You have probably heard the beat tape by now, but if you haven’t (and shame on you), just go here and download the damn thing. If you have, we can move along here. Providence, R.I.-based producer just shot over some visuals for the title track off his Jesus Shaves project that displayed just how much this youngster has grown over only the past year or so. The video itself features what looks like a local ragamuffin followed by footage of Fal in his home studio surrounded by records, cigarettes, booze, and coffee. I can definitely get down with three of those. And props to anyone who recognizes the band sampled on here.

Hit the skip to view the “Jesus Shaves” video and stream the track below.

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Dear Readers

Here at Potholes, we love to hear feedback from each and every one of our readers. With that said, we are going to take this time to bring to your attention a recent shift in philosophy. Before I get into that, I would like to assure you that all of the conclusions made here have been thought over long and hard, and we would still like to hear what you think! All of your comments, suggestions, compliments and hatred will be taken into consideration as we move along into the future.

Many of you may have already noticed, but clearly there has been a shift in the types of music that we have been covering on the site over the past few months. There are a number of reasons why that has been happening, and hopefully you will be able to understand where this is coming from. For one, I would like to address the fact that hip-hop is, and always will be a true love of ours. Since that is true, you can expect to see continued coverage of the genre that has taken us to where we are today.

Times change, tastes change, and Potholes is a prime example of that. Recently, we, the writers, have found that our tastes have been evolving. Instead of holding that in, we figured we would start sharing that with you guys. Personally, I have been exploring the world of indie rock and electronic music for many years now, and I would love to open up to you all the daily findings I uncover while exploring it. Since we have such an awesome outlet with one of the best readerships on the internet, I figured this would be a great place to start.

But this is a hip-hop blog, isn’t it? I mean, after all, Potholes In My Blog is in reference to the classic De La Soul song, right? While the title of the blog is in reference to “Potholes In My Lawn”, nowhere on the site does it suggest that we are solely a hip-hop blog. We are a blog that provides coverage of quality music, plain and simple. Speaking of De La Soul, one thing that made them so great was that they appealed to such a wide audience. Prince Paul was known for sampling just about every genre of music and fans were able to embrace that!

Not to mention, many of the leading artists in hip-hop have turned to other genres to further their sound lately. Exhibit A- Foreign Exchange. Initially a rap group, we now see them releasing projects in completely different areas. Leave It All Behind was a soul and R&B album first and foremost. Nicolay’s latest City Lights project was heavily electronic influenced, with little to no hip-hop influence at all. Exhibit B- The Roots. Collaborating not only with Blu and Phonte on their upcoming How I Got Over, but also artists like Joanna Newsom and Monsters of Folk. There are no longer any boundaries in music, so why should we hold ourselves to any?

I know this is a lot to digest, but I felt like we needed to answer some questions that many of you have brought to our attention. Potholes In My Blog has become a part of my life, and I hope that we can continue to keep it a part of yours as well. Again, we truly encourage you all to speak your mind on this issue, as well as any of the other blog posts that you feel inspired to comment on. This is your site as much as it is ours!

Thanks guys!

FOLLOW @POTHOLESINBLOG

Madlib may or may not be the most prolific artist of our time. In terms of hip-hop, I can only think of Moka Only creating as many records as this West Coast rapper/producer/jazz musician/DJ. Sometimes, the old adage of quality over quantity proves true and Madlib’s output suffers. The majority of the time, though, he’s on point no matter what he’s doing. For his upcoming Madlib Medicine Show No. 5: The History of the Loop Digga, he’s presenting a 10-year-long journey through his production from 1990-2000.  If the rest of the album gives up gold like these two tracks, we might have ourselves yet another winner here.

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Hit the skip to download.

What’s up Potholes family! Let me start by thanking each and every one of you for making the first year of blogging as enjoyable and exciting as it has been. January marked the first anniversary of Potholes In My Blog (which I totally forgot about). If it wasn’t for you, the readers, we would have never made it this far!

In our never-ending quest to bring you the finest in hip-hop music, we have decided to pursue a few things that will greatly enhance everyone’s experience at Potholes In My Blog. We are currently looking to fully revamp our website layout, which will come with tons of  fun and exciting features along with some truly sexy visuals. With the redesign, we also plan on bringing you tons of new content for your reading and listening pleasure.

Of course with any project like this, money is involved. I am not one to beg for dollars, but this is quite expensive! We do have some advertisement revenue coming in, but that hardly even covers the hefty hosting costs that come our way. With that said, we open the door to you, our loyal Potholers! I have included a link to donate to the Potholes Relief Fund, which will go entirely to the redesign of the website. Any leftover money will go back to the readers by way of giveaways, free downloadable projects, concert tickets and more!

We thank you greatly for your generosity. Every dollar counts!

-Potholes Crew

As Potholes In My Blog continues to grow, we now find ourselves searching for some new album review writers. If you are an experienced and talented writer, and think you can make a commitment to our site, we would love to have you join the Potholes team!

What we need to see from you…

1- Writing Samples (More experience the better)
2- Personal Top 5 Albums of the Past Year
3- Personal Top 5 Albums of All-Time
4- Any other skills or experience that would be relevant to the position

Send all of this information to potholesmusic@gmail.com

You will be notified shortly after we receive your application, thanks!

Thanks to the good folks over at ClickitTicket, Potholes In My Blog takes the number 13 spot for best Music Review Blogs online! Accomplishments like this could not have been achieved without you, the readers. Another thanks to all the writers on Potholes that dedicate their time and efforts to the site, helping us reach the pinacle of unique, written content that we strive so hard for. Thanks again to ClickitTicket, this is one of our first awards, but hopefully not the last!

Hit the skip to check out the full ratings…

We apologize for the downtime. We are still working on getting everything back to normal with the site. Please bear with us as we work all the kinks out with our brand new host!

Some things to look forward to here at Potholes:

• Upcoming Exclusive Projects from some excellent and respectable artists
• Faster load time and less downtime
• New columns and unique content
• Brand new layout, graphics and logos

Thanks for sticking with us!

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