Busta Rhymes - "Calm Down 3.0" feat. Everlast

Peep the third version to Busta's Calm Down track featuring Everlast. Which one was your favorite so far?



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Busta Rhymes - "Calm Down" feat. Eminem

Busta and Eminem join forces once again on "Calm Down" produced Scoop Deville. Feels like old school Bus and Em on this track and it fits right with the beat Scoop sampled. Check it.



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Talib Kweli - "5am In Brooklyn", "Rocket Ships" feat. Busta Rhymes (Prod. by RZA), and "Fine China"

"Y'all niggas soft, B. Y'all niggas soft, B. You spoiled. Used to be you had to go look for your Hip-Hop. Now you're served it on a silver fucking platter." Talib definitely sounds like a man that needed to get shit off his chest. One of my favorite emcees. I can NOT wait for this new album that's out in days. May 7th!



"Rocket Ships" feat. Busta Rhymes (Prod. by RZA) off of 'Prisoner of Conscious'.


"Fine China track is so ill I decided to throw a verse on it." - Talib


iTunes Deluxe-Edition Pre-Order: http://smarturl.it/TalibPOC

Amazon Pre-Order:
Digital: http://amzn.to/15Liskr
CD: http://amzn.to/ZOPvvN
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TMB Recap: The 2012 Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival

For the last four summers OC and I have been meeting up at the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival to enjoy great music, good food and networking with dope people. He comes from Connecticut and I troop down from Upstate New York. It's become a tradition of sorts. One that we both look forward to.

Each year as we've gotten the feel for the festival, our camera arsenal has also grown (well, OC's has) and so we're able to expand our coverage of the event. This year we headed out to Brooklyn with three photographers (myself, OC and 3feetofanger) on a mission. Eight hours. 500 pictures. These are some of our best shots.

Before we get to the pics, I wanted to sum up the event in two categories, highlights and low-lights.

Highlights:

• Seeing TMB favorites Clear Soul Forces, Chuuwee and Charmingly Ghetto rock the BHF stage with ScienZe and Dutch Rebelle.
• Witnessing live A Tribe Called Quest and Leaders of The New School on the same stage for the first time in decades.
• Slick Rick, Smif-n-Wessun and others rocking with Busta Rhymes, one of the greatest performers of our time, alongside his longtime hypeman Spliff Star.

Low-lights:

• Tickets for this year's final day jumped from $15 to $30, which turned off some folks. Still an affordable event considering the headliner and his guest but something I heard a lot of negativity about.
• Even with a higher ticket price, Saturday's show didn't have nearly the amount of  performances as they've had in previous years, which led to too much downtime in between sets and prior to Busta Rhymes finally taking the stage. 
• The folks at Brooklyn Bodega, who run the event, granted us press passes. That was dope. But we didn't realize those passes provided limited access to the press pit in front of the stage once the headliner hit the stage. So we ultimately got booted because that area suddenly became only accessible to all access badge holders. This could have reduced the quality of our pics. Good thing we're nice like that though and worked it out. Ha! But yeah, this info wasn't communicated to us and that was kind of lame.

All and all, it was a cool event. Not nearly as great as previous years overall. But as I mentioned, there were a gang of dope moments, many we caught on camera. Peep the visuals after the jump.

Check It ... Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival (Videos Pt 1 + 2)

Finally got some videos from the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival here for you guys. With so many amazing artists hitting the stage, as a blogger, I'd have to apologize for the quality of these videos. As a fan, I was so into the show that I missed some opportunities to get videos of a few others, but no apologies here. Haha. From L.A. to Eternia, from Random Axe to Kanye West, I was able to get some good footage for those who missed it or those who wanna relive that day. Check out the first part of videos and make sure you stay tuned to part 2 coming.





Also, if you haven't, check out the pictures from the BHF '11 right here: No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn: Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival Recap

Check out more videos by clicking here.

TMB's Throwback Video of the Day ... Busta Rhymes - "Woo Hah!! Got You All In Check"

Y'all... if you don't love this man, I can't have respect for you. Ha! In the spirit of me trying to learn Busta's verse in "Look At Me Now," which I've almost completely mastered, by the way, I wanted to pay homage to the one of the King's of Hip-Hop. Pre-haircut, *jumps up in the air* "WOO HAH!! Got You All In Check," off of 1996 solo debut album, The Coming.

P.S. 1996 was an excellent year for music. Enjoy.





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Take Three: Rah Digga "Dirty Harriet"

"..comin' to the floor, I be next to rep like Al Gore..."

Yes, I fell for it. Hook, line and sinker all in one. The Flipmode Squad was damn near the only thing (next to Wu-Tang) that I was checking for. Probably damn near the best dynasty skillwise, Flipmode Squad seemed to have all of it in spades: the dope yet insane rhymer in Busta Rhymes, the certified hypeman who could actually rap decent in Spliff Star, the dark voiced and epic sounding Lord Have Mercy, Roc Marciano who was definitely a great no-frills emcee, and Rampage the Last Boyscout, whose rhyming seemed staggered and well spaced out. But then came the self-proclaimed first lady of Flipmode, and none were more excited than me when Rah Digga stepped out for this solo outing.

Maybe it wasn't as well lauded as The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, but in terms of skill and wit, Rah Digga was pretty much the only other mainstream female emcee who matched pound for pound with Lauryn back in those days. Now that may seem like a bold statement and I may alienate a lot of my peers as a result, but you could say that folks like MC Lyte, Rah Digga, and Lauryn Hill were in a large part responsible for some of the dopest new female talent that rap has encountered. Today's Take Three, my column in which I reduce dope albums or otherwise to three cuts and let you, the listener/consumer make your determination, is all about Rah Digga's debut album, Dirty Harriet. First one of the new year too! Check it out after the jump.

What I'm Listening To....Rakim feat. Jadakiss, Styles P., Busta Rhymes - "Euphoria"

This isn't new but still, I'm mad this track ain't on the Seventh Seal album. Don't know why it didn't make the cut but damn it Rakim. Haha.

Rakim feat. Jadakiss, Styles P., Busta Rhymes - "Euphoria"



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What I'm Watching ... Busta Rhymes "World Go Round" ft Estelle

Speaking of Busta Rhymes, I just saw this video featuring Estelle for his song "World Go Round" off his B.O.M.B.S. album. Check it out.....



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Busta Rhymes "Hits For Days" ft. J. Holiday

Busta Rhymes drops this track featuring J. Holiday called Hits For Days. I am definitely feeling this track. Check it out.



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Too Far with Arab Money?

The Mad Bloggers are fans of Busta Rhymes. O is actually a huge fan. That "Arab Money" track has an amazing beat and me and my kids sometimes do the dance from the video.

Yassin Alsalman aka "The Narcicyst" was apparently offended and he says that many of Busta's Arab fans are as well. It's not really hard to see why many may be offended. From movies to music to television shows, it seems like everything has something in it that will offend some group of people. But does Busta go too far on this track? The following is a story from Marketplace on public radio. What do you think?