinion. You can tell the Jux influence has been rubbing off on Danny, as this joint holds to be some of his darkest production. Quite an excellent collaboration as well, I didn’t really see this coming to be honest, but it worked out well. Von comes hard and absolutely kills the first verse, and Danny comes as the anchor and finishes strong. Check it out and stay tuned as we figure out when we will be able to get our hands on this LP…

Download: Danny! – “Hoedown Showdown” feat. Von Pea [Mediafire]

Last week we got our first peek at No News Is Good News, a boom-bap collaboration with Blu that had us all on edge to get our hands on the full LP. Well today, with the help of Public Axis and RTD, we get to do just that, free of charge! MAGr is definitely a new name to me, but after giving this a full spin, I am convinced that they will be around for many more moons. Check out the album and share your thoughts in the comments section below…

Download: MAGr – No News Is Good News

Hit the skip for back cover and tracklisting…

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Welcome to the weekly rundown where we (soulsupreme and Marty) provide you with our top ten headlines for the week that was.

1. R.I.P. DJ AM. I can’t say we’re really up on DJ AM, but he was a huge influence on many artists like DJ Premier, DJ Jazzy Jeff, John Mayer and Questlove. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends at this time.
2. Drake – Forever (Feat Eminem, Kanye West & Lil Wayne). We’re happy for his success, but the music he’s making is uninteresting. It’s the same mainstream hip-hop we won’t remember a year from now.
3. N*E*R*D to add a female R&B vocalist. N*E*R*D is a dope alternative rock group, but if the new music sounds anything like BEP with Fergie >>>FAIL. The only female they should be adding to that group is Santigold. Read the rest of this entry »

Album Review: Mayer Hawthorne – A Strange Arrangement (2009)
Rating: 3 out of 5 Potholes

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Album Review: Little Dragon – Machine Dreams (2009)
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Potholes

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Album Review: Jay ARE (J Rawls & John Robinson) – The 1960’s Jazz Revolution Again (2009)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Potholes

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Album Review: Speech Debelle – Speech Therapy (2009)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Potholes

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Three exclusives in a row? That’s what’s up! This time we hit you with a remix from one of my favorites groups to emerge in 2009, the 5 O’Clock Shadowboxers. If you don’t know already, the Shadowboxers consist of emcee Zilla Rocca and producer Douglas Martin, and they released their free album, The Slow Twilight, not so long ago. At first I was a bit skeptical about hearing a remix of this joint, the production was on-point to begin with But luckily Small Pro, who you may have seen on Potholes over the past few months, came through big time. This song and a few other remixes and unreleased joints from the Shadowboxers project can be found on an EP that will be released later this3 Fall/Winter. And since we are on the subject, be sure to catch the video for “High Noon”, coming soon to a computer near you! Check out the remix and let us know what you think…

Shouts to ObjektivOne on the fantastic artwork!

Exclusive: 5 O’Clock Shadowboxers – “Bottomfeeders” (Small Professor Remix)